hf farm – Community Farm Alliance

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Breaking Beans Radio #10: Hemp Farming

November 3, 2016 CFA Admin

Aired: November 2, 2016

Join host Sister Kathy Curtis as she sits down with Todd Howard of Hippo, KY, to talk about his work with a hemp research project on his farm, HF Farms.

Find other episodes and Breaking Beans stories here:

http://cfaky.org/blog

Download this and other past episodes here:

https://archive.org/details/@breakingbeans

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.

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HF Farms – Our Roots Run Deep (PART III)

September 25, 2015 CFA Admin

by Sister Kathy Curtis

[This is Part Three of a three part series. Part One. Part Two.]

From growing a home garden to avoid cutting grass to running a farm business with a 30 member CSA, restaurant and institutional contracts, farmers’ market stand and growing ten acres of industrial hemp with the University of Pikeville and Freedom Seed & Feed, Todd Howard of HF Farms has had a steep learning curve.

“Those that know me know that I take the plunge in most everything I do. I used to tell my wife Vylinda that I’m the guy who’d jump in the swimming pool and hit his head on the bottom only to see he’d jumped in the kiddy pool. I’m getting better though. I’m learning to read up on things and that preparation is vital.”

In the six years since starting HF Farms Howard has gone from what he calls his “Field of Dreams” mentality to a structured business model complete with long term goals which include developing new markets.

In eastern Kentucky “we operate on the assumption that there is a market [for fresh produce] here but nobody knows what it is.” As an example, Howard said that his research has shown that lettuce yields more profit per acre than any other typical crop. And that lettuce is a staple that most restaurants use and buy on a consistent basis. It would seem like an easy market to enter.

“But am I willing to put in a thousand feet of lettuce and contract to providing it to a restaurant every Wednesday at 5:00 from May to September?” He believes that farmers in eastern Kentucky are not ready to support that type of commitment and wonders how to get there.

His research suggests that the viable market for his produce is away from eastern Kentucky in markets like Lexington and Ashland. “There is no hard evidence that there is a market here. I may need to be willing to move outside while we are try to develop markets here.”

Another issue Howard has run into is the confusion a farmer is faced with regarding regulatory standards in the industry. One agency says one thing and another says something different, especially with food safety compliance. As a small farmer in eastern Kentucky Howard says, “it’s doable but we aren’t ready for it yet. We’re having to figure this stuff out by ourselves. It can get frustrating.”

Frustration aside, Howard loves the farming business mostly because of all the time he gets to spend with his family. Luke and Liza, his older children, both help in the garden and with the pigs and Luke has decided to take on care of the bee hives, recently attending a beginning beekeepers class. And they are not camera shy—recently doing the promo video for this year’s CSA and an interview with WMMT recently about what it’s like being farm kids.

Howard mentioned several times during our conversation that “you won’t get rich farming in eastern Kentucky.” Seeing him with his family working together in the greenhouse or eating soup filled with vegetables they canned together last summer, I’d say he is a very rich man.

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HF Farms – Our Roots Run Deep (PART II)

September 18, 2015 CFA Admin

by Sister Kathy Curtis

[This is Part Two of a three part series. Part One]

In the summer of 2010 Todd Howard of HF Farms sold produce at a farmers’ market sponsored by the City of Prestonburg. One of many people in eastern Kentucky laid off during the coal industry slump, Howard had turned his family garden into a greenhouse and farming enterprise with his business partner, David Fryman. That first year went well selling out every week.

Their second year, however, was not so great. Due in part to a change in location, business was terrible.

“I was done. We had no help. Nobody was listening,” said Howard.

Then Howard reconnected with Martin Richards of Community Farm Alliance whom he had met that spring at the Growing Appalachia Conference. Richards told him about the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (SSAWG) Conference being held that year in Little Rock, Arkansas.

“So,” Howard said, “I applied for a scholarship and got it.”

The conference “was an Ah-ha! moment” for Howard. He heard from people in Mississippi and rural Georgia who were farming in areas with similar economic demographics as eastern Kentucky – and making a living. Howard came back to Floyd County motivated and inspired.

At that same time Sister Kathleen Weigand of St. Vincent Mission held a town hall meeting focused on using agriculture as an economic incubator.

“It usually takes years for things to percolate to eastern Kentucky but here were a bunch of people excited to support local foods – people wanted to volunteer to take it to the next level.”

