BY JANE BLOODWORTH ROWE
VIRGINIA BEACH — For as long as Crystal Salmons can remember, she’s been working in her family’s grain operation, and over the years and her siblings Jim and Sterling weighed trucks, swept out buildings and performed other mundane chores so that they could learn the family’s business “from the bottom up.”
It’s that work ethic that earned the Salmons family, owners of Salmons Inc., the 2023 Excellence in Agriculture Award for their contributions to the Virginia Beach agriculture industry. The award will be presented during a banquet at 6 p.m., Thursday, March 21 at the Creeds Ruritan Community Complex on Princess Anne Road in the rural area of city.
Virginia Beach Agriculture Director David Trimmer and Virginia Beach Extension Agent Roy Flanagan noted that the family under the leadership of James Salmon Jr. and his children – Crystal, Jim III and Sterling – have been very active players in the local grain industry.
In addition to farming about 700 acres of grain crops, the family also operates a granary where farmers from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina bring corn, wheat and soybeans for distribution to national and international markets.
“We always say that grain farmers feed the world,” Flanagan said.
Salmons Inc. introduced an innovative method of shipping that allows local grains to be delivered overseas. China, Vietnam and Indonesia are major consumers of locally produced grain, Crystal Salmons said.
Despite their international presence, it’s all a family affair for the Salmons.
Crystal Salmons said that she could trace the family’s farming heritage back at least four or five generations in Princess Anne County. They’ve farmed grain, hogs and some strawberries over the years, although they no longer farm produce or hogs.
During the 1970s, James Salmons Jr. bought grain from local farmers to feed his hogs. After he closed his hog operation, he continued to buy the grain to ship to markets outside Virginia Beach. About 20 years ago he expanded to the international market.
“As soon as I learned to write, I was out back weighing trucks,” Crystal Salmons said, “and I’ve pushed a broom around this place many times.”
“We put our blood, sweat, and tears into it,” Sterling Salmons said. “We all started from the bottom up, working outside. We started with cleaning, and, if you were good enough, you were upgraded.”
“I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t work here,” said Crystal Salmons, who added that she enjoys working with local farmers and performing a service for them.
“We’ve got a good customer base here,” she said.
Now, Jim Salmons III largely oversees the family’s farming while Sterling Salmons does much of the marketing. Crystal Salmons acts as office administrator and keeps the day-to-day operations running smoothly.
Salmons Inc. also includes a dredging operation, and the company contracts with Hampton Roads Sanitation District to transport biosolids from the Atlantic Treatment Plant to local farmers who use them as fertilizer.
“Their forward thinking has been helpful to the area,” Flanagan said. [Ed. – Flanagan is kin to John Doucette, editor of The Independent News.]
In addition to the Salmons family, Blackwater farmer Diane Horsley of Land of Promise Farms will be recognized as 2023 Friend of Agriculture, and special recognition will be awarded to Elizabeth Cromwell of Cromell’s Produce.
A committee of previous winners determines the award winners.
The Virginia Beach Excellence in Agriculture Banquet is at 6 pm., March 21, at the Creeds Ruritan Community Complex, 1057 Princess Anne Road. Tickets are $35 per person. Please make reservations by March 8. Make checks payable to the Blackwater-Creeds Foundation and send them to the Excellence in Agriculture Committee, c/o Virginia Beach Department of Agriculture, 2449 Princess Anne Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23456. Call (757) 385-5775 for more information.
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