Farm Indiana | April 2015

APRIL 2015

Rural Living & Local Food

On Patrol Barn cats provide environmentally friendly pest control.

ALSO INSIDE

Fall Creek Gardens Muddy Fork Farm & Bakery Pogue’s Run Grocer

Contents APRIL 2015

6 Farm Tech 7 Farm Tools 8 From the Field 19 Continuing Education 20 Equipment

44

Technologies

24 Barn Cats 30 Keeping Hill 34 Fall Creek Gardens 38 Steele Farms

42 Farm to School:

Save the Monarchs

44 Danville Community FFA 48 Muddy Fork Farm & Bakery

52 Local Food ON THE COVER

Peter, a barn cat at Liberty Feed and Bean Meal in Shelbyville.

Photo by Josh Marshall

65 Years of Service, Strength & Integrity 6672 East 650 South Edinburgh, IN 46124 812-526-5574 | 800-284-2676 kokomograin.com

FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 3

EDITOR’S NOTE

Permanent Residents

I

I NEVER THOUGHT I’d be a cat lady. But, alas, I am. The truth is that I’m also a dog lady, and now a goat lady, and an alpaca lady, and a chicken lady and a bee lady, and Lord knows I’m also a cute little baby chick lady. But I’m not here to talk about all those creatures today.

Nope. This editor’s note is all about the cats.

Pictured here, seated high on his throne, is Lucas, named after my favorite Grandpa Lucas who used to call me “Cookie,” and who always asked me if I’d wet my britches when I was a very little girl.

Lucas (the cat, not my Grandpa) came to live in our barn, with three other cats that

my husband, Randy, and I adopted from Foundation Against Companion-Animal Euthanasia (FACE) Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Clinic in Indianapolis through its community cat program last year. Throughout the process of adopting these cats, I learned quite a few things about FACE, an organization made up of many dedicated cat ladies (and men) who are committed to helping community cats avoid euthanasia and instead find forever homes. These folks volunteer countless hours of their time to do this, and, for that alone, I applaud them. I also applaud them for helping me bring home Lucas (as well as his friends Hazel, Dell and Floyd — all namesakes of my father’s mother).

I also learned quite a bit about what it takes to adopt a barn cat, which was simultaneously easier and more complicated than what I’d expected. Within days of contacting FACE, a colony of four cats that had been abandoned on the southwestside of Indianapolis was suggested for us. This was serendipitous because when I’d first started talking to my husband about adopting cats to live on our property I’d suggested we adopt four — it sounded like a nice, round number. So four cats it was. I worked with a volunteer who rounded up the cats and met me at FACE’s headquarters to hand over the paperwork, the animals and the instructions — all with no adoption fee. Easy.

The folks at FACE explained to me that I couldn’t just bring the cats home, let them

out and allow them to roam freely, however.

Chances were good if I did that that they would take off and never return again. Instead, our new barn cats needed to stay caged for a couple weeks to acclimate themselves to their new home. This was the slightly more complicated part of the adoption process that I hadn’t expected. No matter, though. I fed and cared for the animals while they remained caged for those first few weeks, and, all in all, it was a small price to pay. The cats grew to trust us — we brought food! — and Randy and I developed quite a fondness for our new fourlegged friends.

Hazel, Dell, Floyd and Lucas are now all beloved members of our family. Floyd was such a scared little guy that we eventually brought him to live inside with us, where he has since made friends with our indoor critters.

The other three have acclimated to their new roles appropriately. Just as soon as they were set free, we began finding deceased voles and mice all around our property. Though they enjoy eating breakfast and dinner with our other farm critters each day, the cats busy themselves by hunting, killing and delivering “presents” to us regularly.

Life on the farm can be wonderfully beautiful, and also a little ugly at times. But as for these barn cats? They know how to earn their keep.

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A monthly publication of Home News Enterprises, Farm Indiana offers the local news and views of Indiana’s farming world, including features about local families and their farms, agriculture businesses, equipment and technological advances, educational outreach programs and more. Farm Indiana promotes and celebrates Indiana’s rich history and tradition in farming; serves as a conduit of information among growers, producers, farmers, retailers, farming organizations and local food consumers; educates readers about the nutritional, social and financial importance of local food support and consumption; and highlights Indiana local foods and agritourism.

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FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 5

FARM TECH

Safety First

BY GARRETT KELLY

Shelbyville company creates farm mapping system to inform fire and emergency services of structures and hazards on individual farms IF YOU HAD AN emergency at your farm, would the fire department or other emergency services know their way around your property in order to help you? Would emergency personnel know what buildings you have, what those buildings hold or where they’re located?

Tina Cherry, owner of Cherry Brothers Designs in Shelbyville, is on a mission to make sure farms have a system in place in case something goes awry. Cherry’s company began making rescue boards for water rescue teams 10 years ago, and now the company has turned its focus toward farm safety with a new product. “It’s a farm emergency pre-plan system that partners with emergency services with the farmers,” she says.

Cherry’s system details your farm and everything on it. That way, if there’s an emergency, those coming to help can navigate their way around safely. You can mark buildings, propane tanks, electrical shut-offs and more. She says the idea came about while she and her husband were playing euchre with some friends who are farmers. “They (the farmers) saw our emergency-type boards,” she says. “They were saying that they needed something like that on their farm.”

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Cherry says they started thinking about what they would need to make the boards a success. Since her husband, Greg, is a firefighter, he was able to add invaluable insight to how the system should work from that angle. Then, her farmer friends added their two cents.

Cherry also has two sons, Aaron and Ryan, who are volunteer firefighters and another son, Stephen, who has worked on farms. They all helped with the project. “So, we just all kind of got our heads together and came up with a plan for our farm safety system,” she says. “We did a couple of Farm Bureau conventions to get the word out.”

Cherry’s safety system soon got noticed by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. A member of the Certified Livestock Producer Program took a keen interest in the product. The livestock farmers who go through that program need a certification. In order to get that certification, they have to have some sort of emergency plan on their farm. “He came by our booth, saw our system and said he loved it,” she says. “He thought it would be a perfect partnership with the Certified Livestock Producer Program.”

The system is available in two options. One is a manual map that the farmer can build on his own. The manual version comes with a laminated sheet of the farm’s layout and stickers to place where structures and hazards can be found.

The manual maps have been available for nearly three years. The other option is a newly created Web application, which was just released at the end of January. “We started thinking of a different avenue, and knowing that computers are the next generation we decided to seek out someone to help us create (the application),” she says.

The online version serves as an attempt to simplify the process. Manually created, the boards can be time-

consuming for farmers, but the website expedites the safety planning. Cherry says right now there are three farms that have used the Web version, and they’re monitoring those farms to make sure everything is working smoothly. “They’re my test farm market,” she says. “We’re always willing to listen, and if (a suggestion) is feasible, we can add it.”

Once you purchase the Web application, Cherry says the company will send a link to an aerial map of your farm. You will have three months to add all the information and structures about your farm onto the map, save it and take it to a printer. Once printed you’ll laminate the map and put in a container on your farm. Then, notify your fire department of the map’s location.

The Web application costs $95 to use. If you need to update the map, which she recommends doing about every three years, the price will be reduced. You can also pay a fee of $20 for the first year to give the fire department access to your map via smartphone or tablet. That cost will go down after the first year, but Cherry suggests the farmer pay that, not the fire department. “If they (fire departments) have to (pay the fee) for 35 or 40 farms, that’s $20 for every farm,” she says.

“What volunteer fire department has that kind of money lying around? So far, the farmers are all in with that.”

Cherry says add-ons are available if you need them. The business can provide a box for your map and reflective stickers to place on your structures. If the farm consists of over 26 structures, custom consultations are available.

The systems have been shown at some Indiana Volunteer Firefighter Association events and at Cherry’s local fire department where her sons volunteer. With a family of firefighters, she knows all too well how important it is to be prepared. “We understand the safety of it both for the farmer and the emergency personnel,” she says.

FARM TOOLS

IN THE TOOLBOX

Under Cover

»

By Catherine Whittier

Randy Stout of Stout’s Melody Acres in Franklin knows firsthand that the cost of heating a greenhouse can be astronomical. So here’s his handy solution: He doesn’t do it. Instead, Stout allows the sun to heat his greenhouses and the ground they cover during the day. Then at about 5:30 p.m., he covers his plants with wire frames he has constructed out of 12½-gauge wire. Stout’s frames are then blanketed with row cover material. He says that several layers of bed sheets, a blanket or even thick layers of newspaper could be utilized in smaller applications. The frames should keep the fabric about 6 inches off the top of the plants, so that if the fabric freezes it will not stick to or damage the plants.

Stout says that the temperature inside the greenhouse tends to be about 7 degrees warmer than it is outside the greenhouse in the middle of the night. Covering the plants and the warmed ground they sit in will mean that the temperature will stay sufficiently warm for the small plants hidden underneath. Stout utilizes this method as early as February to grow his onions, broccoli and other cold weather vegetables, but says that he continues to employ this technique well into April, as temperatures can still drop into the low 20s or 30s at night. Temperatures under the wire structures will stay at about 40 degrees, which is a safe nighttime temperature for tender tomato and pepper plants.

HOW TO MAKE WIRE ROW COVERS

Stout’s greenhouses are very large, so his wires are suspended horizontally above his plants and attached to poles on each side, but he says the wires can easily be cut to size and bent over plants to form an arch. The arched wires can be stuck into the ground at about 2-foot intervals, which will form something like a tunnel. The material is then draped over the top and sides. It is not necessary to tuck the fabric in.

MORE SPRING GARDENING TIPS » Stout says tomatoes won’t grow when the soil temperature is below 58 degrees and won’t bloom if the soil temperature is below 70 degrees. He says gardeners should never mulch tomato plants until they are already blooming so that the ground can get sufficiently warm. It is also best to wait for peppers, eggplant and zucchini to bloom before mulching. » Reusing last year’s seed trays to start plants is an economical idea, but if the trays are not cleaned properly, they can spell trouble for new seedlings. Stout sterilizes his seed trays so that he doesn’t have to incur the huge expense of replacing them each year. To sterilize: Wash all the dirt off the trays; there can’t be any organic matter left. Next, submerge the tray in the 10 percent bleach solution (1 gallon of bleach to 9 gallons of water) for two minutes. Always use sterile potting mix, never garden soil.

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FROM THE FIELD

Transitioning Land to Organic Production

BY JEFF EVARD AND JESSICA ERVIN

IN RECENT YEARS, we have been evaluating and discussing the perceived versus real barriers to organic certification with many stakeholders of the food, feed and fiber industry. The top three “barriers” include cost, transition of production practices and paperwork.

The cost of certification is made even more reasonable via the recent Farm Bill and organic cost share program reimbursement of 75 percent (up to $750 per year), starting at $250 per year after reimbursement. For 1,000 acres of land, this is running around 75 cents per acre for certification cost or $1.50 per acre without cost share reimbursement (based on an Ecocert ICO fee schedule). Operations are encouraged to request an estimate of cost based upon the size of their operation and specific needs. Because one-stop inspections and certification types are encouraged, communicating all of your additional needs up front is important to save both time and money. (For instance, if your market necessitates grass-fed, food safety, biodynamic, humane or other certification types, you will want to share these needs early in the certification process.)

Additionally, the structure of your business and long-term goals should be considered when implementing an organic system plan. Organic certification is organized by legal entity, meaning one application must be made per legal entity. When all regulations are met, it is possible

to have multiple legal entities under one organic system plan/parent legal entity or a grower group marketed under one name. These grower groups are designed to certify the production practices of numerous farms that are growing the same crop and using the same materials to produce it. A good example may be 600 farms all growing the same type of pepper for a value-added product.

Transitioning production practices seems to be the most difficult aspect for some operations. While there are a few strategies to transition, we recently spoke with veteran Ecocert ICO organic producer, Gary MacDonald. MacDonald has provided education, session and farm management in central Illinois for a number of years and has been farming organically prior to the implementation of the USDA National Organic Program. He recommends transitioning all acreage at one time. Many other farmers choose to split their operations and farm only a portion of their land organically using much of the same equipment across their production systems. Many operators of split operations would recommend not starting with your worst field when it comes to soil health, as it will take the most work to bring the soil into optimal condition for organic growing.

