From the ground up

Jen Kocher
NLJ Correspondent 
 
Dave Ehlers admits that he’s a tad bit anal when it comes to his garden. On his laptop, he pulled up a spreadsheet with a detailed blueprint of his garden. Dozens of plots line the patio and backyard, sandwiched between rows of cherry and other fruit trees. On screen, the plots are color-coded in various sizes and labeled per vegetable, complete with the number of allotted plants per plot and overall yearly production. 
Every year the crops are rotated and reconfigured based on output. More space is allotted for the super producers, such as onions and peppers, while less tenacious plants are reduced or replaced.
Seeds are stored in labeled vials in the briefcase Dave’s mom gave him for college graduation. Dave smiled.
“It’s a bit of a problem,” he said.
Next to him at the dining room table, Dave’s wife, Denise, smiled. She knows the meticulous habits of her husband, who spends his days keeping the computers of Weston County School District No. 1 on track as director of technology. Denise, a teacher, not only works with her husband but also has been gardening with him for years, both casually and, in recent years, professionally. 
Two years ago, the couple launched their backyard gardening business, The Garden Table, featuring fresh and canned produce. The enterprise officially went public in the fall when they set up a booth at Newcastle’s inaugural farmer’s market.
Admittedly, the couple were pretty blown away by this year’s sales as they continued to beef up their inventory and grow their burgeoning backyard business.
Back then, just as now, their roles are clearly delineated. 
Denise smiled.
“I just do what he tells me to do in the garden,” she said. “I don’t dare make a move without asking him.”
Her domain is the kitchen, where she’s in charge of the canning department and procuring all recipes, many of which she continues to tweak over time from trial and error. 
Her specialties are her sugar-free homemade salsas and pasta sauce, which she’s spent years mastering from a family recipe. They’re really good, she admitted. Even today, her two grown children have a hard time buying pasta sauce in a store.
Most of her recipes come from women’s church recipe books, particularly her grandmother’s Methodist church cookbook.
“These women have been cooking for a long time and just know what they’re doing,” she said.
Like cooking, gardening is in the Ehlers’ blood. Originally from South Dakota, both grew up on farms where gardening and canning were part of their daily routine. They still own land in South Dakota, where some of their crops, such as asparagus and mustard seed, still come from. After meeting at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota, their respective passion continued. In fact, even as a college student Dave had a garden with his roommates, which they dug with shovels and by hand. 
Neither can remember a time that gardening hasn’t been a part of their life. Since moving to Newcastle nearly a decade ago, they’ve had to relearn many of their techniques because of the higher altitude and new gardening zone and growing season. Until last year when the cost became prohibitive, they gardened year-round via a heated greenhouse.
“Essentially, we were just growing really expensive vegetables,” Dave said.
Now, the gardening operation for the most part shuts down until February, when some of the indoor seeding resumes. Dave’s system reads a bit like a NASA mission, complete with algorithms and mathematical equations based on space and volume. Following his descriptions requires a calculator and a high degree of concentration.
There’s also a slew of invented systems based on experiment and in-depth reading and blog discussions. Deer-proof fencing is just the tip of the iceberg. This is just part of what makes it so fun for a mathematically inclined guy such as Dave, who also enjoys reaping the benefits of his output. 
“Like I said,” Denise smiled, “I don’t touch anything until he tells me to.”
Dave has even created his own mulch, which he composts from recycled pine needles. Contrary to popular belief, he said, they make wonderful fertilizer. 
“It’s the one myth I’d like to debunk,” Dave said. “Everyone thinks pine needles are too acidic, but they actually make wonderful fertilizer.”
Another one of his tricks is rotating crops between the main and side beds, as well keeping all plants on a timed watering system. 
In the summer, gardening pretty much becomes a full-time job for Dave, while Denise handles the canning – often up to 8 to 12 hours per day. Apart from a few conveniences, such as an industrial blancher and professional-grade pots, that make the job easier, Denise puts in a lot of elbow grease and long hours in a hot kitchen.
“By September I’m pretty burnt out,” she admitted, particularly this year as their stock flew off the shelves at the farmers market. 
Before the market, most of the couple’s sales occurred by word-of-mouth. Now, however, after going public, business has pretty much gone through the roof as they struggle to keep up during their off-season.
“We were pretty blown away by how well it’s gone,” Dave said of their first public foray into the market. 
Apart from the increased sales, they were also able to test a few new products, as well as procure a few new ideas, such pickled garlic, which neither had ever heard of before getting a request from a visitor from Pittsburgh. 
“A guy came three weeks in a row asking us if we’d made the pickled garlic yet,” Dave said, “so we decided to try it.” 
The following week, however, with a dozen jars in tow, the guy from Pittsburgh was a no-show and the couple thought they’d be saddled with a new product that they might eventually have to throw away. 
Neither had ever tried it, and the jars of garlic sat on the table for another week until a nearby vendor walked over and bought a jar and proceeded to pass out samples to passing customers. Within an hour, the jars sold out and a new best-seller was born. 
Another one of their big hits has been their salted caramel apple jam, which Dave suggested making just because it sounded good – and it was. 
He smiled.
“It’s great on ice cream,” he said.  
Apart from the new best-seller and standard favorites, such as Denise’s pasta sauce and salsa, they are proud of their homemade honey mustard, which they make from mustard seeds ground in their kitchen, along with real honey. 
Being able to sell their products is just one of the by-products of a shared passion that the two enjoy. That, and ribbing each other over their respective quirks – Dave’s tendency to go back and re-pack all the jars that Denise has just stuffed is one of them.
“You can fit more in that way,” he said, smiling at his wife. “And don’t get me started on the unevenness of her beans.”
With that, he goes back and recuts them to perfection.
To find out more about the Garden Table or to order products, see the Ehlers’ Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/thegardentablewy/.