Will Hehemann | School of Agriculture, Fisheries and Human Sciences
Since her retirement, Evelyn Rayford, former child nutrition director/supervisor for the Forrest City School District, has spent her mornings in her “hoop house” tending to vegetables she raises for her household. In addition to the plants she grows for personal consumption, she also raises transplants for sale to local organizations and members of the community.
“I grew up on a farm in Forrest City and spent my childhood chopping and picking cotton,” she said. “I promised myself that after growing up in the fields I would never again put a garden hoe in my hand. Well, years later I had to ask the Lord to forgive me for breaking that promise when I realized how badly I wanted to garden again.”
Rayford began to seriously garden again in her retirement. Her garden quickly increased from five to 20 rows. Despite the joys of growing her own produce again, she faced some challenges.
“I’m 72 years old – managing a 20-row garden can be hard work for someone my age,” she said. “I started looking for ways to make gardening a little easier and more practical.”
Setting up a high tunnel garden
Rayford first heard about hoop houses – or high tunnels – at a meeting hosted by the East Arkansas Enterprise Community (EAEC) and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) Small Farm Program. These structures protect crops from extreme weather and allow farmers to extend their growing seasons.
“With high tunnel systems, no summer is too short or winter too cold – farmers can continue to produce their crops,” Alexis Cole, UAPB Extension associate for the Small Farm Program, said. “High tunnel structures are usually made from steel and covered in polyethylene, and they are relatively easy to set up.”
Cole said high tunnels look like big greenhouses, but they do not have benches, and planting is directly in the soil or in raised beds. They can be convenient options for older farmers and gardeners who don’t want to spend a lot of time out in the field.
Cole helped Rayford obtain funding through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) for building materials for the high tunnel.
“Alex helped me develop layouts for the hoop house, and he brought UAPB volunteers to set it up,” Rayford said. “He also helped me install drip irrigation, which efficiently delivers water and nutrients to plants.”
Rayford said she grows a little bit of everything in her high tunnel. Recently she has grown watermelons, squash, tomatoes, strawberries, blackberries and grapes. She is applying for NRCS funds to install a second high tunnel, cover crops, a micro irrigation system and mulching conservation practices.
“Having a hoop house saves me a lot of hard work,” she said. “Growing in raised beds eliminates all the soil chopping. Now, I just water, fertilize and pick my produce – then I go inside and cook it for dinner. At the rate I’m going, I can work in my hoop house garden until I’m 90.”
From garden hobby to garden business
When Rayford got back into gardening, she bought seeds and seedlings from local nurseries. However, she had bad luck with getting the plants to grow.
“The seeds wouldn’t come up,” she said. “The seeds and seedlings I purchased just weren’t strong. I decided to save my own seeds from the plants I grew and eventually started growing seedlings.”
After gaining some experience in growing seedlings, she suggested a new project to fellow members of the St. Francis Master Gardeners program. Instead of just growing flowers, she thought the club members might like to sell vegetable seedlings to the community as part of a fundraiser.
“In the end, the Lord did me a great service that might have been a bit of a disservice for the Master Gardeners program,” she said. “He rained us out. All the seedlings needed to be transported back to my hoop house.”
Over time, the word got out that Rayford had a surplus of seedlings. Gardeners eager to get back to planting started calling her and asking if she had plants for sale.
“I started to earn money for the plants I was initially going to give away,” she said. “And that wasn’t all – people started asking me to grow their seeds for them. A lady came to me with bronze fennel seeds and explained the plant helped her arthritis. I had never heard of that plant before but decided to try and grow it for her.”
Before she knew it, Rayford was growing a diverse range of produce for a growing number of clientele.
“People were approaching me with tomato varieties I had never heard of – hillbilly, Abe Lincoln, Martha Washington and Arkansas Traveler, to name a few,” she said. “It turned out these were heirloom varieties. This year alone I’ve had around 25 varieties of tomatoes for sale.”
In addition to locals who heard about her operation by word of mouth, Rayford sells her seedlings to several community gardens, as well as to EAEC and UAPB for planting in demonstration gardens.
“I see more and more people in the community getting interested in gardening and wanting to grow their own fresh produce,” she said. “The cost of food is going up and people want to eat healthy. Why buy your vegetables and fruit when you can grow your own?”
Instilling healthy habits in youth
Rayford’s recent foray into selling healthy produce is not the first time she has helped increase the sustainability of local food systems in eastern Arkansas. In her role as child nutrition director for the Forrest City School District, she looked into the possibility of buying produce from local farmers. Her efforts led to partnership with UAPB and EAEC in the creation of the Farm to School Program in St. Francis County.
“My colleagues and I wanted to introduce children to fresh, locally-sourced produce,” she said. “Vegetables that have been sitting in a can for months just aren’t as nutritious and don’t taste as good. We wanted to see if fresh vegetables would be popular among the children at our schools.”
She and her peers started working with UAPB and EAEC to find local producers who could supply certain vegetables that would be prepared for school lunches. Cole and other UAPB Extension personnel procured the produce and packaged it according to U.S. Department of Agriculture and school district regulations at the UAPB Agriculture Demonstration Outreach Center in Marianna, Arkansas. Rayford credits Iris Crosby, Extension associate and former station manager at the center, with being instrumental in finding suppliers and getting the food ready for transport to Forrest City school cafeterias.
“It was a gradual process, and it all started with cabbage,” Rayford said. “The kids absolutely loved cabbage. They had never tried it before other than in store-bought slaw. Then we started serving fresh tomatoes and sweet potatoes, which were very popular options.”
Rayford said the popularity of fresh vegetables among the school children was greater than she and her peers originally expected. Each year, she tried to obtain a greater variety of fresh vegetables to meet the demand and introduce students to new healthy food options.
“It is important that children understand food comes from the ground,” she said. “The packaged food we are used to eating just isn’t as nutritious. Our program was a way to show children the joy of eating fresh, local produce.”
Rayford said she originally met Cole through his collaboration as an Extension associate on the Farm to School Program.
“Since I met him, Alex has been my go-to person for help,” she said. “He is a jack of all trades and is always there when I need help, whether it’s setting up a hoop house or assisting with my gardening projects.”
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