Exciting Updates for 2025 at The Specialty Crop

As we look ahead to 2025, we’re thrilled to share the exciting developments happening at The Specialty Crop. From website upgrades to infrastructure renovations, here’s how we’re setting the stage for a more impactful future.

A Fresh Online Experience:

We’ve been hard at work updating our website, www.thespecialtycrop.com, to make it more user-friendly and engaging. Our goal is to create an online hub where visitors can easily access information about our programs, events, and initiatives. Stay tuned for new features, including enhanced resources for farmers and an interactive portal to connect with our community.Building Relationships for the FutureOur team has been meeting with potential donors and aspiring farmers to forge partnerships that will shape the future of sustainable agriculture. These conversations are helping us secure the resources needed to expand our reach and support the next generation of growers. If you’re interested in joining our mission, we’d love to hear from you!

Improving Systems and Infrastructure:

To better serve our community, we’re investing in system upgrades and infrastructure improvements. Streamlining our processes will allow us to operate more efficiently and allocate resources where they’re needed most. These changes will enhance our ability to deliver high-quality programming and support to farmers and stakeholders.

Renovating the North Shop:

One of our most ambitious projects is the renovation of the North Shop. This space is being transformed into a dynamic hub for learning and collaboration. With new equipment and flexible layouts, the North Shop will host workshops, training sessions, and community events. We can’t wait to see how this revitalized space will inspire innovation and connection.

Looking Ahead:

These updates are part of our broader vision to create impactful programming that empowers farmers and strengthens our community. As we prepare for 2025, we’re excited to see how these initiatives will grow and thrive. Thank you for being part of our journey—together, we’re cultivating a brighter future for agriculture.

Stay connected by visiting www.thespecialtycrop.com and following us on Facebook, Instagram, and tiktok. Here’s to an exciting year ahead!

Planning for the future

"My Advice is: You always have to keep persevering." "If I did not have my work, I would not have my life."

~Temple Grandin

Happy New Year! If you’re like most people, you’ve spent the page turn into the new year doing some reflecting. We gathered at the farm with friends and family for our traditional fancy-pants lobster dinner. We spend the last day of the year in extravagance enjoying the company of some of our most favorite people. It’s our way of sending off the year in gratitude and welcoming what is to come with full bellies and open arms. Throughout the evening, we volley reflections and questions about the previous year, and hope and dreams for the next. Of course, the farm is often at the forefront of my and Chris’ minds in our future planning. This New Year’s Eve was no different.

However, I found myself melancholy about wrapping up 2024 and moving on. My sister died this year. My sweet, dear, big sister, Shaina. We had always planned that she would live at the farm with us. But those plans changed quickly with a diagnosis of bladder cancer in February of 2024. Turning the page on the year felt a little like leaving her behind. The Specialty Crop is because of her, it is a place for her and special people like her. What does it mean for the farm that she is not going to be here? What will it look like?

But, because of her legacy, the future of the farm is looking incredibly beautiful and hopeful. Shaina is with us, always, at the farm. Her spirit lives on here, and she will continue to shape the farm for all the years to come. Thanks to the kindness of people who loved her, more than $10,000 was donated to the Shaina Strong Memorial Scholarship. What an incredible gift and legacy. Because of Shaina and her love for the farm, special people (no matter their financial circumstance) living in Sioux Falls and the surrounding rural areas will have the chance to learn and grow with us at The Specialty Crop for years to come. We have portioned out the scholarship into funds that will be used this growing season, and the rest which was invested in a short term certificate of deposit to continue to grow the fund for future farmers.

We learned through our pilot volunteer program this summer that a year-round place at the farm for farmers to gather, learn, and sometimes get out of the elements is a necessity. Farms are rain or shine, but that adds an additional hurdle for some with mobility issues. The Specialty Crop Collaborative (the Nonprofit at the farm founded in spring of 2024) has already raised $7,100 dollars toward a larger $10,000 starting capital campaign to renovate our existing shop into a year-round classroom. We have since drawn up plans and begun the task of clearing out the shop to start renovation yet this winter. This includes wiring for all our electrical needs, insulating, and finishing the interior of the shop all before our growing year begins in May! This renovation not only works to accommodate what is currently happening at the farm but it will expand what we’re able to accomplish together with our farmers. We cannot fully express our gratitude and excitement this year-round classroom brings, but we will continue to try!

