A special Mother’s Day edition featuring CFA Board Member, Jenny Williams (left) and “Meet the Farmer” segment showcasing Lori Gearheart (right) of Gearheart Mountain Farm.
Find other episodes and Breaking Beans stories here:
The Breaking Beans Variety Radio Show airs on 88.7 WMMT (online too!) the first Wednesday of every month at 6pm featuring stories, interviews, recipes, and news from the food and farming worlds in the Appalachian region!
Hosted by Breaking Beans Fellow Sister Kathy Curtis.
Breaking Beans: The Appalachian Food Story Project is an initiative of Community Farm Alliance to tell the story of how local food and farming in Eastern Kentucky can contribute to a bright future in the mountains. Eastern Kentucky is at the point where it can foster a food system that is equitable and accessible to all, provides fresh nutritious food, and serves as an economic generator that builds community wealth. With a rich history of food and farming, stories of how Eastern Kentucky is already growing in that direction – and the challenges along the way – are important for informing people and policy alike.
Host Sister Kathy Curtis attends the Eastern Kentucky Farmer Conference and Growing Appalachia Conference to ask attendees, presenters, and organizers what ag in Eastern Kentucky looks like in their eyes.
The Breaking Beans Variety Radio Show airs on 88.7 WMMT (online too!) the first Wednesday of every month at 6pm featuring stories, interviews, recipes, and news from the food and farming worlds in the Appalachian region!
Hosted by Breaking Beans Fellow Sister Kathy Curtis.
Breaking Beans: The Appalachian Food Story Project is an initiative of Community Farm Alliance to tell the story of how local food and farming in Eastern Kentucky can contribute to a bright future in the mountains. Eastern Kentucky is at the point where it can foster a food system that is equitable and accessible to all, provides fresh nutritious food, and serves as an economic generator that builds community wealth. With a rich history of food and farming, stories of how Eastern Kentucky is already growing in that direction – and the challenges along the way – are important for informing people and policy alike.
According to the report County Health Rankings and Roadmaps: Building a Culture of Health, County by County (an exciting project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in partnership with the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute), eastern Kentucky is experiencing a health crisis. The project tracks a variety of measures that affect the future health of communities, such as high school graduation rates, access to healthy foods, rates of smoking, obesity, and teen births.
A graphic in the report shows the 120 counties of Kentucky shaded according to health rank– the lighter the shading, the healthier the county. Eastern Kentucky has thirty-seven of the forty lowest ranked counties. I went to the Floyd County Health Department (FCHD) to see if they had any answers as to why.
I met with Thursa Slone, the Executive Director of the FCHD, recently to talk about what the health department does for a community.
“We are more than WIC (Women, Infants and Children program) and baby shots,” she told me, “We are really so much more. We have programs on diabetes and diabetes prevention, exercise and yoga, body recall and jump rope for the kids; all programs that focus on nutrition and physical activity.”
Slone said that a recent survey done in Floyd County showed that its biggest health issues were diabetes, obesity, illegal drug use, and lack of activity—all things that an individual with support can work on changing.
The FCHD is a lead supporter of the Floyd County Farmers’ Market partly because a farmers market is a logical local place to find wholesome food, and for Slone, food is a real issue in our region’s health.
She has a real concern about the links between health issues like cancer and diabetes and the food we eat. Slone, identifying herself as “early sixties” and being in the generation who has been exposed the longest to all the additives and preservatives in our food, said our world now “depends on those who grow food for us regardless of what they put on it or in it. And I’m really concerned for the next generation because we at least had some real food as kids.”
Floyd County Health Department staff
Bonnie Hale, a community social worker with the FCHD sees “public health as community health.” Hale has worked part time with the FCHD for about ten years and appreciates all the work they do in teaching young families better nutrition in part because she started learning about nutrition after her kids started leaving home.
“We always had a garden,” said Hale, “And I cooked so I thought I was doing the right thing. My kids like to tell a story on me. Sunday after church, lunch would be hot dogs, with Hormel chili. Do you know how many fat grams are in Hormel Chili?” she laughed. “I thought I was doing the best for my kids.”
Hale loves to talk to people about eating healthy and debunk the myth that healthy food is too expensive by working with other community partners in developing a cooking demo project. The project is called “Good and Cheap” after the cookbook by the same name written by Leanne Browne. “Good and Cheap” teaches participants how to use items they receive in food pantries or by using their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and WIC benefits to cook healthy, satisfying meals.
Christine, Bonnie, and Kathy at Perry County Farmers Market where they taught a “Good and Cheap” class
The project, taught in three food pantries and two health department satellite offices, was well received, and a second round has been funded through the Central Appalachian Network (CAN) small grant program’s food and health sector. The second round is doing four classes in Floyd County and plans to branch into Magoffin County to help increase the health of the region through local food and re-learned cooking skills.
The third and youngest person I interviewed at the FCHD, Christina Tincher, wears several hats there. Her classes include smoking cessation, senior exercise, teen outreach, chronic disease self management, WIC, and helping Hale with the Good and Cheap project.
