Eddydale celebrates 50 years of sweet corn

Since 1972, Eddydale Farms Produce has been selling fresh fruits and vegetables at its current location on Elmira Road between Ithaca and Newfield. That is 50 years of sweet corn, and Stephen Eddy has been there for all of it.

“It started with a wagon that we brought up and down the hill from the farm every day,” Eddy recalled. “We were open from the time the season started with strawberries in June until we were done with pumpkins in October. After that, we went back and milked cows.”

For most of those 50 years, Stephen’s father, Alfred Eddy, piloted Eddydale as it grew from that humble farm wagon to the thriving retail and wholesale business that exists today. In addition to sweet corn, Alfred planted rye and small crops like zucchini, peppers, potatoes and melons. He bundled firewood to sell to the campers at Robert H. Treman State Park and delivered produce to restaurants and grocery stores around Ithaca. He trucked in peaches and apples — things he didn’t grow on his Bostwick Road farm — from other regional growers and auctions.

“My father never let us have all our eggs in one basket,” Stephen said. “That is one of the best things that he taught me, to diversify. If you hone in on one thing, one crop, and it goes south, then you are done.”

Putting up the large, barn-style building in 1980 allowed Eddydale to remain open year round and expand even further, stretching the season with Christmas trees and root vegetables in the winter and nursery plants and straw for garden beds in the spring.

Gail Eddy came to work in the store back in 1982. Stephen remembers the year because he was just 17 when he met her.

“My mother hired her, and I married her,” Stephen said. “Gail goes back almost as far as I do at Eddydale, which is nice because we have a lot to talk about. We know the same things.”

These days, Stephen and Gail are in charge of Eddydale, running the show alongside a small crew of longtime trusted employees. Stephen starts his day early and ends it late, trying to get time in the field as well as the store. Gail manages things behind the scenes, balancing the accounts, payroll and banking.

Although management was thrust upon Stephen and Gail in 2020 due to Alfred’s advancing age and COVID-19 restrictions, they have proved themselves more than up to the challenge.

“I like to say I had 3 seconds off for COVID,” Stephen joked. “But really I think it was a couple of hours while we waited for the Health Department to decide if we could stay open. It didn’t affect us other than we had the best year we’ve ever had in 2020, and we’ve kept up in the last two years.”

Stephen credits Eddydale’s success in this difficult period to several factors, including things like operational efficiencies, streamlined deliveries and improved internal organization. But most important, he says, is their relationship with customers.

“Usually, as a business, you only hear about it when someone is upset with you. But when we were open during COVID, people let us know how much we meant to them,” Stephen said. “We had customers who were tense, really scared, and we did whatever we could to make them comfortable. If somebody asked us to bring their order out on a cart and meet them outside, we did it. If they asked us to take their credit card over the phone so they wouldn’t have to touch anything, we did it.”

Gail added that she is just as proud of the relationships they have built with their employees and their vendors.

“We’ve been buying peaches from the same farm in Pennsylvania ever since the beginning,” Gail said. “It’s been decades for our strawberry supplier and the orchard in Sodus, New York, where we get our apples.”

Many of these relationships have developed into close, personal friendships over the years, Stephen said. In fact, it was one of these friendships that lead Eddydale to put in greenhouses and branch out into the sale of nursery plants in a big way. Lolly Brown, the previous owner of Indian Creek Fruit Farm, mentored Stephen and shared her knowledge of plants and propagation.

“The greenhouse is huge for us and getting to be more and more every year,” Stephen said. “Lolly Brown was my teacher. She came to me and told me she was sick and she had two years to teach me and get me in shape. I don’t know why she chose me. I mean, we were friends, but that is a really good friend. What she did for me was special.”

George Sheldrake, owner of Earlybird Farm, could be considered Eddydale’s closest competition with his farm stand located almost across the street. But the two of them don’t see it that way.

“George said something to me once and I’ve never forgotten it,” Stephen said. “He said that it is ‘us’ against ‘them,’ with ‘us’ being the little guys and ‘them’ being the big box stores. We’ve got to stick together and help each other out if we’re going to stand a chance.”

The Eddys do what they can to pay it forward, helping out others in the farming community and donating excess produce to local food banks. They’ve also provided employment to generations of workers, family members and those who have become like family.

“We’ve employed a lot of people,” Stephen said. “It might not be a high-paying job, but I’ve educated all these people on how to work. Now, if I could just teach people how to do a job from the time they are 12 years old until they retire without getting sick of it and without going a little crazy.”

Stephen is quick to amend his previous statement, lest anyone get the wrong impression.

“Not that I’m anywhere near retirement — far from it,” he said.

You’ll find Eddydale Farm Produce at 827 Elmira Rd. in Ithaca. Try some of its fresh sweet corn, ripe tomatoes and juicy cantaloupe while they last, and come back for mums and pumpkins this fall. They’re open seven days a week year round for the foreseeable future.

Food for Thought appears in the third edition of each month in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com.