Wiers vegetable grower/shipper family business

2000's

2001 - Dutch Maid Produce changed its name to Dutch Maid Logistics. This change helped expand services to existing customers as well as provide transportation throughout the 48 states for new customers. In October of the same year, Dutch Maid Logistics moved into their new 4,000 square foot office attached to a 4-bay maintenance garage. The newly built corporate office, located just east of Willard, Ohio, has allowed the company to continue to grow and service new customers.

2004 - Wiers Farm added a 10,670 square foot cooler to increase their overall cold storage capacity to over 1,200 full pallets of produce. The farm gained greater temperature and humidity control by adding this cooler, their 5th.

Today - Wiers Farm continues to grow and provide the best and freshest produce as well as maintain its position as a leader in Food Safety practices in this part of the country. Wiers Farm controls production from the point at which seed is delivered. Using their own greenhouses, land, packinghouse, cooler space, and trucking company, Wiers Farm has an unprecedented amount of control over its products. Dutch Maid Logistics now operates a fleet of approximately 100 trucks and 150 refrigerated trailers. With production in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, and Michigan, Wiers Farm is able to provide solutions to produce needs year round.

Wiers Farm primarily packages their product under their own Dutch Maid label, which is known for quality. The Company takes great pride in their quality control standards. These standards are met only by a consistent commitment from each area of operations. The commitment must be received from the crop management team to ensure the proper health of the product through pest management and crop rotation methodologies, the processing teams who visually inspect as they package the product, the sales team to ensure customer satisfaction and the dispatchers to track timely delivery.

Weirs family farm

Dutch maid produce

1800's

1881 - Henry and Kathryn Wiers left their home in Groningen, Netherlands where they were peasant farmers, and arrived at Ellis Island, New York. Shortly thereafter, they settled in Kalamazoo, Michigan where Henry worked in the local factories.

Henry Wiers

1896 - Henry Wiers traveled with his family and other Dutch immigrants from Kalamazoo, Michigan to purchase 5 acres in the muck lands near Willard, Ohio. At that time, the muck consisted of swampy and poorly drained land, but Henry Wiers along with others, used draining techniques from Netherlands to make the land farmable. The area came to be known as Celeryville. Celery was grown and shipped to local markets using horse and wagon and transported to further locations using the railroad.

1900's

1906 - Henry Wiers helped finance and build Celeryville’s first church. Sermons were preached exclusively in Dutch.

1922 - The 2nd generation took over the farm when Henry Wiers passed his 10 acres of land onto his sons, Edd and Garrett.

1934 - There were 37 families and 27 farms in the Celeryville area farming a combined 210 acres of celery.

The Wiers Family

1940 - The 3rd generation of the Wiers family began taking on responsibility at the farm. The five sons of Edd Wiers, Henry, Frank, Corwin, Norman, and Eddy Wiers took over the operation.

1965 - The Marsh Run Watershed Project was built solely for the purpose of irrigating the Celeryville area farms. This 75 acre reservoir contains 317,000 cubic yards of water and is a safe and controlled water source capable of refilling at 10,000 gallons per minute.

1970 - The 4th generation (Jim, Ed, John, Tom, Ben, and Jerry) of the Wiers family began to enter the business.

1975 - The importance of on time delivery and flexibility became more apparent. The Wiers family realized how crucial it was to have control over their produce’s transportation. Thus, Dutch Maid Produce was born with the purchase of 8 trucks and 10 trailers.

1992 - The 5th generation (Dean, Darren, David, and Tyler) began entering the business.

1996 - The 100th anniversary of Wiers Farm.