Billy Culpeper's Operation is the Chesapeake Farm of the Future.

Direct Marketing Now is the Only Heavy Equipment a Suburban Farmer Needs.

By Liz Szabo, Staff Writer
9 Mar 1998
The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star; Page B1
Copyright 1998.

For 50 years, Billy Culpeper farmed the land he inherited from his father, growing soybeans, corn and hay on 1,200 acres in Hickory.

That was the farm of the past.

Culpeper 's current operation is the Chesapeake farm of the future.

No more soybeans. Culpeper has sold or rented all but 30 acres of land. He now grows pick-your-own strawberries and hothouse flowers.

No more heavy equipment. Culpeper sold his last combine last year. In their place, he's built a petting zoo, complete with rabbits, turkeys, goats, sheep, a horse, a pot-bellied pig and several kinds of bee hives.

No more grain. Two of Culpeper's three grain bins lie empty. The third houses the making of a fish hatchery, where Culpeper plans to experiment with tilapia, a mild-flavored Middle Eastern fish that has become popular with upscale restaurants and gourmet-minded consumers.

No more crop dusting. Once, Culpeper's suburban neighbors were bothered by the dust kicked up from his fields. Now, he invites them onto the farm to pick their own fruit, select their own flowers and pumpkins and, soon, scoop their own dinner out of his fish hatchery.

Customers - who are half shoppers, half tourists - admire the Old West-style facade his brother, Forrest, added to his farm building. With weathered wood, a leather saddle and several wagon wheels for effect, the facade looks more like a Hollywood sound stage saloon than the 160-year-old colonial farmhouse where Culpeper grew up.

Shoppers can spend the day at Culpeper Farms, picnicking at his tables and enjoying the view. With so few parks in the city, many customers tell Culpeper they're hungry for a day in the country.

Never mind that Culpeper's farm today little resembles a traditional farm. Customers are buying.

"I don't think there will be any large farms left 10 years from now," said Culpeper, who would have liked his son to continue on his farm. "I don't think he'll be able to afford it."

Just last month, Chesapeake farmers formed a direct marketing association, the Chesapeake Agricultural Producers Association. Family farmers, who no longer can compete with corporations, can make a better living selling small amounts of produce directly to shoppers than selling grain on the world market, Culpeper said.

Selling off small parcels of land allows farmers to continue cultivating the soil that's left, said Watson Lawrence, agricultural agent for the Virginia Cooperative Extension.

Chesapeake is leading the state in direct marketing. The head of the Virginia Direct Marketing Association, Leonard Bergey, has marketed his ice cream and dairy products through outlet stores for years.

Lawrence organizes workshops to help other farmers learn from such marketing techniques.

Suburbanites have been encroaching on Chesapeake farmers for years, Culpeper said.

"At one time I farmed every farm on Johnstown Road and Waters Road," he said. "Somehow I must have been planting house seeds without knowing it, because that's the only thing growing there now."

But if you can't beat 'em, sell to 'em. Culpeper and other farmers now make their living by catering to suburbanites, providing them with the "farm experience" many city dwellers seek.

"People see the farm and they say, `This is ideal living. This is farm life,' " Culpeper said. "Then they move out here and want to bring things from the city with them, and soon we farmers have to change to accommodate them."

Culpepper Ancestry. The father of Billy Culpeper is not currently known by Culpepper Connections! If you know who he is, please contact Warren Culpepper.