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Surrounded by the history of the valley's early farmers, modern families carry on agricultural traditions, while also introducing their own specialized practices. In order to preserve the valley's pastoral landscape and protect both natural and cultural resources, Cuyahoga Valley National Park developed a farming program. This program invites farmers to lease land and farm in the national park. It aims to balance the needs of the land and farmer, who must follow strict guidelines for sustainable farm management.
The farming program began as the Countryside Initiative in 1999. Its goal was to rehabilitate approximately 20 picturesque old farms that operated in the valley from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s. As agriculture largely disappeared from the valley in the 1900s, these farms fell into disrepair. Through the farming program, the National Park Service celebrates farming and healthy land practices that help both the farmers and the land.
While farming in a national park is an unconventional idea in America, that is not the case elsewhere in the world. In Great Britain, for example, over 90% of national park land is privately owned. Not only is it considered natural and normal to live within the park boundaries, farming is considered the only practical way to maintain the openness, beauty, and diversity of the countryside.
Farming in a National Park
Alan Halko, from the former Spring Hill Farm and Market, describes the unusual challenges of farming on National Park Service land.
It's been some adventures with the National Park. You know, I had to have an archeological study before I could put fence posts in the ground. Of course, I didn't know that. I just—I—I thought I was just gonna build this fence, and I couldn't. I had to wait, you know. And of course the archeologists are traveling archeologists who go from national park to national park, and they were already here and gone, so I had to wait 'til the next year to start my fence. Which...
But there's been some adventures like that. I found buried concrete. There were greenhouses on the property at one time, and they tore down all these greenhouses. And the contract with the park paid them to haul all the concrete away, and they buried all the concrete. So when I got here and put a plow in the ground, I just started hittin' concrete, concrete. And the national park ended up comin' in with a giant bulldozer with, you know, three-foot ripper teeth on the back, and a coupla bobcats, and they had to run through the field. And they collected a mountain—I don't know how many truckloads of concrete were buried in the field that I was supposed to be growing on. So... It's been an adventure, I'll say that. And I've enjoyed most of it. ~laughs~
Sustainability and the Small Farm
Daniel Greenfield, from the Greenfield Berry Farm, talks about what it takes to be a sustainable farmer.
On its face, sustainable as an ecological form of farming, I think, all of these farms that are going on now have very high expectations of them, and it's expected of them to grow using practices that are environmentally sound. We submit proposals every year to the National Park Service so they will know what we're doing. I mean, there's other aspects of sustainable we could be talking about. Are these farms going to be economically sustainable? Will we be able to make enough money to stay in business for years? I think that's the one with the biggest question mark. It's hard to be a small-scale farmer and make money. I think we have a certain advantage here in that we're in a great location. We're in a national park, so we can be destination farms. We're halfway between Cleveland and Akron, so we're very accessible to large communities, and there's a lot of promise there.
Farming at Trapp Family Farm is powered by draft horses.
Courtesy Countryside
The Countryside Initiative
Cuyahoga Valley National Park serves as a largely undeveloped refuge in a metropolitan area. In addition to natural and cultural resources, the park preserves the rural heritage of the Cuyahoga Valley. For about 25 years, the National Park Service's Countryside Initiative established living, working farms to sustain that rural heritage, while also protecting the park's resources. A testament to the success of that initiative, today the park's farming program sustains landscapes associated with American farm life.
In 1999 the Countryside Conservancy (later called Countryside Food and Farms) was established as a non-profit partner of the National Park Service. During its early years, Countryside focused primarily on farm rehabilitation. The organization developed numerous educational programs to support new farmers, as well as to engage and educate the general public. After years of hard work, now there are nine operational farms and over a dozen restored farm properties in the park. Learn more about the early days of the program by listening to the oral history clips below.
Countryside Initiative
Darwin Kelsey was the founder of Countryside Conservancy, the nonprofit organization that helped launch Cuyahoga Valley's Countryside Initiative. In a 2011 oral history, Darwin describes the organization's history, goals, and role in inventorying the valley's historic farms.
