Sandheron Farm

Jefferson County, Kansas

Located in the Glaciated Region of Northeastern Kansas, Sandheron Farm is a small family farm and the home of Stu, Patti, Miriam, and Michael. We're organic farmers, and members of Rolling Prairie Farmers Alliance, a Community Supported Agriculture cooperative providing organic produce to subscribers in the Northeast Kansas area.

We live in a beautiful part of a land most people see, if at all, as they look out their windows going 70-90 m.p.h. From the windows of our home we see beauty in all directions. The seasons pass, and billions of beings live their lives with us, as we, with them, breathe the common air and share the life of our Mother Earth. We are committed to changing the society and culture that threatens this life, that enslaves and exploits people and the Earth in the interest of enriching the few at the expense of the many.  If you would like to, please e-mail us:  sandheron@earthlink.net

Brief Profile of Sandheron Farm

Patti, our two kids, Miriam and Michael, and I (Stu) found our place in the beautiful Buck Creek valley in southern Jefferson County about fifteen years ago, and quickly decided this was where we had to be. The thirty acres straddle a draw that drains three hills (to the West, the South, and the North) into Buck Creek, across the road to the East of our land. Buck Creek, which meanders generally southward to enter the Kaw northwest of Lawrence, is one of the prettiest waterways in this part of the state.

Just above the draw on Sandheron Farm lie about five acres of relatively flat ground, where I have established our main production garden. The rest of the land is hillsides with slopes too steep for tillage. Although the hills had been tilled in the 1960's and ‘70s, someone at some point recognized that significant erosion was quickly ruining the land. They wisely planted the slopes and the bottom to grass, the preferred species at the time for pasture being brome.

picture of little bluestem grass
At the top of one hill is a woodlot that appears to be overgrown in oak and hickory, from its original prairie state. I’ve found a number of interesting native prairie grasses and forbs on that hill, clearly survivors from the days of the more common tall grass prairie of those days.

When we first moved here, our immediate goals were to get the kids into a natural environment in which they could grow and thrive in harmony with Mother Earth, and to provide as much of our own sustenance from the land as possible. But being on the land had also taught us that the some of the same skills for self-sufficiency can be used for surplus production, which can be sold to supplement income. We had already learned the difficulties of making a family’s entire income from farming, and were active in several ways in the movements for sustainable agriculture and the defense of the family farm. Besides, we had to take a mortgage to acquire the land, and those payments alone would be difficult to sustain with an income solely from farming a relatively small plot. So we have kept our “day jobs;” Patti, as a nurse, and me as a professor at Johnson County Community College, in the Kansas City area.
 
I was invited to apply to become a member grower in the Rolling Prairie Farmers Alliance seven years ago, and I jumped at the chance. Although I remain one of the smaller growers in the group, each year I expand further into the five acres of bottom ground and improve the fertility of the soil.
picture of squash flower

At this point, we have the entire five acres in a production rotation, with about two acres in rotation left fallow in grass and clover, which I mow to provide mulch for the vegetable crops. I continue to improve the tilth and fertility of the soil using the best sustainable practices. I do most of the work in the vegetable field and our small orchard, with the help of apprentices and my 17 year old son, Michael. Patti and the kids take care of our ducks and assorted dogs and cats.