While there is no right or wrong way of doing it, the most common strategy of farmers transitioning portions of their operation into the USDA National Organic Program is to balance any cost associated with transition or to allow for a profitability comparison between the two different productions systems to be done.

Here is an example comparison chart for tracking yields and returns with a three-crop rotation (organic) and two-crop rotation (conventional). This decision-making tool can be used to consider adding organic production to your operation to help diversify your farming system and the markets for your farm’s products.

Organic and Conventional Crops CROP

YIELD

PRICE

$/ACRES

INPUTS*

RETURNS

OG CORN CONVENTIONAL CORN CONVENTIONAL SOYBEAN OG TRITICALE CONVENTIONAL WHEAT ORGANIC HAY *Input costs include fertilizer, chemicals and seed. Land and equipment are not included in input costs.

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This can be helpful if you are transitioning land to organic production and looking for a place to start, need to show proof that your land is in transition or need assistance to know you are on the right track for regulatory requirements and recordkeeping.

Organic certification can be the next level of management of your operation, soil health and quality. The first-year’s paperwork is the most cumbersome. All in all, a certifier only needs documentation for what is necessary to base a certification decision. In this case, plans you may already have in place can be included or referenced to in your application. Upon initial review process, any missing items will be discussed via official notification of your plan review. This is true for both transitional verification and organic certification process, as well as final determination of status.

Jeff Evard and Jessica Ervin work at Ecocert ICO (formerly Indiana Certified Organics LLC). Ecocert ICO, a subsidiary of Ecocert Group, is the only USDA National Organic Program accredited certification agency in Indiana and operates across the United States and beyond. For more information, visit ecocertico.com.

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FROM THE FIELD state department of agriculture. If you are seeking a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant, the North Central Region-SARE office can answer questions and provide samples of proposals.

THE BASICS OF

Grant Writing THERE ARE SEVERAL TYPES OF GRANTS. Federal and state government grants are available; private foundations and organizations offer grants; crowdfunding allows individuals to support business development; and disaster assistance grants provide funds during or after disasters. But to receive many of these grants, you need to first make sure you are eligible, and then write your grant application. ¶ Before writing, ask yourself: What do you want the money for? How much money do you need to accomplish your goal? What grant program is right for you? Be specific. Be realistic. Do your research and ask questions.

The Budget »An applicable and well-constructed

Start Writing »It’s never too early to start writing.

budget is an important part of your proposal. Depending on the nature of the grant, funding may cover all or only part of the associated expenses. Some funding programs provide cost shares, which pay for part of your costs. Some require matched funds and/or in-kind donations from you or others.

A grant proposal is very similar to a business plan. It is mostly work that you will need to do for your business anyway. Additionally, a grant is basically a loan that you do not need to pay back. Should your grant not be funded, your proposal will have many of the elements that you will need to find alternative sources of funding.

Get help with writing if you need it.

This help may come from organizations such as the Alternative Farming Systems Information Center (AFSIC) and Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA) or from your

Taxes and Reporting »Some folks think that money you receive via a grant is not taxable. This is not true, depending on how the money is used. Grant funds must be used as requested in the proposal and reported, as applicable, by law. If

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funds are used as someone’s income, they must be reported as such.

Documentation and reporting of the use of the funds is necessary and may be subject to audit.

Make sure to know the details of any contracts or agreements you sign with your grantor and be sure to fulfill them.

Collaboration »Collaboration with other farmers, agencies, educators and others is very important. Make sure to get their agreement to work with you on the project. Get letters of support and/or intent to participate, but not until after you have discussed the project with them so they understand their role.

Letters of Support »Why are letters of support impor-

tant? Community support is required for your project to be successful.

Supporters might include community leaders, local community groups and agencies, schools, arts groups, sporting organizations, police and your local council. If your project involves a particular cultural or religious group then you will need to show that you have the support of the elders or leaders of these groups. A letter of support should be included with your grant application to show that you have discussed your project with the people who are essential in ensuring the project is a success, and that you have their support.

Letters of support do not win a grant by themselves; however, they can make a proposal much more competitive. Support letters should

demonstrate broad-based commitment to a project from the range of stakeholders. Show that the planned collaboration is both appropriate and genuine. Details should illustrate how the work of the grant affects each entity’s ability to achieve its mission and/or goals. All letters from highlevel stakeholders must go to the same person: the chief officer of the sponsoring organization.

If You Don’t Succeed, Try Again »Follow up on your proposal if you don’t hear anything from the grantors. Don’t be afraid to ask what your weak point/mistakes were, and improve on your original proposal for a second application, if necessary.

Successful Projects »One thing is for sure — you will not receive a grant if you do not write a proposal. Every program has specific requirements — read and follow them to the letter. If you do not understand any of the requirements, ask, and be sure to submit your proposal on time.

Demonstrate that you are ready, willing and able to deliver everything that you promise in your proposal. Getting the grant awarded is all too often the easy part. Once you receive notice of approval of the funding, make sure that you are committed and have the time and support to deliver your very best work.

The founder and program director of Hoosier Organic Marketing Education, Cissy Bowman has been growing food organically since 1973 and on her current farm, Center Valley Organic Farm, since 1983. For more information on Hoosier Organic Marketing Education, email cvof@earthlink.net or call (317) 539-2753.

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FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 11

FROM THE FIELD

Gearing up for Spring

By Cheryl Carter Jones

Life is a journey, each phase constantly preparing us for the next one. Such as it is with farming. Each season prepares us for what lies ahead. Winter is my least favorite season, and I would suspect most farmers and gardeners would say the same. However, despite my moaning and groaning about the bitter cold, the winds and definitely the snow, I relish in a certain amount of satisfaction for the accomplishments I have made this past winter. This article marks my last significant project to finish up my winter’s work, and as it draws to its conclusion, I hope so also goes the winter. I am eager for the spring, but not the mud, and the opportunity to get plants in the ground and see the appearance of green.

LAST OF THE WINTER PROJECTS » Early last fall, I purchased a sizable number of 2-by-12 boards to make raised beds. Until now, the lumber sat idle. One of the things that I have often noticed is raised beds pulling apart and warping over a period of years.

Coupled with the fact that I will be filling my raised beds with herbs, I have elected to add a 2-by-12 brace across the middle (short way) of each bed. This serves two main purposes: • It prevents the boards from bulging in the middle over time and strengthens the overall structure.

• It affords me the opportunity to plant two different kinds of herbs in one bed. I also elected to use screws versus nails. It takes a little more time in the building phase, but long term it is worth the effort.

I purchased boards that were 8 feet in length. I am going to place the end boards in between the two 8-foot boards, thus allowing me to be able to cut my ends and center brace all the same length — exactly half the size of the longer boards. I like to do things the easy way.

Like most people, I am always anxious for that first harvest each year. To allow for an earlier crop, I am going to add removable hoops to some of my raised beds. There are a number of ways to accomplish this, but I am opting for the easy way.

Once a raised bed is in place, I will drive pieces of rebar into the ground every 2 feet starting at the inside edge of the long sides. In my case, there will be five rebar stakes on each side. Each stake will be 2 feet long and driven into the ground 6 inches below the bottom of the board, so 6 inches remains above the top edge of the boards. I will then cut 6 foot sections of ¾-inch white plastic pipe, bending them and fitting them over the rebar stakes, so

they fit across the raised bed the short direction to create hoops.

Cut a piece of sheet plastic 6 feet longer than your bed length. Center it both directions and lay it across the hoops.

Next cut some 2- to 3-inch lengths of the white plastic pipe. Very carefully run them through a table saw the long way, cutting only the bottom side of the plastic. This creates a clamp to use to anchor your sheet of plastic to your hoops.

Always safety first: If using a table saw, lower the blade to a level such that it will not cut the plastic sections through both the top and bottom. If you do not have a table saw, you can use a hack saw to cut the plastic pipe. If you have a vise that can hold the pipe for you, that is a big help.

Start on one end of the hoops and using the clamps, anchor the plastic sheeting to the hoops, pulling it tight as you go. The ends can be bunched together and held with a clamp or clip available from any hardware store.

If you are planting seed or plants, do that before adding the hoops. Once the weather warms enough for the plants to thrive, remove the plastic and hoops. For safety purposes, go ahead and pull up the rebar stakes until you need them again in the fall or next year. The convenience of leaving them in place is not worth the risk that someone will fall onto one of them and get seriously hurt.

There are several other means of creating a hoop house over your beds. What I described here is both economical and efficient.

Temporary Cold Frames There are a number of effective means of creating temporary cold frames or row covers to give your spring plantings an extra boost and allow for earlier planting. This can range from something as simple as placing bales of straw around the outside edge of your plantings, cover with plastic, cover each row or attach two windows together with a hinge and place them on top of the bales to create a tent effect.

Most lawn and garden departments or catalogs now carry wire hoops and row cover. They are very easy to install and quick to come out when they are no longer needed. Fold up the row cover carefully so it will last from year to year.

The simplest method is to take a sheet of floating crop cover and spread it out over an area. Weigh down the sides with bricks, stones, cement blocks or

Cheryl Carter Jones is an Indiana farmer and a board member of the Local Growers’ Guild, a cooperative of farmers, retailers and community members dedicated to strengthening the local food economy in central and southern Indiana through education, direct support and market connections. For more information on the guild, visit localgrowers.org.

12 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

A 90-degree angle clamp on a raised bed.

whatever you have available. This is also a tremendously successful way to start grass, particularly if you have an area where you are having trouble getting it to grow. Watch carefully though.

If you leave it for a couple of weeks and then come back to it, you will likely have great difficulty removing the cover. The grass will grow through it.

Other Beneficial Tasks If you do not regularly start your equipment during the winter months, it is a good time to make sure everything will start.

If not, get the equipment fixed before there is a long wait at the repair shops. If parts need to be ordered, at least it will not cause delays with spring work.

Last fall, I had good intentions of installing gutters and a rain catchment system on my new building. While it is too early to get into a field, work near a building can be done on a warmer day. Then you will be ready for the dry periods, which are sure to come, without putting a strain on the water table.

I make tomato cages out of reinforcing wire, which comes

in a roll like fencing. It is easy to do and can be an indoor project.

It is also tall enough that it can be cut in half. Determine what diameter you want the cages, roll out the appropriate length and cut it with wire cutters.

Then, cut it across the middle, and you have enough for two cages. Since it comes in a roll, it maintains the round shape well.

Lay out your garden on paper.

Think about companion planting. Which plants benefit from being grown in close proximity of each other? Then, when your plants or seeds come, the planting goes much more quickly.

Do a quick check of your tools and supplies to see if there is anything you need to order or purchase before spring. The more things you take care of now, the less to do later when you will be pressed for time.

My daffodils are beginning to show themselves, giving hope to warmer days ahead and rise to a new season filled with nature’s palette of colors.

Enjoy the warmer days, be good stewards of your land and cherish the beauty nature has to offer in the springtime.

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FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 13

FROM THE FIELD

19 Kids

and Counting

A

BY JESSICA HOOPENGARDNER

AS APRIL BEGINS, March Madness ends. But for us, the madness just begins.

March marks the beginning of kidding season, which is not as funny as it sounds. Kidding season is the time that the does give birth on the farm. They kid from March until June. Kidding season is both wonderful and stressful.

From the moment we notice a doe in labor, we are on high alert to take care of new babies.

When the babies are born, they are covered in amniotic fluid from the womb. This keeps them warm and safe inside their mother, but when the umbilical cord is broken, the baby automatically starts breathing. We have to immediately get the kid out of the fluid so it doesn’t breathe it in. We make sure the airways are clear and then set the kid out in front of the doe.

Naturally, the goats want to clean off their kids by licking them, so we let the mother and kid bond while she cleans.

Once all of the babies are born, we meet another challenge — making sure they get colostrum, the nutrient-rich milk that the mother makes for the first few days after birth. The kid needs this colostrum to survive. It just won’t have

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the nutrients it needs if it doesn’t get it.

Most of the kids have an inherent instinct to suckle on their mother. Every once in a while, we get one that is a little slow or that doesn’t want to nurse. Getting them to taste the milk and teaching them where to find it is often enough for the kid to want to suckle.