I asked her, what is WIC? She told me it is a program that teaches nutrition to mothers and pregnant women. The participant comes in to the health department every three months for classes and screenings that track height, weight, and general health of the mothers and children. There is a supplemental food program component to the program too but it seems that the face-to-face contact is the most effective part of the program.
Tincher told me about one mother who came in and told her that her four-month-old baby kept spitting up. It ends up that the mother had been putting a milk flavoring product in her baby’s formula.
“Baby loves it,” the young mother said. Tincher explained to the new mom that adding flavoring to baby formula may not be a healthy option for the child and could be causing the problem.
“She called me the next day and couldn’t believe the difference,” Tincher said.
In addition to being full time staff at the health department and working on her master’s degree, Tincher is a second year farmer.
“I love knowing where my food comes from. I really love it when everything I’ve used for a meal came from my farm,” Tincher shared.
She enjoys working with the farmers’ market and combined her interests one Saturday in August 2016 by facilitating a FCHD-sponsored health fair at the Floyd County Farmers’ Market.
The health department gave $5.00 farmers market vouchers to everyone who had their blood glucose and blood pressure screened.
“It was a fun way for people to know their numbers and support farmers at the same time,” Tincher said. In an interesting twist of fate, one of the people who had their numbers checked was a friend of Tincher’s.
“His BP was in the danger zone and he is only 22 years old,” she told me.
“Everyone should know their numbers,” was Slone’s parting comment to me, speaking about blood pressure and blood glucose numbers. Hale’s recommendation was to start a walking program and Tincher suggested eating breakfast every day. Three simple suggestions from three women who are dedicated to public health.
“I can do that,” I thought to myself as I chose to use the stairs instead of the elevator when leaving the Floyd County Health Department.
To find out more about the public health resources in your area look online under Public Health.
Breaking Beans: Appalachian Food Story Project is an initiative of Community Farm Alliance to tell the story of how local food and farming in Eastern Kentucky can contribute to a bright future in the mountains. Read the stories at cfaky.org/blog
Host Sister Kathy Curtis visits Cathy Rehmeyer at Four Petal Farm in Floyd County to discuss the evolution of the farm from an urban to rural farm, a winter growing season, and much more.
Find other episodes and Breaking Beans stories here:
The Breaking Beans Variety Radio Show airs on 88.7 WMMT (online too!) the first Wednesday of every month at 6pm featuring stories, interviews, recipes, and news from the food and farming worlds in the Appalachian region!
Hosted by Breaking Beans Fellow Sister Kathy Curtis.
Breaking Beans: The Appalachian Food Story Project is an initiative of Community Farm Alliance to tell the story of how local food and farming in Eastern Kentucky can contribute to a bright future in the mountains. Eastern Kentucky is at the point where it can foster a food system that is equitable and accessible to all, provides fresh nutritious food, and serves as an economic generator that builds community wealth. With a rich history of food and farming, stories of how Eastern Kentucky is already growing in that direction – and the challenges along the way – are important for informing people and policy alike.
Earlier this summer, armed with a printout from MapQuest, a road map of Floyd County and directions from the farm owner, I went looking for Four Petal Farm in Banner Kentucky. After twenty-five minutes of driving back and forth on the two-lane, turning around twice on the “one-lane” and following what appeared to me to be a four-wheeler track, I was ready to declare myself lost when I saw the low tunnels – a sure sign I had found Four Petal Farm, the home of John and Cathy Rehmeyer and their daughters, Vivian and Caroline.
This was actually my third visit to Four Petal Farm but the first in its new location on Akers Branch in Floyd County. Cathy’s first venture into farming was as an urban farmer in the middle of Pikeville on one-tenth of an acre at the top of a hill in the middle of town. It was there where Cathy learned to grow food for her family and later her CSA customer’s all through the winter, using terraces and low tunnels.
Having seen all the work Cathy and John had done in Pikeville, I asked her why they chose to move to a rural farm that had not been in production for several years.
“John and I grew up in rural America” Cathy replied, “and we had childhoods where we just roamed the woods. We wanted that for our kids—the freedom to explore and be outside.” John was raised on a “tractor” farm where they raised hogs, corn and soybeans so vegetable farming was new to him. But after seven years of looking, he found the farm on Akers Branch on the internet.
“It’s not an ideal location for vegetable farming, especially year round vegetable farming like we do.” Cathy told me. “Vegetables need maximum sunlight. Our farm is at the head of the hollow with steep slopes on both sides. In the summer the sun doesn’t hit the first bit of garden until 9:30 and leaves it by 4:40. At it gets even less in the winter. And then there was the question of soil quality. It was a real leap of faith.”
As we walked the property, Cathy talked more about the soil quality. “It’s like a box of chocolates, ‘cuz you don’t know what you are going to get” she remarked with a grin pointing out spots with sand and right next to it a big clump of clay. There were even chunks of coal and what looked like concrete.
