Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Stand at Turnbuckle Farm is active this winter
BELLA VISTA — A small farm stand is open to the public at Turnbuckle Farm on Northwest McNelly Road with produce, eggs and local products.
Melissa Millsap of Turnbuckle Farm said she and husband, Adam, have been farming 15 years and are in the process of moving their farming operation to Bella Vista from Springfield, Mo.
“We’ve always been yearround farmers, so we’re used to growing in the winter,” she said.
The farm stand is in a small, white building across from the house that faces the road at 821 Northwest McNelly. A sign near the road indicates the farm stand is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
“It’s an honor-system farm stand,” she said. “People just get what they need and check themselves out. We have a lot of projects going on, so we figured this would be a good way for people to still get their food and for us to still work on our projects.”
During the winter the farm stand will have items like eggs, apples, root vegetables, onions, a few different varieties of squash (acorn, delicata, etc.), fresh bouquets, spinach, some locally made items such as pottery, candles, lip balm and soap made in Northwest Arkansas, chocolate from Springfield and honey raised on the couple’s farm in Missouri.
“Spinach and greens taste great this time of year because they grow slower, and that creates a higher sugar content,” she added.
She added their produce is certified naturally grown, which is important to them.
Millsap said she bakes fresh sourdough bread for the farm stand once or twice a week. She updates her social media when she stocks the stand.
The farmers have other things planned as well.
Millsap said they will soon start community supported agriculture, or subscription farming, which involves customers going to a website, selecting their produce and paying online and then picking it up at the farm, or it can be delivered.
The website, which should be active now, is at turnbuckle-farm.com.
Millsap said they will have the farm up and going this spring, starting from seed around Earth Day (April 22). She said she will grow extra and they will hold a plant sale so that home gardeners can purchase plants for their gardens. They had a pumpkin patch in the fall, which was fun, she said. They will have pizza nights on the farm this spring, she said.
She said they are first-generation farmers, technically. Their grandparents had farms, but their parents did not, and neither she nor her husband were raised on farms. They moved to Northwest Arkansas five years ago to design and build Red Barn Farm in Bentonville, and they have been remotely managing their farm in Springfield. They fell in love with Northwest Arkansas, she said.
“We have really good staff (in Springfield) but we knew we wanted to put roots here,” she said. “We’re really excited.”
They have had the farm in Springfield since 2009.
“We’ve been farming a long time. It feels weird to be closing down a farm we’ve put our blood, sweat and tears into and starting a new one. Finding our way in farming has been difficult, but it’s definitely our passion. Closing down has been heartbreaking, but it also makes sense. We learned many lessons to set us up for doing it again here,” Millsap said.
She said they just got the property in Bella Vista in August, and they are excited to learn the Razorback Greenway is coming through the area in the future.
“We’ve always been urban farmers,” she said, adding her husband calls what they practice “unavoidable agriculture” — an attempt to bring the farm back into people’s lives.
As for the farm stand, she hopes people know about it and patronize it.
“Our goal is to make it accessible to everybody and try to make a living,” she said. “Hopefully people keep coming by.”