KOKOMO TRIBUNE
•
SATURDAY, SEPT. 29, 2018
FROM STAFF REPORTS
O
rganic is growing – and
growing fast.
According to the Or-
ganic Trade Association,
sales of organic products
in the U.S. have grown from
$3.6 billion in 1997 to over $47
billion in 2016.
And that’s still not enough to
keep up with the growing de-
mand for organic products. To-
day, a large quantity of organic
produce in the U.S. is imported.
According to the U.D. Depart-
ment of Agriculture, 75 percent
of organic soybeans consumed
in 2016 came from outside the
country.
That’s presented a unique op-
portunity for Indiana farmers,
who have a chance to cash in
on the explosive demand for
organic produce.
And that’s just what some lo-
cal growers are doing. Here’s
the story of four area farms
dedicated to growing organic
produce and raising livestock
naturally.
HEALTHY HOMESTEAD
Michele Reishus never as-
pired to be a farmer. Sure, she
kept up a garden with her hus-
band, Neal, but she never ex-
pected the process of growing
food to become her life’s work.
That all changed when her
father, Richard C. Ripberger, a
businessman, fulfilled his life-
long dream of owning a farm.
Ripberger purchased a farm
located in eastern Howard
County from the Hochstedler
family in 1991, and hired Jarvis
Hochstedler, a grandson of the
original owners, to work as the
farm manager. The property in-
cluded field crops and steer at
the time, Michele noted.
In 1996, the market for beef
fell and the farm was strug-
gling to stay afloat, so Michele
and Jarvis made the decision to
take it back to a dairy farm,
which was much more inten-
sive work. Dairy production be-
gan in the fall of 1996 and the
Reishus household picked up
and moved to the farm in April
of 1997.
In 2001, their herd became
sick with m. paratuberculosis, a
disease that presents itself
through the wasting away of
the cows. The state veterinarian
came to test their whole herd,
and stated that as they culled
the animals, they could not sell
them to a neighbor if they
wanted it off the farm.
Shortly after that experience,
the farm — and the family — did
a complete 180-degree turn in
2002.
A wheelchair-bound Rip-
berger became the family re-
searcher at that time, reading
about different agricultural
methods. He came across an
organization called Sustainable
Earth in 2002 and the
Reishuses went to its confer-
ence in Lafayette.
“I had never even heard the
word ‘sustainable’ in reference
to farming,” Michele said.
That year they attend three
other workshops and confer-
ences, learning how to make
their herd and crops healthier.
“It was through all those ex-
periences that we realized that
what we were mostly interested
in was growing healthy food
and that we needed to figure
out how to do that,” Neal said.
They stopped feeding the
herd grain and switched them
to a grass-fed lifestyle, which
meant less milk and more
work.
“We decided volume and
speed was not what we wanted.
We wanted quality food,” Mi-
chele said.
The turnaround did not just
stop in the barn however.
“As a kid, that meant the mi-
crowave went away, we no lon-
ger had mac and cheese, no
plastics,” Maggie remembered.
“Our whole lifestyle changed.”
The Reishus family of four,
with the addition of Maggie’s
younger brother Zack, began to
eat what was in season and
what could grow locally. They
also cut out most — if not all —
processed foods.
By 2005, the farm was certi-
fied organic and the family has
continued to work towards sus-
tainability ever since.
Today, Healthy Homestead —
the official name of the busi-
ness at R.C. Ripberger Farm —
is a bustling little place at just
about 100 acres, featuring 150
chickens, a flock of sheep, a few
ducks and, of course, a herd of
cattle. The family operates a
small farm store, where patrons
can purchase milk, eggs,
cheeses and various other items
throughout the week.
HOMESTEAD HERITAGE
Changing the way she ate
wasn’t really so much of a de-
sire as a necessity for Lucinda
Gingerich.
A self-proclaimed former
“junk food junkie,” Gingerich
said her bad eating habits led
to some serious health issues.
After suffering long enough, it
was clear a major change was
needed.
It was then decided, between
she and her husband Jonathan,
that the two of them and their
family would no longer eat pro-
cessed food.
So in 2001, Jonathan Ginger-
ich built a home in rural
Howard County for the couple
and their-now eight kids and
started farming, first raising
chickens in pastures, not cages,
in 2004. The family’s devout
Christian faith led them to
want to grow their food in the
most natural, sustainable way
possible.
“When we couldn’t buy this
kind of food anywhere, we
started growing it,” Lucinda
Gingerich said.
