Aug 5, 2005 By Angie Santello 6 min read

LOWER TYRONE TWP. – Larry Kujawa stood in an open field of tomatoes, not yet ripened by the summer sun, as water from a sprinkler system splashed his brow and soaked the cigar tucked in the corner of his mouth. Kujawa, 62, lifted the bushy leaves of one of 14,000 hand-planted tomato stalks grown in two long strips of field. Paste tomatoes, aroma tomatoes and green tomatoes, soaked from the “homemade rain,” each added to the fresh smell of wet produce, wafting into the air around the field.

“All are grown on homemade water,” said Kujawa, proudly. “All will be red pretty soon. Red, and right here.”

The commercial operation, Kujawa Farms, will pack a ton of tomatoes each day to be shipped off for delivery to local grocery stores and area wholesalers.

“We pick’em on the turn, you know,” Kujawa said. “We can’t pick’em dead red because they’re no good.”

The ninety-seven acres also contains more than 10,000 peppers, including hot peppers, green peppers, yellow peppers and bell peppers, and eleven thousand feet of stainless steel pipe, pumping gallons of water per minute from nearby manmade ponds to irrigate the crops. And since it has been such a dry season, the farmhands continuously move the sprinkler system or what Kujawa likes to call “homemade rain” to another part of the growing field to ensure the vegetables receive proper irrigation.

“We’re behind because of running pipe to irrigate,” Kujawa said. “It takes a lot of labor to move the pipe around.”

The sprinkler system requires two men to move, connect the pipe and set up in another part of the field, Kujawa said, but the work is worthwhile and necessary to turn over that all-important profit.

“This system can do anything I want it to,” said Kujawa. “I got it from an importer.”

The ponds fill with rainwater and underground springs. Each pond is tested for bacteria, he noted.

“You got to keep it good. You got to clean those ponds out,” Kujawa said.

The irrigation system has proved to be a lifesaver and a money-saver since the area has had little rain to moisten the crops this season.

“It’s been a bad growing season because we’ve barely had rain, but we make our rain here. It’s homemade rain,” Kujawa said, picking a tomato with a sign of rotting flesh – a brown strip across the length of it – and casting it aside.

“That one’s to throw away,” he said. “Eighty to 90 percent of them are good.”

Produce is picked and inspected every day from the field.

“David (Kujawa’s son-in-law) says we’re going to be picking a few 100 baskets a day,” Kujawa said. “He’s probably correct.”

Kujawa’s father, Ervin Kujawa, finished snacking on a tomato sandwich and joined his son at the produce stand along Route 819/Scottdale-Dawson Road that the family owns and operates.

The elder Kujawa, who will celebrate his 92nd birthday on Aug. 14 with a big family celebration, continues to work in the field, picking and planting.

Ervin Kujawa purchased the 97-acre farm from Charles Goodwin when he was 43 years old. His son, Larry, was 13 years old at the time of the purchase.

The elder Kujawa raised his son to work on the farm. Larry Kujawa has tended to the fields since he was a youth, and now, the trade is a full-time job for him in addition to another local job he holds.

Kujawa Farm is one amid a declining profession.

“There’s not many farming anymore,” said Kujawa. “The people don’t want to pay for just anything.

“They’re supporting a huge commercial operation here,” he added. “Tomatoes just don’t taste like this elsewhere. You bring in tomatoes during the wintertime from California or Florida, haul them into Pittsburgh and they’re mechanically ripened there. They’re not ripened naturally like they are here.

“They just don’t taste as good,” he said.

Across the street from the produce stand, the corn grows in numerous rows standing tall with their silky leaves pointing outward.

“You’ll love that,” Kujawa said, picking a fresh ear and peeling its husk.

White corn, sugar and butter and the fairly new sugar-enhanced super sweet corn grow among 60 rows totaling 3,000 dozen ripened in the field this year, said Kujawa.

“We’ll sell it all,” he said. “We’ll wholesale it or sell it elsewhere.”

Area people know Kujawa Farm through word of mouth and recognize it for its quality produce that reels in travelers to the stands year after year.

Fifteen-year customers Homer and Norma Richter of Dunbar recently made a special trip for Kujawa quality produce and purchased bags full of corn, cabbage, green beans and tomatoes.

“There’s nothing like fresh quality,” said Norma Richter. “It makes it worthwhile to keep coming back.”

Kujawa said 95 percent of the produce is homegrown, while 5 percent is purchased from other growers for the stands.

“It’s nice to know our stuff,” he said.

The farm once grew fruit, but found it was difficult to maintain. Apples are bought out of Chambersburg, Kujawa said.

Produce from the farm is picked and packed and stored in walk-in coolers to keep it fresh, in supply and quickly available for restocking.

People stop by the produce stand in early May for strawberries and early corn, but the peak of business is during the peak of the summer.

“We use to sell on picnic tables under the trees,” said Ervin Kujawa. Over the years, the produce stand has been transformed into a large wooden shelter accompanied by tables lined with fresh, colorful fruits and vegetables.

Evelyn Ansell mans the roadside stand, selling an array of produce including cantaloupe, corn, peppers, potatoes, cabbage, cucumbers and zucchini to numerous customers throughout the day, including some, like the Richters, who make special trips for the homegrown produce, and others who drive by wanting to satisfy a craving.

Ansell said the most popular sells are corn, tomatoes and green beans and the most popular times to visit are around lunchtime and on weekends. The stand is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

As customers leave satisfied, bagged produce in hand, Kujawa welcomes them back to the roadside stand.

“Come back to eat good,” he says.