But all is not done. Just because all the kids know how to nurse and want to nurse doesn’t mean they will get milk. Goats normally have one to three kids, but this year we had a doe give birth to six. All six lived past the first couple of days, and all wanted to nurse. However, goats are made to feed two kids at a time, which means that four of the kids will get snubbed. The two smaller kids just were not getting enough milk, so we had to resort to bottle feeding them.

They are now gaining and doing well, but

there just wasn’t enough milk to go around.

As the kids get older, we will give them immunizations to keep them healthy and eventually wean them off their mothers’ milk so we can then keep the milk from the does and make cheese with it. During this process, we want to make sure that every single goat is healthy. This is why I say the madness is just beginning. We will have around 100 kids on the farm by the end of June. To give individualized care and attention is almost impossible, but we make it work. Finally, the madness will slow down and everything will be calm. But then another March rolls around and the process starts all over again. The spring and summer months are very stressful, yet wonderful times, because who doesn’t love playing with baby goats?

Jessica Hoopengardner, pictured at her family farm, is a senior at Eastern Hancock High School in Hancock County. Very involved in 4-H and FFA, Hoopengardner is the vice president of her 4-H club and the president of her FFA chapter. She plans on going to college outside Indiana and majoring in English and biology.

“Our customers should make more money by dealing with MacAllister than by dealing with our competitors.”

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FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 15

FROM THE FIELD

A Food Resolution

T

BY KATIE GLICK

THE SNOW IS FALLING as I write this, but springtime is so near. As a farm girl and farmer’s wife, you wouldn’t think that the fall and spring are my two favorite seasons, but they are. One brings new life, a new beginning and a little color to our days.

The other, although very busy on the farm, shows us the fruits of our labor and the pride of hard work.

While I do believe in New Year’s resolutions, I also believe in spring resolutions — a

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little spring cleaning if you may. There is more sunshine and more motivation to do our work and our play. And I always challenge myself to learn something new in the spring or to learn about something that has always intrigued me.

Lately, I have wanted others to do the same — to clear our minds of myths and hearsay to learn the truths behind a topic or issue. One in particular comes to mind for me, and it’s the truth about our food.

We live in a world today where people don’t know how to boil an egg, but they want to buy the freshest eggs from the farmer. There are people who don’t know how to use a microwave or cook a meal using an oven, but they want to know everything about the way an animal was raised.

I live on a farm and am a farm girl, but my herb garden fails every year. I think I can keep the bugs from eating my basil, but I don’t seem to have the time or motivation to care. Therefore, I rely on others and

respect their knowledge and expertise. I’m challenging myself to learn more about gardening this year from my husband’s grandfather, and I hope to someday learn how to make Grandma’s favorite noodles.

So I challenge you to make a spring resolution regarding your food and to step out of your comfort zone. Visit a livestock farm to see the farming practices of today and learn that our animals are safer and cared for more than ever before. Tour your local distilleries to buy the spirits and then make yourself a fancy spring cocktail. Understand that we can’t grow the fruits and vegetables you enjoy year-round because of where we live. Realize that a diverse food supply is a good and prosperous food supply.

I challenge myself daily with the complexity life brings, and I embrace this complexity. I do the same with food — embrace it all even if I don’t always agree with the way some food is grown, raised or mar-

keted. It’s pretty simple: We all have to eat.

And we all have the duty to understand the complexity of our food system. We all have the right to grow our food or buy our food and eat what we want.

So this spring as I plant my garden and work to keep those bugs from eating my basil, I will remember to respect the diversity of our food supply and to try to learn something new about food each day. I hope you do the same and make sure to share your resolutions with others as you grow, raise or buy your food. Resolutions done right become revolutions we can all embrace and appreciate.

Katie Glick grew up on her family farm in Martinsville and now lives with her husband on their family farm near Columbus. She is a graduate of Purdue University and has worked in Indiana politics. She now works in the agriculture industry. She shares her personal, work, travel and farm life stories on her blog, Fancy in the Country.

FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 17

FROM THE FIELD

THE VIEW AT NIGHTFALL

The Dance of the Animals

I

BY NATE BROWNLEE I ALREADY KNOW that our phone will ring at 6:30 a.m. seven different times this year, and each time it will be Carolyn calling from our post office. She calls our farm to let us know that we have a special delivery waiting for us, a delivery we have been anxiously awaiting. These phone calls from the post office are clues to the age-old question, where do babies come from?

Nightfall Farm is not yet a breeding farm.

Our barns are not yet equipped for overwintering pigs, though that is on the project list for this coming year. And while we have some experience hatching chickens, we have only hatched layers and never more than 20 at a time. We have no plans to hatch our own chickens in the future, not when we can pay someone who is good at hatching and has all of the necessary equipment to supply our chicks for the year.

We buy our chicks from Moyer’s Chicks, located in Pennsylvania. Back in February, we placed our order for all 1,200 chicks we will raise this year. Next comes that special call from the post office to let us know that our chicks have arrived. The chicks will come in batches of 200 birds at a time, and our six batches will arrive every three weeks over the course of the season.

Baby Chicks Day is always exciting. After our phone call, we drive into town to pick up the chicks. Since the post office is not yet open, we ring the bell at the back door. They know it’s us and open the door with a few peeping boxes in their arms. We load these boxes into the minivan (quite a few soccer teams in there!) and drive home to the farm.

18 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

The chicks spend their first few weeks in the barn. We have a warm, welcoming home awaiting them. We use an Ohio brooder to regulate the temperature for the chicks. This brooder is essentially a heated box that the chicks can stay in if they are cold and leave if they are hot. In the barn they are safe from the cold and from predators until they are big and old enough to go out to pasture.

Baby turkeys are called poults, and Baby Poults Day is quite similar to Baby Chicks Day. One big difference is that the poults come from Meyer Hatchery, which is located in Ohio. Another difference is that their brooder is in our old corn crib. We keep turkeys and chickens well separated at all times because turkeys can get a disease called blackhead from chickens. The poults grow more slowly than the chicks, so they spend a bit more time in the brooder.

Piglet Day only happens once a year for us. This year we are buying two litters from the same farmer who sold us piglets last year. He takes care of breeding the sows and then farrowing (the birthing process).

The piglets spend around six weeks with mom as they grow stronger. When they are ready, Daniel weans them away from mom and her milk and then gives us a call.

Piglet Day is one of the year’s highlights.

We make the drive out to Daniel’s farm to pick up the piglets. After a short ride home, they move into the barn. They will spend seven to 10 days in the barn, getting used to

us and learning the ins and outs of electric fences (well, hopefully not the outs!). While we enjoy the chance to get to know the pigs inside, we eagerly await the day we take them out to pasture. After the week indoors learning the fence, the pigs are also excited to leave the barn. Within a few minutes of being put in their new paddock, some of the pigs are exploring the boundaries, while the others run laps and chase each other around.

As much as we love the way Daniel cares for his pigs, Liz and I are excited to move toward breeding our own sows. Keeping breeding sows can be more expensive than simply buying feeder pigs, and definitely more complicated, but it is alluring because we would have more control over timing and be able to maintain a long-term relationship with our sows.

With spring here, it will not be long until our fields are brimming with life and activity. The chicken tractors will come off the cinderblocks they rest on for the winter, the pig huts will come out of the old car garage and we will start the dance of the animals through our pasture. We are looking forward to the bustle that babies bring, and now we are just waiting on that 6:30 a.m. phone call.

After years of gaining experience on other farms, Nate Brownlee and his wife, Liz, recently moved back to Indiana to start their own family farm, which they named Nightfall Farm.

Here, they will share stories of the many trials, tribulations, successes and failures in running a new family business. For more on Nightfall Farm, visit nightfallfarm.com.

CONTINUING EDUCATION

First Class Along with the new growth of spring come many classroom opportunities to help farmers and food producers learn more about their trade.

BY KATHERINE COPLEN

Private Applicator Recertification Program This event is targeted toward private pesticide and/or manure applicators. Topics covered include integrated pest management and insect control, measuring pesticides and recordkeeping.

WHEN: 9 a.m., April 8 LOCATION: 4-H Center, 680 W. Squawbuck Road, Columbia City INFO: (260) 244-7615

Private Applicator Recertification Program This event is targeted toward private pesticide and/or manure applicators. Topics covered include integrated pest management and insect control, measuring pesticides and recordkeeping.

WHEN: 1 p.m., April 8 LOCATION: Noble County Extension Office, 2090 N. State Road 9, Albion INFO: (260) 636-2111

Herb Society of Central Indiana Spring Symposium At this symposium, herb experts will speak on topics including medicinal herbs, bees and cooking with essential oils.

WHEN: 9 a.m., April 11 LOCATION: Hamilton County 4-H Fairgrounds, 2003 Pleasant St., Noblesville INFO: herbsocietyofcentralindiana.org

Backyard Fruit and Vegetable Growers Program

Farm Indiana highlights classes from the Purdue Extension calendar every month, but there are many more to be found online. Log on to extension.purdue.edu for more information.

This free session covers general fruit culture considerations, small tree fruit production and fruit pest control options.

Call to sign up in advance; sessions will be held if enough interest is expressed through registration.

WHEN: 11:30 a.m., April 1, 8, 15, 22 LOCATION: Hancock County Extension Office, 802 N. Apple St., Greenfield INFO: (317) 462-1113 or rballard@purdue.edu

Grant Writing Workshop

Local Food Summit

At this free workshop, applicants will learn how to develop and submit their federal grant applications for the Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program.

WHEN 10 a.m., April 7 Location: Hancock County, 802 N. Apple St., Greenfield.

INFO: (765) 494-0349

Growers and community members are invited to this networking and learning event focused on Northwest Indiana’s local food systems. Call (219) 465-3555 no later than April 17 to register.

WHEN: April 24 LOCATION: Purdue Extension Local Food Program, 615 W. State St., West Lafayette INFO: (765) 494-0349

Private Applicator Recertification Program

Gardening for All Ages

WHEN: 7 p.m., April 8 This event is targeted toward private pesticide and/or manure applicators.

Topics covered include emergency planning and drift watch crop registry.

LOCATION: Wells County Community Center, 4-H Park, Bluffton INFO: (260) 824-6412

The Master Gardeners of Hendricks County will put on this annual event featuring exhibits, live demonstrations and speakers, plus lots of free seed packets.

WHEN: 9 a.m., April 25 LOCATION: Hendricks County Fairgrounds, 1900 E. Main St., Danville INFO: swimga.org

Going Green Could Mean Money in Your Pocket

Viticulture Workshop

Carolyn Hildebrandt will speak about the benefits of going green at this monthly lecture.

WHEN: 1 p.m., April 13 LOCATION: Human Services, 125 S. Riverside Drive, Winamac INFO: ag.purdue.edu/extension/ Lists/Extension%20Calendar/ DispForm.aspx?ID=33159

Grant Writing Workshop A free grant writing workshop in LaPorte.

WHEN: 2 p.m., April 16 LOCATION: LaPorte County Extension Office, Suite A, 2857 W. State Road 2, LaPorte.

INFO: (765) 494-0349

Participants will learn a variety of vineyard management practices, pruning, training and replanting, trellis construction and more. Lunch is included in the $30 registration fee.

WHEN 10 a.m., April 29 LOCATION: Dulcius Vineyards, 2573 W. 500 S., Columbia City INFO: (765) 494-1296 or ag.purdue.edu/ hla/extension

An Introduction to Starting A Specialty Food Business in Indiana This workshop is a comprehensive overview for homemakers and farmers looking to develop and sell their own specialty ingredients and foods.

Register by April 22; the program is $100 per person, includes lunch, information binder and refreshments.

WHEN: 7:45 a.m., April 29 LOCATION: Beck Agricultural Center, 4540 US 52 W, West Lafayette INFO: (765) 494-0889

FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 19

A

The Big Leagues Mooresville’s Equipment Technologies finds a niche in sprayer market

By Jeff Tryon Photography by Josh Marshall 20 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

AN INDIANA COMPANY that built a timely concept into a market niche is running with the big boys and starting to flex its muscles globally by giving growers flexibility, durability and value when spraying crops.

Apache sprayers are made by Equipment Technologies, the largest independently owned manufacturer of self-propelled sprayers in North America, at its 168,000-squarefoot complex in Mooresville.