But the two underestimated
how expensive growing food
without the fillers that has
dominated conventional farm-
ing.
“We quickly found we could
not possibly grow the food for
what you can buy it at Wal-
mart,” Lucinda Gingerich said.
But the Gingerichs’ persis-
tence and dedication never
stopped despite not having
much experience in farming.
It often took Jonathan work-
ing 20-hour days laying the
groundwork for the farm, split-
ting work between his main
construction job and managing
the day-to-day needs of the
farm.
The family’s farm business,
Homestead Heritage, didn’t re-
ally become a business until
2006, when they took out a
newspaper ad selling chickens.
The initial reaction was positive
and led to the family deciding
to raise more chickens.
The pressure for the farm to
be a success grew after the re-
cession hit in 2008 and the
country’s housing market
crashed, leaving construction a
very unreliable source of in-
come for the family.
So the Gingeriches doubled
down on the farm.
Eventually, the family added
beef and pork to their now
“farm-to-consumer” operation.
Keeping with their pledge,
the cattle were only fed grass
and the pigs are raised in pas-
tures. All of the animals on
Homestead Heritage are raised
without any GMOs, antibiotics
or hormones.
Or as the Gingerich’s like to
put: raising food the way God
intended it to be.
“When you treat an animal
the way God wants it treated –
you put it outdoors and let it
eat what it wants to eat, then in
turn that animal is much
healthier. So when I choose to
eat that animal, I’ve given it a
good life, I’ve been a good
steward, and so it’s been a
happy animal and so it’s much
more nourishing to me,” Lu-
cinda Gingerich said.
“We treat everything the way
God intended it be, and so that
became our motto: Real food
by God’s design.”
Fourteen years into it, Home-
stead Heritage has some 500
total families it feeds. It has
grown to a 140-acre operation.
The family sells its products on-
site Wednesday and Friday, at
Sunsport Natural Foods, at an
Indianapolis farmer’s market
and through its mobile market
trailer on the weekends.
“You know, when I look back,
it’s just an amount of small
steps that eventually became a
living,” she said. “It all eventu-
ally worked out. I guess God
had a plan.”
THISTLE ROCK FARM
The one-room wood cabin
nestled in a small wood clear-
ing, with a 15-foot long porch
overlooking a collection of age-
old trees, but without electricity
or running water or a working
wood stove, is Steve Daily’s oa-
sis.
He purchased the 9 acres
containing the cabin and the
land that surrounds it in the
1980s, during his time as
Kokomo’s mayor, to get away,
Daily admits.
One can imagine the thought
process. Not able to go grocery
shopping. Angry, worried,
happy, interested residents at
his door, on the phone. It was, if
nothing else, overwhelming.
So the cabin became a get-
away, a hideout. It also became
the jumping-off point to what
has become a 130-acre farm fo-
cused on organic produce and
an eclectic throng of animals
ranging from Jerusalem don-
keys and Pygora goats to free-
range chickens and sheep.
The property, Thistle Rock
Farm in Russiaville, is run in
tandem by Daily — a former
mayor, Kokomo Common
Council member and Ivy Tech
Kokomo chancellor — and his
partner, Michelle Martin.
What’s most notable about
Thistle Rock, though, is the
unique niche it has carved out
in Howard County’s farming
community. It also is an exam-
ple of the increased focus in
Howard County on the devel-
opment of natural resources by
small, local and often fami-
ly-managed operations.
Strictly focused on organic
growth — the farm isn’t yet cer-
tified organic, although Daily is
committed to completing the
laborious task in coming years
— and reliant on solar power,
Thistle Rock whets the beak of
any outdoors-lover or farming
aficionado.
Produce that includes jala-
peños, tomatoes, an apple or-
chard, beets and an endless list
of more? Check. A plot of 50 to
70 different herbs? Check.
Stretches of forest? A short ride
from the farm’s main barn
brings fully ideal seclusion.
It’s worth noting that almost
all of the farm’s machinery,
equipment, fencing, gates and
more have been either repur-
posed or obtained second-hand.
Nothing goes to waste.
But most important is the
complete absence of chemical
sprays and other modern-day
farming techniques that Daily
and Martin have committed to
avoiding, even if it makes the
weeds harder to fight.
“We like the idea of being
able to provide good, fresh veg-
etables, that we can say, ‘Look,
what you have here is what
God gave us,’” remarked Daily.
