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April 25, 2005 By G. Wayne Laepple PENNS CREEK - Paul K. Keene, 94, the visionary farmer who established Walnut Acres as one of the nation's leading organic farms and food producers, died Saturday in Mechanicsburg. Mr. Keene, who had served as a missionary in India, where he met Mahatma Ghandi, bought the farm he named Walnut Acres in 1946. John Showers, Union County commissioner, said his family and Keene had a long history. "My grandfather had a grocery store in Penns Creek and was a bank director of the Middleburg bank," Mr. Showers recalled. "When Mr. Keene came in and asked for a loan to buy his farm, and he talked about farming organically, without fertilizers and modern equipment, the bank directors didn't want anything to do with him." "The story goes that my grandfather took his cigar out of his mouth and said, 'Give the kid a chance.' And they did. "I got to know him when I got into politics," he said. "In my first reelection in 1982, I was being crucified by my opponent." "One morning, I opened The Daily Item, and there was a big ad, paid for personally by Mr. Keene, who was a Republican township supervisor. It said 'Give the kid a chance.' It made all the difference." Mr. Showers' son, Scott, a medical doctor, went to India during his early training, where he worked at an orphanage and hospital that Keene had established. "We're still friends with the family," said Mr. Showers. "He certainly was a pioneer," he concluded. "He got us to think about conservation and ecology before it was fashionable." The Walnut Acres operation grew foods without the use of pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Apples grown at Walnut Acres were the first food in the country to be certified organic. In 1998, Mr. Keene received the Organic Trade Association's organic leadership award. Harriet Bresenhan of Lewisburg, who managed the Walnut Acres store, remembered that Paul Keene "was very dedicated to his beliefs." "He didn't use modern methods, yet people came from all over to talk to him," she said. Mrs. Bresenhan recalled that visitors in the store who would walk up to Mr. Keene if he happened to come in and talk with him. "He always had time to talk with them," she said. Mr. Keene also established an extensive mail order business of organic products. In addition to the food items, each catalog featured an essay written by Mr. Keene about the benefits of healthful organic foods, organic farming, and other subjects of interest to him. "He was a real visionary," she said. Mr. Keene was an inventor as well, Mrs. Bresenhan said. He developed a grain storage bin with an agitator inside that moved the grain around, making it impossible for insects to lay eggs that would cause it to spoil. "He was also a member of the Susquehanna Valley Chorale for many years," she recalled. "He had a very deep bass voice, and his favorite song was 'Asleep in the Deep.' He sang it at several pops concerts." The Keene family sold Walnut Acres several years ago, and the Penns Creek farm has since closed. The Walnut Acres name continues, however, as a producer of organic foods. |