Kentucky Jail Uses a High Tunnel to Grow Fresh Food

From the USDA:

Posted by Christy Morgan, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Kentucky, on November 26, 2014 at 11:00 AM

NRCS staff discuss soil health efforts with Hopkins County jailer Joe Blue, right, and Deputy Jailer Billy Thomas and the jail’s gardener. NRCS photo by Christy Morgan.

Kentucky Jailer Joe Blue is passionate about rehabilitating inmates. Innovative ideas for teaching new skills are always on his mind, which is how the Hopkins County jail’s gardening program was started.

The Kentucky jail sits on several acres and has a large farm just across the street. As Blue was walking around the property one day, he looked across the street and thought: “What’s the difference in that land and our land? Why can’t we grow our own food here?”

Soon after, Blue and staff launched the gardening program. The garden started on only one acre of the property in 2006 and has grown to encompass several more acres. Over the years, the jail’s garden has produced more than 36,000 pounds of corn, 25,000 pounds of tomatoes, 15,000 pounds of squash and various other fruits and vegetables.

“The program allows us to reduce food costs considerably and at the same time provide fresh and nutritious food to the inmates,” Blue said.

Feeding the inmates in the 461-bed facility requires a lot of food. The jail serves about 1,200 meals a day. Tomatoes are one item used in many of the inmate’s meals. Wanting to grow more tomatoes and extend their growing period was what prompted Deputy Billy Thomas, who oversees the jail program, to look into constructing a seasonal high tunnel.

Thomas heard about the Seasonal High Tunnel Initiative offered by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, (NRCS). Seasonal high tunnels are plastic-covered structures that enable farmers to have crops ready earlier or later in the season. In high tunnels, plants are grown directly in the ground, and the temperature is regulated by opening or closing the plastic curtain sides and doors on the ends.

Thomas contacted Pennie Day, natural resource planner at the local NRCS office, to inquire about the possibility of constructing a high tunnel on the jail’s property with NRCS assistance.

Funding through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program is available for work on private lands.  As a public entity, the jail was not eligible for financial assistance. But Day thought of another opportunity – the Hopkins County Conservation District board.

The district purchased the jail’s seasonal high tunnel. Day provided the technical assistance for the high tunnel during the planning and construction phases. She will continue to assist through the growing seasons to improve the health of the soil and ensure successful harvests, season after season.

Growing their own food is certainly helping the jail’s bottom line, but the investment made in the inmates who participate in the program is of even greater importance.

“We want (the inmates) to learn a trade while they are here and be able to find work using those skills when the leave,” Blue said.

In addition to the funding provided by the Hopkins County Conservation District for the high tunnel’s construction, donations and discounts from community businesses help keep the costs down. Surplus from the garden is donated to the local Salvation Army and Senior Citizens Center of Hopkins County. To find out more about high tunnels, visit your nearest NRCS service center.

Hopkins County, Kentucky jailer Joe Blue inspects irrigation pipeline at the jail’s garden. The jail’s gardening program offers inmates the opportunity to work outside planting, growing, and harvesting food for hundreds of people. NRCS photo by Christy Morgan.

High Five for High Tunnels - Tool Brings Conservation, Fresh Produce to Detroit

From USDA:

Posted by Pattie Thomas, Natural Resources Conservation Service, on November 17, 2014 at 10:10 AM

Cynthia Brathwaite a loyal customer attends Wayne State University Market Day to purchase D-Town Farm’s fresh produce.

Sherri Barnes, left, at D-Town Farm, harvest fresh vegetables from their high tunnel to sell at Wayne State University’s Market Day. At right, Kwamena Mensa her father before the market day begins to sell their fresh local produce.

The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network’s D-Town Farm located in River Rouge Park produces farm-to-table produce using a conservation practice encouraged by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). By using seasonal high tunnels, the practice helps to address food security in the city.

High tunnels, or hoop houses, conserve resources while serving as a source for local food. They are plastic-covered structures that enable farmers to have crops ready earlier or later in the season. In high tunnels, plants are grown directly in the ground, and the temperature is regulated by opening or closing the plastic curtain sides and doors on the ends.

While high tunnels have been a staple of farms across the country, NRCS is also striving to put them in urban areas, such as this one in downtown Detroit. The network is working to address food insecurity for Detroit’s black community through strategies which included the creation of an inner-city farm, which not only provides food but a place for people to learn about agriculture.

NRCS provided financial assistance on the network’s first seasonal high tunnel in 2010 through the agency’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program. As a result, the high tunnel helped to deliver an improved localized food system for D-Town Farm, which grows pesticide-free vegetables and herbs for local farmers markets.

“We realized that we had a lack of grocery stores and that people were buying food from gas stations or liquor stores,” said Kwamena Mensa, agriculture specialist for the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network.

High tunnels can perform when the growing season ends for outdoor crops. The houses lengthen growing seasons, in turn, benefiting  producers in urban cities.

During a growing season, producers harvest vegetables and replant different crops within a high tunnel, as the demand for local food increases in Detroit. For example, a producer can plant a warm-weather crop at the beginning of the growing season, and after that crop is harvested, a winter crop gets planted. The farm’s cold-weather crops include kale, Swiss chard and beets; warm-weather crops include tomatoes, peppers and squash.

High tunnels also lead to healthier soil and enable farmers to plant multiple crops in a season while using fewer inputs.

Mensa said the farm benefited with a longer growing season and regulated temperature control for its growing environment. Because the first high tunnel proved effective that NRCS funded, the network implemented another high tunnel on its own.

Mensa said the farm has plans to update his high tunnels, with assistance from NRCS, by installing solar-powered fans, lighting and shutters that will enable growing all year.  For example, hot air stresses plants, and a good ventilation system allows the heat to escape.