“I really like being confident
that what I’m selling is healthy,
as healthy as it can be in this
world that we’ve created for
ourselves.”
And, so far, over the roughly
four years that the farm has op-
erated in its current state, the
approach has worked.
Much of the farm’s produce
and herbs are sold at the farm-
ers market; ordered by custom-
ers and sometimes delivered to
them; sold to area chefs; pro-
vided to soap and perfume
makers; and vended to area
restaurants.
Thistle Rock has also gained
a reputation as a host for
events like farm-to-fork din-
ners, which allow attendees to
experience the food and music
and raging bonfire alongside
the farm’s rolling hills and
striking views.
Martin, who runs the farm
stand and takes care of much
of Thistle Rock’s organizational
structure along with helping
maintain its day-to-day work-
ings, said they are regularly
complimented on the freshness,
the tastiness of the organical-
ly-grown produce.
NEKTAR FLOW FARMS
When Joan and Bob Johnson
bought 28 acres of land along
the Wabash River in 2011, the
property was used to grow corn
and soybeans.
Today, the property is still
used as farm ground, but the
Johnson’s are growing way
more than corn. These days, the
land — used as a ditch on the
Wabash and Erie Canal and
later part of the interurban
train line — boasts a huge vari-
ety of plants, bushes and crops
that would be tough to find at
any other farm in the area.
There are patches of red and
black raspberries, strawberries,
aronia berries and elderberries.
There are fruit trees producing
peaches, apples, cherries and
plums. There’s an herb garden
growing peppermint, spear-
mint, lavender, thyme, oregano,
basil and more.
There are flower fields full of
clover, sunflowers, buckwheat
and other annuals and perenni-
als. Not far from there is about
3 acres of newly planted trees,
including sycamore, oak, per-
simmon and hazelnut.
Then there’s the patch of
more than 400 native pawpaw
trees that for the first time this
year will produce a huge crop
of the tropically flavored fruit.
It’s one of the largest pawpaw
orchards in the state.
And at the center of it all, at
the highest point on the prop-
erty, are the 18 hives swarming
with bees, busy making honey.
It’s those beehives that are the
namesake of the property,
which the Johnsons call Nektar
Flow Farms.
The day before they officially
took over the land in Novem-
ber 2011, the farmer came and
took off the last harvest of corn.
After that, the Johnsons hired
another farmer to mow off all
the corn stubble and till up all
the soil so they could start their
farm from scratch.
“We said, ‘Bye, bye, GMOs.
See you later,’” Joan said.
The Johnsons worked closely
with neighboring farmers to
ensure the success of their
hives. Bob said today’s geneti-
cally modified corn contains a
coating of chemicals that is
toxic to bees and has led to the
massive collapse of bee colo-
nies all over the world.
But, Joan said, the farmer
around their property who
plants GMO corn graciously
agreed to plant the fields
around their property at night,
when the bees are inside their
hives. They also planted trees
around parts of the property to
ensure herbicides from other
fields wouldn’t drift into the
bee colony.
Bob said besides the bees,
the other big undertaking at
the farm is the 410 pawpaw
trees they’ve planted, which is
one of the largest orchards of
its kind in Indiana.
The Johnsons currently for-
age the fruit from the trees
growing in the woods around
their property and use it to
make ice cream. Bob said the
orchard will produce its first
crop this year, and he antici-
pates harvesting around 300
pounds of the fruit, which is na-
tive to the Midwest.
Joan said transforming a for-
mer corn and soybean field
into an all-natural farm has
been a huge undertaking. But
for the two, the extra work has
been worth it. Not only do they
feel like they’re fulfilling their
mission of growing organic,
natural food, they’re also creat-
ing a patch of healthy land for
generations to come.
“We try to think seven gener-
ations down the line, and we
don’t want to have a poisonous
growing space,” she said. “We
want pure nature.”
ORGANIC FARMING GROWS IN POPULARITY
BUSY BEES:
Bob Johnson takes a closer look at some of his
honeybees at Nektar Flow Farms. (
Kelly Lafferty Gerber)
MEALTIME:
13-year-old Jared Gingerich feeds the chickens at
Homestead Heritage Farm. (
Kelly Lafferty Gerber | Kokomo Tribune)
MOOOVING:
Neal Reishus gathers the cows from the pasture to
bring them into the milk house for their daily milking at the RC
Ripberger Farm on July 12, 2018.
(Tim Bath | Kokomo Tribune)
