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Fans of Middletown's and Urbana's farmers markets are probably familiar with Ray and Jan Wickline's Blue Faerie Farm. Many people call them "the purple potato people," for their unusual produce varieties.

And that's not a bad thing, as far as Ray Wickline is concerned. The unusual produce varieties are intentional – a way to hook the customers. Though he says he eventually wants to focus on organic apples, the trees are still young. In addition to blue potatoes, the farmers grow a pink variety and a bean called dragon's tongue, which have purple stripes on their casing.

"It's quite a bit on purpose," he said. "When we started looking at this, we've only got about 3 acres that works for farming. At that size, we weren't going to be able to go in and compete with somebody that's got 20 acres that's in full production if we met them on their terms. So what we needed to do was come up with a way of not meeting them on their terms. The first month or so was really hard to convince people, ‘you really want to try a purple potato, it's going to be fun.'"

When he's not farming, Wickline works as the civilian director of crime analysis for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. He wakes up every day at about 2 a.m., and commutes into the city to start work by 3:30 or 4 a.m., so that he can get back to the farm at about 1 p.m. Once home, he either works his crops or takes produce to a farmers market, getting to bed at about 10 or 11 p.m. every night, a schedule that can be taxing.

"I'm looking for a day when we can pick one or the other and say, ‘we're happy,'" he said, laughing. "It wears you out after a little while."

At the police department, he works to analyze crime statistics and establish patterns in crimes. Wickline originally intended to be a professor of mathematics, but eventually shied away from the theoretical aspects of math in favor of the more concrete work with police departments.

"There's certainly some excitement and adrenaline to it that you don't get in mathematics that's appealing," he said. "The first time I got to put together a crime pattern and say, ‘OK, there's this guy and this is what he's doing,' and help build the strategy for how we were going to catch him, we put together this strategy, and within two hours of doing it, we had the guy. He had been operating for six or seven years, and nobody had noticed him."

He began working in crime analysis in Georgia, but transferred to Washington, D.C., a few years ago. Though he's not a sworn police officer, he has some officers on his staff, and works closely with the department to help develop crime patterns. Even though he enjoys his work with the department, he still felt the pull of the farm because of his family's past.

Wickline said the original motivation for the farm came from spending time with his grandparents in West Virginia when he was growing up. They had a large vegetable garden, and Wickline would help tend to and pick the crops, which his grandparents then distributed to friends and those in need in their community. He said he wants to use his farm to foster a feeling of closeness in the community.

Other people living in the community have noticed the Wicklines' work. Susan Wolcott, who owns Y2Knit in Funkstown, is a repeat customer. She said she first got hooked on the produce when she found out the Wicklines had an abundance of daikon.

"They sent out an e-mail and said they had a bunch of daikon, a long white radish used a lot in Asian cooking, which I do a lot of," Wolcott said. "I make pickles out of them."

Wolcott is such a big fan of Blue Faerie Farm's organic produce that she now operates as a drop-off point, so that Wickline can drop off a box of produce for others in the area to pick up. Wolcott said it's a way to reduce the carbon footprint and fits right in with the other methods on the farm.

"What I like about them is they don't use pesticides, no chemicals," Wolcott said. "I'm always looking for that. And cool produce – they grow all these interesting potatoes, and even though I don't eat a lot of potatoes, it's nice to try purple and pink and blue and white. It's very interesting to get to try different kinds."

The Wicklines originally intended to grow blueberries, and thought Blue Faerie Farm blueberries was a catchy name, Jan Wickline said. But the farm's soil pH levels weren't right for the crop, so they switched gears into apples and other produce. Though the crops changed, the name stuck.

The farm is certified organic, a process that was sped up by the fact that the land wasn't used for any sort of farming before the Wicklines purchased it, and wasn't sprayed by any chemicals during that time. Organic certification requires three chemical-free years before the land can be called organic.

E-mail Tripp Laino at tlaino@gazette.net.

Blue Faerie Farm sells produce at farmers markets in Middletown and Urbana, and from their farm.

-Middletown market: 3-6 p.m. Thursdays at 12 S. Church St.

-Urbana market: noon-3 p.m. Sundays at 9020 Amelung St.

-Call 301-371-5069, or go to www.bluefaeriefarm.com