Teaching Regenerative Techniques

Outdoor Innovations

Entrepreneurial endeavors come in many forms and since COVID-19 the rapidly changing landscape has opened doors for those who have chosen to break out of the mold by starting non-traditional businesses to live their dreams. East Texas provides a healthy economic environment that allows prosperity to flourish and dreams to become realities. We hope you will enjoy learning about a few of our “outdoor” innovative businesses that demonstrate how work can be fun.

Kelsey Creek Farm: Teaching Regenerative Practices

Kelsey Creek Farm sits at the end of a gravel road and is hidden by natural vegetation. It provides food for Kent Ormsby and his family along with showing other people how to create a natural farm. Kent works hard to eliminate the chemical inputs on their crop and leave the land as natural and regenerative as possible to help the ecosystem thrive.

Kent raises goats to make yogurt, cheese, soap, etc. Currently they are developing an orchard with figs, Asian persimmons, pears, jujubes, and other produce that will thrive in the Northeast Texas region. Their goal is to be able to produce enough to sell their fruit at markets.

“I want to show other people that they can have a very busy schedule and you don't have to have perfectly groomed environment in order to make production happen, you can be messy. ,” Kent said. “In other words, you can be messy and still have the production that you want. And that it is possible to live without external farm inputs so you can live without fertilizer. You can live without pesticides. You can live without herbicides. You can live without fungicides. You can live without those things, and in fact not only can you live without them and you can prosper, and then to help other people do the same thing. ”

Along with himself, Kent lives on the farm with his wife and two children, and they work together to create the most natural version of the environment as possible. Kent believes that creating a diverse community that benefits the plant consumers will also benefit the environment in general. So, he spends his life figuring out how to yield the biggest crop while also benefiting the environment.