“We are pretty sure this is fill” she said. “There is a gas well up above us and we think that the former owners of the property allowed them to dump fill here to create “flat land”. We had a friend come out with his tractor and tiller and when he got to this part he just left it alone.” Cathy has planted that section in sorghum sudan grass to help break up the compaction and add nutrients so that some day that section of the field can be used too.
Soil quality is a topic Cathy never tires of talking about. “The farm had been hay cropped for decades and the soil was just worn out. When we first started working the field, we walked it one day after being freshly tilled and found one measly earthworm in the entire bottom. I knew it was going to be a challenge even without a soil test.” Now, after only one year, there are earthworms all over the place.
As we walked around the farm, Cathy’s daughters showed me their rabbits, Eliza and Henry. (Apparently the girls had just seen My Fair Lady prior to getting the rabbits.) I asked the girls more about the rabbits and found out they were New Zealand Reds and they were “delicious”. As a city girl, that comment took me by surprise until I realized Cathy and John were raising their children to understand where their food comes from and that includes meat too. There are also goats on the farm who apparently a source of humor to the girls, especially when they “eat mommy’s hat” and ducks that take a lot of care.
As we walked, Vivian, the eldest showed me the Earth Tone field corn, a beautiful “Indian corn” with blue, brown and green kernels that she was growing. She explained that “field corn was not what you eat on the cob but you have to let it dry out and then you grind it for meal to make cornbread.” She got the seed from the Pikeville Seed Swap and would be saving some of the kernels for next year’s garden and some to swap. The rest was going to be made into cornbread for Thanksgiving.
Vivian also showed me her most favorite bean, “Aunt Bets” that she got from the famous Kentucky bean saver, Bill Best. “If you let them get really big inside, they are really tender and they taste really good,“ Vivian said with a grin. And then she and I ate some right off the vine.
Back at the farm house, I asked Cathy why she was farming. “To make money” was her immediate response. “John is our full time farmer. We are counting on making up that salary that he transitioned out of in March by being very intentional about planting things that already have a home.”
While still in Pikeville, Cathy started growing produce for The Blue Raven, a restaurant in Pikeville that supports local farmers by purchasing directly from them. “Matt (the owner of The Blue Raven and its sister restaurant Sliced) featured our produce on his menu. When we moved to the farm, he wanted to continue using our stuff. He wanted to use our tomatoes and basil for a Four Petal Farm Pizza at Sliced. I said we can do that. He wanted summer squash as a side for the Raven. I said we can do that.”
She told me that too often folks new to growing food to sell get it backwards. They plant and then try to figure out where to sell it. “We focus on growing stuff in the summer that has a destination already. Farmers markets are great but they cannot be the only thing to make farming a viable income for people, to make a living out of.”
As our time together drew to a close, I asked Cathy where the farm name, Four Petal Farm, came from. “Well, she said, there are three things. We are known for our winter gardening which is primarily vegetables from the brassica family—broccoli, cabbage, turnips, radishes—and brassica flowers have four petals. But we are also growing year round now in all four seasons. And there are four of us in our family. So the Four Petals are very symbolic.”
To learn more about all season gardening, Four Petal Farm and Cathy in general visit her blog, Mother of a Hubbard.
Breaking Beans: Appalachian Food Story Project is an initiative of Community Farm Alliance to tell the story of how local food and farming in Eastern Kentucky can contribute to a bright future in the mountains. Read the stories at cfaky.org/blog
airs on 88.7 WMMT (online too!) the first Wednesday of every month at 6pm featuring stories, interviews, recipes, and news from the food and farming worlds in the Appalachian region!
with a printout from MapQuest, a road map of Floyd County and directions from the farm owner, I went looking for 
“John and I grew up in rural America” Cathy replied, “and we had childhoods where we just roamed the woods. We wanted that for our kids—the freedom to explore and be outside.” John was raised on a “tractor” farm where they raised hogs, corn and soybeans so vegetable farming was new to him. But after seven years of looking, he found the farm on Akers Branch on the internet.
above us and we think that the former owners of the property allowed them to dump fill here to create “flat land”. We had a friend come out with his tractor and tiller and when he got to this part he just left it alone.” Cathy has planted that section in sorghum sudan grass to help break up the compaction and add nutrients so that some day that section of the field can be used too.
As we walked around the farm, Cathy’s daughters showed me their rabbits, Eliza and Henry. (Apparently the girls had just seen My Fair Lady prior to getting the rabbits.) I asked the girls more about the rabbits and found out they were New Zealand Reds and they were “delicious”. As a city girl, that comment took me by surprise until I realized Cathy and John were raising their children to understand where their food comes from and that includes meat too. There are also goats on the farm who apparently a source of humor to the girls, especially when they “eat mommy’s hat” and ducks that take a lot of care.
she got from the famous Kentucky bean saver, Bill Best. “If you let them get really big inside, they are really tender and they taste really good,“ Vivian said with a grin. And then she and I ate some right off the vine.
She told me that too often folks new to growing food to sell get it backwards. They plant and then try to figure out where to sell it. “We focus on growing stuff in the summer that has a destination already. Farmers markets are great but they cannot be the only thing to make farming a viable income for people, to make a living out of.”