Boundless Science Season 2: Women and Watermelons: Southeastern Watermelon Farming

On this episode of Streaming Science, Lauren Cook sits down with Walther Farms employee and University of Florida agriculture operations management student, Samantha Poreda, to discuss Southeastern Watermelon Farming. Samantha shares with us how she began her professional journey with Walther Farms and the many things she has learned along the way. This episode includes discussions on pesticides, sustainable farming practices, watermelon growing conditions, and more! We hope you enjoy hearing the story of this young female professional in agriculture and be sure to catch the next episode. #boundlessscience #season2

Gummy stem- a fungal disease that affects watermelons and other cucurbits.
#BoundlessScienceseason2

Transcript

Lauren:  Sam, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, what you study and where you work? 

Sam: Yeah. Hi, my name is Sam. I'm a third year agriculture operations management major focusing in horticulture and crop development at the University of Florida. And I work for a company called Walther Farms. We're traditionally known as a potato company founded out of Michigan. I started with them as an intern for their watermelon program and now I get to work for them part time and have a full time contract for after graduation.

Lauren: That is awesome. You are really excelling already at such a young age. Tell me what got you interested in agriculture to begin with. 

Sam: Yeah, so I have a little bit of a different start with agriculture. A lot of the times in the industry you see people that are like Their families are fifth or sixth generation farmers.

Sam: They've been around it their whole life So mine aren't. My mom works in restaurants and my dad works in a corporate office But in high school, I got a great job for a farm called Southern Hill Farms I worked in their bakery making blueberry products, I guess you would say. We did strawberries during strawberry seasons, whatnot.

Sam: And that's kind of what kickstarted my interest in it. And then when I got to college, I was originally a political science major, realized I hated that.  And then right before I started classes, I switched over to agriculture and I've been there since and now I love it. Awesome. 

Lauren: What are some of the classes you have taken at UF as an agricultural operations management major?

Sam: Yeah, so we get to take a lot of different classes. The nice thing about agriculture operations management is that it incorporates the operations side, but also the management side, right? So we get to take finance classes, but we also take construction classes. And some of my most favorite classes I've taken are the hands on one.

Sam: So I took a class called construction and maintenance. We got to build sheds all the time. And then I've taken another class for pesticides, where we got to go out and measure out pesticides and learn how to properly apply them up.   And stuff like that. So those would be my favorite. 

Lauren: Yeah, that's great So let's switch gears here. Tell me about Walther Farms in general. How did Walther Farms come to be and how did you become involved with them? 

Sam: Yeah. So Walther Farms is a sixth generation family farm headquartered out of Michigan.  It started with the dad of the sons. Now he started with a potato farm. He really wanted to grow potatoes.

 I'm not sure how, because I wasn't alive during the time, but somehow it kickstarted, it blew up. They're now in 26 states for potatoes and they distribute to Frito Lay, Cape Cod, In N Out for french fries, McDonald's for french fries. So they focus mainly on chip potatoes, so a potato that when you pull out of the ground there's going to be a kill step afterwards, so you're going to be frying it, baking it, whatnot. 

Lauren: It's a big name companies that they're working with very successful. 

Sam: Yeah, they're a very successful company So now the company is owned by a lot of family members It's a whole plethora of people the sons the cousins whatnot And what I really like about Walther Farms is to ensure growth of their employees that are not family members Every family member is forced to retire by 55 Which is something that they hold high in their values to make sure that they don't have You All these family members of across four generations because you have one dude that's 80 and then another dude that's 22  Running the company so it leaves room for growth of employees like me that aren't involved in the family Which is super cool, but I got involved with Walter Farms because they do a lot of work with colleges, which is great They go out to almost every career fair across the country of schools that offer ag education so Here, my advisor emailed me one day, it was my freshman year, and he was like, hey, there's this internship opportunity, and I was like, you know what, screw it. If I apply and I get it, I get it, if I don't, I don't, right? Going into an internship as a freshman can be really, scary for some freshmen because they're like, Oh, there's seniors applying and they're going to get it. But I would always say, go for it.  I started working for them my first summer as an intern. I technically was an intern my second summer, but I was on a higher base salary just because I had been there and I was training people. And then my second summer, when I was working there, my manager came to me and he was like, Hey, what do you plan on doing when you go back to college? And I was like, Really toying with bartending. Because I was like, it's fast money, I'm a night person, I go to the bars on the weekend anyways. I'm going to be there, why not make money while doing it? Yeah. And he was like, you're worth so much more than that, let me offer you a part time position while you're in school remote. So now I work for them remote doing shipping and logistics and yeah,

Lauren: That's awesome that You're in a company where they have already seen so much potential in you to tell you that that's incredible Let me back up real quick. So what were you doing during your time in your internship roles?  

