“We’re just honored and humbled. There are lot of fine farm families in Elkhart County,” said Tami Mohler. She and her husband, Chuck, own Sweet Corn Charlie. They along with their children have been honored by the Elkhart County Agricultural Society as the Farm Family of the Year for 2013.

The family will be honored during the Ag. Society’s annual banquet Tuesday night, Aug. 27.

Tami and Chuck started Sweet Corn Charlie in 1986 selling wholesale. In 1988 they opened their first market. Today they have eight satellite locations in Goshen, Dunlap, Middlebury, North Webster, Syracuse, Warsaw, Mishwaka/Notre Dame and Granger. “Tami will say that’s enough, our customers will say no it’s not,” Chuck said.

Chuck grew up on a dairy farm. “I was a boy with cows,” he said, explaining he could “moo” before he could talk. In 1982, he traveled to Israel to live as a volunteer with a family. While there, he learned different farming techniques. In 1983, he married Tami and the two backpacked through Europe then settled in Israel to learn more farming techniques. They came home and decided to put the practices they learned into action.

“While I was there (in Israel) I saw unique methods of farming in vegetables that were not being done in the United States,” Chuck explained. “I thought to myself, I could develop these practices here and find a niche.”

What he picked up in Israel was the mind set of, “There is no such thing as we can’t do this, there is always a way,” and a little bit of Hebrew.

Some of the techniques he and Tami learned early on, such as ground plastic, trickle irrigation, high and low tunnel growing and drip irrigation have become more common here in the U.S. in recent years. Chuck explained high tunnel is similar to a greenhouse without heat while low tunnel is usually a covering over the vegetables.

“Like many small farms it’s hard to get the business going. It takes a lot of self sacrifice and sheer determination to succeed,” said Chuck. “We wanted to raise our boys on a farm with all the opportunities growing up on a farm could give them … farm life is something special. Growing up with living plants and animals and dependent on the weather to make your living, it builds character and brings opportunity for development.”

The couple have two sons, Sammy and Dan. Both boys were 10-year 4-Hers. Sam is a bee keeper and is working on earning his commercial pilots license. Dan is serving as one of five delegates to the national 4-H Congress. Both boys and Sam’s wife, Katrina, are active in the farm operation.

Sweet Corn Charlie has been transplanting sweet corn for 23 years, so the farm has had early sweet corn available for sale before anyone else in the area has. Chuck said the big box stores make it harder for small farms to continue. The family still sells produce wholesale, to smaller grocery stores and others running small farm markets.

“We believe very strongly in small markets. We help small business people have their own business,” Chuck explained. He said it was a bit of a surprise when he and Tami received word they were being honored as Farm Family of the Year. “It’s an honor to be counted among them,” he said of the other fine farm families in the area.

“The Ag Society, its function is a good thing. The Soil Water Conservation District … There are some good organizations. It’s nice to be recognized. They’re good to belong to and they’re doing good things and that’s what I count as a privilege,” Chuck said.