http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/local-farm-part-effort-educate-future-growers_79581.mp3
About a mile and a half north of Springfield on 20 acres of land sits Millsap Farms. There, owner Curtis Millsap and his wife Sarah, grow two acres of vegetables and raise chickens, turkeys and sometimes pigs. Not only do they work hard to produce food for themselves and for people in the Ozarks, they also serve as a place where people can learn about growing food organically.
On a recent spring-like day, Curtis Millsap took time away from vegetable harvesting in one of the property’s greenhouses, to talk about his farm.
Millsap is co-founder of Ozarks CRAFT, which stands for Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farm Training. It’s a coalition of farms in the Ozarks that work together to train future farmers by offering internships and apprenticeships. Millsap says some want to own their own farms someday while others are simply passionate about food and want to do work that’s worthwhile.
"You know, there's a lot of people who feel frustrated by a lot of the work that they are, kind of, given to do in the world, and this is a great chance for them to come out and do something really different and very hands-on. I mean, at the end of the day you look back and you can see the bed of beets that you've planted, you can see the produce that's been harvested and washed, and that's very rewarding," he said.
Educating people comes naturally for Millsap—he’s taught in the past and has worked in outdoor education. And he felt a calling, when he and his wife Sarah decided to pursue farming, to help others learn about growing food.
Millsap Farms offers workshops throughout the year. It currently has three interns who live on-site and are interested in owning their own farm one day. And two women are in their second year and drive from Springfield a few days a week to work at the farm.
One is Kimby Decker who grew up on a farm in Kentucky and has always felt a pull toward farming—she has an undergraduate degree in agriculture and a Masters in entomology. Her three-year-old son, Forrest, was helping on this day and harvested radishes like a pro, carefully stepping around the plants before choosing one, reaching down and pulling it out of the ground. She says she first came to Millsap Farms for something to do and to learn the practical side of farming.
"And I love it. I love being outside. I love working. I love growing food for people," she said.
Decker’s ultimate goal is to start her own farm one day in Kentucky. And she says being able to help on a working farm has given her the confidence to do that.
"I think a lot of it has been going, 'Ok, this is actually possible for me to replicate and for me to do.' Coming into it there was so much, there was so much going on and now actually doing it it's like, 'ok, yes this is a lot of work and it's really hard, but it's possible,'" she said.
Millsap believes there are systemic problems with America’s food system and one solution he firmly believes in is more small scale family farms. The only way to get more farmers, he says, is to train them, and that’s what his farm is all about.
But people who live in the area benefit from the farm’s produce. Millsap Farms currently has about 100 community supported agriculture members who purchase a share of the crop each season and either go to the farm or have it delivered once a week.
The ones who pick up at the farm, Millsap says, are often those who want their kids to see where their food comes from and to experience that connection themselves.
"It's amazing how disconnected we are to our food. CSA is a great way for people to connect. You know, a generation ago everybody had grandparents on the farm, and anymore that's just not the case. Most people are a couple of generations away from agricultural lifestyles. Farmers are less than two percent of Americans. It used to be that we were 80 percent of Americans, so it's a really flip-flop," he said.
He says that’s left a whole generation of people who don’t truly know where their food comes from.
"I mean, they know that carrots grow in the ground and, you know, that chickens lay eggs, but have they ever actually seen a live chicken? Have they dug a carrot out of the ground? And most of them haven't," he said.
CSA members also commit to work on the farm 12 hours a season. Millsap benefits from the extra hands and gets to know those who are eating the food he grows.
"That's really powerful. When you know the people who are eating the food you're growing, for me that's a big part of the game is we actually have a relationship with those folks," he said.
Millsap is helping create future farmers, but he also might be raising some of his own. He and his wife have ten kids—nine who still live at home and are ten and younger. He says they love being on the farm—he calls it a kids’ paradise.
To learn about the CSA, apprenticeships and internships, millsapfarms.com.