“We’ve taken on the big boys,” says Regional Director International Business and self-styled “employee number one” Jim Bates. “I think in the United States we’re probably in third place behind John Deere and Case among all the other people. So it’s been a real run.”

That run started with recognizing a market opportunity and using a different philosophy than big farm equipment companies.

“We just had the philosophy of keep it simple, keep it rugged,” Bates says. “Our drive train is different; it’s mechanical.

That’s what started setting us apart from these other big companies. The whole concept of the Apache sprayer has caught on in the marketplace.”

The concept of farmers owning their own spraying equipment arose out of the “Roundup revolution” of the 1990s, according to Susie Hinkle, director of development, training and marketing for Equipment Technologies.

Before that, growers typically paid for custom application of ag chemicals through a dealer or the local co-op, which meant waiting on someone else’s schedule to take care of pests, weeds and disease.

“In the mid-90s, when Monsanto came out with Roundup ready beans,

CEO Matt Hays with the manufacturing staff at Equipment Technologies.

that meant growers could start to take on application for their crops in-house, they could do it themselves,” she says. “It meant that a farmer could probably get his own spraying machine.

“At that time, the founders of this company saw the opportunity and were looking into making a sprayer,” Hinkle says. “We have really benefitted from noticing a change in the market.”

Bates started in 1995-96 doing sales and marketing alongside original designer Ken Weddle in a rented building at the old Indianapolis airport, where the company built four prototypes and started showing dealers its products in order to get feedback.

“I did focus groups and sent out inquiries to about 10,000 farmers around America, asking them, ‘If you could have the sprayer you want, what would you

want?’” he says. “And, overwhelmingly it came back that, yes, there’s a place for your product in the industry.”

Hinkle says the company seized the opportunity to take what it heard from farmers and make a lighter, less-expensive, easier to maintain and more reliable sprayer. Production began in 1997. The Apache sprayer is sold through a network of dealerships.

“We came up with what is called a mechanical drive sprayer,” she says. “It’s a direct drive, so that when the engine converts its power, all the power goes to the back two wheels.”

Hinkle said having a lighter machine is important to farmers, because it lets them drive over crops with less negative impact to yields from soil compaction.

Andy Tennell, who grows 2,000 acres of FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 21

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Hinkle says customer “It saves a lot of time and surveys show the top two I think it saves me a lot of Equipment reasons farmers buy the money,” he says. “You know Technologies Apache are “…it’s simple, what it costs to have it cus455 Merriman Road, and it’s less weight. tom sprayed. I can spray a Mooresville “The people who started lot in a day, and I don’t have (800) 861-2142, the company were really to worry about waiting on etsprayers.com smart, thinking, ‘Let’s not resomeone to come.” invent everything,’” she says.

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Cummins engine is a huge component and “It’s cheap to run, cheap on fuel, and it’s they have been a long-time partner.” cheap to operate for what it is,” he says.

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driving over uneven ground. The patented rear suspension has auto leveling and antisway hydraulics.

“We have a 70 percent commonality of all the parts across the product line,” she says.

“We’re new enough that there’s a whole lot of the market that hasn’t come across us, and yet we’ve been around long enough that we’re actually a player; we’re recognized as a spraying option,” she says. “If you go to any show, the Apache name is known by many farmers. The future is very much about getting the word out about what this option means to your farm as a business.”

It was Bates who led the company to Mooresville, and he says his reward is “it takes me 93 seconds to get to work.”

Bates, 73, is currently focused on expanding international markets.

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FARM

felines Local barn cat programs provide environmentally friendly pest control

T

By Jon Shoulders Photography by Josh Marshall

24 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

THE POTENTIAL benefits of pet ownership include comfort, companionship and even safety. However, organizers of several Indiana-based cat adoption programs are currently offering a different kind of benefit.

In 2013, the Foundation Against Companion-Animal Euthanasia (FACE) Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Clinic in Indianapolis formally merged with IndyFeral, an organization dedicated to reducing stray and feral cat overpopulation through non-lethal means. In an effort to decrease euthanasia among unwanted dogs and cats, these joint organizations are promoting several services, including the Barn Cat Program, a service previously offered exclusively through IndyFeral since 2010.

The program places feral cats with those willing to provide the animals with water, food and shelter in outdoor-oriented facilities, such as barns, horse stables, landscape nurseries or managed cat colonies.

According to Lisa Tudor, director of the community cat program, participants receive a unique benefit — environmentally friendly, chemical-free pest control.

“I think the timing is perfect for something like this because of the whole green movement and the recent popularity of urban farming,” Tudor says. “A lot of people don’t want to use pesticides or poisons to control their rodent populations, and these

cats are born for that. Rodents are their number one prey of choice.”

After vaccinating and neutering stray and feral cats acquired from the Indianapolis Animal Care & Control (IACC) shelter, the FACE clinic houses the cats in its indoor-outdoor facility, and potential owners who contact the clinic regarding adoption are then matched with appropriate cats. “We talk to them about how many cats they might be looking for, how large their property is and what kind of temperament they may be looking for in a cat,” says Tudor, adding that there are no costs for barn cat adoption and the clinic typically asks for a $30 donation per cat to offset sterilization and vaccination costs.

“Then we try to make a good match like a traditional adoption. We screen people and make sure it’s a safe setting.”

Sandra Norman, a volunteer veterinary surgeon and the current director of the companion animal/equine division of the Indiana State Board of Animal Health, says the Barn Cat Program is an outgrowth of both IndyFeral and the FACE clinic’s larger mission — caring for the stray and unwanted cat population in central Indiana while finding alternatives to euthanasia. “This really started as an urban issue of unwanted neighborhood cats that is problematic around Indianapolis

Barn cats adopted from FACE by Liz Hord.

FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 25

Barn cats adopted from FACE by Liz Hord.

“A lot of people don’t want to use pesticides or poisons to control their rodent populations, and these cats are born for that. Rodents are their number one prey of choice.” —LISA TUDOR

26 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

Lisa Tudor, director of the FACE community cat program. This page: barn cats awaiting adoption.

and also nationwide,” Norman says. “People don’t tend to mind these neighborhood nuisance cats, they just don’t want them digging in their flowers and garbage and things. So the basic idea is to find ways to manage them in an outdoor facility since their natural environment is outside and neuter them so they don’t keep multiplying.”

Liz Hord, owner of 7.5 acres of land outside Fairland, has adopted 15 cats from the FACE clinic since September of last year and feels the program has helped maintain the health of the horses and chickens on her property. “We live in a very rural setting, and without the cats we would be overrun with mice, I’m sure,” she says.

Inside her horse barn, Hord maintains food stations, a bed of straw and a heated water bucket, and says her barn cats — including Mittens, a male polydactyl kitten who enjoys relaxing on top of one

of her horses — tend to “come and go as they please. Our cats frequently visit our neighbor’s barn as well, and some we don’t actually see but they do come to eat before hiding away again,” she says. “Our neighbor does not mind the cats visiting, and she is also a horse owner and values the pest control the cats provide.”

Tudor says barn cat owners must keep their cats in an enclosed space, such as a cage or a crate, during the first two weeks of ownership in order for the animals to get acclimated to their new surroundings.

“The biggest challenge is simply the fact that some of them are truly feral,” Hord adds. “They might not stay around even after acclimating them to their new home.

We have also had a couple get hit on the road, and that is always hard. You get attached even when you try not to. So far predators haven’t been an issue, but it is a FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 27

Barn cats on the farm of Chris and Marah Steele, featured on page 38 of this issue.

28 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

concern. We’ve lost a couple chickens to a hawk nearby, and some of the smaller cats could easily be picked up as well.”

The FACE clinic offers complimentary follow-up care for barn cats if illnesses or injuries occur, and Tudor says daily provision of food, water and basic shelter not only benefits the health of the animals, but also improves their rodent hunting abilities. “The healthier you keep the cat, the better mouser they’re going to be,” she says. “We make sure to ask early on if the owners can regularly provide food and water, because there’s a misconception that if you don’t feed these cats they will be better mousers because they’ll be more hungry, but that’s not true.”

Much like the FACE community cat program, the Humane Society of Johnson County (HSJC) Working Cat Program offers cats to farm owners needing rodent

control and those simply interested in adopting. Janet Gorrell, board president of the HSJC, says the Working Cat Program has attracted interest from a broad range of individuals since the organization began marketing the program on a large scale in the summer of 2014. “We have people come in who want working cats that will also be friendly and interact, and then some want cats that will stay out at their barn and not come up to their house at all,” Gorrell says. “We have a lot of interest from farm owners with livestock who want pest control for their feed, and some that just have storage barns and want some protection from rodents getting in there.”

According to Tudor, IndyFeral and the FACE clinic have helped to reduce euthanization of stray and unwanted cats in central Indiana through services like the Barn Cat Program and a trap-neuter-return

service, through which community cats are humanely trapped, spayed or neutered, and then returned to the outdoor location in which they were found. In 2014, 978 cats were euthanized at the IACC city animal shelter, a 52 percent reduction from 2013.

Among the 1,280 stray and feral cats that the FACE clinic acquired from the IACC shelter in 2014, 280 were adopted into barn homes, while 655 were placed in indoor residences. “Those are 280 cats that would traditionally have been euthanized at the shelter simply because they are not cut out to be in traditional indoor homes,” Tudor says. “This stray and feral segment of the cat population has really been overlooked by the community for years.

They’re going to a safe place and they’re serving a need, so the owner benefits, too.

We couldn’t be happier with it.”

Âť CONTACT THE FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS FOR INFORMATION REGARDING BARN CAT PROGRAMS IN YOUR AREA: Allen County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) 4914 S. Hanna St., Fort Wayne (260) 744-0454, acspca.org Foundation Against Companion-Animal Euthanasia (FACE) Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Clinic 1505 Massachusetts Ave., Indianapolis (317) 638-3223, facespayneuter.org/ indyferal/barn-cat-program Humane Society of Johnson County 3827 N. Graham Road, Franklin (317) 535-6626, hsjc.org/working-cats Independent Cat Society - TNR Squad 4061 County Line Road, Westville (219) 785-4936, catsociety.org Morgan County Humane Society 690 W. Mitchell Ave., Martinsville (317) 627-4282, mchumanesoc.org

FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 29

The Kadlec-Sawin gallery and home at Keeping Hill. Right, Tim Grimm, Jan Lucas Grimm, Susie Sawin and David Kadlec

Sharing the Land

I

Keeping Hill offers environmentally sustainable housing in rural Bartholomew County

By CJ Woodring Photography by Josh Marshall

30 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

IT’S A BUCOLIC SETTING, peaceful and picturesque, with gently rolling hills surrounded by woods. Chickens happily peck their way through the day, and a galaxy of stars peeks out at night.

Throughout much of the year, residents can grab a pole and head for the private lake or enjoy a picnic in the nearby pasture.

If it sounds like a scene from a Grant Wood canvas, it’s not. It’s Keeping Hill, an eco-friendly, environmentally sustainable co-housing community intended to elevate artistic expression and offer working studios.

And it’s located just 15 minutes from downtown Columbus.

Keeping Hill is planned for eight families, who will design and build their homes, which they will own along with a share of the 20-acre tract. Thus far, however, it is home to just one family: Husband and wife David Kadlec and Susie Sawin and Sawin’s two teenage sons.

Sawin says the concept for Keeping Hill began about 10 years ago,

when she and a friend discussed oldfashioned, traditional neighborhoods.

“My kids were pretty young at the time, and I was wanting to live in a neighborhood kind of like where I grew up, where everybody knew everybody and looked out for each other,” she says. “My (late) husband and I had also talked about living in the country, but that sounded like a lonely proposition with two little kids. I’m more community-oriented.”

Her grandparents always had a huge garden, she says. “When Dad was growing up, they had cows and chickens that helped support them. That had always appealed to me, so we came upon this idea, potentially the best of both worlds.”

The couple currently own 17 chickens that roost in the county’s only post-modern chicken house. Within the past two years, they’ve added a few turkeys, with intentions to raise more of each for both eggs and meat. They also stocked the pond with fish, adding another food source.