That year, 2012, the Floyd County Farmers’ Market with seven anchor vendors, civic and private sponsors, and lots of volunteers grossed $23,000 and it continues to grow.

“Local folks helping one another; I think that’s the key to success,” said Howard.

Howard is one of several people here in the region who thinks that one of eastern Kentucky’s biggest problems is that “We look to the outside to fix everything. If we can’t come together in our own neighborhoods, Frankfort, the Feds, they’re not going to help us.”

Howard and his wife recently made a list of all the people who they have been talking to about earning some income through agriculture.

Howard said, “Within a ten mile radius we came up with twenty people. Whether it’s pigs, chickens, planting a third of an acre to make a little extra cash, they all want to know, can you help me? Nobody’s gonna get rich but if you can make $1000 in twelve weeks, why not?”

These days Howard is branching out.

“The farmers’ market is a great place to start. It is critical to have that entry level place to cut your teeth,” explains Howard. But it has its drawbacks. Howard has three children who play ball and have other activities that take place on Saturday afternoons. Saturday is also a time when friends and family come help on the farm to get those labor-intensive chores, including harvesting for the community supported agriculture (CSA) shares, done.

The CSA model seems to be working. Howard said, “Last year was our first attempt at running a CSA. We sold about twelve shares for thirteen weeks. This year we are expanding to 30 members for 16 weeks. We are also looking to expand into institutional markets and restaurants.” Is this another Field of Dreams?

In part three Howard discusses the obstacles he must overcome and the allies he is developing in his effort to show agriculture is a viable option for economic development in eastern Kentucky.

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HF Farms – Our Roots Run Deep (PART I)

September 11, 2015 CFA Admin

by Sister Kathy Curtis

[This is Part One of a three part series]

Shortly after the Revolutionary war, three brothers named Howard were given a land grant of several thousand acres in what is now south Magoffin County, Kentucky. “My dad still owns some of the original property. In fact, most of the original land grant is still in the heirs” said Floyd County farmer Todd Howard in a recent interview. “When people saw a Howard coming across the hill on horseback they’d say, ‘them Howards don’t get out of the holler much and when they do, watch out.’”

One day, Howard’s papaw, Tilden, rode his horse over the ridge into Floyd County and down what they called Brush Creek to the Old Regular Baptist Church where he met his wife-to-be, Effie Hicks, staying in Floyd County.

Howard says, “We are the third generation on this property in Hippo,” property that is now HF Farm and one of the several areas where Howard grows produce.

Howard denies being the first farmer in his family, explaining, “If anything, I am doing what we’ve probably known for a longtime. Being here in Appalachia, in a rural area, if you trace your roots back you’ll find you’ve had to live off the land, you’ve had to get dirt under your fingernails and understand what it’s like to take a seed and provide some sort of means for your family.”

He wasn’t always a farmer though. When he and his wife Vylinda were expecting their first child, he worked in the coal industry for his father’s engineering firm. “We were living in a five hundred square foot house with one closet. It was so small; you couldn’t walk through the kitchen with the oven door open.” They moved down the hill to the “old house” where there was more room, more closets and about a third of an acre of grass to cut.

“I hated cutting grass so we decided to put in a garden because it would be a whole lot easier.” The family had had a garden there before and even had peanuts down by the creek. The first year went pretty well and they grew a lot to eat and put up. All was well.

January 2010, David Fryman, a relative of Howard’s got his hands on a greenhouse and they decided raising plants to sell would be easy. “You put a seed in a container; add some water and a little fertilizer and people will buy ‘em.” So they grew about 8,000 plants but only sold about 1,000 of them.

That April, Howard was laid off. He and Fryman decided to plant the several thousand plant starts they had left and soon had tomatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers and sweet corn planted with no idea how they were going to sell it all.

“We had the ‘Field of Dreams’ mentality. We figured that when people were heading out to the box stores to buy sweet corn they would get it in their heads to drive up Route 850 and buy their corn from us. We planted, but they didn’t come,” Howard said.

Then fate smiled in their direction when they found out the City of Prestonsburg was looking for fifteen to twenty vendors to start a farmers’ market. On opening day, Howard and Fryman were joined by Bev May who Howard had met at the Growing Appalachia conference that spring. Together, the three of them sold produce in a downtown parking lot. “It wasn’t too bad and we sold out every day.”

Howard was now (perhaps unintentionally) in the farming business. But the question is: Can a person earn a living farming in eastern Kentucky? We will answer that question in part two of this series.