COUNTY COLUMN: Health, sustainability and the local farmers market

Thoreau’s “Walden” introduces one of my favorite concepts — getting back to nature and living a simpler, more self-sustaining life.

And that, I’ve learned through recent research, is at the heart of the modern homesteading movement, the key phrases being sustainability and self-reliance.

Homesteaders attempt to do it all — raising their own food, building everything from furniture to fences, canning food for winter, making their own clothes, you name it.

The rise of the modern homesteading movement, its close connection to the land and the increased interest in sustainability has brought a treasure trove of resources to us through our local farmers markets, including the Norman Farm Market at The Well and the Moore Farm Market at Central Park, both under the management of the Cleveland County Farmers Market Manager.

“I’m kind of in between hobby farm and homestead,” said Sean Kracke, RHM Farm. “I know homesteaders, but they’re more off the grid. We do grow and consume our own food, and if I had to do more, I could.”

Retired from military service, Kracke still works at an outside job in addition to farming. Talking to him, however, you quickly learn working the land and raising food is more of a passion than a hobby for this small farmer. Selling at the market helps support his farm operations.

“I‘ve always had a desire to be more sustainable,” Kracke said. “It’s been a shift over time, so it’s a learning process.”

In addition to his bountiful garden, Kracke preserves food for season-round use and also raises goats for meat and dairy, though the meat portion is a longer-range plan. In addition to produce and goats, he raises free-range chickens and Peking ducks for eggs and for personal meat, though he does sell both chicken and duck eggs at the market.

“I also incubate my own chicks,” he said.

Kracke combines old-fashioned canning and dehydration for food preservation for himself and to sell at the market. He has also learned to make his own vinegar, some of which he uses to clean and some of which he uses in food.

“And that’s from apple cores left over from when I make apple butter,” he said, because, like most small farmers, his is a “waste-not-want-not” philosophy.

Despite the labor of love Kracke puts into his land, he is always on the hunt for better farm management practices to make life easier. Along with sustainability, he wants to feed his family a healthier diet. For example, he relies on ladybugs to control aphids rather than resorting to pesticides.

“Even if the farmers at the market are not certified organic, we don’t use pesticides because we’re growing food to eat it,” he said. “I’m also growing food because I want it to be nutrient dense. A lot of commercial food may be big or it may be the right color, but it doesn’t always have the right nutrients because of what they focus on. I focus on making sure it’s nutrient dense.”

Another big difference, he emphasized, is the freshness of foods at the farmers market that help retain the flavor and nutrition.

Find farm fresh, seasonal food at the Norman Farm Market at The Well, 210 S. James Garner Ave. from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays and from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and at the Moore Farm Market at Central Park from 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays.