Staff Writer
FORT FAIRFIELD – What started as a family farm stand has blossomed into a full-fledged Internet business.
Organic Sam’s, named after his son, Sam, is Gary Kaszas’ other pride and joy.
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
A ribbon-cutting was held Saturday at Organic Sam’s in Fort Fairfield. Organic Sam’s provides certified organic apple, cherry, pear and plum trees. In Organic Sam’s showroom, customers will also find a variety of other items including a whole line of organic seed, organic seed starting, and organic gardening products, as well as honey, butter and scented candles. Attending the ribbon cutting are, from left: Jeff Ashby, chairman of the Fort Fairfield Planning Board; Gary Kaszas, owner of Organic Sam’s; Janet Kelle, executive director of the Fort Fairfield Chamber of Commerce; and Steve Miller, organic supplier.
“When we had a farm stand, which was a table in front of the house with vegetables on it, people would stop to see Organic Sam who was 3 years old at the time. There was no one who could resist going by and seeing him sitting out there,” said Kaszas, a Connecticut native. “I used him for marketing, and people started saying, ‘Go to Organic Sam’s.’ What we realized was – when we wanted to make the nursery grow to national sales – we looked at the name Organic Sam’s. It’s a unique name and it worked really well, so we kept it.”
Located at 291 Currier Road in Fort Fairfield, Organic Sam’s provides certified organic apple, cherry, pear and plum trees.
“We graft and grow them here,” said Kaszas. “Myself, Sam, and my wife, Diana, all graft trees. There are a few Aroostook growers who I buy the trees from wholesale, but that’s about 10 percent of our sales. The bulk of them are grown right here.”
Kaszas explained that grafting is how fruit trees are propagated.
“You can’t get a pure strain from seed because you get cross pollination,” he said. “The other problem you can’t get from seed is you can’t control the rootstock which has a tremendous influence over the cropping of the tree.
“We purchase the seed, grow the rootstocks from seed, then we graft varieties on by whip and tongue grafting and bud grafting. Then we grow them out and sell them,” said Kaszas. “We grow them out for one or two years. We discount the 1-year-old whips to $20, and the 2-year-old trees are $24. We also sell bench grafts, which are very popular with large growers.”
Of the four fruit trees Organic Sam’s sells, Kaszas said apple trees are the most popular.
“Apple is the majority of our sales,” he said, noting that he recently started selling hazelnuts and butternuts. “We have about 50 varieties of apples, and about a dozen each of pear, plum and cherry. The area devoted to nurseries is three acres.
“We’ve also invested in blueberries and strawberries,” said Kaszas. “We’ll produce – we hope – about 2,000-plus quarts of organic blueberries for sale this summer, and by next year, at least 2,000 quarts of organic strawberries … all for local sale.”
Newly grafted trees get planted in May, and trees are moved to the long-term place where they’ll be grown out in November.
“It takes about three to five years for a tree to bear fruit,” said Kaszas. “A lot goes into it. There’s pruning, fighting off animal damage, etc.”
In addition to selling the fruit trees, Organic Sam’s sells the fruit that comes off the trees.
“The plan from the beginning was to sell the fruit on the Internet because the demand for certified organic fruit is so high,” Kaszas said, “but there’s enough local interest for us to open the farm stand up for local sales. We believe we have enough stock to do it.”
The organic nursery is seeing a lot of sales from Oregon, Iowa, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, as well as sales in Alaska and Texas.
In Organic Sam’s showroom, customers will also find a variety of other items including a whole line of organic seed, organic seed starting, and organic gardening products.
“… All the soil inputs, and all the pest control, that you need to grow not just organically, but meet organic certification standards within a garden,” said Kaszas. “We have lobster compost, Vermont compost, Feed-N-Gro fertilizer, insect sprays, and lures to trap insects.
“We’ve had interest in honey and butter and things like that, so we started to stock those items. Some of it we bought outright, some of it we put out on consignment,” he said. “We also have scented candles that are produced locally. The rule in the store is local, organic first; and if we can’t get it organic, then we go local as long as it meets the quality that we want.”
Kaszas also offers workshops at the store.
“There’s a series of organic gardening workshops that take people who are interested from the very beginning of organic gardening through the season,” he said. “There’s five workshops, and the interest is out there. We packed the workshops last year. We also have an organic orcharding series which has proved to be very popular where we teach pruning and grafting, as well as orchard care.”
Kaszas said his family started selling vegetables in 2003.
“The nursery business grew exponentially and overwhelmed the vegetable business, so we dropped the vegetable business altogether. We just couldn’t do it,” he said. “The nursery aspect took off in 2005.”
The word “organic,” Kaszas said, is often misunderstood.
“Organic production is defined by federal law as a production system that utilizes natural processes wherever possible,” he said. “Organic is a sustainable, environmentally sensitive way of producing food.
“Organic Sam’s feeds the soil, not the plant, so all the soil amendments produce a higher quality soil than we start with,” said Kaszas. “People buy organic because they want to buy products that are produced in an environmentally sensitive and sound way, and support sustainable agriculture.”
Organic Sam’s is open year-round Friday through Sunday from noon-5 p.m.
“During the growing season,” Kaszas said, “people can stop in daily. We commit to being here between 3-5 p.m. seven days a week, or just give us a call.”
For more information, call 476-5361 or log onto www.organicsams.com.
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
Gary Kaszas, left, of Fort Fairfield, and his son, Sam, represented Organic Sam’s at last year’s 27th annual Agri-Business Trade Fair in Presque Isle. The father and son team are shown grafting fruit trees. A ribbon cutting was held Saturday at Organic Sam’s, which is located at 291 Currier Road. Organic Sam’s provides certified organic apple, cherry, pear and plum trees.
