Good food needs good soil, water and people

There’s a touch of Kiwi at one of the area’s newer organic farms and ranches, Terra Rosa, on Keels Creek off Rockhouse Road. Ranch manager Greg Swift was working at a 580-cow dairy in Southwest Missouri in 2008 when it was hit by a tornado that wiped out the farm, the house, and most of the cows.

The owners then offered Swift a work exchange at a dairy in New Zealand, and Greg, who married New Zealander Kristy Swift in 1998 in Eureka Springs, did what is called share milking.

“They own the farm and you split the check,” Greg said. “But milk prices weren’t that good in New Zealand. We bought a farm there, but ended up leasing it out. I wanted to come back to America anyhow. My mom and dad still live in Southwest Missouri, and I wanted our kids to get to know them. We moved back here and went work for Grasslands Consultants and managed a 639-cow dairy farm in Missouri.

“Then we moved on to Terra Rose, a 502-acre ranch on Keels Creek that is about half pasture and half woods. We knew we wanted to farm in a different way.” They nourish the soil that grows vegetables, orchards, and Black Angus cattle.

“Stewardship is the word we live by,” Greg said. “I’m a firm believer that if you are good stewards of the land, the land will take care of animals and crops, and those will take care of people. It is a lot of work doing it organically. But there is a lot of information out there that conventionally grown food causes health problems in the world, not just America. I don’t think most people have come to understand the full negative health effects of the chemicals put on crops.”

And he believes if everybody practiced organic farming, including growing food in their yard instead of growing a lawn, kids would learn where food comes from.

The Swifts took over the property July 13, 2017, and it is a work – a lot of work – in progress. The farm hadn’t been active for ten years so a lot of fencing that had to be redone. They got cattle stock in November 2017, and are calving right now, with 75 cows and plans to move up to 120.

Some cattle are strictly grass fed, but grass-fed beef can be very lean, so they finish some on non-genetically modified corn in order to produce beef that has that marbling. They also grow alfalfa and sunflowers for the cattle.

There are about 15 intermittent streams on the property, and the Swifts have drilled a well, built a greenhouse and growhouse, and planted an orchard with apricots, figs, plums, kiwi, papaws, cherries, chestnuts, walnuts, pears, pecans and several varieties of apples.

They have more than 100 lavender plants for use in essential oils. Kristy grows flowers to sell, and spends a lot of time tending the vegetables. She also mans the family’s booth at the White Street Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.

Terra Rosa’s vegetables and fruit are certified USDA organic and they are working on organic certification for the cattle. Currently the beef is marketed as all natural with no pesticides, hormones or GMOs. In addition to the White Street Farmers Market, they sell at Eureka Market and at Sun Fest Market in Holiday Island. They also do direct sales of half and whole beef (https://www.terrarosaes.com/).

The lifestyle they have chosen is demanding, and they work sunup to sundown every day.

“I’m in trouble with my daughters because we didn’t take a vacation this year, but I think we’re going to be able to have one at Christmas break,” Swift said. “This year we built the greenhouse and fixed fences, so now we might be able to have more normal hours. When we get a chance, we float on the Kings River, that’s our hobby.”

Kristy said it was difficult with the drought earlier in the year, but she grew about 115 tomato plants, and seven or eight varieties of potatoes.

“Every week I come out with a new variety,” she said. “You can’t go down at the supermarket to get the varieties we grow. People come back for them.”

She is fervent in her desire to grow organic food, but says this isn’t a new thing.

“It’s going back to the basics,” she said. “It is the way people used to do it. It is the way my grandfathers always used to do it and my father, who was a great vegetable gardener. The world has gotten a little crazy going the other way trying to grow crops too quick with chemicals.”

The Swifts have help at the ranch from veterinarian and master gardener Shelley King Theis, and Phil Brandt, who helps by operating tractors, restoring barns, maximizing water sources, and creating spreadsheets.