If you’d like to make a tax-deductible donation to The Specialty Crop Collaborative, a non profit growing meaningful job and life skills through agriculture for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, you can do that HERE. As always, thank you for your generosity and support. And as we like to say, WELCOME TO THE FARM!

What is a care farm?

We recently joined the Care Farming Network which is a nonprofit group that serves to connect like minded farmers (around the world) doing the work of care farming. The Network has already been a fantastic resource as we are working to build something that is completely new to us, and our state!

So…what is “care farming”? This term describes farms that work to provide care in some way or another through therapeutic farming. This way of farming promotes three basic needs in the lives of people including health, well-being and belonging. Care farms are individually established farms around the world that look different and even serve different populations. Care farms might be like us and serve a population with developmental and intellectual disabilities, or a different population such as the elderly, veterans, people struggling with mental health or substance use.

Care farms are as varied as the populations they serve. The Specialty Crop is proud to be the first care farm in South Dakota. We are honored to serve people in the DD/ID population through therapeutic farming.

Join our mailing list to stay up to date on our progress, events and growth.

How it all began and how it’s going…

How it started…

Chris is a Sioux Falls native and Katie grew up in a suburb east of Saint Paul, MN. The two met in 2003 at Augustana (then College), moved to Saint Paul for Chris to attend seminary and moved around Minnesota before coming back “home” to Sioux Falls in 2016. They completed their family there with their fourth child and finally bought the farm in Hudson, SD. 

Katie grew up in a special needs family, her oldest sister, Shaina was autistic and cognitively impaired. Her family included her sister in every aspect of life and made sure that Shaina shared in all life experiences. Because of her sister and the radical advocacy modeled by her parents, Katie felt a calling to work the special education field. When she was a senior in high school, Katie took a course in work experience and was employed at a Montessori preschool in a farm setting. “Each day, the kids would arrive and we immediately went to the barn to feed the animals, collect eggs, and take a nature walk to observe the seasons and natural world around us. It filled me with such a sense of wonder. To see such young people filling big responsibilities and grasping the importance of caring for creation was inspiring, and it stirred something in me. I knew then that I wanted to have an educational farm and I wanted to use it to serve people with disabilities. After graduating with degrees in elementary and special education, I had several teaching jobs. I saw my students change and open up when we went on field trips that involved nature. I never wavered in my dream for a farm. After raising four babies and paying off our student loans, it was finally time to see that dream become a reality.” 

The couple purchased and moved to the five acre farm in rural Hudson, SD in August of 2021. In spring of 2023, the farm officially became The Specialty Crop. In three years on the farm, they have spent countless hours renovating, building, and pouring into their farm dream. 

There are two parts to our farm. The first is an LLC that is run by our family and promotes agritourism in South Dakota through a farm stay and events at the farm. The LLC (along with donations and partners) feeds into and promotes the second part which is a 501c3 organization called The Specialty Crop Collaborative. The Collaborative provides programming for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in job and life skill training through agricultural experiences. Our nonprofit tends a half acre garden and grows produce for sale in our (coming soon) farm stand. We also tend a flock of approximately 25 laying hens which includes coop chores, egg collection and chicken health management. The Collaborative also manages farm upkeep including grove clearing and small building projects. We also prioritize rest and relaxation at the farm including sharing the special food we grow, testing our farm products. We actively work to cultivate community and sow a meaningful life for people of all abilities. 

How it’s going…

As a young organization, we are always working to improve and expand our operations. The 2024 growing season was our first operating The Specialty Crop Collaborative. It was our hope to have a full programming schedule this summer. However, Katie’s sister Shaina had a short battle with bladder cancer and died in June of 2024. The family prioritized time spent together during this tragedy, and farming looked a little different. 

At the recommendation and encouraging of several people in the community, Katie reached out to Hope Haven, a local organization just across the Iowa border, that provides a wide range of services and supports for people with disabilities, She wondered how the organizations could help support each other. A partnership was established with Hope Haven volunteers attending the farm one morning a week. Living in a rural area can mean a lack of programming and experiences for people with disabilities. We want to fix that in the SE SD/NW IA region. By teaming up and focusing our efforts together on meaningful programming, we are deepening the experience for people in our communities. 