Built with sustainablility in mind, Kadlec and Sawin’s home is cooled by natural airflow. Re-purposed gutters serve as lighting in the home.

The couple was acquainted with Tim and Jan Lucas-Grimm, folk musicians (she’s also a writer and artist, and he’s an accomplished actor) and familiar faces on the local scene. Introduced to the Keeping Hill concept through a mutual friend, the Grimms approached Sawin and her then-husband, Rob Johnson, to discuss 80 acres of land the Grimms had purchased in the early 1990s.

In 2008 the Grimms sold 20 acres to Sawin and Johnson. “It was a longterm, interest-free sale conducted on a handshake, and I think our mutual understanding is that Jan and I are a part of the ‘community,’” Grimm says.

“We have a common woods and lake, and work together on those areas,” he adds. “To me, it’s a very sane, conscious and human way of living in a rural setting that I believe needs a comeback.”

One of Keeping Hill’s tenets is house size, he says. “We encourage people to discover that it’s actually freeing to live in and on a smaller footprint.”

Lucas-Grimm believes the cooperative model is a good one, citing the ability to share meals and celebrations at a time when many neighborhoods are isolated. “The idea of sharing land, equipment, resources, while at the same time having one’s own

“Susie and I need to watch how much we “We have way too many eggs for our take on, personally, but with more hands, family,” says Kadlec, “and more garden the job is lighter,” Kadlec says. “And the space than we can manage well. But we idea of shared labor would be a way to hope to add a small herd of goats and make that lifestyle accespossibly a cow. sible to more people.”

“A lot of people love the idea of farming or “We have a common THE CONCEPT just getting their hands woods and lake, and Kadlec hails from Mindirty,” he adds. “Some work together on those nesota. A board memare older and can’t work areas. To me, it’s a ber for Columbus Food that hard. Others don’t very sane, conscious Co-Op, his background have enough time or and human way of is in organic gardenmoney to invest in a living in a rural setting ing, and his vision is to farm operation. This is a that I believe needs a connect growers with the perfect setting for them public through sustainto get involved and can comeback.” —TIM GRIMM able food production. easily be made handiSawin, a Columbus capped accessible withnative, is a local denout too much trouble, tist, jewelry maker and tie-dye artist while homes can be built barrier free.” who sits on several local organizaIn addition to the community, there tions’ boards. Together, they owned are 18 adjacent acres, 11 tillable, “awaitJacksson Contemporary Art Gallery, ing that person who wants to make his or which they shuttered last summer. her living from the land,” Sawin says.

FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 31

Clockwise, the post-modern chicken house at Keeping Hill. Kadlec recharges a battery for the chicken coop door with a solar panel.

The exterier of the Kadlec-Sawin home.

house, one’s own pursuits, is essential,” she says. “In most neighborhoods every family has a giant lawn mower, snow blowers, chain saws and whatever else they may occasionally need. Why not share those things and minimize the cost for each family, as well as the impact on the environment?

“Just as each urban co-op community is unique in its own way, an advantage of Keeping Hill is that it is out in the country, so many people can share in the beauty and the largesse of the land.”

A COMMUNITY IS BORN After plans were drawn up, obtaining county zoning and regulation permits was a long and trying ordeal, Sawin says.

“When we mentioned co-housing ... it’s not a familiar concept here,” she explains. “People were thinking ‘commune.’ And the idea that these homes could be smaller led neighbors to worry it would ruin their property value.”

A widow by then, Sawin ultimately broke ground in October 2010. Michael Greven,

principal of EcoSource Inc. (ecosourceinc.com), served as general contractor.

“Michael was a great help through the process, and even though he usually doesn’t do single-family residences, he agreed to help,” Kadlec says. The couple moved into the 1,600-square-foot home Labor Day weekend in 2011.

Currently in Eldoret, Kenya, Greven is managing construction of a Chronic Disease Care Center, a component of the Indiana University/Kenya program (ampathkenya.org). He responded by email.

“For those seeking access to a beautiful acreage in the rolling hills of southern Indiana, as well as a private lake and plenty of room to garden and grow fruit trees, Keeping Hill provides a great alternative,” he writes. “I would like to hope people are beginning to appreciate the opportunities provided by an intentional rural community.”

Keeping Hill Eco-Housing was formed as a nonprofit organization. “This is not an enterprise to make money; its goals are deeper than that,” Grimm says. “We

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Tim Grimm and Jan Lucas-Grimm at Keeping Hill.

Their nearby home is seen in the background.

were hoping it could serve as an example to the larger community that there are alternatives to what they already know is out there: building materials and green building practices, ‘small is beautiful’ and levels of shared responsibility.”

The traditionally built homes can range from 900 to 2,000 square feet. In addition to the common house, a silversmith studio and woodworking shop are on-site, with plans to add studios in other disciplines, such as metalworking and pottery.

The Kadlec-Sawin home, a high-perfor“The common house is a nice setting mance green building, incorporates a solar for a performance stage, or people could array; plans are to install a second array do yoga,” Kadlec says. “So we look very on the carport to support electric vehicles. flexibly at the arts and how residents can There’s a rain garden express themselves. And — a stormwater infilmaybe once a week, or tration feature, Kadlec at least once a month, “Most of the time says — as well as a wind residents could share a when I talk to people generator designed and meal there. It’s all very about the idea, it installed by a local high theoretical right now.” resonates very deeply, school class. It’s all about His wife says their but I think it’s really engaging students and remaining dream is hard for people to introducing them to reto have a house with make that next jump, newable energy, he says. friendly neighbors A masonry furnext door. “Most of to start something nace in the center of the time when I talk to new.” —SUSIE SAWIN the home serves as a people about the idea, it primary heat source. resonates very deeply,” There is no blower or air conditioning; she explains. “But I think it’s really hard the interior is cooled by natural air flow. for people to make that next jump, to start something new. It involves making A VISION OF THE FUTURE a huge commitment. I think it will get Those involved in Keeping Hill, thus easier as it begins to take more shape.” far, believe in the project, harborFor more information, visit faceing visions of future outcomes. book.com/KeepingHill.

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In the Heart of the City A community garden brings all walks of life together

O

By Shawndra Miller | Photography by Josh Marshall

ON ANY GIVEN DAY or evening of the growing season, Eddie Williams is likely to be found in his community garden plot at Fall Creek Gardens: Urban Growers Resource Center. It occupies seven formerly vacant lots in Indianapolis’ Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhood.

A chef, Williams plans to devote this year’s garden to culinary herbs. “It’s very therapeutic, number one,” he says when asked what he enjoys about working

34 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

his plot. “People are kind of envious on the days I’m out there.”

Located on Central Avenue, a busy thoroughfare in “not the greatest neighborhood,” as Williams puts it, the center provides a forum for community-building. An orchard and teaching garden fill the area north of the community garden plots.

Overlooking it all are a sunflower mural and covered patio adjoining the Unleavened Bread Café, where the center rents office space.

Executive director Maggie Goeglein Hanna says community interest has not waned over the four years since the ground was first worked. “If you are outside in decent weather for more than a couple minutes in the garden,” she says, “someone will stop at this light and roll down their window and ask about it.”

That’s no surprise, since the project grew out of a neighborhood survey commissioned by a local church. In 2009, Broadway United Methodist Church used grant funding to send a team on a listening mission throughout the neighborhood. A “roving listener” went door to door identifying existing talents, skills and passions that might be ripe for nurturing. The assessment turned up a common passion for gardening among many residents.

“There were different experience levels and abilities,” Hanna says, “but they all wanted a gardening hub of some kind for the neighborhood.” The vision encompassed community garden space that would offer resources, education and potential job creation.

A significant grant from the Efroymson Family Fund brought

Hanna’s predecessor, Angie Herrmann, on as a paid staffer in 2011. Herrmann initially hired Hanna as her part-time assistant, then passed the baton to her by the end of that year when other opportunities beckoned.

For Hanna, it’s been a whirlwind of rewarding and challenging work ever since, with every year bringing new milestones. That first year Mapleton-Fall Creek Development Corp. signed on as fiscal sponsor, and garden lots began to take shape. Workshops covering the nuts and bolts of organic gardening brought attendees from all over town — more than 800 of them over the past four years.

In 2014, the center purchased the garden site properties from the development corporation and also acquired a commercial property across the street.

Hanna and her board envision transforming the structure into a multiuse resource center. The 3,800-square-foot building’s proposed floor plan includes flex office cubicles, a classroom and commercial kitchen. Worm composting will find a home in the rear garage area. And in keeping with the original goal of nurturing locally based businesses, retail space will eventually face the street, putting homegrown cottage industries front and center.

Though the immediate, more modest goal is to raise enough funds to repair the roof, Hanna is excited to dream about the possibilities for this new brick-and-mortar home for the center. “We hope to be occupying the space in 2015,” she says, “whether or not it’s complete down to the last tiny detail.”

Fall Creek Gardens has enjoyed widespread support, with funding from local churches, businesses, grants and individuals joining ongoing Efroymson Family Fund sponsorship. Its growth is testament to the burgeoning urban farming movement that has hooked people of all ages and backgrounds on gardening.

Hanna has seen young apartment dwellers band together to try their hands at growing things for the first time. She’s also watched octogenarians work the land with practiced skill. “There’s a low-income

senior housing facility six blocks away, and I remember folks from there — when we had the drought and had trouble getting water to the garden — I would see them at 7:30 in the morning hauling a wagon with jugs of water to come and tend their plot before it got too hot.”

Part of the benefit of community gardening is making space for people of disparate backgrounds to connect, she says. She hopes that Fall Creek Gardens and other such places across town are facilitating that, especially since other institutions, like schools and churches, have become less neighborhood-based. “It used to be the schools that tied everybody to-

Fall Creek Gardens Executive Director Maggie Goeglein Hanna at Unleavened Bread Cafe.

gether. That was kind of the gathering place,” she notes. “That’s how people met each other and kept an eye out for each other, and churches also performed that function. ... Our hope is that the community garden may be starting to fill some of this need.”

In some cases, as Hanna has learned, planting a bed in Fall Creek Gardens meets an even deeper need.

For some city dwellers, gardening becomes more than just a casual hobby.

Growing bumper crops of tomatoes and other vegetables can make all the difference to a family working hard to stay afloat financially.

She tells the story of a particular woman who gardened extensively on Joe Bridgewater is a mainstay at Fall Creek Gardens and helps with the upkeep by mowing, cleaning and caring for the property.

want to enclose the space. So far her own property, even harvesting they are game to keep access open. mulberries from the tree overarching “Sometimes there’s a misunderher driveway. The sun-soaked comstanding about what a community munity garden gave her supplemental garden is,” she says. Since the space growing space, and she preserved is kept open to the public, some all surplus for the winter. “After the passersby assume that produce is fact,” Hanna says, “I found out their free for the picking. Other times, family had been going through really she admits, the “misperception” significant financial hardship. … She can’t be called anything but outright came to me when everything was theft, but the commuOK again and said, “It used to be the schools nity gardeners remain ‘My job, I felt, was that tied everybody mostly undaunted. to grow as much of together. That was kind The ongoing concern our food as I could, of the gathering place, has given rise to sevand we just had to that’s how people met eral creative responses. eat from it all year.’ each other and kept an One gardener had his “I had no idea that eye out for each other, and young son draw a hand we were a part of her churches also performed on red construction strategy for digthat function. ... Our hope paper and laminated ging in and getting is that the community it. “Wherever a head of through,” Hanna says. garden may be starting to fill some of this need.” cabbage would disapWhile the project’s —Maggie Goeglein Hanna pear,” Hanna rememhigh visibility and bers with a laugh, lack of fencing help “they would put this ‘Stop, thief!’ draw attention to urban gardenhand on a popsicle stick.” ing’s benefits, some of that attention “The same family got so antakes a less positive form. Every year noyed,” she says, “that they drew a certain amount of produce walks this wonderful illustration showing away, despite signs admonishing, how if you are going to steal from “Don’t pick what you didn’t plant.” a leafy green, if you harvest from Hanna asks the community garthe outside, you don’t kill the main den’s occupants each spring if they FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 35

Hanna and David Bridgewater.

Bridgewater, a former state representative, has lived in the area most of his life.

plant, but if you break off the middle you can’t ever have any more. So it was, ‘If you must steal, do it this way, not this way.’”

