Representatives from Cultivate Kansas City (CKC) and the Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas visited the Ozarks last week to meet with business consultants Dan Krotz of Berryville and Larry Laverentz of Kansas City, and nurture ideas about how to grow the sustainability and success of farming enterprises.
The Kansas City visitors toured a large solar power installation at Jane and Richard Pille’s homestead north of Holiday Island before traveling on to Blue Eye, Mo., to get ideas from the owners of Long Creek Herbs about how to make value-added herbal products.
Kathryn Kelly, executive director and co-founder of CKC, said they were particularly interested in new ideas to assist farmers at KCK’s farm business development program called New Roots for Refugees at Juniper Gardens, on eight acres of previously vacant ground near the downtown area. The program steers resettled refuges through a five-year program that provides hands-on training learning how to produce and sell food for local markets.
Kelly said in addition to building more food security for Kansas City, the program helps immigrants establish a way to make a living.
“Farming is one of the most transplantable skills,” Kelly said. “Across the country there is a challenge growing local farmers so they can make a full-time living. Our Juniper Gardens program is modeled to spread capitalization costs over multiple farmers so they don’t have to buy or rent all their equipment alone like tractors, high tunnels and greenhouses. Our model is designed to help younger people or people without capital to be able to establish themselves as growers.”
CKC has given a grant to Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas to start the project that pays dividends by building economic security for immigrants and food security for Kansas City, which has a population of about 471,000. Currently 16 refugee families are involved in the program, and 19 families have graduated from the program since 2008, with 15 continuing to farm on land they own or lease.
During the visit with the Pilles, Jane said she and her husband are trying to grow most of their food, which can be a big challenge, and also work with the neighborhood in support of each other.
“The people who live around us are very helpful,” she said.
Richard Pille told the group that he sees solar systems such as the one installed on the roof of a large barn as being capable of meeting the energy needs for a commercial kitchen and possibly cold storage. He also said that solar systems continue to improve while costs decline, making them more economically attractive.
The Pilles also spoke of the challenges of dealing with the heavier rainstorms that have resulted from a warming climate.
“We have had sixteen inches of rain in the past two weeks,” Jane said.
After continuing on to Blue Eye, on the Missouri-Arkansas state line northeast of Berryville, the group heard from Jim Long and Josh Young, owners of Long Creek Herbs. Long spoke about the importance of having multiple ways to make a living from a small farm like his. In addition to herbal products, he earns fees from speaking to garden and herb groups, and has published a number of books, including a series of books such as Home Remedies That Work. He has found those popular with visitors, and sells them nationwide on his website.
“We sell our Herbal Nail Fungal Soak all over the country,” Long said. “That is our main product. Customer response to our Herbal Nail Fungus Soak is amazing. Our files are filled with notes of thanks from happy customers describing how much they love our product.”
Long said loving what you are doing with herbal products is as important as taste, fragrance and medicinal uses of formulas. “If you hate doing it, it’s no good,” Long said. “You have to love what you are doing. And usually the best products are an evolution.”
The topic of climate change also came up at Long Creek Herbs. Long said that they used to be in climate zone 6 and are now in climate zone 7A. “We can grow things that we couldn’t before,” he said.
The gardens at Long Creek Herbs were a hit for being both beautiful and useful.
“For us to include a plant, it must be stunningly beautiful, as well as edible and or medicinal,” Long said.
Josh Young is also a writer, author of Myths & Mysteries of Missouri.
Garden tours are available by appointment only certain days this season (specified on their website.) To visit on those days, there is a $20 reservation fee, credited to purchases in the shop following your tour. June 17, which will be the Long Creek Herbs 30th annual open house, herb tours will be free and no reservations needed. For more information, send an email to longcreekherbs@yahoo.com or visit the website www.longcreekherbs.com