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CapitalPress.com
October 14, 2016
People & Places
A different way to farm
Ronnie Miller uses
hydroponic system
to grow year-round
crop of lettuce
Western
Innovator
Capital Press
Laura Lee Farms
Co-founders: Father and
son, Ron Miller and Ronnie
Miller
Entire contents copyright © 2016
EO Media Group
dba Capital Press
Product: Boston butterhead
lettuce
An independent newspaper
published every Friday.
System: Hydroponic
Harvest capacity: 1,200
heads per day
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
Employees: Two
Ronnie Miller, a partner in his family’s Laura Lee Farms, holds a head of lettuce not quite ready for
harvest and a bag of the farms’ packaged product.
preneurial spirit — an enthusi-
asm fueled by the book “Rich
Dad Poor Dad,” Miller said.
That enthusiasm was cru-
cial given the amount of work
Miller and his father had to do
to get the place in shape.
“There was a lot of de-
ferred maintenance. We had to
pretty much ix everything,”
Miller said.
But it gave the father and
son plenty of enjoyable time
working together, he said.
Miller moved to the farm
last year and runs the day-
to-day operations. His father
stays involved, and the two
work together to make deci-
sions, develop a game plan
and hone their time manage-
ment, Miller said.
“We’re excited to feed peo-
ple. We’re excited to serve
as many people as possible.
That’s why we exist,” he said.
The operation has the ca-
pacity to harvest 1,200 heads
of lettuce a day, and it’s a “su-
per clean” product, grown in
an inert medium without pes-
ticides and using integrated
pest management practices,
Miller said.
The greenhouse is heated
by water from a hot spring,
which provides 178-degree
water. The closed hydroponic
system conserves water. The
estimated water use at full ca-
pacity is 1,000 gallons per day,
little compared to a traditional
1-acre greenhouse operation,
he said.
The business, which start-
ed shipping in May, only
grows butterhead lettuce now,
but the plan is to grow other
produce once the Millers work
out what the community needs
and what retailers want, he
said.
By BRENNA WIEGAND
For the Capital Press
Calendar
Brenna Wiegand/For the Capital Press
Dylan Wells watches the pumpkins pile up in a warehouse at Au-
tumn Harvest Pumpkins. The Hubbard, Ore., online business has
shipped 300,000 pounds this year.
Their catalog is simple:
two types of mini-pumpkins
and a white mini variety.
Dylan Wells, 28, said the
move has enabled them to go
from 60 employees to three:
Dylan, his mother and one
employee.
“Our payroll has decreased
almost $800,000 so far this
year,” Wells said. “This year
we’re shipping about 300,000
pounds and are supporting
two families. On heavy days
Sponsored by:
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capitalpress.com and click on “Sub-
mit an Event.” Calendar items can
also be mailed to Capital Press, 1400
Broadway St. NE, Salem, OR 97301.
Saturday-Sunday
Oct. 15-16
All About Fruit Show, 10 a.m.-4
p.m. Clackamas County Fairplex,
Canby, Ore. This is an opportunity
to taste pears, apples, kiwis and
grapes and order a custom-grafted
tree. Speakers will answer questions
and an ID Team will identify “mys-
tery” apples. www.homeorchardsoci-
ety.org/events/2016-fruit-show/
Gorge Fruit and Craft Fair. 10
a.m.-5 p.m. Hood River County Fair-
grounds, 3020 Wy’east Road, Odell,
Ore. www.hoodriverfair.org
Wednesday-Saturday
Oct. 19-22
2016 National FFA Convention
Capital Press Managers
Mike O’Brien .............................Publisher
Joe Beach ..................................... Editor
Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director
Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
Barbara Nipp ......... Production Manager
Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager
Location: Bliss, Idaho
The lettuce takes about 50
days to mature in optimum
growing conditions — humid
and 65 degrees. The green-
house provides year-round
production and a constant cy-
cle of planting and harvesting.
While the production sys-
tem is capital-intensive, it of-
fers many advantages, Miller
said.
“You can get so much done
with just a few people. You
can grow year-round, and it
allows you to change things
and mimic nature,” he said.
The operation is food-safe-
ty certiied by PrimusLabs
and primarily sells to distrib-
utors that supply restaurants
and retailers. The farm is also
a member of Idaho’s Bounty
and Idaho Preferred, and Mill-
er is always on the lookout for
ways to grow the demand for
the lettuce.
Contacts: www.lauraleef-
arms.com, (208) 352-3115,
Ronnie@lauraleefarms.com
The mentor in Hawaii
— and another in Canada —
have helped the Millers make
their dream a reality, and
Miller hopes to be able to help
others in turn.
