John & Elizabeth Malayter: JEM Farm

By Kasey Jones

JEM Farm stands for the names of its owners, John and Elizabeth Malayter. Their partnership began in Atlantic City, NJ, where John worked as a mechanic at a casino and Elizabeth was a chef. Their meeting was “predestined,” John says, “there’s no other explanation.”

Their transition to establishing an organic-certified farm in rural Hawkins County was not as obvious.

Malayter, who grew up one of four children in a middle class family in New Jersey, had no interest in gardening as a youngster. “My parents were from that World War II era, and there wasn’t a lot of money,” Malayter recalls with a laugh. “I remember my father always grew a garden, although I didn’t help because I hated it. Elizabeth grew up in Maryland. Same kind of thing. Her father was a lawyer. I don’t think they did very much farming … Again, a typical middle class upbringing for the time.”

But the Malayters changed their minds about gardening, and in 2003 established JEM Farm when they bought a house in Rogersville. The couple hoped that the farm would “give [them] the opportunity to work [there] as opposed to working an outside job.” But that didn’t happen immediately. “It took us a few years to get settled and those kind of things,” says Malayter. “We started with some goats and we started to grow a large garden.”

It was while planning for the arrival of their first child, Emma, when the Malayters finally committed to organic gardening. “Having Emma and getting more educated about what the food system is doing to the populace – all the chemicals and herbicides that are being put into our food system – we didn’t feel that was a good way to raise a child,” says Malayter.  “When Liz became pregnant with Emma, we decided that if we were going to grow anything, it would be good to start the organic certification process.”

Between 2004 and 2005, they began to grow organically under Appalachian Sustainable Development’s organic label. Later on, they decided to become certified on their own. During this time, John and Elizabeth were both working jobs away from home and running the farm, as well. “Elizabeth always had a part time job at the Pig and Chick,” says Malayter, “which is a local barbecue restaurant, and I had a full-time job.”

Then two years ago, they decided to work full time on the farm.

“We were at that place where the farm couldn’t get any bigger,” says Malayter. “We couldn’t raise any more chickens or anything else. With one person on the land all the time, you can only do so much work. So we decided to go ahead and go full time.”

It’s more than full time, of course. The Malayters have enlisted the farm interns or “woofers” (from a farm program called WWOOF--willing workers on organic farms). This year’s intern, Dustan Stafford, is from Colorado Springs Colorado.  “Dustan is the fourth intern or WOOFer we’ve had, and we really couldn’t do all we do without this kind of help,” John said.

On JEM Farm, all produce is certified organic and all meats are non-GMO. After finding and having success with non-GMO feed, they decided to give all of their animals non-GMO feed. Their animals include goats, ducks, broilers (meat chickens), turkeys, laying hens and pigs.

They grow their produce year-round, using hoop houses, which are greenhouses without heaters, so in the winter and the spring they grow all their greens. During the wintertime, they keep their plants in the hoop houses, which are heated by the sun.

“The hoop house gets up to, depending upon the sunlight, around 70 degrees in the coldest season of the year,” says Malayter. “It goes down in the evening, but during the day it heats right back up. The plants do wilt a little bit in the evening, but they always come back to life when they heat up. Unless there’s a really hard frost, and then we always have to cover them. We make special arrangements when we know that it’s going to be cold for an extended period of time.”

JEM Farms offers a variety of meats and produce, along with herbs, edible flowers and eggs. In addition to selling in Jonesborough, they sell twice a week at farmers markets in Knoxville.

This week, during Jonesborough Days, JEM organic and non-GMO fed eggs, chickens, kale, collards and herbs will be available through the Jonesborough Farmers Market’s online ordering system, which will open Friday July 5^th at www.jonesborough.locallygrown.net.

Best Fresh Collards

This recipe is contributed by Jonesborough Farmers Market Customers Clinton & Sue Smith.  JEM farm has collards all summer long.

3 bunches or about 24 collard leaves 

6 Tbsp. lemon or lime juice

6 Tbsp. olive oil (or 3 Tbsp. olive oil and 3 Tbsp. flax oil

1 tsp. minced garlic or granules

1 jalapeno pepper, chopped

3 Tbsp. Bragg's liquid aminos

Wash collards and tear the leaves into bite-size pieces.  Mix the rest of the ingredients together and add to collards.  Allow to sit in refrigerator, mixing in bowl to keep all the collards mixed with the oil until well marinated.