Keeping "Au Currant": Local Farmer Salvages A Precious Berry
by Mary Leonard

If I mentioned someone from "the city" moving up to Dutchess County to live on a farm, you might imagine a gentleman farmer more interested in the house and view than in crops, compost, and hay. Five years ago Greg Quinn, already in his late forties, did move to a farm in Clinton. He had been a "city" person who made a living as restaurateur, writer, and radio/TV personality on horticultural topics. However, he was interested in utilizing his farmland and was searching for a crop.

One day on a visit to Clinton Vineyards he had a conversation with Ben Feder, the vintner, during which he discovered that Feder had to import black currants to produce the French black currant liqueur known as cassis. Farmers, it turned out, were prohibited by law from growing black currants. The 1911 law had been created because black currants produced a fungus that was thought to kill off white pines. In fact, as Quinn quickly discovered, the white pine blister rust occurs mostly on young seedling pines, and not all the time at that. As if to emphasize the point, Quinn likes to gesture towards the grove of white pines adjacent to his field of black currant bushes and point out: "Look, they are doing fine."

With a knowledge of the new varieties of black currant bushes and a better understanding of the ecology of this area, Quinn knew that the 1911 law was arcane, and he moved into high gear to have the state law repealed. Once that had been accomplished, Quinn planted acres of currant bushes. But since the currants had not been grown here for nearly a century, he was faced not only with having to create the supply, but also the market. Working with Steve McKay of the Cornell Cooperative Extension he helped raise money from State and Federal programs for an $80,000 feasibility study to see what kind of impact black currants might have on the New York State economy. What he discovered was the potential for a multi-million dollar industry. So it really should be no surprise that once his first crop is harvested in July, and he will also be ready to manufacture sixty-five different products through his company, AuCurrant Enterprises.

Quinn has also set up a management company for other local landowners and farmers. He is interested in cultivating black currants as a means of preserving open land and helping others to preserve farming. Quinn will provide landowners who are interested in maintaining open space and generating profit on their land the plants, planting equipment, and all the services required — from planting to harvesting. At present he has the first dedicated currant nursery in the Northeast for anyone who wants to raise a few bushes or those who want to invest in acres. It takes two years for the first harvest and three years for the bushes to reach maturity.

This is not just a wild juice chase. Quinn's feasibility study indicated that black currants could bring 12 thousand dollars an acre. Quinn said, "In six years you could amortize your investment."

And why will currants bring in so much money — more, for example, than berry crops we already know, like raspberries or blueberries? It's a matter of health, of course — antioxidants! Black currants have two times the antioxidant power of blueberries, which are now touted by health magazines and leading diet books and doctors. Black currants have four times the vitamin C of oranges and two times the potassium of bananas. They will help with psoriasis, blood pressure and the hot flashes of menopause. Quinn himself starts sounding like an oldfashioned snake oil salesman once he starts listing the claims scientists around the world have attributed to black currants.

Of course some of Quinn's evidence is anecdotal. After hearing claims that currants help with psoriasis his daughters, who suffer from severe skin rashes, spread black currant jam on their arms as a joke and teased their father, saying "Look dad." Voila, the joke was on them: in the morning, their skin was soft and rash free. Quinn was as surprised as they were (and makes no claims that it would ever work again).

So, not as snake oil salesman, but as twenty-first century entrepreneur who is also the first farmer in New York to raise black currants in large quantities since the 1911 law was repealed, Quinn intends to manufacture highly marketable, healthy and delicious products that will be in high demand. His company is named Au Currant because, as in the world of fashion, he believes he is on the cutting edge, thus the pun on au courant. Starting this summer, Au Currant will be making everything from juices to yogurts, but personally I was most excited by the variety of teas and a soft drink for children, named Electric Currant, that will contain less sugar than commercial drinks and of course all the health benefits of the berry. Quinn has also started the process of marketing regionally in the Northeast. Further questions concerning his products or his other enterprises can be answered by going to his website: www.aucurrant.com.

What does all this mean for the Hudson Valley? First, black currants have the potential of becoming a New York State branded product, like oranges in Florida. Second, Quinn hopes to save the farmland, by interesting farmers and landowners in crops rather than in selling land for housing development. Finally, he foresees a multimillion-dollar industry: farms that grow the black currants, co-production facilities that manufacture the products, and the creative think tank and management of it all, through Au Currant Enterprises. Because of his vision and execution, Quinn is an MBA's hero. Recently he lectured at SUNY Albany's business school, and he also speaks and writes regularly on agricultural or horticultural issues. He does question and answer sessions on three local radio shows (the best known is WHUD, 100.7 FM) and writes articles for national magazines as well as lectures at New York City's Botanical Gardens.

When I asked him about his average day, he said, "Well I get up about 4:30 to work on the farm," Even then, while riding his tractor or haying, he's thinking about other experiments. A recent one involves a tea from the compost heap that will boost his plants' systems in order to prevent fungus growth. "Like a vaccination?" I asked, and he answered, "exactly!" I looked at the rows of bushes, seeing evidence of the effects of his compost tea — the treated plants were bigger and fuller. Was this just anecdotal evidence?

I spent an hour with Quinn, listening to his vision, viewing his crops, and mesmerized by his combined creative and pragmatic energies. He gave me a black currant plant. When I came home and put it in the ground, I was proud to have a gift from such a dynamic gentleman and farmer and I hoped that in two years I could harvest my first mini-crop.