Similar to historic farms, the farms in the park operate on a relatively small scale with highly diverse products that target local specialty and niche markets. Products include fruit, vegetables, flowers, herbs, poultry, pigs, sheep, goats, and cattle. The following audio clips illustrate the variety of products that park farmers grow and sell.
In Their Own Words
Hear stories about Cuyahoga Valley life below.
Goat Personalities
Terry Smith, of the former Goatfeathers Point Farm, talks about the unique personalities of his goats.
The bucks are the most laid back, the males. They're kinda like "yeah" they get kind of a Zen thing, you know. But some of the does--We have a little doe now that's just a troublemaker. She's always—She's learned that she can jump over the fence. And so she jumps over the fence, you go out, and she sees ya, and then she runs back and jumps back over the fence and looks at ya like, "Eh, I didn't do anything." And actually the family group is so strong it's hard to believe. There'll be, you know, great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, daughter, and they'll just hang out together in their own little herd, within the herd, and they'll all go over and lay down together over there and they all kind of act the same, and, yeah. In fact, you can pull a kid off and have it away for six months, and it'd come back and it goes right over to its mom and they start hanging out—and it's not a kid anymore, it's a full-grown goat, and they just hang out together. ~laughs~
Growing Herbs
AJ and Pamela Neitenbach, of the Neitenbach Farm, describe what herbs they grow and how to use them in cooking and as medicine.
Pamela: So we grow echinacea. Of course the yarrow, ~laughs~ and we have culinary herbs, too. We have feverfew, which is used for migraines. We grow hops, which is used as a sedative. A lot of people use it for sleeping, if they can't sleep well, but we also sell it to people who are brewing beer. We grow ginseng. We're looking at growing goldenseal—
AJ: Astralagus
Pamela: Astralagus. We have—
AJ: Lemon balm.
Pamela: Lemon balm. And a lot of 'em you can use for teas, you dry, use for teas. Like garden sage. You know, we have dried for herbs, for culinary use, but you can also use it for a tea, you know. Or if you're making—Like, for example, I made cough syrup for my kids and you'd put that in there and it's antibacterial properties in it because it's high in oils.
Community Supported Agriculture
Daniel Greenfield, of the Greenfield Berry Farm, explains the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.
The last several years we've had a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, program where people subscribe, they buy in. This entitles them to come back once a week throughout the growing season to pick up whatever we're harvesting. Well, it's a good way to eat with the seasons. So whatever is being harvested, that's what they have to figure out to eat with. It connects people to the farm, it gives some additional support to the farmer, and takes away some of the risk because they're paying up front and they're sort of agreeing, okay, whatever this farm year brings, I'm in it with you.
