Seeding the Future

The success story of Ludgate’s teenage entrepreneurs

By ALLISON CHILDS WELLS

It’s not an uncommon scene in our Sapsucker Woods household: My husband and I are in the midst of making dinner when we discover we have no green pepper. Maybe one of us scoots out after the item. More often than not, though, we both put down our cooking tools and head to our beloved Ludgate’s. Not because it takes both of us to buy a green pepper, but because, well, it’s Ludgate’s.

            Nestled in the woods across from the rolling fields on Hanshaw Road, above the four-way intersection with Warren Road, Ludgate’s Farm Market feels exactly like what it is: a family owned, family-run neighborhood produce market. Here among the crates of cucumbers, and cabbages and apples and oranges, between the shelves of nuts and dried fruits, surrounded by walls of spices and specialty items and homemade baked goods, time seems to slow down. Who can resist an unexpected chat with neighbors from Ellis Hollow or co-workers from Cayuga Heights, with that gravel floor underfoot and the smell of fresh-picked strawberries in the air?

It just grew

            What’s especially interesting about Ludgate’s is that none of this was planned. The atmosphere, the selection, even the gravel floor – Ludgate’s as it is now is simply a gradual, unanticipated growth from its origins.

            Or from its youth, you might say, because in 1973, 15-year-old Mike Ludgate and his 13-year-old sister, Linda, set up shop in the current Ludgate’s location. From a picnic table, they sold zucchini, cucumbers, green beans and other vegetables from the family garden.

            “We were very excited,” explains Mike. “We wrote down every single item we sold. I remember it well because I was saving for a camera, a very good camera.”

            Encourage by their father who, at the time, was working for a private marketing firm, Mike and Linda decided to add to their table what has become an essential for any roadside stand – sweet corn. “We contracted with local farmers, in which we paid them to grow sweet corn,” says Mike. “When it was ready, we picked it.”

            Business became brisker after that. Year after year, the little summer produce stand began staying open later and later into the fall to sell pumpkins, then – by the early 1980s – till Christmas to sell wreaths. “Once we started staying open till Christmas,” Mike explains, “we decided to just stay open for the rest of the year because of the inventory.”

            While the winter months were slow in those years, it soon became clear that Ludgate’s was filling a need in the community, and was therefore a viable business. Mike an Linda’s dad, Paul, left his job with the marketing firm to devote his energies to the family business.

            Since then, the various family members have settled into their roles quite nicely. Linda is in charge of the produce while Mike handles specialty items and public relations. Their mom, Roberta, takes care of the books. And Dad? “Dad’s the boss,” says Mike.

The people’s choice

            What has allowed Ludgate’s to grow from a picnic table produce stand to a hardy fixture of the Ithaca business community is the simple philosophy that will always be the backbone of Ludgate’s approach: Let the costumer decide. Mike explains, “We don’t do all sorts of research. If a costumer requests a product, we do our best to try and stock it.”

            This, he says, is why, in addition to fresh produce, they emphasize imported and gourmet items: “This isn’t something we chose, it’s something our costumers chose.”

            Mike says he doesn’t see Ludgate’s as necessarily competing with stores that may appear to be in the same market. “Certain costumers are really into food,” he says, “and they’re going to shop everywhere. To most, we’re the convenient neighborhood store.”

            Convenient, indeed. Ludgate’s is open everyday, including holidays, from 9am to 9pm. They carry somewhere between two and three thousand different items, including ice cream, cheeses, soy products, seasonal items such as flowers and many environmentally friendly soap and paper goods.

            Still, Mike says, the produce remains their best seller. Much of this continues to come from their own gardens, right there beside the store. And, because of costumers requests, more and more of the vegetables they offer are grown organically.

            Although Mike sometimes thinks he might like to try something else for a while, he recognizes that there are definite advantages to being part of a family business. One, he notes, benefits his three-year-old, whom he’s able to take care of on the job. His parents living right behind the store is another.

            It’s also nice, Mike adds, that, over the years, Ludgate’s has been able to employ neighbors, friends from high school and extended family members: “I don’t think there’s a cousin in the area who hasn’t worked for Ludgate’s at one time or another.”

            Mike says he still has the camera he bought at the end of that first season, a symbol of his hard work during the summer of 1973. For any aspiring young entrepreneurs out there, there’s another symbol, one that represents more than many years hard work. Ludgate’s is thriving proof that big things can grow out of a seemingly small start.

Allison Childs Wells wrote about missing children in the last issue of Ithaca Child.

Ludgate Farms
1552 Hanshaw Rd.
Ithaca, NY 14850