D-Town Farm’s sign at the entrance gate in Detroit, Michigan’s River Rouge Park.

D-Town sells its produce twice a week during the summer and fall at farmers markets at Wayne State University and Rosedale Community Park.

Recently, Cynthia Brathwaite, a regular customer, patiently waited to select fresh organic produce from D-Town Farm while staff was setting up the booth. As Brathwaite looked at the produce, she talked to a D-Town Farm employee about how to prepare meals and what recipes she used.

She was told how to cook yellow squash with white onions, olive oil and garlic as part of a meal. In addition, she bought green tomatoes and jalapeno peppers to simmer in red cabbage. D-Town Farm veggies are always top quality, she said.

The Modern Farmer and USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Elisa O'Halloran, National Webmaster, Natural Resources Conservation Service, on March 31, 2014 at 11:00 AM

The Get Started page is a new addition to the NRCS website, and it provides the steps to assistance.

For generations, children have been singing about the farmer, his wife and kids, and even the mouse and the cheese. But today, a modern farmer is more likely to be using the mouse on his computer (or more realistically, a smartphone or tablet) than dancing around a small wooded valley with his family and farm animals.

The website of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, nrcs.usda.gov, has been evolving to keep pace with the needs of today’s farmer. Our mission is to provide American farmers, ranchers and other visitors with the tools and resources they are looking for on a site that is easy to use and navigate.

The most effective websites combine clear and readable text, usability, functionality and simple navigation. We write the text for targeted audiences, which for us includes farmers and ranchers as well as people who use our online tools, such as Web Soil Survey, PLANTS database and COMET-Farm^TM.

Recently, we created a new Get Started with NRCS page. This new webpage helps farmers, ranchers and forest landowners learn how they can make improvements to their land with conservation.

This webpage provides the five steps to getting assistance from NRCS, so that farmers, ranchers and forest landowners can know about the process of applying for assistance from the comfort of their own home, barn, tractor or wherever else they hop online.

Also, we want to point you to our revamped About NRCS and Drought Resources pages as well as our newly created Resources for Small Farms page. About NRCS provides an overview of what NRCS offers, including those popular tools that bring many visitors to our website.

Drought Resources houses information on assistance and resources that can help farmers and ranchers be more resilient to drought. And finally, the Resources for Small Farms page pulls together information and resources that may be of interest to owners and managers of smaller farms, such as information on organics and seasonal high tunnels.

We use a number of tools to help us create these pages, including site traffic and customer experience information. We’ve found that more than 61 percent of people coming to our website were new visitors, many of whom were farmers, ranchers and forest landowners looking for information on conservation programs.

We have about 13,000 visits per day on the NRCS website, and some of our most popular pages deal with soils, Web Soil Survey and Farm Bill.

We hope you enjoy these new and revamped pages, and we welcome feedback on how we can improve our “digital” service center. We’re excited to have the opportunity to help you get started with NRCS!

High Tunnel, Conservation Planning Help Local Food Mission

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Julie MacSwain, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Minnesota, on March 25, 2014 at 12:00 PM

Kate Paul operates a community supported agricultural operation in Minnesota. NRCS photo.

When Kate Paul was a girl in northern St. Louis County, Minn., she enjoyed working in the large family garden near her grandfather’s farm. She loved spending time amid the rows of plants, watching seeds germinate and become plants that provided delicious vegetables for her family.

When she left her hometown for college and graduate school, she was able to continue her passion for farming. While living in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, she volunteered at a community supported agriculture operation (a CSA).

“I was inspired by the wherewithal of the family that worked the land,” she said. “I was also inspired by the network of community members who gained more than just healthy, fresh food from the farm but also gained a connection to the farm, the farmers and other farm members.”

In a CSA, people buy shares of a farm, and then they receive a share of what the farm grows or raises.

Fast forward a few years, and now she has her own CSA, called Owl Forest Farms. “Through this experience, I was inspired to start my own CSA farm on my family’s land after I moved back home,” she said.

When she was getting started, she learned of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and visited the local service center. That’s where she met Marjorie Sella, a district conservationist with NRCS. Sella helped Paul create a conservation plan for the 120-acre family farm, where four acres are used for the CSA.

In addition to the technical assistance that Paul got from NRCS through conservation planning, she also applied and received financial assistance through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, one of the core Farm Bill conservation programs.

This financial assistance helped her build a seasonal high tunnel last year. Seasonal high tunnels are plastic-covered structures that enable farmers to have crops ready earlier or later in the season. In high tunnels, plants are grown directly in the ground, and the sun’s heat regulates the temperature inside.

Kate Paul worked with NRCS to install a seasonal high tunnel on her Owl Forest Farms. NRCS photo.

Seasonal high tunnels are important tools for growing food for local customers, and this effort is part of USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative.

“As a result of the high tunnel, I can now jump start my growing season and also extend the growing season into October and November,” she said. “This will help to extend the amount of time I can run deliveries for my farm members. I’m incredibly grateful to have the high tunnel and the new potential it provides my farm.”

In her first season, Paul grew tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers and a variety of herbs.

“The thing that made this project different was that Paul was a beginning farmer,” Sella said about Paul. “EQIP allowed her to move forward with planning and applying a practice on her land.”

Paul is grateful for NRCS’ technical and financial assistance as this funding enabled her to meet her conservation planning objectives. She looks forward to future growing seasons, especially the produce from her high tunnel.

To get started with NRCS, visit your local USDA Service Center or www.nrcs.usda.gov/GetStarted. Also, be sure to check out NRCS’ resources for small farms.

Tomatoes are some of the many vegetables on Owl Forest Farms. NRCS photo.