Farm
Sunny Side Up
The real yolk about Arkansas eggs
By Deborah Horn Photography By Happy Egg Company
It’s still early, but already 14-year-old J.C. Carlton’s 40 Hyline Brown hens are scattering into the warm spring morning. Unlike most of Arkansas’s commercial laying hens that are confined to cages, J.C.’s are free to roam the family’s 300-acre farm near Rosston. Generally, J.C.’s birds remain close to their coop and the farm’s activity center. …Read more
Arkansas High Tunnels
Extending the Growing Season
Stretching over the pastoral northern fields of Barnhill Orchards in Lonoke, high tunnels dominate the horizon. But the hope for extended seasons and greater profits mirrors an unpredictable local …Read more
Bugs and Climate Change
Notes from the Field
Climate change is a buzzphrase that has many meanings and possible consequences. Simply put, climate change is just that—a changing climate. But what does that really mean? …Read more
Field of Dreams
Ralston Family Farms
Giving a nod to the good Lord isn’t that uncommon among farmers, considering how tightly their livelihood is bound up in the rain and soil and sun. It’s more rare when the Almighty waves back, however, …Read more
The Best Ones
Leanna Clark, a retired critical care nurse, spent the last 20 years of her career in the emergency room at St. Vincent’s before retiring five years ago. Her husband, Bob Clark, is a physician who retired — Read more
Working Toward Self-Sufficiency
Pulling up the drive to Milk & Honey Hill Farm in New Blaine, Arkansas is like pulling up to a little spot of farm paradise. At the end of the dead-end dirt road is a lovely home set on the edge of a bluff, ... Read more
Goats 101
Long before goat cheese was all the rage, the Scrogins family of Olvey kept about 10 milk goats, enough to satisfy the family’s needs. The youngest daughter, Ginger, who was deathly allergic to cow’s milk, remembers her older sister Frances ... Read more
Here comes the corn
Chad Esau was just 13 years old when his family moved from south Louisiana to Dumas, Arkansas. His parents had been raising peaches, — Read more
A Life on the Land
Joe Thrash leans his arms on the kitchen table and takes a sip of coffee, his eyes gazing out a back wall of windows at the bare field in back of the house.... Read more
An Uncommon Herd
Ratchford Buffalo Farms is, in fact, Arkansas’ very own—and only—buffalo farm, but it’s so much more than that. It’s the lifelong dream of LC Ratchford made reality. ... Read more
Raisin' Cattle
When the weather warms and folks start grilling, beef is king. And good beef comes from good cattle. And good cattle aren’t made—they’re raised. ... Read more
The Arkansas Soil Health Alliance Takes Root
“I don’t see how we’re going to continue to farm the way we currently are. Something has to change,” Robbie Bevis says. Bevis, a fifth-generation farmer in Scott... Read more
Sunshine in a Bottle
It’s like sunshine caught in a bottle, and its nutty taste bursts in the mouth. It’s non GMO, drought tolerant and cold-pressed, chocked full of Vitamin E and healthy fats. Sunflower oil has been the oil of choice in Europe for centuries.— Read more
