April Produce Pioneers

Tiro Tres Farms

By Laura Drotleff
Senior Staff Writer

A THIRD shot at Texas vegetable production is, quite literally, the English translation for Tiro Tres Farms. Owned by Edward Ritchie, III, the third generation of a family of vegetable farmers, the nearly 100-year-old operation now spans three locations, each 50 miles from one another. The original family homestead at Eagle Pass stands on a coal mine shaft of the same name and in 1979, when Ritchie came of age and took over the operation, it helped distinguish his business from the other Ritchie farms in the area.

Established in the early 1900s by Ed Ritchie’s grandfather and great-uncle, the duo began growing vegetables in the 1920s and started shipping spinach in 1924, Ritchie estimates, when the first ice plants in the area were constructed. In addition to spinach, the Ritchie brothers also grew carrots and onions.

“Probably the largest ice plant in the nation at the time was in Crystal City and there was another one here in Eagle Pass, right on the border,” Ritchie says. “Everything had to be cooled and refrigerated with ice back in that time when they first started.”

The family lost 175 acres of its land in the great flood of 1954 when the Rio Grande River changed course, Ritchie says. “We lost crops, farmland, photos, and records — everything,” he says. “The boundaries shifted and we never got that acreage back — it’s in another country now.”

Today, Ritchie still farms 970 acres of spinach for the fresh market, which includes 420 acres in Eagle Pass, another 450 acres in Crystal City, and 100 acres in LaPryor. Ritchie and his cousin Charlie Ritchie Jr. sell their spinach crops to repackers in Canada and on the East Coast.

Both Ed and Charlie are fathers of 15-year-old girls, and unfortunately at this point, neither of their daughters are interested in carrying on the family farm, Ed says.

“I’m afraid I’m the last of the Mohicans,” he says. “The family farm here in Eagle Pass is being surrounded by urban development, so it’s just a matter of years before we’re going to be forced out.”

Changing Times
One of the biggest differences between now and back then, when the farm was started, Ritchie says, is the amount of documentation required to keep a farming operation moving forward. Today, not only does that include pesticide use but also what was planted and where for traceback purposes, as well as cleanliness and sanitation practices.

“It used to be easy and fun, and now everything you do, you have to document,” Ritchie says.

Five years ago, Ritchie invested in a mechanical harvester that has freed up multiple resources. Instead of struggling to hire more than 100 hand-harvesters in peak season, he now employs six truck drivers, a major improvement in labor expenses and efficiency, he says.

“There was starting to be a shortage of labor and of course, whenever you needed them, they weren’t available,” Ritchie says. “They chose the days they were going to work, when they’d show up, and what time they would show up. The machine is available 24/7, never complains, never talks back, and it always shows up.”

Ritchie has three full-time employees and during harvest, a total of 32 people hauling, driving trucks, and packing and icing.

Converting to a mechanical harvester changed the farm’s tillage practices, making it necessary to invest in all new planting and mulching equipment, as well. The process has allowed for better precision farming, however, and the farm yields a more leafy product than when it was hand-harvested Ritchie says.

Spinach And Safety
	AS chairman of the Wintergarden Spinach Producers Board, an organization that serves a 13-county area, Ed Ritchie has done his share of interviews this past year. Quoted in the Houston Chronicle, the Land and Livestock Post, and Southwest Farm Press, Ritchie assured fellow growers and consumers that the Texas spinach industry would weather last fall’s E. coli outbreak traced back to baby leaf spinach in California. For one thing, he says, the spinach produced in Texas is the curly leaf type, or Savoy, spinach, and growers were not in season when the E. coli outbreak occurred. “We don’t start shipping until Thanksgiving through the first of December and go through March,” Ritchie says. While Tiro Tres Farms is in the process of converting some of its acres to growing baby leaf spinach, Ritchie wants to continue to fill the niche for Savoy spinach for the fresh market because of its disease resistance. In addition, he says he has not been successful with baby leaf varieties because Tiro Tres is not a year-round supplier. Meanwhile, the farm has maintained profitability close to its three-year average, despite the spinach scare, Ritchie says. “When we first heard about it, we were really concerned,” he says. “We thought we were going to have to skip a year and not sell anything.” Tiro Tres Farms has always followed Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs), Ritchie says, and his employees have completed production, handling, and shipping training through the Texas Cooperative Extension Service. In addition, the farm has begun preparation for a third-party audit through Primus Labs beginning next growing season. “We have never been audited before, we were just self-policing,” Ritchie says. “Primus Labs has laid out the format for us and we’re getting everything in place. It’s voluntary but it’s being requested by more and more of our receivers. To continue in this business, it’s necessary.”

Direct comments or questions about this article to lhdrotleff@meistermedia.com