“Well, one of the first things we had to do was what I described as inventorying the dead carcasses of old farms to see how many body parts could be stitched back together. You know, because the old farms are in tough shape, badly decayed. Houses are gone, barns are gone, fields are gone, fields are overgrown, you know. Describing them as dead body parts is pretty appropriate. And we inventoried the dead carcasses of about eighty-five, and that was what was left. And that was what was left, you know, a century and a half after there began to be farms here, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when people began to move into this part of Ohio, and began to move into the valley, and they began to settle the valley. "Then you go from a landscape that, you know, had agriculture in the year seven, eight hundred with Native Americans, but not European Americans until the early nineteenth century, and not many. And then throughout the nineteenth century their numbers continued to grow; several hundred. By the end of the nineteenth century there were probably somewhere over seven or eight hundred farms, small farms in the valley between Cleveland and Akron. You move into the nineteenth century and America's changing, radically. America's urbanizing and industrializing. Agriculture is industrializing or getting bigger and is moving to other parts of the country, and some of the things that are beginning to happen cause the kinds of farming that was being done here to really struggle. "In the twentieth century you began to see a decline of what was an increase in the nineteenth. We don't know how many were left by the middle part of the twentieth century but it surely was less than half of what had been here. And by the time that the park was formed about twenty-five years later, you can see why, you know, there was this anxiety or angst about preventing the disappearance of the landscape and character. And I should say, I don't think, on their part, it was about a romantic pining for a lost world. I think they clearly perceived that something very valuable, very fundamental, about our society was disappearing, and it was something not to be welcomed, and something to be worried about. And I think that's what they were after. "However many there were left . . . it's gotta be, I would say, a couple hundred, but . . . by the time, twenty-five years later we started out, as I say, we were sort of looking at the bits and pieces, what was left of about eighty-five or so. We thought at first, naively, that we might be able to salvage thirty, thirty-five. Five years into it, when we looked at how badly the body parts were decaying, we began to say twenty; twenty, twenty-two maybe, a couple dozen. And ten, twelve years later, we're saying we'll probably get thirteen or fourteen, in terms of farms that are actually operating again as individual farms. We started that inventorying process in '99 when the Conservancy was created. Now, twelve years later, we have eleven farms operational. We'll have two more that we'll offer for long-term lease this summer, and probably one more. After that, you know, we'll take some of those body parts that I was talking about, those fields that don't have houses and barns and outbuildings and things, and we'll use 'em for other things we call 'production and demonstration sites' and education centers and so on, so we'll create other things.”
Sustainable Farming
Beth Knorr was the local food programs coordinator and markets manager at Countryside Conservancy. In a 2011 oral history, she explains how our national park raises the profile of sustainable farming.
“Because the National Park is such a visible place, I mean, we really do have a 'bully pulpit' to talk about the importance of sustainable agriculture. We're right in the middle of two very large populations, and so the access to farms by those populations in their national park is really a fantastic opportunity that many people wouldn't have otherwise. And I think it just demonstrates that . . . you know, I think many people have this image of farming as being very destructive, and . . . to the environment in particular . . . and I think having examples of agriculture within a national park that are not is a really important thing to highlight.”
A park farmer uses a tractor on their farm.
NPS / Ted Toth
Learning to Farm
Could you run your own farm? Some farmers joined the park farming program with a long history of agricultural work in their families, while others joined the program with no history of farming life. Nine farms currently operate as part of the park's farming program, each at a different stage of development. As part of their commitment to run a successful farm, the farmers continue their education through courses offered by local organizations. These farmers face daily challenges related to learning and conducting general farming practices, as well as aligning their work with the sustainability goals of the national park.
Learning to Farm
Laura DeYoung, of The Spicy Lamb Farm, talks about how she learned her business.
So I learned a lot of things the hard way. And I'm getting better at things. Like... I was one of those females that had never changed a tire, and it wasn't until ~laughs~ actually it wasn't until this past fall when I got my hay wagon that I had to change all four tires, you know, so... There's a lot of things that I'm learning the hard way. Luckily I'd taken wood shop and things like that when I was a child before we moved away, but um, you know. You just learn as you go. And there was a woman that came out to the farm the other day to interview me who was thinking about, who's doing the "small farm dream" program through the Countryside Conservancy, and she said, "Well, I need to learn more, you know, before... Study more." And I said, "You can study all you want. You're gonna learn from doing."
