After spending decades farming organic products and selling them across Yellow Springs and Dayton, Doug Seibert of Peach Mountain Organics is retiring.
Seibert said he’s preparing for a big move out West, but the future of the business is still uncertain.
“That's been a question for the last 10 years, 15 years," he said. "We've had people come that worked on the farm before and were interested, and then they come out and they decide to just stay where they are.”
Starting organic farming
Farming hasn’t always been 75-year-old Seibert’s primary employment, but he said it’s been his calling.
He started work in a toxicology lab before transitioning to more hands-on, outdoor labor in 1973.
"I just moved right into building houses, working construction, and then I poured concrete, and then I got into being a heavy equipment mechanic," he said. "I already had worked on cars. That's how I got through school. So then, I was a mechanic and I met Leslie in an Amish auction."
From there, Seibert and Leslie Garcia started working together as farmers and growing connections across the region.
Over the years, they worked and owned various sized farms including a place in Bellbrook that Seibert said offered the pair a good start.
"You had about 60 or some thousand dollars in it and we didn't do much to it exactly, and it sold for $176,000," he said. "And then that was about the price of this [farm]."
Seibert said it was in the late '90s that they started working the land at Peach Mountain Organics. The 20-acre land in Spring Valley became his and Garcia’s long-term home, with seven of those acres turning into an organic farm.
“We got publicity really early on from Ann Heller. She was the food editor for Dayton Daily, and she kind of put us on the map," he said.
From there, businesses in Yellow Springs and Dayton started sourcing organic goods from the duo including the Winds Cafe, Meadowlark and the former Kitty’s restaurant.
"We sold spinach. We dropped off bags and then we got called back, called back," Seibert said. "And we came in at a time when a lot of restaurants didn't have somebody because the guy that had been doing it decided not to do it So it was kind of free range for us."
Seibert said they also built a strong customer base at local farmers markets in Yellow Springs and the former Wegerzyn Gardens market in Dayton.
"We were selling produce in the parking lot and in the early spring we were sowing plants," he said. "And there was nobody in organics selling organic starts and stuff like that. So that caught on pretty good."
Despite their popularity, Seibert said the real reward in farming was the satisfaction of growing organically, not necessarily the earnings.
"For us, really, our backbone over time has probably been real estate," he said. "We've been able to save money on a frugal salary. I think the most we ever made together was $40,000. That's $20,000 a year. That's the most."
Taking a Step Back
While Seibert believes that spending his entire life in manual labor has kept him young, he still wants to focus on less demanding pursuits.
That means moving to Chimacum, Washington, to help out his son’s family on their own farm and spend more time with his four-year-old grandson.
“I'm more about just trying to get things straightened up here," he said. "Because, we're not getting any younger.”
Garcia said she will continue to provide flowers to Dorothy Lane Market while they finish cleaning up the farm, which she may stay on after Seibert moves.
As for Seibert, farmers markets will still see some of his crop before he packs up for Washington.
"My retirement looks like being able to hike a lot more when I go out west, be able to do more bicycling, which I used to do way too much of when I was not working here in this area, and help them with the farm," he said. "It's going to be sort of a collaboration."