The group ranged from 1-4 gentleman from the My Day program and Hope Haven support staff. During our growing season together, starting in July, we planted some things in the garden, pulled LOTS of weeds, cleared sticks and logs from the grove, cared for the chickens, cleaned their coop, collected many dozens of eggs, played with the farm pup named Runa, constructed some German wood-curing-stacks called Holz Hausen, and did some building projects including bat houses and a curing rack for produce. It was a productive and formative summer for all of us! 

The future at The Specialty Crop looks very bright. This spring, we are lined up to offer full private programming three days a week at the farm. We will also be offering events including live music at the farm. We hope to continue to partner with other organizations including Fun & Friends and Augustana Friends Link. We encourage groups to reach out for visits and partnerships. 

Because of the generosity of the Shaina Strong Memorial Fund, The Specialty Crop Collaborative has more than $11,000 in a scholarship fund to support farmers enrolled in our nonprofit program. Recently, a kick off campaign raised more than $7,000 for the renovation of one of our Morton shops to create a classroom and event space for the Collaborative. That renovation is set to begin in November 2024 and completion is expected in time for the 2025 growing season. 

If you are interested in supporting The Specialty Crop through volunteerism, becoming a farmer in our program, attending farm events, learning more, or donating please join our mailing list below. You can also find, like, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

How fall is falling

Fall is falling! The campground is closed for the season. We’ve wrapped up the garden harvest (still enjoying eating fresh tomatoes and peppers). We’ve made our (very) long to-do list for fall. This list includes things like mowing and tucking in the yard, tilling, amending and spreading compost in the garden, prepping the orchard for planting in the spring, winterizing the chicken coop, winterizing pet kennels, winterizing the compost bathhouse, winterizing the cabin, winterizing vehicles including tractors, clearing the shops and cleaning and organizing (always) to make winter projects easier, and maybe the most exciting of all fall tasks is prepping for the renovation of our north shop!

We’ve put our programming on hold for the season and plan to “take this winter off” while we build out and renovate the north shop into a classroom space for The Specialty Crop Collaborative. This is a very exciting project and is possible thanks to many generous donations from friends of the farm. We have about $7,000 to get us started with the basics including electrical work, insulation and base finishing. We will be running additional fundraisers and seeking more donations for the completion of our project. We are so looking forward to sharing and bringing you all along on the journey as we lay a great foundation to expand our programming, reach, and capabilities in serving people with developmental and intellectual disabilities in our area.

With the cooler weather, less time working outside and singularly focused winter projects, I am hoping to get into the habit of more regular and in depth blogging and sharing what we are up to on the farm. Thank you for reading along and watching our dreams take root.

When Life Isn’t Quite What You Thought

Well. Here we are. August 19th. In April I had a plan to blog once a week all summer long. My last blog post was April 29th. So…that’s how that went…HA!

Even though I didn’t keep up with blogging, I’ve been gentle with myself, and on the farm, grace abounds! Life has a way of being other than you thought it would be. Not bad. Not a failure. Not a waste of time. Not poor planning. Not poor follow through. Just different. And that’s okay. Each year, I tell myself “Next year will be easier because X, Y, Z.”, or “Next year I’ll do better because I won’t have X, Y, Z on my plate”, or “I will set aside all the extra stuff next winter and make a really solid plan to set myself up for the best, most productive summer ever”. Have you said the same things? I am being gentle and having grace with myself. From now on, I want to say to myself “It's okay that this year wasn’t quite what I thought. It’s still a good year and I am doing a good job.”. Full stop. Grace abounds. Want to join me in that?

We’ve had an incredibly busy summer with farm events and farm life. We had weekly volunteers from Hope Haven, a day program for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We put in a lot of infrastructure including tearing down an old house (in preparation for an orchard) and building up the garden infrastructure (including drip irrigation, fabric ground cover and the installation of perennial fruits and vegetables). We’ve hosted more than twenty camp sets through Hipcamp. We planted hundreds of plants and have been harvesting produce from the garden. We’ve picked hundreds of dozens of eggs. We’ve done lots of small building projects and lots of BIG grove clearing projects. We hosted 57 people at our first ever live music event. We hosted camping groups from Scouting America and Girl Scouts. We hosted a play group with guest farm animals in the spring and a group from FriendsLink a group of adults with disabilities from Augustana University. This list doesn’t include the family and personal things we have done. It’s exhilarating. It’s exhausting. We are so grateful for this life and the land we get to steward.