Sam: so when I was initially supposed to intern for Walther Farms. It was the summer of 2021 I got accepted for the internship probably in February of 2021 and I was supposed to go to Georgia and Indiana to work potatoes. And they called me one day and they were like, Hey, we're starting watermelons. They were like, we want to go into this industry. We don't know how to do it.

Will you help us kickstart this program? Will you be an intern on it? I was like, yeah, of course. So I went up to Georgia and from there, instead of Indiana, I went to South Carolina and I worked in the packing shed. So my first year, I just handled all like the shipments. So if a truck driver would come in, I would take their paperwork, log it in the system, go to our forklift driver, tell them what needs to go on that truck, it would get loaded, then I would check them out. So I was just like that middle man between the truck driver coming in and getting their load. But after that, I got to get more into sales and speaking with our brokers. I've done a lot of like software programming recently for our softwares that we're changing. I've done a lot of creation on stickers and stuff. So I've definitely expanded more in what I do, but primarily I do work in shipping and logistics. 

Lauren: Yeah, it sounds like you're a jack of all trades for the company right now. They had you doing a little bit of everything, but that's awesome. You've probably gained a lot of experience just from being an intern there. 

Sam: Yeah, I gained so much experience. I mean, my biggest takeaway, honestly, for my first year was the Spanish because I work in a warehouse, and there's two of us that are fluent in English, and then 35 that are fluent in Spanish, so you're kind of forced to speak Spanish. That was my biggest takeaway my first year, but now I've learned so many things. I've really learned, like, I know what color is FDA standard for watermelon stickers, what needs to be on the sticker, USDA specs, like everything. I've gotten to learn a lot, which is awesome. That is really, really exciting for you.  So since your internship, what have you moved into now? How have you already grown in the company?  Yeah, so the company is such a good company for taking college students and growing them into careers. And if they weren't functioned that way, I would, I don't believe I would be as far as I am in the company now. I also don't believe I would be as far as I am in the company now if I worked for potatoes because my boss for watermelons  I don't know what he saw, but he saw something in me and he ran with it.

Sam: Yeah  He took it as soon as my first summer was over He was like you're working full time for me after graduation. I was like I’m a freshman in college  

Lauren: Yeah, I can't imagine being a freshman in college and being like hey, so I have a career lined up for you. Like that's incredible. 

Sam: Yeah, right like Probably  13 months before that that job offer and him wanting me to come back and work for him, I was a political science major.Yeah. And then I was already getting a job. 

Lauren: That’s crazy how like it just 360'd so quickly for you. 

Sam: Yeah, yeah, it totally 360'd. So now I'm able to work on kind of the more important things. We just got, so the way watermelons work is we sell our produce through a Walmart. Sam's Club, Publix, whatnot. But we made our own brand that kind of encapsulates all of our brokers and us. And we presented it to Walmart and we got into Walmart and I was able to lead that with the group, which was awesome. So they've honestly given me all things and everything to do. And I think a lot of that too is because I work remote. I'm not in the office, so there's just like little side tasks I'm able to do all the time. Yeah. So I've gotten to work in sales and everything. And. It's really helped me grow as a person. 

Lauren: Yeah, so we talked about the overall vibe of the company.  In your experience, how has that atmosphere just been so good for your professional development? 

Sam: Yeah, so I will say the one thing I noticed with agriculture, it's a lot of people end up with burnout. Because in the agriculture industry, for those of you who are not in it, or for those of you who don't know, It's typically in season. I'm working anywhere from 70 to 120 hours a week, which is a massive week So when you're a company  that's making your employees work that much you have to keep morale up because they're going to burn out And they're not gonna want to work for you anymore  So they honestly the company does a lot for their employees and it's the little things It's a little things that really matter to the atmosphere we'll like go over to the guys that are working on the line packing the watermelons. We'll like go, if they do a really good day, like if, let's say we usually average 12 loads, but today they packed 20, we'll go get them all Gatorade and fill their water coolers with Gatorade instead of water. We'll bring them lunch. We'll, like, we have a forklift driver that will work after hours with us, and we usually try to feed him and make sure that he's comfortable. And a lot of it, honestly,  with the atmosphere is they really, they don't just care about you on a basic level as an employee, they care about everything else. And they're very family first because they are a family company. So they understand that you have other things and you have other commitments, which is really nice and just overall, it's a really good atmosphere for growth, for happiness and everybody gets along, which is also great in a workplace.

Lauren: Yeah, it's really awesome that you get to work in a company that really prioritizes the employee as a person instead of the employee is just working a job getting things done. I think that's something that's really unique in agriculture as well as it's a lot of family run companies. So I'm really happy that you found this place that you can call a home.  So we're gonna move forward into discussing southeastern watermelon farming and the logistics of it. Could you, just tell me a basic, the growing conditions that y'all require, time of year, type of watermelon you focus on? 

