Family Farming Fuels Fall at Carleton Farm

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BY GAIL GREENWOOD AYRES

What does it take to be successful in the direct farm marketing business? For Reid and Mary Carleton of Carleton Farm in Snohomish County the answer has been a strong family background in farming, lots of hard work, recognizing and adapting good ideas, and adult children willing to lend a hand.

But, says Reid, 67, even with all that going for them, “the number one thing is that you’ve got to like people, because if you don’t like people you can’t sell to them.”

“We know that people are our business,” he said.

Mary, 65, his wife of 45 years, is also a business partner.

“She’s detail oriented and the bookkeeper. And, when I get an idea for something, she sharpens it up and makes it work,” says Reid.

Although more reserved herself, Mary sees the value of having her gregarious husband talking with the customers. After all, it’s usually not just pumpkins or sweet corn that people are after – it’s an experience.
Carleton Farm, which is just east of Everett near Lake Stevens, is open from May to October from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. From their converted hay barn, they sell produce including corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, zucchini, squash, beets, peas, flowers and pumpkins. In addition to items grown on their 80-acre farm, they sell fruits and vegetables from other farms as well.

They also sell salad dressings, canned goods, eggs, milk and Angus beef.
Thanks to its location, during the week Carleton Farm serves as a one-stop convenient shop for commuters, while on weekends it’s a destination farm experience, said Reid.

When visitors come to enjoy the farm experience, they can also see the animals including: horses, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks and peacocks.

The customers’ interest and attachment to the farm animals runs deep. Near the produce barn is a 38-year-old gelding, Shawn.
Year after year customers come back and nervously ask if Shawn is still there. He is.

The stand is a happening place for months, then when Oct.1 hits, everything kicks up several notches. During the month of October alone, the farm receives an estimated 60 percent of its annual income.
This is when it’s time for a hayride to pick out a pumpkin. There’s also a very popular painted plywood maze that smaller children can spend hours playing in and a long tube slide made out of a plastic irrigation pipe. All of these adventures have the same great price: free.

For $5.50 a person, guests enjoy the elaborately themed, five-acre corn maze with its trivia game.
This year’s maze theme comes from their 20-year-old granddaughter, Kamryn. It’s a time machine with the picture featuring a pumpkin clock on a carriage. Two popular previous themes were a windmill, and two dancing pigs and corn ears with matching trivia quizzes about alternative energy, pork and corn, respectively.

Tucked inside the corn maze are stations that must be found to find the questions that provide the answer to an overall puzzle.
There’s also the popular pumpkin cannons designed and made by their son, Tony, a mechanical engineer.

“For $1 you can put the pumpkin in the barrel; you get to elevate it and you get to pull the trigger and shoot the thing. And the people line up,” explained Reid.

“The cannon can shoot about every 60 seconds. And, during the weekends it goes off all day long.”

The first one built was for 6-inch pumpkins which travel about 1,500 feet. But the latest version can take a pumpkin up to 8 inches and send it nearly a half a mile away.

Although their children – Shawn, Darren, Tony and Angie, who range in age from 43 to 36 – have moved on and have “city” jobs, they continue to offer their various gifts, talents and ideas, as well as hard work and moral support to making the family farm a success.

“If it wasn’t for the family participation in the fall, including their wives and kids, it would be impossible for Mary and me to run it,” Reid said.
The family tradition of farming goes back generations. Mary’s grandfather, Frank Bueler, Sr., emigrated from Switzerland and started a dairy nearby. Her father is 93 and her brother, Mike, is still milking the cows.
Reid also grew up on a dairy farm. His father purchased the farm when Reid was one year old in 1943. In December of 1965, Reid bought it from his father.

In 1966 Reid and Mary began operating a dairy farm. They started with 12 cows. In the 1970s they were bottling and selling their milk from Carleton’s Milk Barn. It was one of the few places folks could buy fresh, unpasteurized, whole milk.

In 1975 they closed the store and began selling the milk to Darigold, a local milk processor. During that time the red barns were built and the herd grew to 200 head.
But in 1985 the relentless hours of the dairy business and the economy caused them to sell the cows.

A couple years later they converted the stall barn to horse stables, added arenas and outdoor paddocks and now they board horses. It’s the steady, 365 days a year part of their business. Up until a few years ago the horse boarding operation brought in 80 percent of their overall income. Now, Reid says it is closer to 30 to 40 percent, with the produce stand and activities bringing in the rest.

In 1986 Mary began selling pumpkins and sweet corn from a lawn chair in front of the house. This humble beginning served as the precursor for what the business has evolved into – a bustling destination with a huge barn full of good things to eat, including a kitchen that on the weekends and during October offers hot dogs, corn-on-the-cob, pie, ice cream, cider, cold drinks, and more.

“The kitchen has really grown,” Reid said, hinting that it may continue to grow.He said every year the family talks about what they could add or change to make Carleton Farm even better. The discussions range from parking and traffic flow to fun things like the new animal train that will debut this year.

A tractor will pull ten little cars – 55 gallon barrels – with brightly painted animal faces around the farm for $3 a ride.

“We’re in the stage of building it right now,” Reid said. His brother, Lance Carleton, an accomplished metal artist is making it happen.
Reid is quick to pass along credit for his success.
People like fellow Farm Bureau member Bill Zimmerman and many others “have helped us and said, ‘you can do this!’”

They’ve also found their association with the Pacific Northwest Farm Marketing Association a valuable resource and now they’re often on the teaching end.

“I don’t think any of our ideas are original. I didn’t think of any of this myself, I just copied from people and adapted it to work here.”

Still he counts marrying Mary, “a wonderful, wife, mother and business partner” and then having four hardworking, smart kids who like to come back to the farm to help are a couple of the smartest things he’s done, he said.

Carleton Farm is at 830 Sunnyside Blvd. S.E., Everett. For more information, call (425) 334-2297 or visit www.carletonfarm.com.