Earth Elements Farm

Micro-farm Adds Value In More Ways Than One

Lexington, Oklahoma

Sometimes personal adversity and limited funds foster an environment of innovation and creativity. For April Harrington, the sole proprietor-farmer of Earth Elements Farm in Lexington, Oklahoma, it's led to an agricultural operation that is practically 100 percent value-added. On 3/4-acre of her five acre farm, April organically grows the medicinal and culinary herbs she uses in her body care products as well as in her breads and homemade canned soups. Along with fifteen varieties of heirloom vegetables, she sells her food products, body care products, and herbs at a local farmers' market. She also retails her body care products by mail and through two area health food stores. Her sales have all resulted from word-of-mouth marketing.

"I grew up in a suburb and started out in the fashion industry," begins April, about her non-existent farming background or experience. "Then in 1991, I overcame ovarian cancer by changing my lifestyle and creating the body care products that assisted in my recovery. It opened my eyes to a more natural --and simpler -- way of life."

Continues April, "I was drawn to farming because I wanted to grow the herbs that I used in my body care products -- products, incidentally, which were increasingly requested by my friends and others who wanted alternatives to the synthetic pharmaceutical options." Her Earth Elements Farm body care products include tooth powder, lip balm, deodorant, muscle rub, various salves and wrinkle ointments -- all natural and free of synthetic chemicals.

Frugality rules at Earth Elements Farm, since cash was limited from the start. April purchased her farm in 1998 and added facilities to serve her needs as she grew her business, reinvesting profits from previous year's sales to cover construction costs. She's no stranger to bartering and trading with area farmers, often bundling neighboring farmers' products with hers when going to market or using their surplus or slightly blemished fruits and vegetables in her soups or sugar-free jams and jellies. "Because I'm so diversified in body care and food products, sometimes I don't always get into the gardens," she admits.

"I started with nothing," says April. "I'm a big recycler and cultivated relationships with people in my community, including owners of several construction companies, and was able to collect much of the material I needed for numerous projects." The farm now includes a 16-foot by 20-foot commercial kitchen, also licensed by the State of Oklahoma Health Department as a bakery, a permanent mini-hoop house, and a movable full-size hoop house created by joining together two cattle panels at the top and covering them with plastic. "It's taken lots of labor hours," grins April, "but not a lot of money." The greenhouses allow her to extend her growing seasons and allows her to sell year-round.

Earth Elements Farm also had a lot of help from interns located through organicvolunteers.com, numerous intermittent volunteers from the community and financial support from various grants received over the years. One of the larger construction projects -- a soon-to-be-completed bakery constructed with straw bales and timber framed -- attracted many helping hands of those in the community; many were eager to learn about this increasingly popular form of natural, or "green," building that uses straw bales as insulation material to achieve an estimated super-insulated value of R-43 (an average insulated home is R-19).

Volunteers also helped build raised beds, some constructed from junked above ground swimming pool frames and more recently, concrete blocks. "Bermuda grass is a huge problem for organic growers in our area," says April. "We had to do something to prevent it from taking over our growing beds. As it turns out, we've also garnered higher yields and have used less water with the raised beds." When pressed on her decision to use eight-inch-tall cement blocks, April replies: "The theory is that as I get older, I can add another layer of blocks and raise the beds further to save possible back strain."

Today, about 35 percent of Earth Elements Farm's sales come from her well-established Earth Elements Farm body care products, 30 percent from her breads, 20 percent from her canned goods, 10 percent from heirloom vegetables sold at the year-round Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City Farmers' Market, and 5 percent from adult and children's on-farm workshops, tapping the growing interest in agri-tourism.

"The farm helped strengthen my physical, emotional and spiritual connection with the environment and others," says April. Her operations are an inspiring example of the changing face of farming in America, demonstrating both high margin, value-added products and made with ingredients grown on relatively small acreage. It also echoes the increasing leadership role women have taken in farming. According to the USDA NASS Census of Agriculture, the number of principal farm operators who were women grew 12.6 percent from 1997 to 2002, representing 236,269 women farm operators in 2002.

"I know I have great potential for further growth," admits April. "But I don't want to lose sight of my present quality of life. My wealth comes from good food, friendly community and good work."

Whether or not operations are expanded, Earth Elements Farm offers a benchmark for other small farms to consider. Size matters, especially when you're adding value to diversified product lines.