Sam: Yeah, so we grow a really large variety of watermelons. So when you grow a product, right, when you make a product, there's people that are looking for the super dark, super sweet, super red watermelons. But there's people that like the larger, lighter skinned, lighter flesh inside watermelons. There's people that prefer mini melons. There's people that prefer cantaloupe. There's people that prefer honeydew, right? So we grow such a wide plethora of things so that we can make sure that we hit everything.  But it's kind of different depending on the state. So watermelons, you primarily plant in the late spring. 

But in Florida, because of the different atmosphere here, they're going to start planting probably in the next, I think they started planting last Friday, actually. So they start kind of early March, and then  it's usually, I want to say, around like, uh,  60 to 90 day growth period until you have fruit. So they'll plant in March. We're supposed to start harvesting early May. That could get pushed back. That could get pushed forward depending on everything. But melons really, so melons originated out of Africa. So as you can imagine, melons really stick to that super hot climate, super hot.  They, they like the humidity a little bit, but they can also grow in dry conditions. You can grow them over in Texas. You can grow them out West and stuff. So that's why the Southeast really  excels in watermelon growth, because of that. But on top of that, you also want to make sure that  you have watermelons in other states, so when the Southeast production gets cut off, you can keep going. So that's why we moved up to Michigan, because Michigan will go all the way to October, where South Carolina is going to stop in August. 

Lauren: So Michigan's not just potatoes, y'all have watermelons there as well?

Sam: As of this year, yes. We have not in past years. 

Lauren: Yeah, because I think you've briefly mentioned before, the watermelon side of Walther Farms is very new.

Sam: Yeah, so this is our third season. In watermelons.  Our first two seasons we were at two farms, this year we added a third. Last season I believe we harvested around 200 acres total between two states. This year we're going to hit about five to six hundred between three states.

Lauren: So you're almost tripling. 

Sam: Yeah, we got really big with the Florida and then the nice thing about the Southeast and especially about Florida is that they kickstart production so much earlier than other states. So when you harvest watermelons in Florida, you're getting your foot in the market a month to two months before Georgia and South Carolina are. So it really, really helps because you can, there's a higher demand and not as much.  

Lauren: Yeah, that kind of led me into my follow up question for that. So how is Florida really different from South Carolina since you've kind of managed both sides of that? 

Sam: Yeah, so when, when I think about watermelons, my brain is hardwired to think about summer holidays. So I think about Memorial Day and I think about Fourth of July. Those are our two biggest selling days in the watermelon market in the summer. But when it comes, 

Lauren: what's the 4th of July without a good watermelon? 

Sam: Right, exactly. Everybody, everybody thinks about watermelon is like a summer by the pool, at the beach, kind of, you know, your mom's cutting it up in the morning and you're packing it to go to the beach for the day.You probably don't see somebody eating a watermelon in December, right? You see them eating them in June and July, so. The one thing Florida really excels at is being able to get their foot in for that Memorial Day rush.  And with Georgia, we usually don't start till June. South Carolina, we don't start till July. So, with Florida, you are able to Get your foot in the door for that first rush and then it cuts off before the 4th of July And then that's where South Carolina picks up. So then they get a beginning of a season market rush and all that So Florida is just so different because they're in season when no other state is. 

Lauren: Yeah  So, what are some of the challenges that y'all face with growing watermelons here in the southeast? 

Sam: Yeah, so when you think about bacteria, viruses, and bugs, they love to live and fester in hot, humid climates. So,  bacteria spreading is a major concern with watermelons. Especially because, for those who don't know, watermelons are all harvested by manual labor. So we're not driving a machine through and it's picking everything up. When you do that, you just have to make sure your machine is sanitized so that it's not spreading bacteria. You are having to physically walk through each row, pick up the watermelons, and throw them into a bus. So with that, if you think about it, think about how nasty the bottom of your shoes are, right? So if I step on this plant six plants back that has gummy stem and I keep walking. It's just gonna spread. It's gonna spread like wildfire. 

Lauren: Let me pause you real quick. Can you explain what gummy stem is? 

Sam: Yeah, so gummy stem is kind of like it's a bacteria that you get in watermelons that kind of like mushes the stem of the leaves  So that when they get like mushy like that, they're not able to properly pass through  the chlorophyll, whatnot, the photosynthesis reactions, they're, it's not able to properly pass through everything. They're not able to properly get nutrients from the roots to the leaves so that photosynthesis can happen and it kind of creates an issue. It's not like the biggest issue concerning it but it is a pretty big issue that we try to negate because if it spreads too far it can become a problem. 

Lauren: Okay and you said that it's, Most commonly spread just from the workers tracking it from plant to plant.

Sam: Yeah Yeah, most of most of our bacterial issues or our pest issues pest has become a problem just because they move on their own right, but a lot of our bacterial issues it'll be  You see it on one plant and then you walk through that area and the next week it's on seven Yeah, so that's why we constantly Have to keep up on pesticides and herbicides and whatnot that we're using to make sure that it That's not happening.