She hopes that ramping up the volunteermaintained teaching garden will help to reshape incidents like these into participation. This year she has a dedicated volunteer on the project, Butler University food fellow Blake Moskal, with a full slate of public classes and activities planned.

One strategy is to work with the food pantries and soup kitchens to bring more people into the volunteer base.

The center donated some 550 pounds of produce to these facilities in 2014 — the product of many hours of unacknowledged labor. Hanna knows that there’s a disconnect between the work going into raising food and its appearance at the food pantry. By inviting recipients

Top, a 3,000-gallon rain water collection tank. Bottom, a photo of the neighborhood residents who volunteer at the garden.

to help out, she hopes to remedy that.

The details are still being finalized, but she plans to incentivize participation, perhaps by offering a garden bed to anyone who participates a certain number of times. Such a “sweat equity” approach may further increase community investment in the project.

Meanwhile Williams, who is retired military, considers himself the unofficial “garden security police.” Until a recent move, he lived across the alley from Fall Creek Gardens, and he could step out his back door at any time of the day or night to monitor the grounds.

The patio, intended as a public space for all to enjoy, can become a convenient way station for undesirable activities. “We’ve found bottles there,” Hanna says, “and baggies of illicit substances.

Mainly in the summertime, when teens don’t have a lot to do. … We still wrestle with this issue of how to keep people safe but also keep this space open.”

Overall though, the project has been a focal point for positivity. “(There’s) a sense of community,” Williams says. “Definitely,

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Top, Fall Creek Gardens shelter and the Unleavened Bread Cafe with a view of Central Avenue heading south. Bottom, planting beds at Fall Creek Gardens.

without a doubt, there’s acceptance. We accept everybody who’s willing to come in and put in the work. It’s become a center point by which the community can be healed, because there’s a lot of issues here. But I’ve experienced it firsthand. … (The garden) creates a platform by which I can have a conversation with the kids.” The younger the child, the more intrigued they are by his green thumb.

Many among the youngest generation appear primed for the message. A local Girl Scout troop maintains one of the plots in the teaching garden. Each week they’ve helped harvest ripe produce for the food pantry. Their goal this year is to mentor a younger troop and teach other girls what they’ve learned about growing and giving.

Hanna finds such developments intensely rewarding and says the determination of area residents inspires her. “It’s just really exciting to work with people who are so determined to make their community a better place,” she says. “These are really passionate people, whether they’ve lived here their whole lives or a decade, and it’s just really uplifting to be part of (this) place.

An early conceptual layout plan of Fall Creek Gardens hangs in Hanna’s office.

“There are a lot of challenges and unhappy things that go on,” Hanna adds, “but in the face of that, the good things shine a little more brightly.”

Just like those three vibrant sunflower blooms painted garden-side on the cafe building. Their brilliance signals that Fall Creek Gardens has made a haven for beauty, growth and nourishing food, right in the heart of the city.

»MORE INFORMATION

Fall Creek Gardens: Urban Growers Resource Center 3018 Central Ave., Indianapolis (317) 759-3045 fallcreekgardens.org

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The Steele Family: Carter, 9, Conner, 6, Marah, Mayah, 4, and Chris.

A Passion for Teaching

W

BY CJ WOODRING

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSH MARSHALL

38 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

WHEN CHRIS AND MARAH STEELE began hosting student tours at their Adams County farm, they skipped the basics. After all, don’t children reared in heavily agrarian Indiana counties know where their food comes from?

Turns out they don’t.

“Early on, we didn’t share the simple things, thinking surely they’d know,” Chris says. “But we learned we have to connect the dots, which is a scary thing because elementary kids don’t know where food comes from. You’d think Indiana’s public schools would be more up on this, but they’ve taken ag education out of the classroom.”

In fact, the children were astounded to

Chris and Marah Steele use their land to educate

see ears of corn growing on a plant and immediately wanted to touch them. So the Steeles filled a large box with kernels of corn, rather than sand, and the youngsters delight in playing in them.

The corn box, along with hayrides, a corn maze and pumpkin patch, are all part of the tours offered on the farm, an agritourism venture (visitsteelefarms.com) overseen

by Marah that won the couple the Indiana Farm Bureau’s Young Farmer Excellence in Agriculture Award.

The award, which recognizes young farmers who do not earn the majority of their income from an agricultural operation they own, was presented to the couple during the

Indiana Farm Bureau’s annual convention held in December in French Lick.

Meggie Foster, Farm Bureau’s young farmer & women’s program coordinator, says 13 candidates, including the Steeles, were considered for the Excellence in Agriculture Award last year.

The Steeles were recognized “for their outstanding leadership involvement in their community and in Farm Bureau,” she says.

(Currently Farm Bureau’s Adams County president, Chris also has served as chairman of the Indiana Young Farmers Organization.)

“Together they have built a successful agritourism operation that includes activities that educate consumers and children,” Foster

says. “They are an outstanding couple and a great example of a young farm family working hard to grow their farming operation.”

In addition to the prestigious award, the Steeles won a John Deere Gator, courtesy of Farm Credit Services; a $3,000 cash prize from Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance; and an expense-paid trip to the national convention in San Diego, where they competed in January with young farmers from across the country.

“We were very pleased with how we represented Indiana,” Chris says, “but weren’t able to advance as far as we wanted. Still, it was a great opportunity for us to network with other young farmers.”

Family Farm Roots

Chris Steele and Marah Crose met as students at Anderson University. They earned degrees in business management/communications and elementary education, respectively, and in 2003 became husband and wife.

Each came from a farming background: Marah’s dad worked for a hog and grain farmer in her native Heltonville, and since 1880 Chris’ family has owned the 180-acre Steele family farm, where the couple now live.

His parents, who live next door and own the farm, are the fourth generation of Steeles to farm the land.

When the couple met and began dating, Chris was working on a Delaware County farm that grows tomatoes for Red Gold.

After graduation and marriage, Marah

Chicken nesting boxes

began teaching in Alexandria. Then Chris lost his job.

What at first appeared a drought for farming opportunities turned into a bumper crop in 2006, when Chris’ parents and grandmother gave the young couple the go-ahead to take over the family enterprise, which had been rented to a local farmer for more than 15 years.

Not just an opportunity, it was a dream come true for Chris.

“I’d always been looking for something that would get me back on the farm full time. So this kind of pulled it all together,” he says. “We never expected to be doing what we’re doing, but knew it was important for at least one more generation.”

The couple decided to pursue ways to expand the farm without adding acreage and in 2006 opened a corn maze, which attracts thousands of annual visitors. The tours were a no-brainer, based on the couple’s love for education.

“As a former kindergarten teacher, I have a passion for teaching kids about farm life,” Marah says. “It’s so important for them to know where food comes from and how it’s grown, as well as how farmers take care of their land and their animals. It’s an opportunity to give them a small glimpse into the life we lead.”

Tours have taken on a life of their own, beginning in spring when fields are prioritized for corn, soybeans, pumpkin and the maze, respectively. Pumpkins are planted mid-June, allowing the couple a brief reprieve before finalizing the event schedule and marketing strategy.

“I start getting field trip requests in August, when I begin cleaning up and painting FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 39

chance to be involved with agriculture.

“He never had an opportunity to farm,” Chris says. “And just as people have stuck their necks out for us, we wanted to offer him the chance.”

A Future Generation

Above, Marah Steele. Right, business partners Sean Engel and Chris Steele in the cattle barn.

buildings,” she says. “Obviously, September and October are the bulk of the work and the busiest, but it’s becoming more of a year-round activity.”

About eight paid staffers assist each year, along with Chris’ dad, who drives the tractor on weekends. A few friends, such as Amy Hirschy, help out during the week.

Aside from tours, Chris is a sales rep-

resentative for DuPont Pioneer, formerly Pioneer Hi-Bred. The couple also offers freezer beef, pork and chicken on a second farm they own, selling it from the barn.

In addition, they formed Kirkland Cattle, partnering with Sean Engel to raise freezer beef up to butcher weight for feedlots.

Chris says he and Engel complement one another, and the farm gave Engel a

Along with growing crops and educating regional schoolchildren, the Steeles are raising a family: Carter, 9, Cooper, 6, and Mayah, 4. The youngsters are enthusiastic about farm life, working and learning alongside their parents.

“It’s been so much fun to see my kids get excited about kids from their school, and even their classes, coming to our farm,” Marah says. “They are mini tour guides on weekends. It makes our busy seasonal job go much more smoothly when they’re excited about being a part of the business.”

Although tour involvement doesn’t ensure the youngsters’ future interest in agriculture, it gives them a good base, her husband says.

“They’ll have a more well-rounded view of work ethics and the whole (farm-to-fork) picture. So hopefully, if we’re not successful farmers, we’ll be successful parents.”

While optimistic about the future of farming, in general, and in the Hoosier state,

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specifically, he worries that others may not be afforded the opportunities he’s had.

“A huge population of people wants to farm, but as far as opportunities go, have no chance,” he says. “We need to find ways to link farms as owners age out. Within the next 10 to 15 years, a lot of land will transfer hands. It will be interesting to see if young farmers have enough tools to take over, because without being born into it, it’s very hard to start.”

In the end, he says, today’s farmers need to pass it forward — both land and farming expertise.

“Established farmers need to look for places for others to start and be willing to let younger ones be a part of their operations,” he says. “It’s really critical and has made a difference for us and several of our friends. It’s all about being creative in how they pass on their farm.”

“Chris and I couldn’t imagine a better life for our family than here on the farm,” Marah says. “We’re so thankful we have the opportunity to teach our children so many valuable lessons from farm life and are hopeful we will always be great stewards of the land and the blessings that God has granted our family.”

Carter and Conner in the cattle barn.

Left, Farm Credit Services awarded the Steeles a John Deere Gator.

“ ” “We need to find ways to link farms as owners age out. Within the next 10 to 15 years, a lot of land will transfer hands.

It will be interesting to see if young farmers have enough tools to take over, because without being born into it, it’s very hard to start.”—CHRIS STEELE

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FARM TO SCHOOL

SAVE THE

MONARCHS Students ply visual arts to raise awareness

Molly Denning’s 3-D monarch butterflies.

BY JIM POYSER

L

ast fall, I met with Molly Denning, a student from Pike High School in Indianapolis. She was exploring options for internships, and despite a great meeting, she decided she wouldn’t have time to join me at Earth Charter Indiana.

We stayed in touch, however, and happened to exchange in an email a mutual interest in the arts.

Molly then sent me an image of 3-D monarch butterflies fashioned from the pages of discarded National Geographic magazines.

42 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

“Wow,” I thought when I saw it. “These are great!”

This initial image was the spark of what has become the Save the Monarchs project. Eyeing this piece by Molly and reflecting on the precipitous decline in the monarch population, I realized that students all over Indiana could be creating 3-D monarch butterflies made from repurposed materials.

I took this photo to Shannon Linker, vice president of the Arts Council of Indianapolis. She, like me, was beguiled by the idea and suggested we could utilize the arts council’s venue, the Artsgarden, to house the butterflies.

“At the Artsgarden,” said Linker, “we have a unique opportunity to reach a broad public audience, including a huge amount of young people.

“It is the perfect environment to celebrate the arts and nature,” she added, “and I’m thrilled we finally get the chance to explore that intersection in this beautiful building and at the same time engage student artists in calling attention to important issues of the day.”

After consulting with experts at Arts for Learning Indiana, Linker and I decided to narrow our call for entries to fourth- and fifth-grade art students.

As I write this, over a dozen schools from around Indiana have said yes and will, by the time you read this, have delivered hundreds of 3-D monarch butterflies to the Artsgarden to hang for the entire month of April.

The beauty of Save the Monarchs, I want to emphasize, is that it came from a young person, Molly, who is motivated by her concerns about climate change and other erosive human impacts on the planet. To draw attention to the creatures harmed, she makes art.

ART IN SERVICE TO SCIENCE

The decline of monarch butterflies is staggering: from a billion monarchs in 1996 and 1997 to under 100 million today. This led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to announce in late December an effort to get these fragile creatures listed as “endangered.”

The monarch threats are many, from deforestation in Mexico, to the decline of milkweed in the United States due to human development, climate change and the increased use of herbicides.

