What would motivate an Orange County fourth-generation onion farmer who loves the soil to interrupt his vocation to seek bachelor”™s and master”™s degrees in broadcasting and film studies?
Christopher Pawelski of Pawelski Farms in Florida decided to exercise his extraordinary skill in communications on behalf of other farmers, appearing in the state and national capitals to promote legislation on issues such as disaster relief and crop insurance.
Pawelski also took time off from tilling the soil to testify before the U. S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry in 2011 during a farm bill reauthorization hearing. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer credits Pawelski”™s input with motivating him to fight to include tropical storms Irene and Lee in legislation to provide farmers disaster relief after Hurricane Sandy. As founder and executive director of Farmroot, Pawelski is relentless in promoting the welfare of specialty farms and farmers, which he notes benefits the public at large since everyone has to eat.
Pawelski”™s great-grandfather, Frank Pawelski, a Polish immigrant, settled in the black muck soil basin of Orange County, with its high sulfur content. Occupying 22 square miles, it is the second largest expanse of such soil in the United States. Today, three Pawelskis ”” Christopher, his brother, Brian, and their father, Richard ”” work the same 100-acre farm full time, producing about 70 acres of yellow onions and red onions from the remainder.
Pawelski has been working on the farm since age 5. “I was driving heavy equipment by the time I was 11,” he notes.
The farm season begins when the frost leaves the ground, “from early March to as late as the second week of April,” Pawelski reports. “We do 35 acres of transplants initially and, after that, the remaining acres are planted with seeds which must be sown by mid-May at the latest.” For the uninitiated, seeds are derived from the onion stalks.
Then starts the spraying to prevent disease and insect infestation. Weeds cropping up later are hand pulled. Cultivation hooks are used to break up soil so the roots have air, Pawelski notes.
July marks the start of the harvest season, with transplants coming first. By mid-to-late August the onions grown from seed are ready for harvesting, “which usually takes to the end of September,” Pawelski reports. “From that time on, grading is done to separate onions into sizes and discard those that are bad. They are packed in 45-pound bags and sold to repackers who then sell them to groceries up and down the East Coast.”
Pawelski attended high school at the S. S. Seward Institute in Florida, then earned the bachelor”™s degree from SUNY Cortland and the master”™s degree from the University of Iowa. At the latter he met his wife, Eve, before returning to the family farm.
The couple are raising two sons on the family farm: Caleb, a senior at Seward, who helps on the farm, and Jonah, a seventh-grader, who also pitches in.
The joys of working the soil are mixed with fear of natural disasters. “It costs $3,000 to $7,000 an acre to grow produce,” Pawelski reports. “When Irene hit, I had 90 to 95 percent of anticipated expenses already invested into the crop. Farmers are always haunted by debt or the fear of it,” he adds, lamenting the loss of family farms with the passage of time.
Pawelski has just completed authoring a book titled “Muckville: Farm Policy, Media and the Strange Oddities of Semi-Rural Life.”
Challenging Careers focuses on the exciting and unusual business lives of Hudson Valley residents. Comments or suggestions may be emailed to Catherine Portman-Laux at cplaux@optonline.net.
