Spending her weekdays sitting at school and her weekends working on the farm, freshman Eva Szalay’s after school life looks different from other students. Whether it be packing corn, organising fruits and vegetables, working at stands and selling foods, or helping her family prepare for Szalay’s Sweet Corn Farm & Market’s opening in June, Szalay’s work fails to go unnoticed.
Over the course of 93 years and 5 generations, Szalay’s Sweet Corn Farm & Market (Szalay’s) has reliably grown, produced, and sold corn to families all across the country.
During the depression era, Szalay’s moved from Detroit, Michigan, to Akron, Ohio, and purchased the farmland that the family still owns today. Amy Szalay, after getting married to her husband John Szalay, learned about its history and now helps out on the farm.
“In the Depression era . . . in [19]30, [Szalay’s] had run some grocery stores in Detroit, Michigan. And just for whatever reason, they decided to move to Ohio, and they bought the farm land that we have today for $600,” Szalay said.
Amy Szalay and her husband are the fourth generation to run the business. In addition to her in-laws, the farm is run by the family, aside from hired employees.
“[Szalay’s] is run by my mother [in law], father in law, my husband and his sister, so it’s the four of them. . . . It’s a lot of work with just four or five of us actually running it,” Szalay said.
Many of the people employed on the farm are students and retirees, as the job is primarily seasonal work during the summer, a time where many are free.
“We hire many Revere students. We hire one of the different local high schools, colleges, [and] some retirees come in for seasonal work. [So] we end up with a fair amount of people every year for different shifts throughout the season, so it’s a pretty big operation in that sense,” Szalay said.
Though Szalay’s harvest season runs from July through October, the family remains hard at work from as early as April. For the seven months that the Szalays work, they must farm two hundred acres of land, maintain the health of the corn, wait for it to mature, and sell them all in time.
“Our corn season is [from] July through October. That’s our harvest season. We’re planting as early as April. We plan on maybe every two weeks schedule, maybe every ten days, I’d say we have another planting. We’re farming two-hundred acres of corn [of] multiple varieties. We have multiple varieties for a number of reasons. Some corn there’s shorter day corn and longer day corn. That means that the maturity rate for its growth varies from, say, seventy days to eighty-six days,” Szalay said.
There are many rules to consider when planting. Planting all the corn at once can cause problems, but not planting enough causes a shortage. Determining the right amount of time to let the corn plant proved difficult, however, the Szalays have perfected their craft over the last ninety-three years.
“You don’t want all of your corn coming up at one time because obviously if you can’t sell it or or eat it, you’re going to be throwing it away so it has to come up at different times for the harvest to produce or be effective,” Szalay said.
Building a company with family, albeit an experience that can pay off (as seen by the Szalay family), comes with its set of difficulties. With such a special dynamic comes varying power roles and interpersonal challenges.
“It’s very difficult sometimes to work with family businesses. You’re working with your own unique dynamic. . . . You can’t fire him. Everyone doesn’t always have the same opinions. . . . You’ve got too many cooks in the kitchen that say [they] know how to do it best,” Szalay said.
Despite growing up on the farm, Eva Szalay–part of the family’s fifth generation after establishing their business–has taken an interest in law, and hopes to go to college and obtain a law degree in the future. Though nothing is yet set in stone, Szalay’s passion for law may overtake her vested interest in the family business.
“I want to go to law school and get my law degree, but . . . I’ll probably end up taking [Szalay’s Farm]. So, we’ll see. Time will tell,” Szalay said.
In the meantime, Szalay will continue to work on the farm. Being raised in such an environment–one where one must learn to interact with various kinds of people–has allowed Szalay to meet new friends, learn how to talk with adults and children alike, and overall be a more sociable person. As such, her perspective on life has expanded as a result of her home and work experiences.
“I made a lot of friends last year because I was older and I got to hang out with a lot of the older kids. I work there. It’s a good way to . . . meet new people, talk to people, [and] make friends. . . . It’s a good way to socialise during the summer if you’re not involved in a lot of extracurriculars. . . . [It] helped a lot with my perspective, like noticing things. It really helped me mature. . . . It helps you talk to people and how to talk to adults, not just little kids or kids your age,” Szalay said.
With the amount of ideas that must be taken into account while growing corn, many of the habits used for farming have rubbed off into Szalay’s day to day life. Cleanliness and tidiness are especially useful on the farm, and said traits have seeped into Szalay’s routine.
“You work really hard for everything to look nice, so everything in your life starts to be like that. It starts from the farm, and then your whole is kind of cleaning. . . . My dad always used to say to me ‘You won’t have a mess if you clean everything up,’ so in other words, whatever you’re working on, clean it up,” Szalay said.
Jack Pirollo, an employee of a year at Szalay’s, has gained a lot over the past year. With it being his first job, Pirollo not only learned the ways of the workforce, but also what a healthy working environment looks like and more about corn.
“I’m learning the different types of corn and . . . it’s a really good working environment. I made a lot of friends there. Just getting a lot of experience in the work field,” Pirollo said.
Szalay’s will continue to produce and sell corn to consumers all throughout the country. Under the guidance of the Szalay family, the business will continue to flourish.
Click HERE for more Lantern Coverage on Revere students.
