Describing the full scope and reach of Eckler Farms would be difficult for anyone, even Larry and Lucy Eckler.

The Ecklers grow fruits and vegetables for consumption, but also for decoration and for the sake of new seeds and plant variety.

Eckler Farms is both local and surprisingly global. Eckler products serve the most common and private southwest Michigan families, but have also been sought out by celebrities and appeared in movies.

To learn about Eckler Farms and the family behind the whole operation, one has to start at the farm itself, just a few miles outside of Niles on Barron Lake Road.

On a plot of about 100 acres of land, Larry and Lucy Eckler grow just about every fruit and vegetable the average Midwesterner looks for during a grocery store trip, or for the always anticipated fall season. Strawberries, apples, peaches, broccoli, pumpkins, sweet corn, onions and gourds of all kinds await visitors and customers.

The Ecklers experiment with cross pollination, so their unique seeds have been featured in seed catalogues, and sent overseas to seed storehouses. Sharing seeds and keeping locals fed are high priorities at Eckler Farms.

The Ecklers are also thrifty people, believing that even if you can’t eat the corn or gourd, that does not mean it won’t make a nice centerpiece during the Thanksgiving dinner. And if the ear of ornamental corn doesn’t look nice enough for decoration, it can be burned for fuel in the wood burner, if not shucked of all its corn and used for potpourri.

“Nothing goes to waste,” Lucy explained, sifting through a crate of corn-less cobs waiting to be shipped out and used in a pungent potpourri bowl.

Below the surface of the small Niles farm and fruit stand is a history, and a desire to provide the best, most informed product possible. Larry does excessive handpicking to ensure customers get the prettiest edibles. He and Lucy make sure they’re not wasteful, and together they try to find new and diverse ways to use their fruits and fruit byproducts.

In the last year and a half, the Ecklers have put significant focus on pumpkin seeds. Larry found a piece of equipment that not only harvests pumpkins, but one that extracts the seeds, leaving them more than 90-percent clean of pumpkin innards. The machine saves Lucy the hassle of cleaning the pumpkin seeds by hand, and also allowed the Ecklers to venture into new uses for the seeds.

Larry is actively promoting the farm’s homemade pumpkin seed oil to deer hunters for baiting purposes. Deer eat pumpkin seeds, and the pumpkin seed oil gives off a pleasing aroma for their powerful noses. Aside from attracting deer, pumpkin seeds and pumpkin seed oil have numerous health benefits for people, and the Ecklers could not be more pleased to offer another nutritious item to their shelves.

“We continually research agriculture products and how they can be used,” Larry said.

From apples to pumpkin seed oil, to oriental corn, the Ecklers try to keep their business full of variety. Farming is not easy, however. Some seasons are difficult with weather, insects, invasive species and financial challenges. But farmers do not keep their hands to the plow and boots in the dirt because of the easy life and killer profits.

“What’s the old saying? ‘You can take the farmer off the farm, but you can’t take the farming out of the farmer?’ In other words, it’s in your blood. Good times and bad times,” Larry said. “It’s something you enjoy doing because when you put a seed into the ground and you see it come to fruition exactly how you wanted it to be, or better, then you know you’ve done a good job.”

Larry Eckler was planting his first seeds at 9 years old. Now 65 years old, Larry has been planting for 56 years. For the last 20 years, he and Lucy have shared the fruits of their ground and labor with the Niles community, as well as visitors from out of town, and out of state.

The farm is slowly and surely being passed to the next generation as Larry and Lucy’s daughter and grandchildren continue to help and learn the way of the planter.

Like seeds themselves, the Ecklers have put down roots in their community and blossomed into a healthy, homegrown staple of diet and esthetic.