Crisp, farm fresh lettuce in the middle of winter? Revenue coming in as all the seed, plant starts, and other winter expenses start to pile up? Jeff & Sue Howard of Howard Farms in Breathitt County can answer “Yes!” to both questions thanks to their investment in controlled environment agriculture systems.
Nestled in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, Jeff and Sue Howard turned to agriculture a little over ten years ago to help pay the mortgage after Jeff was laid off from the mines. Moving from gardening for personal use to commercial growing on a small plot of land was a bit of a learning curve. The Howards started by reaching out to the Breathitt County Extension Office and then grew their network of technical assistance providers and resources to include the Kentucky Center for Agriculture & Rural Development (KCARD), Grow Appalachia, the Kentucky Horticulture Council, USDA-NRCS, Community Farm Alliance, and others. Through their perseverance and vision of how their farm could grow using the available resources, they combined open field production with controlled environment agriculture (CEA) systems to make the most of their space.
Over the last decade, their farm has grown to include two high tunnels, two greenhouses, and a hydroponic lettuce system in addition to their open field growing spaces. Jeff credits their controlled environment agriculture systems with enabling them to expand from farmers markets into new market channels such as schools and community support agriculture (CSAs) which has provided them “a more constant and reliable source of income year-round.” Sue notes that “it [CEA] has turned our part-time/summer-time farming into year-round farming.”
Their hydroponic lettuce system, housed in one of the high tunnels, has supplied the Jackson Independent Schools with lettuce during the school year and their summer feeding program for the last four years. This farm-to-school program was recently highlighted on KET’s Kentucky Life with Part one featuring the farmers, including the Howards, who supply the school and part two featuring Jackson Independent.
Last December, the Howards got a call asking if they could supply a winter farm share that was being aggregated by Northfork Local Food to serve families in the Knott and Perry County school systems. Between their hydroponic lettuce production and high tunnel capacity, they agreed. Thanks to the Howards’ investment in controlled environment agriculture, 50 families in Knott and Perry Counties have enjoyed fresh lettuce along with chives, radishes, salad turnips, and other greens throughout this winter and early spring – and the Howards have enjoyed regular income.
Pictured: Jeff & Sue at the Perry County Farmers Market, one of the Northfork winter resilience farm shares & lettuce growing in their hydroponic system, one of the