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Rare farming land inside the North Little Rock city limits will be tilled and soon be ready for vegetable planting.
The self-sustaining farming operation at the former St. Joseph Home closed when the orphanage shut down in 1976 and transitioned into a day care for local children. For 37 years farming on the 63-acre site has been limited to small vegetable plots for a select number of local residents. Twenty-four cows have continued to graze the land to keep the grass from being overgrown.
After the day care closed in 1997, the owner, the Diocese of Little Rock, used the building for retreats and meetings. In 2010 a 50-year lease with signed with St. Joseph Center of Arkansas to continue to offer retreat space and develop new uses for the property.
Initially the non-profit was focused on what to do with the 56,000-square-foot building, which needs at least $3 million in electrical and plumbing upgrades, and finding appropriate tenants to support the vision.
Through Perry Jones, Heifer USA country director, the non-profit was contacted in June by farmer Jody Hardin, who started Argenta Market in North Little Rock and Hardin’s Market in Scott, with a new vision for the property — St. Joseph Farm. Hardin signed a five-year sublease with St. Joseph Center to use the property for an expansive organic farming operation and education center.
“We have been out there for a while trying to find a good fit,” said Sandy DeCoursey, St. Joseph Center president. “This is the perfect fit … to utilize the property and the building and serve the community.”
The land will be transformed with vineyards and orchards, goat dairy, nursery and greenhouses, farmer-in-training garden, a Community-Supported Agriculture garden and “food forest.” Hardin would also like to raise pigs and roosters (if city ordinances are changed). In the building, Hardin wants to use some of the rooms for an education center for farmers-in-training.
The goal of the project is to educate farmers in sustainable agriculture methods, teach children and residents where their food comes from and feed the hungry. Half the produce will be given to the local poor while the other half will be sold to support the operation.
“This is a pastoral setting that is rare to see,” Hardin said.
For the first phase, the North Little Rock Fit to Live Community Garden will take over 10 plots.
Next summer an eight-acre community-supported agriculture program will be running. One hundred families will be able to “subscribe” for $720 a year to receive a biweekly bounty of seasonal fruits, vegetables, herbs, goat milk, cheese and yogurt, bread and pastured eggs and chickens. The garden will be tended by the members, volunteers and two interns.
The site will become an agricultural, arts and education center with other building tenants using space for their art studios, offices and meetings.
Within his five-year plan, Hardin envisions a 20-acre “food forest,” where one hillside will be terraced and a trail will wind around various vegetable plants and fruit and nut trees. The food forest would be ideal for field trips and school and scout group to “snack your way through the forest” and learn how food is grown. Half of the fruit, berries, nuts and vegetables grown in the forest will be given to hunger relief organizations.
Hardin is dedicating his life to operating St. Joseph Farm. Wearing a St. Joseph medal around his neck given to him by Bishop Anthony B. Taylor, Hardin said he has tried many different careers but as a fifth-generation farmer he needs to stick close to the land. He will live in the former priest’s apartment full time.
“I have been trying to farm for profit,” Hardin said. “I just gave up and said let’s just feed people who need it and let’s create farmers and let’s create systematic change in our rural communities where the local food systems have broken down. Let’s mentor farmers and get them back to their communities and help them innovate with alternative agriculture.”
Hardin will use the commercial kitchen, dining room and several rooms for St. Joseph Farm. The basement food storage area once used by the Benedictine nuns who staffed St. Joseph Home will become a “cheese cave” where goat cheese will be aged. Hardin would like to invite local chefs to the kitchen to lead baking and cooking classes.
News of St. Joseph Farm has increased interest in what is happening in the 103-year-old building.
“A good chunk of our time is spent giving tours,” DeCoursey said. “Most people who have driven by here their whole lives are just curious.”
DeCoursey said organized tours will now be given from noon-3 p.m. Saturdays.
While much is changing at St. Joseph Center, DeCoursey said one thing that is staying is the center’s caretaker. Julius Greb, 83, has worked the land since 1955 and continues to arrive daily at 6:20 a.m. to feed the cattle.
“He is a walking encyclopedia of all things St. Joseph,” she said.
