Ewingsford Farm, which now covers 324 acres, 70 of them bottomland tucked in a curl of the Little Kentucky River and flanked by steep hills, grows 50 vari­eties of vegetables, herbs, and flowers. This year’s lineup will include newcomers such as globe artichokes, mustard greens, baby bok choy, early Bodacious sweet corn, and heirloom cabbages—if the Lord is willing and the Little Kentucky don’t rise. The four acres of vegetables not only feed some 85 families but also net approximately $6,000 per acre. This spring, free of any outside debt, Smith began buying out the last remaining share of the farm from his parents. “There will be no tobacco grown on it,” he says, “and virtually everything will be organic.”

And there are wider ramifications of success. At least one other CSA has now been established in Louisville, and by demonstrating that there is a clientele for fresh, regional produce, Smith has had an impact on the burgeoning farmers market scene in the city—providing other small farmers with an outlet for their product.

“We’re not just cultivating crops,” he explains. “This is also about human relationships. This cooperative is about mending divisions among people in a time when we are isolated from one another and the land. We can’t separate ourselves from the land and get away with it.”

Then he laughs and adds that one of the most important lessons he’s learned is to use a different scale when measuring success. “It’s not really about who’s got the biggest tractor,” he says. “My land’s getting better. My life’s getting better. I’m getting happier.”

Words to Grow By

• Steve Smith continues to be a voracious reader. An admirer of the work of Eliot Coleman, he has also been influenced by the writing and neighborly advice of Wendell Berry. The Unsettling of America was the first of Berry’s many texts Smith encountered and the one he immediately identified with.
• Berry led to Gene Logsdon. “Wendell calls him the best farm writer in the country,” says Smith. The Logsdon book he recommends is At Nature’s Pace.
• Most recently, the writings of Holmes County, Ohio, Amish farmer-writer David Kline have occupied Smith’s fireside table. They have not only changed his thinking about the way to farm and market, Smith explains, but also about how to measure success. Great Possessions is the volume he recommends as an introduction.