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Local family farm to
host second annual ‘Tomato Festival' Sunday
| By BUD CHAMBERS/Staff Reporter |
Saturday,
June 17, 2006 8:51 AM CDT |
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The second annual “Tomato Festival” at
HomeSweet Farm will feature a tomato contest and three
heirloom-type farms will bring their products. |
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WESLEY - Originally inspired to go to work for World
Hunger Relief and teach “the art of farming” to Third World-country folks,
Brad and Jennifer Stufflebeam were in training for that assignment when it
dawned on them, “Too many Americans have no idea where their food comes
from.”
Four years ago, these two young Texans - both having graduated from, of
all places, big old Plano East High School - decided to sell their
thriving decade-old plant nursery business near McKinney and begin to
practice Martin Price's teachings as outlined in his 1999 article titled,
“The Small Farm Resource Development Center.”
This concerned couple's original intent was to teach
organic farming skills in Central America - and Brad diligently pursued
this course as farm operations manager (and farming instructor) for World
Hunger Relief's Elm Mott farming operation located near Waco for several
years.
Then with the realization of the need “to introduce these farming skills
to several generations of Americans,” the Stufflebeams began what turned
out to be a two-year search before purchasing 22 acres near Wesley.
Now fast-forward 18 months and the couple's intentions “to be a model
small-family farm, offering workshops/instruction, encouraging others to
develop a successful family farm enterprise” have notably prospered.
Indeed, an organic-based HomeSweetFarm has grown “a dozen-fold” already -
from a half-acre originally under cultivation shortly after arrival here
to a now full six acres - and the Stufflebeams, joined by three other
rather similar farms, will host their second “Tomato Festival” this Sunday
beginning 2 p.m. and continuing to around 5 p.m.
A first such festival -
about this time last year - brought out some 100 visitors and helped bring
membership in HomeSweetFarm's Food Club very close to a current desired
50-60 range of family memberships.
The expansion to six acres under cultivation, which includes nearly an
acre of pumpkins (that Brad is currently planting), didn't translate to
going far above a 50-plus Food Club membership on less cultivated acres.
“The hot, dry weather hasn't helped,” Jennifer said in a brief telephone
interview Friday, updating plans for the Father‘s Day “Tomato Festival.”
A fun specialty event slated Sunday is “The Big Daddy” tomato contest,
inviting everyone attending who grow tomatoes to bring their biggest one
to be matched against all the other ‘big daddies' for a nice prize.
Three heirloom-type farms bringing their wares to the Stufflebeam's
organic gardening, family-oriented second “Tomato Festival” include:
€ Jolie vue Farms, Independence, featuring grass-fed beef and chicken.
€ Oaks of Mamre Farm, Hempstead, with their prime product features
including “pastured” chicken and turkeys.
€ Sand Creek Farms in Bryan, which is the state's first licensed “Grade A
raw milk dairy.”
And Jennifer notes folks who haven't been back to HomeSweetFarm since last
year's tomato outing will be amazed “just how much” their two daughters -
Carina, 8, and Brooke, 6 - have grown in less than a year.
Brad and Jennifer are “home schooling” their daughters in organic
agriculture along with all of the traditional required education courses.
“They are living out their education every day,” Jennifer reports.
Another new development since last year: Brad Stufflebeam has been elected
president of the Texas Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association.
“Its goal is to promote the local food-growing movement all across Texas,”
Brad pointed out in a recent phone interview.
For those folks interested in more information on organic farming in
Texas, or specifically on the Stufflebeam's 22-acre place near Wesley, the
respective web-sites are: tofga.org and homesweetfarm.com.
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