“This is a very important project, one that I will continue to focus on every school year, even after the exhibition at the Artsgarden.”

—BECKY MAUBACH

According to Science magazine (Jan. 13, 2015), “The plant on which monarchs lay their eggs used to spring up in between rows of corn, soybeans and other commercial crops. But today, many farmers plant herbicide-resistant versions of these crops, which allow them to spray their fields with powerful chemicals such as Roundup — killing milkweed in the process.”

Climate change has its hand in the mix as well, influencing the migration patterns of the insects.

“I would think the biggest climate change-related threats,” says Kevin Tungesvick, restoration ecologist at

SEE IT! Save the Monarchs exhibit WHERE: Artsgarden, Illinois and

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Spence Restoration Nursery in Muncie, who got his B.S. in atmospheric science from Purdue, “are possible wider variations in phenology (time cycle) of their larval food and nectar plants in their breeding grounds.” He adds as a factor the “increased chances of drought, particularly along migration routes through the southern plains.”

Yes, environmental challenges abound, but the decline of the monarchs is a problem upon which we can act: Plant milkweeds in yards, schoolyards and community gardens everywhere.

Kids like to be what educator Zoe Weil calls “solutionaries.” When I visit schools to talk about our environmental predicaments, I am often thwarted by the enormity.

And when kids learn about a problem, their natural reaction is always “What can we do about this?”

In the case of monarch butterflies, we can do something, and using art to promote the solution is a perfect, lovely storm.

BUTTERFLIES ARE MEANT TO BE

I’ve had numerous confirmations from art teachers all over the state, from Vincennes, Bloomington and Columbus all the way up to Michigan City and Porter. Even in this fractious time of ISTEPs and other education-related controversies, teachers were excited to jump into the project.

“This is a very important project,” said Becky Maubach, art teacher at Valley Mills Elementary in Indianapolis, “one that I will continue to focus on every school year, even after the exhibition at the Artsgarden. It is crucial that my students understand the impact they have on their community and the world around them. I love hearing and seeing the connections they are making.”

Maubach, who has more than 200 students participating in the project, added, “The biggest way we can impact our future is to involve those who will be around for it.

They are our future. The more they know, the better off we all will be.”

Her fifth-grade students are excited about the project as well: Kylee M: “This art is made of recyclables so it could help reduce trash.”

Mersadez: “This art project is important to me because I love the monarch butterflies and I feel bad that because of us they could be extinct.”

Phoenix: “This project is important because it is motivating to recycle and because I love to draw and make art. It is also important because the Earth without art is just ‘EH’.”

Another fifth-grader, James, goes to Discovery Charter School in Porter.

He said: “I think monarch butterflies are an important part of nature. Without them we know that pollination would be less and you never know what else can get pushed out of balance when it becomes extinct. Their beauty tells me that they are meant to be!”

So come visit the Artsgarden in April to see hundreds of these student-created pieces. It will be a sight to behold.

As Grace, an 11-year-old Orchard School student in Indianapolis, said, “It’s important to understand and value wildlife, in this case the things flitting about our heads!”

Students at Orchard School make butterfy artwork. The final product is shown above.

FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 43

In the Classroom Local FFA chapters

Danville Community High School FFA instructor Duane Huge with students

Big Impacts

By Catherine Whittier Photography by Josh Marshall 44 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

T

THE AGRICULTURE PROGRAM AT Danville Community High School in Hendricks County was started in 1999 and focuses primarily on horticulture, landscape management and the agriculture sciences, subjects that are intended to attract the demographic of Danville’s primarily urban students.

“We are probably the first agriculture program that you run into on the west side of Indianapolis as you’re leaving the city,” says Duane Huge, affectionately referred to as “Hue-gie” by his ag students, who serves as Danville’s sole agriculture teacher and FFA adviser. “Because of that I think we have a pretty diverse membership.”

FFA participation allows Danville Community students opportunities to explore While horticulture and landscape management may appeal to many of Danville’s ag students, there are also a large number of FFA members, who have raised animals or shown livestock, frequently through 4-H, who enter the program to pursue those interests. There is a natural segue between 4-H and the high school agriculture program. “What it does (participation in 4-H) is get that spark going when kids are in fifth, sixth, seventh grade,” Huge says. “I would say that 4-H is a huge recruiting tool.”

Huge says there are a number of local families that provide land and resources to urban students who wish to participate

in 4-H activities. “As long as the kids come out and take care of the animals and spend quality time, and it’s their project, we’ve got some tremendous families in this community that help those kids out to no end,” he explains. “It’s really amazing. It’s one of the neat things I’ve seen since I’ve been here.”

Danville student Chance Clark is an FFA member. “I wouldn’t say there is a central focus of our chapter,” says Clark, a senior serving as chapter and District 8 president. “We have a lot of members who are involved in a variety of things.” Clark was on Danville’s soils team, which placed fifth in the nation two years ago. In addition to the greenhouse activities and the soils team, Danville has a meats evaluation team, a livestock evaluation team and a floriculture team, among others.

Each year, the Danville chapter hosts an annual plant sale, which opens in the first week of May and runs through the end of the school session. FFA members work in shifts to sell a variety of flowers, a full line of vegetables, hanging baskets and large patio planters. Huge prefers to grow most of the bedding plants and vegetables from seed.

“There’s much more involved from the student end of things,” he says. “(There is) much more responsibility, and I think there’s much more to learn, seeing things grow all the way back from the establishment of seed all the way out to the finished product.”

FFA members are able to use their work in the greenhouse toward their Supervised Agriculture Experiences (SAE). Last year, Danville’s Leah Jones, who is now a freshman studying agribusiness management at Purdue University, managed the greenhouse as her SAE and received a gold rating in the National FFA Nursery Operations proficiency award.

Danville started a floriculture team last year, which advanced to the state competition, taking second and fourth place.

The second place win allowed Danville to continue to the national competition. “I’m one of those girls that always thought I was livestock, livestock, livestock, but I love, love, love floriculture,” says Haley Mood, a junior who serves as FFA chapter reporter.

Mood was raised on a sheep farm. “If it wasn’t for FFA, I don’t think I would have ever gotten involved in the plant side of things,” she says. “It’s something that I didn’t expect I’d have a passion for, but I actually really enjoy it.”

The Danville chapter also manages the school’s 30-acre farm plot and participates in yield testing and fungicide studies. Huge

TOP Students demonstrate how they

race pedal cars through the halls of Danville High School at an annual event. ABOVE The class at the aquatic study area. RIGHT Students Chance Clark, Aimee McMann, Haley Mood, Payton Perry, Josh Randall, Sarah Crone and Emily Furlong.

FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 45

LEFT Emily Furlong, a senior, places tagetes patula seeds under grow lights. RIGHT Danville High School FFA student Sarah Crone, junior.

explains that local farmers, often parents, help with the planting and harvesting. The chapter also receives discounts and some donated materials from seed companies, which allows them to see more profit when they do sell the crop. The profits are then used to augment the FFA budget and provide money for annual scholarships.

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Each year, Danville FFA members look forward to the community service project they do with the Hendricks County Pork Producers. Chapter members promote pork production and the pork product through a food stand they operate during the Heartland Apple Festival, which takes place in October at Beasley’s Orchard in Danville.

Huge says participation in that event alone pays for the chapter’s participation in the FFA national convention. “We raise enough money through the month of October to pay for national convention, then fruit sales take us through the winter, and the greenhouse takes us through the summer and into the beginning of school,” Huge says.

Danville FFA members also do an annual food drive. “This year, we sort of restructured it with the help of the Hendricks County Farm Bureau Inc.,” Clark says.

“We collected items for families that were in need of food for Thanksgiving. We did a collection through the whole school. We sort of ran it and organized it and advertised it, and we ended up collecting enough food to feed 36 families. We were really proud of that.”

Students are also proud of the part they play in Ag-Opolis, an annual event they host in conjunction with the 4-H junior leaders and the Hendricks County Purdue Extension office. “Fourth-graders come in, and we all get stations,” said Aimee Mc-

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46 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

do it. “Next thing I know, I love it, and I was Mann, who is a junior serving as Danville on the (meats) team that went to nationals.

FFA’s community chairwoman. “We get It amazes me that something that — I don’t cows and chickens and sheep, and they know even know what it is — that I can (fourth-grade students) come in from Avon grow a huge love for it.” and Danville. We talk to them about tracClark also plans to pursue the study of tors and animals and farming and get them agriculture at the college level. “FFA has to think about those things.” Approximately given us an opportunity to 1,000 fourth-graders atexplore and try things we tend the Ag-Opolis event, “As long as the kids come would have never had bewhich takes place in out and take care of the fore,” Clark says. “I mean, March at the Hendricks animals and spend quality I didn’t grow up on a farm; County Fairgrounds. time, and it’s their project, Danville FFA members we’ve got some tremendous my parents aren’t farmers.

I have some connection eagerly share stories about families in this community that help those kids out to to farming through some how their involvement no end.” —DUANE HUGE of my family, but I never has impacted their lives. would have thought of “I wanted to be an having a career in agriculture. Through engineer for the longest time, and then I got FFA and Mr. Huge’s help and meeting into agriculture and it changed me,” says everybody, I’m now accepted to the Purdue Peyton Perry, who is a junior this year and School of Agriculture. I just never knew serves as senior chairman for the chapter. how much there was to agriculture and how “Now I’m going to Purdue to be in agrimany opportunities there were.” culture.” He was encouraged to give FFA a McMann and Mood agree with Clark try, even though he had to work around his and Perry. Their participation in FFA has schedule with the Danville football team to

had a big impact on their lives. They also speak of the friendships they have formed through their experiences with FFA. “Something cool about our chapter is we all have a special connection with each other,” Mood says. “We are all just a big group of friends and so just like being together and hanging out. We just have fun together.”

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bread winners Eric Schedler and Katie Zukof bring wood-fired precision to their craft

By Shawndra Miller Photography by Josh Marshall

E

ric Schedler slides a long-handled wooden paddle, a “pizza peel,” into Muddy Fork Farm & Bakery’s cavernous brick oven. At 5 feet deep and 7½ feet wide, the wood-fired oven holds staggering amounts of baked goods. Today it’s full of granola bars spread on trays placed cheek by jowl on top of the masonry-lined oven floor, and one batch is toasted to perfection. He deftly wields the pizza peel to balance an industrial-sized pan spread with golden-brown bars, removing it to a wire rack.

From their home-based business in Monroe County, Schedler and his wife, Katie Zukof, share a weekly round of duties, all revolving around the goal of getting freshbaked goods to the Bloomington Winter Farmers Market each Saturday.

This is Wednesday, a full week after the oven was first stuffed full of scrap wood and fired in preparation for the previous weekend’s market needs. But the 9-inch-thick masonry undersurface still retains warmth enough to bake granola, which does best between 270 and 280 degrees.

48 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

Two apprentices, Kelsey Smith and Laura Wanner, stand at the island to mix, package and label the products. Warming the workspace along with the oven are the sweet scent of cinnamon and the sound of instrumental music playing low and soft, while snow squalls outside the windows.

It’s a peaceful scene, perhaps belying the amount of effort that builds up to this task. The weekly cycle will start again when Schedler stokes a fire inside the oven Thursday morning, and another Thursday evening, and a final one Friday morning.

After the coals burn down, the oven interior is swept out and mopped in preparation for a marathon Saturday morning baking session.

“Fridays are epic,” Schedler says. Starting at 9 a.m., he, Smith and Wanner will work the next 14 hours readying the goods that

will rest in the cooler overnight in preparation for baking at 500 degrees early Saturday morning. An industrial-sized mixer will blend ingredients in multiple batches, but the dough still requires some hand work. Instead of kneading, they fold the dough several times over the course of a few hours, setting an alarm for every half hour.

Seventy loaves can fit in the oven at one time, and the more the merrier. Steam is a crucial part of the alchemy, and if the space isn’t completely full of loaves, supplemental moisture is needed. By 9 a.m. Saturday, they’ll be ready with 200 loaves of freshly baked bread, plus their signature sweetbreads and croissants — not to mention the bagged granola and granola bars being made today.

Of all the goods, croissants are the fussiest.

