PEORIA MAGAZINE August 2023

SEED AND SOIL

legacy started by his late grandfather, Lowell Fiedler, for about eight years. He grows tomatoes, a variety of peppers, zucchini and herbs on five to six acres in the lower field of his parent’s farm at 152 Old Mink Farm Road. “My grandpa, until he passed away, had been doing it for 40 years on a much smaller scale and I would go down and help him,” Fiedler said. “He was doing dialysis and I basically took over the field for him. I got to know the people who came to our market, and it just became a lot of fun.” Like many kids, Fiedler didn’t much care for tomatoes, he admitted. “But ‘OUR FOOD SPEAKS FOR ITSELF’ There’s nothing like homegrown produce – ah, those tomatoes! — available at a farmstand or farmers market near you BY LISA COON PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

T he options Peoria-area res idents have to stock up on locally grown produce are as bountiful as the variety of vegetables and fruits grown. Whether it’s going to a u-pick farm, stopping by a farmstand, perusing a farmers market or subscribing to a home delivery service, there are plenty of ways to reap what others sow. IT’S THE FRESH TOMATOES, FOR SURE Patrick Fiedler of Fid’s Valley Produce in Washington has been carrying on the

as I got older, I realized how good the tomatoes we grow are and why they’re so good. What makes them so good is they’re truly home grown. I know that sounds silly, but there are a lot of markets that have hothouse tomatoes brought up from the south that are advertised as homegrown,” he said. “The texture is rock hard, not like ours. I think what makes them truly delicious is they are grown in the sunlight and in the soil.” He estimates that 98% of his cus tomers stop by the onsite farmstand because of those juicy tomatoes, a Big Beef hybrid this year. Occasion

8 JULY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE