If you live in the KMUW listening area, chances are you’ve come across a roadside farm stand beneath a green-and-yellow umbrella — possibly while running an errand to the hardware store. Emblazoned across those umbrellas is Gaeddert Farms, a family farm east of Buhler that has been selling produce for more than 45 years.
Earlier this week, I spotted one of their stands at Central and Tyler. My neighbor Charlie had recently mentioned stopping for sweet corn, so when I saw that familiar umbrella, I pulled in. Unfortunately, I was too late. The last ears of the season had sold that morning. Instead, I left with Kansas-grown tomatoes, a Black Diamond watermelon and a box of Colorado peaches. Gaeddert Farms began with a small stand on the grandparents’ front lawn in Buhler.
Today, Tonya Martisko and her family continue that tradition. During sweet corn season, her son Zachary wakes around 3 a.m. to begin harvesting, ensuring the corn at their stands is picked fresh each day. But this season ended earlier than expected. Martisko told me excessive heat, drought, poor pollination and worms took a toll on their final planting — a 15-acre field that normally would have extended the season.
The family donated the last of its harvest to the Kansas Food Bank. What remained in the fields was turned back into the soil as compost.Farming, Martisko reminded me, is always dependent on the weather. Sometimes a crop becomes dinner. Sometimes it becomes next year’s fertilizer — and another chance to begin again.
