County jail’s vegetable farm thriving
In its third year, inmate-tended farm turns out variety of crops
By JOHN WORTHEN News-Times Staff
A cigarette quivered between the lips of a Union County inmate as he picked at the tough brown dirt with a hoe. A blazing early-June sun roasted his back; sweat streamed down his forehead and dripped onto the leaves of a bushy squash plant.
All in a day’s work at the Union County Jail’s vegetable farm on Industrial Road. In its third year, the farm is thriving more than ever.
On Friday morning, 20 inmates labored with hoes, shovels and tillers to maintain the seven-acre plot that’s saving the county an estimated $20,000 a year on food costs at the jail.
The farm grows bountiful crops of squash, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn and turnip greens — and everything’s fed, grown and tended to by the inmates.
Union County Sheriff Ken Jones said the driving force behind the farm is to save taxpayers’ money.
"The more food we can grow here and feed to the inmates, the more money we can save,"
said Jones as he crept around the farm on Friday in his county-issued vehicle. "And we try to keep something growing all year long."
Right now, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers — many of which are made into pickles — and corn are the primary vegetables at the farm. Soon, peas will dominate, and this fall, it’ll be turnip greens.
Many of the plants are donated, while others come from seeds cultivated in a small greenhouse behind the sheriff’s offi ce on American Road, Jones said. This keeps costs low and production high, something that’s "good for everyone," he said.
Three-to-four inmates typically work the farm each week, and more are added when major projects like weeding and tilling are done, such was the case on Friday.
When time comes to prepare the vegetables, inmates pick and sort them into fi ve gallon buckets, and everything is transported to the sheriff’s offi ce for processing. Jones said he purchased a used pea shelling machine because "it’s not possible for us to shell all of the peas by hand. It would just take too long."
Other vegetables are prepared and sliced by hand.
Some are even frozen and distributed to inmates throughout the year, Jones said. Tomatoes, for example, may be used in soups and chilis during winter months.
Jones said that as much as 80 percent of an inmate’s meal may come from the farm on any given day.
And with the cost of feeding about 200 inmates at nearly $2 per meal, the savings can be substantial throughout the year.
"It’s a big money saver for us, and that’s really why we do it," Jones said. "Plus the food is good. You can go out to the jail and get a plate, eat it and enjoy it."
Future plans for the farm include raising hogs and possibly cattle, Jones said.
By fall, as many as 20 hogs could be pinned up at the farm, and Jones said he hopes to one day raise cattle, although more land would be needed.
The current farm sits on a plot owned by the Union County Industrial Board, which has allowed the jail to use it for farming purposes. Jones said he hopes that someone in the county might donate the use of their land for the jail’s future cattle operation.
"That may be the only way we can do something like raise cows," Jones said. "But if we could get 20 head of cattle and processing them for meat, that’s a lot of food, and a lot of savings for us."