Lauren: Yeah. Can you touch on a little bit because there's so much  contradictory information surrounding pesticides and agriculture and it's a really controversial topic. So can you touch on why that's so important and how it also contributes to sustainability overall in agriculture? 

Sam: Yeah. So  this is, this becomes a frustrating topic for me because it's when I bounce around with a lot. Because as somebody who was interested in political science, I understand why people want organic and don't want pesticides. But as someone who is also now educated in agriculture, I understand why it's necessary. So when, when you buy something from the store that's organic, it's only legally required to be 95 percent organic. So they could spray one pesticide one day out of the year, whatnot. But the thing that people don't realize is, is Anything that goes into agriculture has to be not only sustainable for the earth, but sustainable for the business as well. So with organic, when you, when you go fully organic because it's more sustainable and you stop using pesticides,  you are spraying so much more product than you would if you were using pesticides because of the fact that it kills at such a it's not as strong, right? If you If I clean this tabletop with bleach or if I go and clean this tabletop with a lemon, what's going to clean it better? Yeah. The bleach, right? It's going to take a lot of lemon and baking soda to get this, this tabletop clean. So when you're doing that, we, we've worked with a lot of sustainability stuff, not so much on the pesticide level, kind of in other areas. But when you're doing that, you also have to make sure that you are not putting in more money than you're making. And with those organic, those organic pesticides, they're super expensive. You have to spray them so much more. So now you're upping labor,  you're upping use on your equipment, right? So now we're having to replace tractor tires quicker, tractor breaks quicker, sprayers quicker, and you're upping the cost of the products you're using. And what a lot of people don't realize  is when a pesticide is made to be put on market production, it's  It takes like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tests to be approved to use for market sales to make sure that it's food safe, that it's not going to hurt anything whatnot. So our government is so good at regulating  the production of those products that it's not so much of a concern now than it used to be. So we've tried a lot of different things. One thing that we do every year is we grow three rows of wildflowers in our field, so that helps with natural pollinators instead of buying pollinators from people that like reproduce them at mass levels. It's bringing in natural pollinators, but with that, they also bring in natural pests, so that becomes a little bit of a problem.

Lauren: Very cool. So how would you say Walther Farms as a company values sustainability overall?

Sam: So one thing that Walther Farms really focuses on being sustainable on is water usage  So when you go to the farms in South Carolina and everything on the outside There's like little placards that are like South Carolina a water sustainable 2023 whatever we got rated for  so they really focus on sustainability in many ways sustainability just works in so many different ways right like  We put in  insulation to our buildings, so we're not using as much  air conditioning and electricity usage for our buildings. We've put a plethora of things. They, they really honestly value it in so many different ways, but it's also,  While sustainability is valued from a company perspective, it is really important to stress that it also has to be sustainable for the business to do what they are trying to do. So right now, it's not so much sustainability practices that we've used for years. It's just a lot of trying to do research on sustainability, a lot of trial and error, right? We, we have people whose sole purpose is to do research on new techniques for stuff or whose purpose is to, if We have a lot of research people. So if we want to open a farm in Florida, they're going to go and they're going to find every speck on the state of Florida. What areas are the best, where we should be located, where we can get the cheapest land. Those are also the same people that are working on sustainability. 

Lauren: Okay. Very cool. So we're going to start wrapping it up here. What are your plans after graduation? 

Sam: So after graduation, I'm going to have to go straight back to the workforce. Work a summer in watermelon production and then from there  since I have agreed to work full time for the company, there has been four different locations that they've talked about me moving to. So wherever they tell me to go, I'm gonna go if they want me to go to  Canada,  I guess I'm, I guess I'm gonna be in Canada next year. I don't, I don't know. I'm my biggest goal was South Carolina, but they're opening, supposedly, talking about opening a farm in Texas and Texas is very {close to} Florida and very cheap  for housing and everything, so I might go that way, but wherever, wherever the wind blows me. 

Lauren: Yeah, that's so fair. So, that all sounds really amazing. I really do wish you the best. Do you have any closing remarks or anything you want to add?

Sam: I guess my closing remark is just to make sure you always go for it. Don't, don't ever second guess yourself because the worst that could happen is you get told no. 

Lauren: Yeah. And support Southeastern Watermelon Farming. 

Sam: Yeah. Walther Farms. Walther Farms, Southeastern Watermelon, you'll see our Our stickers in stores this summer are going to be Sweet Harvest. So if you see any Sweet Harvest watermelons, they came from me.

Lauren: Well, Sam, thank you so much for talking with us today. We really wish you the best on your future endeavors and are super proud of how far you've come at such a young age. 

Sam: Yeah, thank you so much for having me.