For new farmers’ market vendor Kris Gilstrap of Barefoot Farm, growing food organically is not just about special techniques used to grow vegetables, it is a lifestyle.
“We had a little garden when I was growing up, and I knew I wanted to homestead,” Kris said. “Two years ago I figured out people were doing small farms as a business. I worked for Patrice Gros, who has a farm near the Missouri border, two years ago for learning how to grow organically. Then this year I’m renting space from him to do my garden.”
Gilstrap is gardening full-time with help from his wife Lydia, who also works at Local Flavor and Aquarius Taqueria. They have a booth at the Eureka Springs Farmers’ Market at Pine Mountain on Tuesdays and the White Street Market on Saturday mornings.
Gilstrap has scaled up quickly, also producing for Ozark Natural Foods in Fayetteville, which named him vendor of the month for August.
He is a no-till gardener, meaning he doesn’t use any motorized equipment to grow food – it’s all done by hand.
“It is human-powered gardening,” he says. “There are no gas fumes except for the small push mower I use to keep the grass down.”
He uses low-impact, low-input techniques adding rabbit manure for fertilizer and straw mulch to keep the earthworms happy so they’ll build the soil. Straw mulch that adds organic matter to the soil also retains moisture and keeps weeds down. “I’m concentrating on building the soil quality,” he says.
Barefoot Farm has recently been carrying kale, chard, dandelion greens and beets that usually can’t be found this time of year because it’s so hot. He started his seeds later than normal, and mulched heavily to keep the soil cool.
Gilstrap grows a lot of garlic in the cool season, and recently sold 40 pounds to Ozark Natural Foods.
All his seeds are USDA organic, and no chemical fertilizers or pesticides are used. Bugs are picked off by hand. In addition to vegetables, they also grow sage, rosemary, thyme, mint and basil.
The Gilstraps are vegans, so they don’t just sell what they grow, it’s a major part of their diet. They enjoy cooking food they have grown themselves, and prove it doesn’t have to be boring to be a vegan. They make a vegan cheese out of cashews, red bell pepper, lemon, garlic and onion.
The worst thing about growing? Kris admits that heat can be pretty draining. He tries to do most of the work early in the day. But this time of year, he is also out in the evening because in addition to harvesting summer crops, he’s busy planting scallions, lettuce and a variety of greens. Lydia says the worst thing about gardening is seed ticks.
The couple, originally from the Oklahoma River Valley, lived in Fayetteville for a year before until moving to Eureka Springs earlier this year.
OK, try this recipe for the Gilstraps’ raw vegan nacho cheese:
1 cup raw cashew butter (or raw cashews finely ground in a food processor)
1 large red bell pepper
2 tbs. nutritional yeast
1 tbs. onion powder
1 tsp. salt
2 lemons juiced
1 tbs. crushed dried chili
4 cloves garlic
Put everything in a food processor and blend until everything is mixed well. You might add a little water if you want more of a dipping cheese.