Surrounded by vegetables, lush flowers and family, Mary Jones of the Jones Farm in Coudersport recently reflected on a half century of tilling the soil at Jones Farm, which is a Century Farm and has been in her family since 1903.
“I never changed my name, because this was the Jones farm,” she said.
Jones began gardening at age 12 in 1968. Today the farm produces corn, all manner of squash and beans, tomatoes, onions, zucchini, peppers, potatoes and other produce. Jones’ neighbor Eric Mitchell grows her pumpkins and her son Jock plants the corn.
“I started following my grandfather around,” Jones said. “He grew corn for 70 years, starting in FFA. We have the oldest FFA chapter in Pennsylvania right here.
“This was during the Depression. He started with ten acres and one summer he made a hundred dollars. When my grandma saw that hundred dollars, she said, ‘Next year we’re going to plant two acres’.
“My grandmother started with a little table right here on this front lawn. You had better watch your change with that one — she was a miser.”
The farm has grown to 300 acres (“Instead of selling off little by little, we kept buying,” said Jones) and the table on the lawn has grown to a thriving seasonal produce stand where Jones and her daughter-in-law Cortney Lagrua see hundreds of visitors a day during the summer.
“It’s been crazy lately,” said Jones. “Just today we’ve had to restock several times.”
Although the corn is planted by machine, Jones does the rest of her extensive farming by herself, calling the acres of vegetable and flowers “just a hobby.”
“But you do everything by hand,” said Lagrua, shaking her head.
The best thing about the farm stand is the people, Jones and Lagrua said, noting that they recently had visitors from Eldridge and that customers appreciate the stand accepting SNAP and senior citizen farmer’s market vouchers.
“The old people are so grateful for the stamps,” said Jones.
“The ladies all come together in a car and figure out how to get the most for their money,” added Lagrua, who Jones credits with assisting her for 25 years. Lagrua and her husband Jock live on the property with Jones and her husband Joseph Lagrua.
“People come back every year and say, ‘I’m so glad you’re still here’ and I say, ‘I’m so glad I’m here too’,” said Jones.
Jones Farm is directly on Route 6 just west of Coudersport and the farm stand sees its share of tourists. Jones marveled at some of them.
“They come from everywhere,” she said. “They ask if they can take pictures of the stand. Sure. Then they ask if they can take pictures of the flowers. Sure. Then they ask if they can take pictures of the fields.”
Jones recalled a young couple who pulled over when they saw Mitchell unloading pumpkins at the stand.
“They wanted to know if they could help me with my pumpkins,” Jones said, laughing. “‘Sure, you can help me.’ They unloaded little ones, big ones and said it was the best thing they had done on vacation. So I took them into our pool area and we had a cold drink.”
Jones has taught her children to garden, farm and can (“My daughter Glenna lives in Louisiana; you should see her garden”) and volunteers to teach younger women her skills.
“I teach the girls out here, I write everything down,” she said. “The younger generation wants to grow their own food — they’re getting with it.”
The Jones Produce stand is open seven days a week at 557 State Route 49 from late July to October. For more information visit Jones’ Produce on Facebook.
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