SPRINGDALE -- Appel Farms opens and closes its growing seasons by letting customers literally pick their produce -- strawberries in the spring and pumpkins in the fall.
The rest of the year, the Appel family sells their bounty field-side from the house on Elm Springs Road where Travis Appel grew up, said his wife Ashley.
A few pickers Thursday were bent over in the strawberry patch on opening day, trying to beat the rain forecast by dark skies.
Appel Farms is a starting point in a growing farm-to-table system that puts produce straight from area farms into local kitchens.
The Walton Family Foundation is giving the system a big boost by providing new market opportunities for local growers through the Market Center of the Ozarks, currently under construction in Springdale.
The foundation would see success in the farm to table system if their efforts would let farmers grow full time to support their families, said Karin Endy, a consultant for the foundation.
"At heart it's the farmers," she said. "It all starts on a farm."
Ashley Appel said her family's efforts do provide a living for their family of five.
Kayla Lindsey, manager of the Fayetteville Farmers Market, said her 1.5 acres at Crosses supports her family of two.
But the emphasis of farm to table is not just about supporting local growers or eating your vegetables.
Vince Pianalto, a chef instructor at Brightwater: A Center for the Study of Food in Bentonville, said the farm-to-table pipeline is reeducating people about the sources of their food.
Fresh vegetables and fruits taste better, area growers, chefs and dietitians agree.
And the health benefits are real, said Natalie Bules, a registered dietitian with Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville.
The Walton foundation also encourages this renewed interest in where food comes from, Endy said.
"As we become aware food is global, growing it closer to home makes more sense," she said.
"We want to work, play and eat where we live," she continued. "Shouldn't we eat the food that comes from where we live?"
Fresh best
Farm to table means fresh, nutritious local produce, sold to restaurants or directly to customers, Lindsey said.
"Then they can turn around and make nutritious meals," she continued.
Buying locally also means people are forced to eat what is in season, which also means what is at the peak of its flavor, Endy said.
"The strawberries grown on the corner were picked today," Ashley Appel said, continuing the vein.
"Rather than traveling 1,500 to 2,000 miles to the store from California," Pianalto added.
Eating fresh produce is a whole experience for all the diner's senses -- the colors, textures and aromas, said Mechelle Bailey, director of dietetics program at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
"Fresh produce is pretty to look at," she said. "Your eyes are drawn in."
And fresh produce contains all the vitamins and minerals and antioxidants and fiber promised, Bules said.
Benefits are diminished the longer the produce sits on a shelf, she said.
"You get fresher vegetables closer to where they were harvested," Bules said.
Without vegetables and fruits in one's diet, a person is at greater risk for heart disease, diabetes, obesity and cancers. Researchers are seeing more indications fresh produce actually can improve these conditions, Bules said.
"We are learning so much more about components of fruits and vegetables," Bailey said. "We've really just scratched the surface in research of human nutritional needs."
But not everybody has access to locally grown, fresh fruits and vegetables.
Bules said canned and frozen produce isn't farm to table or locally grown. But canned and frozen produce also is picked at the peak of its freshness and flash frozen or canned. And they are still high in vitamins and nutrients.
Many local grocery stores will buy and promote when they are selling foods grown locally or regionally, she added.
Appel said the farm sells to some small local restaurants.
Some Fayetteville Public Schools serve local produce in student lunches. Community Clinic provides fresh produce to its clients. And federal food assistance coupons can be used at farmers markets.
"Some kids struggle with vegetables, but they've got to learn to eat them," Bailey continued.
Part of the trouble is the variable taste -- a blackberry can be sweet, but the next one could be tart, she said.
Give them a variety of produce, expose them to all kinds of flavors and textures so they can find some they like, Bailey concluded.
Appel admits her oldest son is pretty picky, but her other two will eat everything the family grows.
Environmental influence
"To know where food comes from, you've got to get out and see where it's grown," Appel said. "Build a relationship with the farmer."
The Appels met many of their current customers when they sold at farmers markets, and many of them now come to the farm from across the region.
Knowing the source of the food can help a consumer know if pesticides were used on the produce or if it has genetic modifications, Pianalto said.
Less food will be wasted if consumers know their produce comes from local sources, Endy added.
Lindsey noted that her 1.5-acre farm is small-scale, but intensive, no-till agriculture. Crops are hand-grown in raised beds, she said.
"We disturb as little of soil as possible," she said. "We add only compost which we get from the city. We want the soil to stay alive."
"We don't douse them with chemicals because we want to leave a lower carbon footprint," she continued.
Climate change might mean more food needs to come from local sources, Pianalto said.
The shortage of water in the west -- much of which is diverted to irrigate the farm lands there -- could affect the food supply locally, he said. Many of the nation's fruits and vegetables are grown in the west because of the climate.
"If California can't grow apples and pears, we're going to have to shift," he said
Climate change already has affected Northwest Arkansas, Pianalto said, pointing to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's plant hardiness zones.
The plant hardiness zone designations represent the average annual extreme minimum temperatures at a given location to help gardeners know what will grow.
The 2012 map has Northwest Arkansas in zone 7a, with the average minimum teperature of zero to 5 degrees.
The 1990 map shows Northwest Arkansas in zone 6b, with minimum temperatures at 5 below zero to zero degrees.
Keep farmers farming
The Market Center of the Ozark "aims to connect farmers to the community by providing education, technical assistance and supply chain for local farmers, improving healthy food access for all Northwest Arkansans," reads a press release from the foundation.
The center, a 45,000-square-foot facility, is set to open in summer 2024 in downtown Springdale.
The newly formed Spring Creek Food Hub and the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture will lead the Market Center's work, the release continued.
A lot of smaller farmers want to expand, whether by land or new markets, Endy said. .
Farmers in the Northwest Arkansas region have access to two different markets -- selling directly to consumers or selling to businesses.
The farmers now will be able to sell to the Spring Creek Food Hub, which can help farmers take their business to the next level, to upscale, to diversify, to grow.
The Market Center will help farmers add value to their crops.
"Value is added to food when its shelf life can be extended," Pianalto said.
A farmer might have a truck load of tomatoes that would go in the compost pile if he couldn't sell them. The farmer would make no money on it, Pianalto explained.
Market Center will have equipment and staff to help farmer can or package the food to extend its life.
The end result will be worth the effort -- even if the local produce costs more, as it did in the pandemic, Endy said.
"If we pay a little more, it helps the small farmers survive," she said.
Home cooking
"America, specifically has lost in one or two generations knowing how food gets to their plate," Pianalto said.
"Meat does not originate in that black tray you get at the grocery store. Food has a journey."
Farmers plant the seeds, take care of the plants and sell the produce. Or they raise the animals, butcher them and use the whole carcasses, he said.
"We lost 'from scratch' cooking," Pianalto continued.
After World War II, markets introduced convenience foods -- like TV dinners -- to make it easier on home cooks.
A former teacher of culinary arts at Springdale High School, Pianalto said he could put fresh spinach in a bowl and many of his students didn't know what it was.
He said his students with Latino or Island backgrounds were more familiar with fresh produce from their own backyard farms.
Now, Pianalto teaches food systems -- "how stuff gets to us and why," he said.
The pandemic brought some of that back home-cooking back, Pianalto said. Most people stayed in and had time to cook. "But the pandemic also made us take a closer look at our health," he said.