Health issues take the teacher out of the classroom, and land her on a farm
Growing diversity and inclusion is at the heart of everything Scarlett Salamone does. Going from special education teacher to farmer, she is creating the connections she craves at Loveland Acres Farm, W3358 Loveland Road, Elkhorn.
What started as a quest for her own health has grown. Now, in addition to raising Nigerian dwarf goats, ducks, cows and pastured chickens, she’s teaching others on the five-acre property.
Loveland Acres now offers goat milk soaps, body products, and egg shares. Providing a dozen eggs every week for 25 weeks, shares are currently sold out. Salamone also recently partnered with Ayuda Mutua and provides the mutual aid distribution effort 10 dozen eggs, 10 bars of soap and 10 other types of wellness body products each week.
Salamone is working on event programming and farm days for families beginning in June. Go to lovelandacresfarm.org or facebook.com/lovelandacresfarm/ for updates.
Becoming a farm family
We were living as a family in Milwaukee. I was teaching on 15th and Center. My husband was just beginning a dog training business. I was a special education teacher and taught in full inclusion classrooms. I was passionate about investing in the kids in my classroom, but also in their families …
I was having long stretches of unexplained bouts of illness, wasn’t anything I was catching from my kids in the classroom. It was discovered I had lupus. It is very unique to each person, how it affects you and how you manage it. I had no idea about anything with that back then; I was just happy to have a name and move forward. I discovered you don’t easily move forward from lupus. I kept getting progressively sicker. I was diagnosed with another autoimmune disease, gastroparesis, paralysis of the stomach. It is like having the flu 24/7. Very unpredictable. That took me out of the classroom, and I never went back. We wound up moving to Elkhorn.
Farming with purpose
What I thought my purpose was, teaching kids in the city, that was taken from me. I was at a point in my illnesses I was about 95 pounds and looking at getting a feeding tube placed or starve to death. I got this heart nudge to get goats. I researched and discovered the benefits of raw goat milk.
Teaching takes a turn
I watched my kids thriving and interacting with the animals. I knew I had left behind so many kids I cared about, just like my own, that would never experience this. … I became passionate about trying to find ways to run the farm and offer children’s programs. I wanted to combine my teaching background with farming and offer programs to kids with disabilities.
Embracing challenges
The challenge is, I am considered medically disabled. I can’t do too much more than I already do. This past year, so many kids out of school, it became really, really clear. There was no more time to wait until we were precisely set up and had everything in place. The time is now to invest in kids and provide a safe, peaceful place for kids to grow, get back to nature, and experience hands-on
learning.
Farming for all ages
I thought this would be about little ones. I didn’t realize the desire of young people. Our youngest little farmer, incubating eggs for us as we speak, is 2. Our oldest farmer is 25.
Loveland layers
Chickens and Littles, that program is my heart. I started connecting with classrooms, having teachers do exactly what I did when I was in the classroom: hatching chickens and enjoying the life cycle. Having a farm to send them back to — as a classroom teacher that was the biggest challenge. We need fresh chickens every year to replenish our layers. It just made sense.
This past year with the pandemic … I connected with one of my main teachers, she works at a deaf and hard of hearing school. She said, I’ll just do it virtually. I decided to open it up to families to "home hatch." We got people who supported us and sent incubators to the farm. Now we have incubators to provide families to hatch chickens. At the end of hatching, the kids come to the farm.
Diversified dairy
We’re not a licensed dairy. We don’t sell fluid milk at all. We use that for personal consumption. We make all our yogurt, cheeses, cottage cheese …
We do have a dairy cow as well, and she is an A2/A2 (protein) cow. There’s a lot of science to it, but it is very similar to the way goat milk is made up. … My heart’s desire was to have a cow. We have one Jersey girl, Sweet Clementine. … We’ve learned to be a diversified dairy and be unique in how we use our milk. We keep the cheese curds for ourselves and sell the soap and lotion.
Growing goals
Right now, it is just my husband and I and the young people who come work with us when we start in June. What we are working toward is to have some type of tiny home so that young farmers in that 18-20 something age bracket can have a spot on the farm to stay.
Nourish Your Roots
This is a program we are starting with Victory Garden Initiative this year. Five young people, ages 16 to 20, and two leaders spend every other week learning about animal husbandry. All good farming adventures start with chickens.
Creating her space
Special needs is my highest priority. … I’m medically disabled myself. I look great from the outside; most people would be like, she looks healthy. No. Looks can be deceiving. That’s something we want to aggressively address.
Offering things for deaf and hard of hearing, creating a space and place for sensory needs, raised beds for those with wheelchairs and walkers. … My sister was in a wheelchair, nonverbal, depends on everybody for all her needs. I was part of a family that was left out of a lot of things, and many of those kids are quite capable if they’re given a way to shine. Growing your own food is taking back your power.
Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the everyday relationship that local notables (within the food community and without) have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email psullivan@gannett.com.