The mission of the farm
is to feed a lot of people
high-quality food, but the
family also values and pro-
motes self-development, i-
nancial freedom and helping
others ind success, he said.
Miller remains involved in
the family businesses in Jack-
son. His wife, Kristy, handles
social-media marketing and
graphics for those businesses
and lives in Boise, and the two
travel back and forth between
Boise and Bliss. They are ex-
pecting their irst child in Feb-
ruary.
Family farm grows tiny pumpkins into big business
HUBBARD, Ore. —
Dylan Wells and his brother,
Darren, were just boys when
they tried selling the family
farm’s excess mini-pumpkins
on the internet.
Little did they know their
efforts would blossom into a
thriving business.
Their parents, Dan and
Diane Wells, established D.
Wells Farms near Hubbard,
Ore., in 1990. They started a
reforestation and Christmas
tree seedling nursery and a
grafted ornamental tree busi-
ness.
Brothers Darren and Dylan
were in grade school when
they started their business,
Autumn Harvest, in 1998.
“Darren and I sold pump-
kins out of a 1965 Chevro-
let pickup in the driveway,”
Dylan said.
By 2015 they were grow-
ing 20 varieties of winter
squash, 10 mini-pumpkin va-
rieties and some larger pump-
kins, pickling cucumbers and
dill on 220 acres.
This year they scaled down
to 14 acres and as of next year
will be completely out of the
farming business, going en-
tirely to online retail sales as
AutumnHarvestPumpkins.
com.
Established 1928
Board of directors
Mike Forrester ..........................President
Steve Forrester
Kathryn Brown
Sid Freeman .................. Outside director
Mike Omeg .................... Outside director
Corporate oficer
John Perry
Chief operating oficer
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
BLISS, Idaho — Ronnie
Miller has embraced his new
high-desert farm, marveling at
the glorious sunrises and sun-
sets that bookend his days as
he grows thousands of heads
of lettuce — without soil.
Originally from Jackson,
Wyo., the co-founder and
CEO of Laura Lee Farms
spends most of his days inside
a 1-acre greenhouse, where he
plants, monitors, harvests and
packages Boston butterhead
lettuce.
With a degree in inance
from the University of Wyo-
ming, he is also involved in
purchasing, marketing and
keeping the books.
The hydroponic operation
— no soil needed — is named
for his mother and spearhead-
ed by his father, Ron, who in
2013 purchased the 330-acre
White Arrow Ranch that hous-
es the greenhouse operation.
The greenhouse once
raised mushrooms and toma-
toes but sat vacant for several
years before Miller’s father
bought it at auction to pursue
an interest in hydroponics.
That interest was spurred by a
friend and mentor, who grows
cucumbers hydroponically in
Hawaii.
The venture is different
from the family’s business
holdings in real estate and the
hospitality industries in Jack-
son but falls within its entre-
Capital Press
and Expo. Bankers Life Field House
and Indiana Convention Center, Indi-
anapolis, Indiana. www.ffa.org
Thursday, Oct. 20
Oregon Soil and Water Com-
mission meeting. 8:30-11:30 a.m.
Monarch Hotel, 12566 SE 93rd Ave.,
Clackamas, Ore. http://bit.ly/2dA-
yA0R
Urban AgFest. 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
Parrish Middle School, 802 Capitol
St. NE, Salem, Ore. www.aglink.
org
Conined Animal Feeding Oper-
ations Advisory Committee meeting.
1:30-3:30 p.m. Oregon Department
of Agriculture, Conference Room D,
635 Capitol St. NE, Salem. http://bit.
ly/1vCHJfr
Friday-Saturday
Oct. 21-22
Montana Farmers Union Con-
vention, Best Western Heritage Inn,
Great Falls, Montana. montanafarm-
ersunion.com
UPS drops a trailer here for
the day.”
The pumpkins Autumn
Harvest sells come from a
network of growers in Oregon
and Washington.
“Over the last 17 years that
I have been doing this I have
built up quite a network of
growers,” Wells said. “In the
coming years I am going to
be relying on that network to
supply us with product.”
The only farm equipment
needed now is a washer for
the pumpkins and a forklift.
“Other than that we don’t
need much else,” he said.
At the same time, the
world needs pumpkins, espe-
cially the East Coast.
“New York, Florida, North
Carolina, Virginia and Mary-
land … 85 percent of our
product is sent to the East
Coast,” Wells said. “They
try to access them locally
but they just aren’t available
in their areas. We do a lot of
Halloween parties, churches
and schools, lots of colleges.
And the white mini-pumpkins
are very popular for fall wed-
dings.”
