By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
From work boots to business suits, all manner of Crawford Countians turned out for the Rural-Urban Day on Tuesday.
The Pickwick Place played host to the annual Bucyrus Rotary Club event and the families that comprise the agriculture-centered business served as the guest speakers for a lunch intended to bring together rural and urban areas of the county.
Kent Stuckey, Chris Schimpf, and Greg Hartschuh spoke to those assembled at The Loft at Pickwick Place about the creation of the business and where they see it going. Stuckey also answered questions about genetically modified organisms and his son Ethan’s expanding role with the business after he graduates from high school.
The idea for Pickwick Place was planted nearly two years ago when Ethan began looking for a place to grow produce and, as a result, the Stuckey family purchased half of the former Pickwick Farm grounds off Ohio 4 on the edge of Bucyrus. They joined with Greg and Rose Hartschuh and Chris and Andrea Schimpf to turn the crumbling barns into a go-to place for agri-tourism.
The northern-most building was turned into Acres of Adventure, an agricultural education center run by the Hartschuhs.
“We started Acres of Adventure because we wanted to be able to educate people about agriculture and show how it’s done to be best for the animals and the environment,” Greg Hartschuh said in a prepared video.
Hartschuh announced that Acres of Adventure moved from a limited liability company to a 501(c)3 nonprofit status.
“We want people to understand where their food and fiber comes from,” he added. “As a nonprofit, we will be better able to partner with businesses and other individuals to share our vision.”
Hartschuh noted that they will soon be starting a building campaign to create a permanent home for Acres of Adventure.
The southern-most building serves as The Market at Pickwick Place, which offers up produce grown on the grounds by Ethan, other locally made products, and specially curated Market Crates during the growing season.
“One of our goals is to be very transparent about what we’re raising and what we have in the market,” Schimpf said. “You want to know – we’ll answer to the best of our abilities . . . We want you to know and know where our food is coming from.”
The middle barn, known as The Loft, officially opened June 2016 and has held 70 weddings, 75 percent which were booked by parties from out of town. The event center has a wedding penciled in for nearly every Saturday throughout 2017 and even one for 2020.
“Our vision here: serving local quality with heart,” Kent Stuckey explained. “Serving: we devote ourselves to others with the foundation of Christian principles. Local: we believe in the importance of providing goods and services that are generated within our community. Quality: we work tirelessly to provide the best in all aspects in our business. With heart: we do what we love and we want to convey the passion to our customers.
“This is more than just a mission statement,” Stuckey added. “This is truly how we feel here. We take everything we do here very seriously and hopefully that shows through in our products.”
To wrap up Rural-Urban Day, the Bucyrus Rotary Club and Norm and John Schiefer of Schiefer Bins presented the Pickwick Place families with artwork honoring their work in the local agricultural industry.
“It’s been interesting to watch this grow,” John Schiefer said of Pickwick Place. “They stress the educational part of this facility from what the farmer does to what the consumer wants, the gap in between. We just have to make sure everyone is on the same page. We’re growing quality food and we’re educating people on what it’s all about. This is a good way of doing it.”
Schiefer believed Pickwick Place, which sits just outside of Bucyrus, served as a good example of what Rural-Urban Day is all about.
Fred Hendricks, who co-chaired the event with Nathan Hinesman, appreciated the importance behind Rural-Urban Day.
“It’s an opportunity for people raising food to communicate with consumers, whether they’re in the urban area or the rural area, to help them understand what it means to be able to buy and consume quality food,” explained Rotary member Fred Hendricks. “By asking Pickwick to host it . . . it only tied in naturally where they can speak to consumers on that issue.”
More information about Pickwick Place can be found at thepickwickplace.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/ThePickwickPlace.
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