Learning from Other Farmers
Pamela Neitenbach, of the Neitenbach Farm, explains how she learns from the experiences of other farmers in the valley.
But what's nice is that, you know, being in the valley with all the other farmers in the conservancy, they're really open to talk about how they do things. You know, you have like this little community of farmers right there that are able to talk to you about what they do and you can tell them what you do, and then , you know, you can take whatever from them which is, you know.... You can read so many books, but when you have the knowledge of somebody that they convey to you what they're doing right now, it's, you know, pretty helpful. ~laughs~
From Gardening to Farming
Heather and Eric Walters, of the former Basket of Life Farm, describe how they shifted from gardening to farming.
Heather: So I had to learn all the basics, because I didn't know how to pick a green bean or apple, or put a seed in the ground. I remember the first time we were planting pumpkin seeds, I'm like, does it matter which way I put them? You know, does it matter which way is pointed up? Because I had no idea! I mean, I was a city girl, right? Yeah, so I had to learn those real basics. But when we started, you know, we were doing every, every single thing by hand, except for tilling. Everything else we did by hand. And as we've kind of gone up, we've gone through a lot of steps and we've learned kind of a lot about what it means to grow more food, bigger, and I think we've learned a lot of that together.
Eric: The difference is between gardening and farming. I'd grown organic food for myself for almost ten years before I met Heather and it had just kind of expanded itself to that. They're two different things totally.
Farmer's Optimism
David Wingenfeld, of Canal Corners Farm and Market, offers some advice for farmers who face daily challenges.
And you have to be the optimist, the eternal optimist, if you're gonna farm. Don't let anything get you down. Keep movin'. We always go to different conferences every year just to learn new stuff. There's always somethin' new to learn. New methods. New crops. What's popular. We get to talk to other growers. That's probably one of the best things to do; go to two or three conferences a year.
Produce and eggs are among the many products of park farms.
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.
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.
At nine o'clock on Saturday morning the cowbell rings. Within seconds, a stampede of visitors rushes into the market and customers greet farmers at their favorite stands. The farmers market is one of the best ways for small-scale, local farmers to earn a living and gain publicity. Cuyahoga Valley Farmers Markets bring area farmers together to sell and promote locally-grown food, and were one of the first of these markets within a national park. Visit one year-round. Don't buy food from strangers!
“So, a day in our Saturday farmer's market is pretty early. We get to the office around six o'clock or so, and we head out to the market site. We're usually there by six-fifteen or six-thirty depending on the time of the season and how many vendors we have coming. And we set up our own tents, you know. We have a couple of booths for information for customers where we accept the tokens or use the cards to . . . for customers to purchase tokens. We set up our cooking demonstration stand, a musician's stand, and then once the vendors start coming, usually around six-forty-five or seven, it's a matter of making sure that they're setting up. We often have a lot of volunteers who help them with that. And um, just making sure everybody's arriving on time and getting where they need to go. At nine o'clock, we actually have a cowbell that we ring ~laughs~ to open the market, and we actually make our customers wait until nine o'clock which gives the vendors enough time to finish setting up and getting ready. And if they're there early enough, the vendors are . . . you can see the vendors walking around the market, doing their shopping really quick before ~laughs~ all the customers get there. But at nine o'clock we ring the cowbell and in go the customers. And that's actually really a fun thing to see, just the rush of customers, and they all disperse and go to their favorite stands, and then it's just a lot of hustle and bustle."
Tomato Tastings
2011 Oral History Project: Beth Knorr, Local Food Programs Coordinator / Markets Manager, describes the tomato tastings.
“The past couple of years we've had tomato tastings in the summer, where people can taste upwards of thirty different varieties of tomatoes at a single go. That is probably folks' favorite, is the tomato tasting. . . . We print out a list of all the tomato varieties that are being offered at the farmer's market that summer, and last year I think we about 130 varieties being grown between all the vendors. But on that given day, you know, whatever's ripe is what we'll taste, and it's usually around thirty varieties. So people can just take a little slice off, you know, learn the name of that item and it tells them what farms are selling that, so if they like it, they know exactly where to go to get it. Or if they want to grow it in their own garden the following year, they know what varieties they like.”
