Rae lives and farms on Barr Farms with her family. She loves cooking healthy food, trying new things, deep conversations with friends, reading, learning, and playing, especially with her three children.
It was so fun to host a field day on the farm last week for Organic Association of Kentucky. We had about 30-40 people show up to learn about our farm, network and "talk farm shop." OAK staff are amazing and provided a detailed summary of the field day, with resources. Here is their summary, followed by a link to the full event summary and resources.
“What’s great about organic agriculture is that it requires that you’re always thinking holistically. It’s all tied together.” Adam Barr introduced dozens of Field Day participants to his family farm with this thought, as he and Rae Strobel explained how they - as the seventh generation to steward their family land, are always thinking about long-term sustainability, for their family and in their farm management. The event highlighted how Adam and Rae are growing organic vegetables with practices that build healthy soil while adding perennials into their farmscape to expand their crop diversity, support their ecosystems and improve resilience “for the next seven generations.”
OAK staff discussed Barr Farms’ conservation practices, provided a visual demonstration of what Barr Farms’ practices are building underground, and shared resources on OAK’s Climate-Smart Project. Adam shared his work with OAK’s Global Farm Metric tool, assessing his on-farm climate-smart practices as part of his whole farm sustainability efforts.
Barr Farms has offered Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares of vegetables since they started in 2007. As they made plans to double the farm’s growth in 2014, they found they were no longer able to have conversations with every customer about their commitment to land stewardship and healthy growing practices, so they sought organic certification as a way to communicate their values to customers. Barr Farms currently grows certified organic vegetables and berries for 300 CSA shareholders (including many via the Kentucky Farm Share Coalition), local farmers markets and restaurants, and food access programs like Fresh Rx and Bringing Justice Home. They also raise and sell grass-finished beef and pastured poultry.
As they have grown their farm and markets and improved production and business systems, Rae and Adam have used the ethos of long-term sustainability to guide their decision-making.
To see the full summary with resources, click here.