As I mentioned, more regular blogging is a goal of mine as we continue our farm adventure. Like many blogs, I plan on sharing various things from the farm including stories, the tips and tricks we’ve learned and use along the way, pictures, updates about our business, non profit and family life, and recipes from our kitchen.

One (staple) recipe we made and shared at a farm event this week is one I want to share with you today. It’s our famous and family fave Focaccia bread. The relatively simple and delicious dense loaf with a supple and moist top thanks to a thinly sliced layer of garden tomatoes, olive oil and Italian herbs and seasoning is nearly fool proof and will wow everyone you share it with. It’s very likely you have the ingredients on hand (if you’re like me and store the Costco bag of instant dry yeast in your freezer). Of course, with all recipes you can omit the minor ingredients and add things you love. Without further Ado, here’s our first blog recipe.

Specialty Crop Focaccia

For the Dough:

1 Tbsp Dry Active Yeast

1 Tbsp Kosher Salt

3 C. Warm Water

6 ½ C. All Purpose Flour

Mix yeast, salt and water and let sit for about 5 minutes. Then add flour and mix well (this dough will be a little bit shaggy). Cover and let sit on the counter or in a warm place for 2 hours. Grease two ¼ sheet pans (or large deep baking dishes) with olive oil. Using wet hands (to keep the dough from sticking) divide the dough evenly among the two pans. With wet hands again, press your fingertips gently into the dough to distribute to an even thickness through the pan. Let rise for 30 minutes on the counter. 

For the Topping:

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 tsp Garlic Salt

1 tsp Garlic Powder

1 tsp Italian Seasoning

2-4 Thinly Sliced Tomatoes

Kosher or Flake Salt to finish

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Thinly slice your tomatoes (you can use any kind you like but you’re going to need a pretty good pile of them). Drizzle the top of your focaccia loaf with olive oil. Sprinkle garlic salt, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning evenly over the top. Lay your tomatoes in a single layer across the top of your focaccia. Sprinkle the tomatoes with kosher or flake salt. Bake your focaccia at 450 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. When the corner of your bread can easily be lifted from your pan and hold shape with a golden brown color, and the top of the bread looks “dry”, it’s finished! If you have a thermometer, the cooked bread should be 200 degrees. Focaccia is delicious and versatile! You can eat it plain, use it for sandwiches, pizza crust or dip it into olive oil and Italian herbs. Enjoy!

Spring is Springing

Spring is springing at the farm!

The birds are busy singing and building nests, the grass is vibrantly green, my tulips are blooming and there is an air of anticipation all around the farm. We have seedlings growing like mad on the grow shelving in our sunroom.

There are shrubs and trees sitting at the front door waiting to go into the ground. There are 30 lbs of seed potatoes waiting to get tucked into the black gold in our half acre garden. We’re preparing for chicks being hatched in the kids’ classroom at school. We making lists for tasks to be completed to open the campground, the cabin and the composting bathhouse. We’re dreaming about the scope of work to be done this summer and what that means for the farm itself.

In addition to our LLC business with the state, we now have a nonprofit corp. status with the state and are filing as well with IRS to be totally official. We are working hard to wrap our minds around the business aspects of the farm to make sure we have a great foundation to grow on (puns are always intended).

The calendar is filling up and out as we create programming for special people. And in our spare time we’re finishing some “winter” projects in the house- painting lovers out there? Bring a brush! These days are full and the to-do lists are long. We strive to maintain some balance of work-life-family-farm but admittedly we’re not great about the execution of it all. If we seem MIA know that it is not intentional. We are looking forward to many farm meet ups, friend meet ups and otherwise soon!

When you think you’re done waiting…

If you read my first blog post on this page, you learned that this farm has been a LONG time in the making. As in, twenty years or more. Twenty years of dreaming, learning, planning, hoping and waiting. Lots of waiting. All that waiting with this fire burning in my belly that also manifested as a prickling in my skin, like an itchy static cling.

I searched almost constantly to find ways to scratch it. This looked like visiting farms, hiking any park I could find, spending time with people who are neurodivergent (or have differently working brains), teaching, baking, cooking, pouring over Mother Earth News Magazines, buying books on farming from garage sales, second hand stores, and book shops, taking courses on farming, gardening and the like. Searching, itching, scratching.

