Octogenarian Charlie Koiner Leads the Way in City Farming
By Kristi Bahrenburg Janzen
Charlie Koiner, Farmer
Only one block from a typical urban strip in downtown Silver Spring, MD, that includes an old parking garage, a beauty parlor and an Ethiopian restaurant, Charlie Koiner, who’ll be 88 in November, still has a farm. It’s hard to believe, but turning east onto Easley Street off Fenton, in the course of one block, you shift from urban grime to fertile rural splendor, from the cramped seat of your hot car to a comfy lawn chair under a mature shade tree, from the usual “rodent issue” to a farm cat named Hank.
Like the proverbial turtle, slow and steady, Charlie Koiner seems to have won the race, as his lifetime of farming and gardening has propelled him from “regular guy” to local pace-setter, an icon of the “new” urban agriculture. You first realize you’re at his place when, right there on the corner, you get a glimpse of his current offerings on a handmade sign – for example, “figs,” “raspberries” and “tomatoes” right now in September. Then you see the whole thing: his acre -- which appears much larger amid the neighborhood of modest World War II era homes with neat little yards – is brimming with a stunning variety of vegetables, berry bushes and fruit trees.Multicolored zinnias and gladioli, and magenta cockscomb celosia in the central plot give the whole place a festive atmosphere.
“It’s great!,” says Koiner’s neighbor Karla Saunders. “No one believes me when I tell them I have a farm in my block,” she says. “There’s something quite comforting about the sign that tells you what’s available. It just feels out of place and out of time.”
Experienced, talented and friendly, Koiner inspires a loyal following. If he doesn’t have what you want on his display table, Koiner is well-known to wander back into his yard and pick it for you. Steve Simko, a patron who biked by recently to pick up some produce, explains, “This is the best stuff. It’s fresh stuff. It’s close by. And Charlie is the best farmer in the state of Maryland.”
Perhaps Simko is not exaggerating.The lines of vegetables and seedlings are beautifully straight; the leafy greens are lush; there’s nary a weed in sight; the produce is unblemished. If anyone needs official confirmation of Koiner’s aptitude, here it is: This year, Koiner and his daughter Lynn -- who helps him out at the farmers market, manages his email traffic, and tends her own plots of culinary herbs – brought home a jaw-dropping 130 ribbons from the Montgomery County Fair, as well as four Grand Champion awards. Lynn also received the coveted “Best of Show” for her market basket.
The Koiners won more than 130 ribbons and awards for their produce at the 2008 Montgomery County Fair.
Koiner maximizes the harvest on his small farm by planting in succession, that is, planting a new crop as soon as one has been harvested, instead of putting the land on hold until the next year. Spring crops include lettuce, radishes, bok choy, kale, mustard greens, potatoes and spring onions. Summer involves a lot of tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, squash and peppers as well as beans, cut flowers and some greens. For fall, “I planted late string beans, broccoli, cauliflower, collards, cabbage,” he says, “and I’m putting out lettuce now.” He shows me his newly planted seedlings, which he raises himself in trays, of romaine, sierra blush lettuce and bok choy.Where there were once cucumbers, radishes and cauliflower now sprout. “I’ll get the radishes out before the cauliflower gets too big,” he explains. “I’m double dipping. You know what I mean?”
Moving on, he hands me some “fall gold” yellow raspberries. “You’re never gonna find raspberries as sweet as that no matter where you go,” he tells me in a charming accent that this Yankee author would call a southern drawl. (His neighbor Saunders calls it a “legitimate-Montgomery-County-from-seventy-years-ago accent.”) But Koiner is right: Their pale yellow color belies the delicious flavor. These berries are very sweet indeed.
As for other fruit, Koiner also has two kinds of figs, gooseberries, currants, Asian pears, red raspberries, and Niagara white grapes. Not afraid to try something new or unusual, Koiner shows me his grape kiwis. “That big bush up there? That’s a kiwi bush,” he says.“You pull the stem off and eat the whole thing,” he says, noting these kiwis are not “furry,” like the larger ones common in stores. “Four years ago I picked 153 pints off this bush,” he says. “This year I’m going to have a whole lot too.” Showing me his latest addition to the tree fruit collection – and exhibiting his zest for life -- Koiner adds with a laugh, “I don’t know why I did it, but I ordered two dwarf peach trees!”
Koiner shows his string beans.
His grape kiwis, not quite ripe, will stay small but not become fuzzy, like typical grocery store kiwis.
Selling both at the Silver Spring FRESHFARM Market farmers market on Saturday morning, and off the farm almost any time, Koiner can usually be found outside, either working the land or resting on it, enjoing the atmosphere. “It gives me something to do,” Charlie says. “I just like the open space, the green grass. I’m tickled to have the open space.”
Koiner grew up farming. “I’ve been into it all my life,” explains Koiner. “I grew up on Rockville Pike and Old Georgetown Road,” he says, noting the farmland where he spent his childhood and youth is now a series of shopping malls. Later, for 35 years, Koiner managed the historic Timberlawn Estate in Rockville, which was owned by the Corby family and boasted a large garden as well as beef cattle, he says.
With farming in their blood, both Koiners are still extremely attached to their acre of land, and aim to treat it well. Lynn explains they found an old trough along the fence line, and a barn used to be where the garage is now. “It’s always had farm energy here,” she says. “We try to use as much of the organic as possible,” she says, adding they do use some synthetic fertilizer. Charlie says he likes to use compost too. “I go down to Takoma Park. I get some rotted up leaves that they grind up,” he says. In terms of pests, Behnke Nurseries gives great advice, Lynn says, but “the only pests we have are birds, and you can’t do anything about them.” For seeds, they like to go up to the long-established Meyers Seed Company in Baltimore, she adds. It’s Koiner, however, who could probably one-up anybody on farming and gardening advice. With so much experience, he has tricks for everything. He puts his peppers in cages, not just his tomatoes, he says, to keep them off the ground where they can get damaged. He avoids any onions other than spring onions, because the moisture in Maryland doesn’t allow them to cure properly. He traps critters like groundhogs and raccoons live and relocates them. He’s a magician with a hoe. Often referring to specific rainfall statistics, Koiner fastidiously tracks moisture levels and hand waters regularly, which he says is critical. “Vegetables are a growing living thing and they suffer when it gets dry,” he says. “If you don’t irrigate, you’re gonna lose your backside.”
Koiner’s easy way with people and his frank talk will make you feel at home, even if you’ve never even seen a farm. His place just has the ambiance of the familiar. As home gardening now experiences a renaissance nationwide, and urban agriculture is the “new” thing, Koiner can say he was one of the originals.
Greens and tomatoes at Charlie Koiner's Farm.
Charlie Koiner's figs at a customer's home.
Charlie Koiner telling about the seedlings that he grows from seed and recently transplanted into the garden for fall crops of greens.
Koiner Farm on Easley Street in Silver Spring, MD.
Hank the Farm Cat
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