Muddy Fork Bakery uses cultured butter produced on location. Cream is churned to butter and then mixed with yogurt cultures. The result is a non-salted, sour butter that is more pliable at cold temperatures. Above, Eric Schedler and Katie Zukof with their two children, Leda, 3, and Ruth, 1.

FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 49

The wood-fired oven and wood shed at Muddy Fork Bakery.

Bottom, Eric Schedler.

50 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

“One person could work on croissants for eight hours straight,” says Smith as she packages a batch of finished granola bars.

She counts out the steps to make the flaky pastry: mixing the dough, laying it out, folding it several times, rolling it out and shaping. “It’s at least eight steps.”

And with 20 trays of the buttery croissants required for the winter market, no wonder the process seems endless.

“They’re the first thing we mix in the morning, and they’re the last thing we bake,” says Schedler.

“We have a saying at Muddy Fork,” jokes Wanner, as she presses batter onto a metal tray. “It’s ‘We do things the hard way.’”

Schedler laughs and shows his latest experiment, lifting the plastic wrap from a large stainless steel bowl to expose the batter-like liquid resting there. “We’re going to churn our own butter,” he says, prompting “Little House on the Prairie” jibes from his assistants. (He and his wife are in the middle of reading the book to their 3-yearold daughter, Leda.)

He explains that the butter he’s been using tends to be too firm for the tender croissants. So he inoculated cream with storebought buttermilk to impart live cultures.

After 24 hours, he’s read, one should be able to easily separate the butter, stirring with a spoon. His backup plan is to use the whisk on the mechanized mixer.

These extra touches pay off in raves and repeat customers. “Scrumptious” is the word Sue Swartz uses to describe Muddy Fork Farm & Bakery’s goods, which feature freshly ground, locally sourced, organic heritage wheat. Most of the breads are sourdough-leavened, which yields a fuller flavor.

Swartz became a fan early in the couple’s first season at market. She and her husband, Bruce Solomon, are regular farmers market patrons, and they never fail to frequent

Zukof and Schedler’s booth and pick up a loaf, which they might consume before the weekend is out.

“Our favorite bread that they make is Jewish rye,” she says, “because it comes as close as anything I’ve had to real New York Jewish rye bread, which I grew up with. … I’m talking like stuff I remember from being a kid in the early ’60s in New York.

Dense rye bread with a good crust.”

But, she says, Muddy Fork offers a terrific babka. For the uninitiated, that’s a chocolate-streaked sweetbread that, Swartz jokes, tests her willpower every week. “They make really good sweet stuff, like babka and croissants,” she says, “and other things which women of a certain age probably should not eat very often.

“Whatever they do is kind of magical,” she says. “It’s hand-crafted; that’s the best way for me to explain it.”

For their part, Zukof and Schedler are modest about the artisanal breads that have sparked so much fervor among marketgoers. From their airy home at the top of their snow-covered sloping driveway, they sit at the dining room table and talk about why and how Muddy Fork came into being, while Leda and her sister, 1-year-old Ruth, play at their feet.

The business got its start back in 2010, when the Bloomington Winter Farmers

Below, Muddy Fork’s fire-toasted granola.

Right, Katie Zukof.

Market was seeking a bread vendor. With a modicum of hobbyist bread-baking experience and a wish to launch a home business, they decided to step up and fill that need at the market, which then ran for 10 weeks (and now stretches 16 weeks from December through March). They baked small batches in a conventional oven to test the waters.

“We had a lot of success and happy customers,” Zukof recalls, “and we were encouraged to apply for the Bloomington Community Farmers Market,” which another organization operates throughout the growing season.

After realizing that demand during the warm-season months outpaced even the brisk business of the winter market, they began to consider scaling up. They decided to use the age-old model of a wood-fired oven to retain artisanal quality while baking in greater quantity batches.

The two trade off child care and business tasks, with Zukof in charge of sourcing supplies and managing the production schedule throughout the week, while Schedler focuses on baking and accounting. The only time they need a baby sitter is on market days, which they cover together.

Once a month, Schedler offers popular classes in the art of baking breads and pastries, including instructions for replicating wood-fired results in a conventional oven.

He isn’t worried about working his way out of business by teaching others the craft.

Attendees gain an appreciation for the labor involved in producing these Old World breads. Those who go on to don oven mitts and aprons at home still drift over to the Muddy Fork booth regularly, whether just to chat or to indulge in pastries or granola bars. Many graduates enjoy the occasional home-baking adventure, but continue to buy those enticing loaves that conveniently arrive at market on Saturday mornings.

That kind of loyalty makes all the difference in times of trouble. A fire last year burned down the bakery, but the couple’s commitment never wavered. Ruth was just 2 months old at the time, and life was already in a state of mild upheaval, yet there was no question in their minds: They would rebuild.

And in response to the devastating news, the Bloomington community rallied, donating both in person at the market and online through a crowdfunding initiative.

Though it took seven months to get fully up and running, in the meantime Zukof and Schedler got busy. They bought a portable pizza oven and took that to market and began offering smoothies as well. In a rented kitchen they baked what goods they could.

By fall they were back in the wood-fired business, with greater clearance around the new oven’s stovepipe as an added safety feature.

And the “farm” part of their name? Originally their goal was to grow most of their own food, but they’ve scaled that ambition back a bit. Still, they plan to increase use of homegrown items, like berries, in their products.

Asked what they consider rewarding about running a home-based business, the pair speak of family closeness and the joys of skipping long commutes. And the best part? Schedler indicates the two little girls circling the dining room table. “Being home with these two clowns all the time,” he says with a smile.

With snow piling up outside the window and the indentation of a child-sized saucer stretching halfway down the driveway, that’s no small thing.

For more information, visit muddyforkbakery.com.

Ruth plays in the bakery.

FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 51

LOCAL FOOD

IN THE

RIGHT PLACE Pogue’s Run Grocer brings local food to the near eastside

B

By Clint Smith Photos provided by Renee Sweany

BACK IN 2006, several near eastside citizens saw a need for access to healthy food in their community. It was then that the Indy Food Cooperative was born, and the birth of that cooperative eventually led to the opening of Pogue’s Run Grocer, a grocery store co-op in existence now since 2010.

The responsibility of the store, according to its site, “is to serve as an environmentally and socially conscious organization” that minimizes its ecological footprint while providing the surrounding neighborhood with fresh, locally grown food.

“One of our original goals was to support local food growers and producers,” says Nate Roberts, Pogue’s Run Grocer general manager. “Our options continue to grow. We now have a strong focus of supporting urban agriculture by sourcing from inside of (Interstate) 465.

Those suppliers are unique to Indianapolis and fulfill our mission to support the local economy and food network.”

More Hoosiers are becoming aware of food issues, says Roberts, and he believes Pogue’s Run can help people better understand and connect with their food.

“We want to be the place where people come to ask questions and learn about food, and where they can find foods that will best serve them,” Roberts says.

The welcoming and comfortable atmosphere at Pogue’s Run Grocer harkens back to classic markets from the 1950s. “While we are a full-service store,” says Roberts, meaning one could do most, if not all, shopping at Pogue’s Run Grocer, “our goal is not to replicate the big box atmosphere of today. That allows our employees to have a more personal relationship with both customers and (co-op) members.”

The grocery features a deli that serves up a variety of meat, vegetarian and kid-sized sandwiches. Think City Ham and Muenster or Smoked Turkey, Bacon and Chipotle Gouda, alongside vegan offerings like the Rambo!, made

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52 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

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Nate Roberts, Pogue’s Run Grocer general manager.

with housemade seitan, Daiya cheese (a dairy-, soy- and gluten-free product), sauerkraut and a vegan dressing and served warm on marble rye bread.

The sandwiches themselves are big business for the little store. “In 2014,” says Roberts, “we sold more than 23,000 sandwiches.”

With winter in the seasonal rearview mirror, Roberts is eager for the abundance of spring and early summer. “I’d say we’re most looking forward to kale being back in season so we can make our popular Kale and Seaweed (salad),”

he says. “We also don’t offer tomatoes on sandwiches in our deli when they’re not in season. I think we’d all agree: there are just some things that are best fresh from a local grower.”

Pogue’s Run Grocer also offers foodthemed movie nights each month, as well as a wide range of food-focused classes — butter-making, salt-producing and homemade Kombucha production among them — and a beekeeping class that’s coming up in May. In January, Pogue’s Run celebrated its four-year anniversary at its East 10th

Street location — a big milestone, says Roberts. “We knew opening our little co-op on the near eastside was a good thing,” he explains. “Years one and two were spent just getting grounded and understanding how to run our business. Year three was a year to celebrate record-breaking sales days and becoming more strategic. Year four, well, now we just feel normal, like we’re in the right place, doing the best we can to serve our members, customers, suppliers and community.” For more information, visit poguesrungrocer.org.

“We also don’t offer tomatoes on sandwiches in our deli when they’re not in season. I think we’d all agree: there are just some things that are best fresh from a local grower.”

— NATE ROBERTS

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FAMILY RESTAURANT FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015 // 53

LOCAL FOOD

By Clint Smith

» PREP TIP

» RECIPE

Fresh advice

Dough Boy

THE SPECIALTY of Lisa Sprunger and Marcie Douglass, owners of Urban Ladle, is soup — so much so that their mantra is “every day is a great day for soup.” Since the company’s inception over a year ago, the ladies behind Urban Ladle have developed a mission and vision to create quality, flavorful soups with the freshest of ingredients.

And now they’re growing their business, thanks to a recent partnership with Husk Local Food System and the Food League, two Hancock County start-ups. “Our partnership with Husk,” says Sprunger, “… has enabled us to produce vegetable-laden soups chockfull of non-GMO Indiana sweet corn, butternut squash, green beans and peas throughout these cold winter months.

As spring and summer approach we continue to establish relationships with farmers who will provide us with local produce, meats, herbs and spices.”

Here, she offers some pointers to keep in mind for the next few months.

COOKING WAS ALWAYS a hobby for Wayne Shive, owner of Best Boy and Co., which specializes in allnatural artisan sauces and spice blends — a hobby and a relaxing avocation away from a career in the manufacturing business. Over time, however, Shive’s love of food began to overshadow his work week, and Best Boy and Co. (the name a nod to Shive’s family pets, a pair of Boykin Spaniels) was born.

Here, Shive shares a recipe ideal for spring.

“Our partnership with Husk has enabled us to produce vegetable-laden soups chock-full of non-GMO Indiana sweet corn, butternut squash, green beans and peas throughout these cold winter months.” —LISA SPRUNGER

Asparagus Flatbread »“Visit local farmers markets on a weekly basis, if possible,” says Sprunger. “Get to know the farmers and learn when certain fruits, vegetables and herbs will be available.” »As a follow-up, she says to view the farmers at the markets not just as purveyors but as insightful resources. Ask advice on preparing, storing and preserving vegetables, she says. “They will be happy to help.” »At home, Sprunger suggests planning menus based on the freshest ingredients available. “For example,” she says, “tomato basil soup is what to make beginning in July when tomatoes and basil are at their peak. Soup freezes beautifully so you can have the fresh taste of summer all year long.”

And try not to buy what you don’t have a plan for. “Even if the tomatoes are beautiful, you may not need ten pounds,” she notes. “If you do over buy such things as tomatoes, they are easy to freeze in zip-lock baggies.” »And finally, have fun with the food. “In whatever you prepare,” she says, “make it colorful and full of texture.” For more information, visit urbanladle.com.

54 // FARM INDIANA // APRIL 2015

SERVES 2

1 prepared flatbread (Toufayan brand is recommended.)

As needed, Best Boy and Co. deli mustard 6-8 fresh asparagus spears 2 ounces chopped Pancetta As needed, grated Asiago cheese » Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a saute pan over medium-high heat, cook Pancetta until crispy. Remove from pan and reserve. » Place flatbread on an oven-safe sheet pan and brush flatbread with deli mustard. Arrange asparagus spears side by side across the top of the flatbread. Sprinkle Pancetta over top. Sprinkle with grated Asiago. » Place sheet pan in oven. Toast until cheese is melted and the asparagus is just starting to brown. Remove flatbread, slice and serve. For more information, visit bestboyandco.com.

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