Along with finding ways to scratch the itch, I was housekeeping too. A lot of things have to be put in their places in order for first generation farmers (or those of us who fight to acquire land after our ancestors left it for the city) to have any success. The biggest hurdle in our journey to the farm was finances. Chris and I graduated undergrad school with three majors and a minor between us, and Chris went on to get a masters in divinity, too. That’s a lot of post secondary education and we had the mountain of student debt to back it up.

Everything felt like it took so long and there was never enough of what I needed to actually do the thing. Sounds hopeless, right? Many times in my waiting periods, I have given into the feeling of hopelessness. But then a light bulb went off and I had mindset shift. I realized it isn’t hopelessness. We are a people built to wait. How do I know? The whole time we were searching, working, and waiting and I had that “itchy” feeling I came to understand that the “itchy” feeling WAS hope. Hope you feel when you’re on the cusp of something big. Hope that pushes us toward action. Waiting and sitting are not synonymous. There are so many things you can do in hopeFULNESS. How can we be hopeless when we are so full of the thing itself?

If twenty years full of hope, itching, and action have taught me anything it’s that hope is relentless. I thought when I graduated college and got married I would feel put together. I didn’t. I thought when we retired our student debt and found the farm the itching would stop. It didn’t. I thought all my work and time spent renovating, lovingly tending the land and our animals would satisfy the yearning in me. No again. And just when we get to to the next big thing or think we’ve crossed all the items off our to-do list, another one will crop up. Because we are and will always be waiting for something. From the smallest of tasks crossed of the to-do lists to the largest of life’s events, I believe we will still be waiting with that itching fire of hope in our bellies because we are hope-filled, purpose-filled, relentless people on a mission to do better, be better, build better. After all, our sure and certain hope as Christians is a step beyond this world so why we would think our waiting here will be satisfied? So, as for me and my house, we will worship in the itching hope-filled times. We will worship while we wait.

Why a farm…?

Thank you for following along as we share our story. This journey has been a long time coming with lots of twists and turns. Think of this blog as a novel in parts; some flashbacks, some peeks into our daily happenings, some dreaming and planning for the future, and all parts authentic. To kick off this blog, I’d like to start at what I think is the beginning: the way back WHY of the farm. Here goes!

As a little girl, I had no idea how different and special my family was. In fact, I was about six before I realized my sister didn’t act like everyone else. And it wasn’t until I was a parent myself, I truly understood what a gift and opportunity I had been given by being Shaina’s little sister. Shaina was diagnosed at infancy with cognitive impairment and autism. In our house, there was an understanding that people with disabilities belong in all places and circumstances. Our parents modeled this every day in their caring and advocacy for Shaina. From vacations to daily activities, she is a part of every aspect of our family. Watching Shaina interact with her surroundings and the impact she had on others around her solidified the importance of differences and advocating for the radical inclusion of all people.

Teaching was always my plan. Either that or dolphin trainer. And since I grew up in MN and didn’t see myself moving out of the region, I figured the chances for working with dolphins were slim. At 5, I wanted to teach ballet and by the time I was in high school, I was leaning strongly in the direction of teaching special education. As a senior in high school, I got a one of a kind on the job training experience as a teacher’s aid at a Montessori Farm Preschool. Every day, no matter the weather, we ventured outside to feed the animals, go on nature walks and to observe the farm around us. The wholeness and peace of teaching this way burrowed deep into my heart and took root.

Chris and I met in the first weeks of undergrad. The rest of that story, as they say, is history. I got degrees in special education and elementary ed. Nobody was surprised. During four off and on years of teaching special ed, I quickly developed a core belief that not only do all people belong in all situations but also that education should include all types of people working together in meaningful ways. I loved my students, their families, and my colleagues. But past experiences with my sister, my parents’ efforts to develop a meaningful life for her, and the feeling that teaching on the farm gave me didn’t lead me to believe that I was best serving anyone where I was at.

I saw a spark in my students outside the walls of the school during field trips and outdoor activities that didn’t exist within the confines of traditional education. Besides my growing inner conflict, my husband and I had started a family and the pull I felt to stay home for the fleeting moments of childhood led me to put my career on hold. It took more than twelve years and raising up four babies, but all that time, we were dreaming and planning for a big, bright future that would extend beyond the six of us.

Twenty total years in the making, in August of 2021 we finally bought five acres of pure heaven. A FARM! A special place for special people growing special food. We are working to serve people with disabilities in rural SE SD through events and education that will cultivate a deeper meaning in their lives, provide the skills for success at the farm and beyond, and sow our community together around radical inclusion for all.