Thursday, February 14, 2008

Barking Cat Farm in Rockwall grows flowers, herbs and vegetables the natural way

By Minnie Payne

ROCKWALL — Perched just northeast of Dallas on Interstate 30 is a 4,000 square foot nursery, Barking Cat Farm, that produces fresh flowers, herbs and vegetables the natural way which taste and look so good that owners Kim Martin, 42, and Laurie Bostic, 47, sole employees, are building a 20-acre addition located in Hunt County to accommodate their clientele.

“I’m not only impressed with the quality of what Laurie and Kim offer, but equally impressed with the conviction that underlies how they grow their produce and flowers,” said customer Valarie Englert.

According to Bostic, because of zoning and deed restrictions, the public isn’t allowed to visit the actual nursery location. Their way of allowing customers to buy from them is through a “Community Supported Agriculture” (CSA) program, wherein there is a truck drop-off for all CSAs in Rockwall in the Rockwall County Extension Office parking lot on Friday afternoons at 2 p.m.. The public is also allowed to buy off the truck at that time.

“Hopefully, later on we can arrange for people to visit our location in Hunt County,” she said.

Martin and Bostic, electrical engineers, retired early from the engineering field and to do something constructive, spent their days as community volunteers in Rockwall and Dallas. But as many retired people discover, volunteer work isn’t as challenging as they would like it to be. Because they were still young, they started looking around trying to find a business in which they could become involved with. They decided on farming.

“Gardening has been a lifelong experience for both of us,” said Martin. “I went through the Texas Master Gardener Program which is sponsored by the Texas AgriLife Extension.

“In addition, we both have family backgrounds of farmers and gardeners that influenced us.”

Bostic explained that the nursery is not open-field farming, but rather raised farming in a condensed space.

“We also have some nursery beds that are a little bit pampering to perennial crops like herbs and asparagus that are not quite as raised,” she said.

We have two different types of raised farming, she said, the first type of bedding being made of untreated wood which is painted and treated; the second type of bedding being made of untreated wood and corrugated metal.

“The reason we went to the corrugated beds instead of the wooden beds is a matter of cost,” she said.

The need for raised bedding, Martin said, is because in the Rockwall area the soil is very much made up of clay and has to be worked with and amended for years; the soil at the new 40-acre Hunt County is more of a sandy loam, excellent for growing crops.

“Presently we’re using cover crops at our Hunt County Farm to prevent soil erosion and build soil fertility,” Martin said. “We’ll be growing fresh vegetables and flowers at that location in open-field fashion.”

“Our raised beds at the Rockwall nursery are presently full of fresh vegetables such as sugar snap peas, green shelling peas, lettuce, cress, leeks, onions, and Asian greens.”

She said when the beds were originally made at the Rockwall nursery, they put in soil from Living Earth Technology; now all they do is predominantly add compost which consists of non-infested material frequently taken out of the beds, as well as paper and cottonseed meal,” she said. “We don’t use animal compost.”

Barking Cat Farm opened in 2004, said Bostic, and is starting their fourth growing season. She said that originally they thought they would be growing 100 percent flowers, but realized that the greater demand was on food, so concentrate on that area, with some flowers.

“We’re fortunate to have Wendy and Michie Akin of Akin Farm in Terrell who help us in many ways, mentoring and giving advice and guidance based on their considerable experience,” said Bostic.

"Moon Dance Farm, Jacque Kirk’s five-acre tract in Rockwall County, also lends a helping hand when needed,” she said.

Martin said that they realize that it’s difficult for people living in Dallas to come to the Rockwall truck drop-off to secure produce and flowers, but they can enjoy their fare at such fine restaurants as Parigi - chef/owner Janice Provost; York Street - chef/owner Sharon Hage; Tramontana - chef/owner James Neel; and Zanata - chef/co-owner Ted Grieb.

“We welcome restaurants as customers and we deliver to them,” she said.

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• Entrepreneurship / Start-Up Companies
• Retail
• Home and Garden > Gardening

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