They also sell to birthday
parties for toddlers at which
mini-pumpkins are scattered
across the yard like an egg
hunt, he said.
“A lot of our customers
are event venues and lorist
shops; we supply a chain
of gyms that want to deco-
rate their welcome counters
and we have supplied multi-
ple Ritz-Carlton hotels and
resorts for their seasonal
events,” he said.
Because they’re so easy to
ind on the internet, Autumn
Harvest Pumpkins receives
many requests from maga-
zines needing pumpkins for
fall photo shoots.
“When
you
Google
mini-pumpkins we are one of
the top results that come up,
and there is no Oregon sales
tax, which is a plus for a lot
of our customers,” Wells said.
They try to keep their pric-
es reasonable.
“People are often shocked
when they ind out it’s $125
for 100 pumpkins, including
shipping,” he said.
He believes the busi-
ness is thriving because the
mini-pumpkin is a unique
product that can’t be found in
many areas.
“Not everyone in the coun-
try can just walk out and ind
it at the farmers’ market or in
the grocery store,” he said. “I
think we who live in the Pa-
ciic Northwest tend to take
for granted all the things that
we are able to buy fresh and
locally.”
Wells said retail sales are
very different from wholesale.
“With wholesale you build
a relationship with the buyer;
you’re talking every day,”
Wells said. “With the online
store we only talk to about 10
percent of the people. The or-
ders come in and we ill and
ship out.”
About 25 percent of their
customers return each year.
“The repeat customers are
the institutions with yearly
events — schools mostly,” he
said.
GASES / WELDING / SAFETY / FIRE
www.oxarc.com
Saturday, Oct. 22
Oregon Agriculture in the Class-
room 16th Annual Fall Harvest Din-
ner and Fundraiser, 5 p.m. CH2M
Hill Alumni Center, Oregon State
University, 725 SW 26th St., Corval-
lis. The social hour and silent auction
start at 5 p.m., dinner at 6:30 and the
oral auction at 7:45. oregonaitc.org/
Tuesday-Wednesday
Oct. 25-26
Oregon Society of Weed Sci-
ence annual meeting, 8 a.m. Best
Western Hood River Inn, 1108 E.
Marina Way, Hood River, Ore.
Wednesday-Friday
Oct. 26-28
FSPCA Preventive Controls for
Animal Food Course, 8 a.m. Sprin-
ghill Suites by Marriott,424 E. Park
Center Blvd., Boise, Idaho. The
course will cover an overview of the
FSMA requirements for animal food,
current good manufacturing practice
requirements, animal food safety
20 Northwest Locations
hazards, an overview of the food
safety plan and other related issues.
Cost: $650/person for 2 or more peo-
ple from the same company register-
ing together or $720 per individual.
Friday-Sunday
Oct. 28-30
Oregon State Beekeepers As-
sociation Fall Conference 2016,
The Oregon Garden, 879 W. Main
St., Silverton, Ore. The theme for
this conference is “Beekeeping Out
of the Box.” Other topics such as
honeybee health will be covered as
well. Speakers include Tom Seeley,
George Hansen, Ramesh Sagili,
John Skinner, Elina Nino, Judy Wu
and Miksa Queens. There will be a
beginning beekeeping class running
concurrently with the main meeting
on Saturday. .
Sunday, Oct. 30
Farm Succession Planning
Workshop. 4-8:30 p.m. Forest Grove
United Church of Christ, 2032 Col-
lege Way, Forest Grove, Ore. Host-
1-800-765-9055
ed by Tualatin SWCD, Rogue Farm
Corps and Dairy Creek Community
Food Web. RSVP requested at
971-409-6806 or nellie@roguefar-
mcorps.org, http://www.swcd.net/
event/leaving-a-legacy/
Tuesday-Thursday
Nov. 1-3
2016 NIAA Antibiotics Sympo-
sium. Antibiotic Use — Working
Together for Better Solutions. Na-
tional Institute for Animal Agriculture
conference at Hyatt Regency Dull-
es, Herndon, Va. animalagriculture.
org/2016-Antibiotics-Symposium,
call 719-538-8843 or email niaa@
animalagriculture.org
Thursday, Nov. 3
UI Extension Forestry Short
Course. 6-9:30 p.m. Centennial
Distributing Co. meeting room, 701
W. Buckles Road, Hayden, Idaho.
This six-session program continues
every Thursday through Dec. 15
and covers many topics. www.uida-
ho.edu/extension/forestry
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Index
Opinion .................................. 6
Wolves ................................... 7
California ................................ 8
Idaho ...................................... 9
Oregon ................................ 10
Washington ......................... 12
Markets ............................... 13
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