by Deborah Wechsler (updated 2006)

Mark Cain  
Dripping Springs Garden
1558 CR 548
Huntsville, Arkansas 72740
drippingspringsgdn@lycos.com

Years in commercial operation: 21
Total acreage: 40
Acres in organic production: 5
Acres in non-organic production: None
Soil type: Clarksville gravelly loam
Temp zone: 6b

Crops : Blueberries (2 acres); cut flowers (46 species); 38 different vegetables, notably garlic, salad greens, sweet onions, specialty potatoes; ornamental plants, bamboo plants, shiitake mushrooms.

Equipment: Kubota 2600 tractor with loader, brush hog; Celli 52" spader; converted Ford manure spreader for side-delivery of sawdust to blueberries; Troybilt 8hp tiller; Sears 26hp mower & cart; 1994 4WD Ford truck for on-farm hauling and used with topper for second market vehicle; an '89   Econoline cargo van for farmers' market deliveries.

On-farm facilities : Timber-frame barn, 24 x 48, with attached 8 x 24 packing shed—packing shed has stainless steel commercial sinks for vegetable cleaning, flower bucket washing, etc. (Barn is used for equipment storage, curing of garlic and onion crops, drying of everlasting flowers, production of special order bouquets, and intern housing upstairs); 10 x 12 x 8 ‘Arctic' walk-in cooler housed in barn for vegetable/cut flower refrigeration; 30 x 80 wood-heated double-poly greenhouse for seedling production, with ground-beds for cut flower production; two 48 x 20 unheated hoophouses with roll-up sides for outdoor production of cut flowers or vegetable crops; one 14 x 40 single-layer plastic greenhouse as cool-house for hardening off plants and production of transplants in summer; outdoor benches for plant pots, hardening-off seedlings, etc.

Labor: Mark Cain and farm partner Michael Crane, full-time. Two interns full-time each summer via ATTRA on-line listing and through the Multicultural Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture (www.mesa.org), April through October. Hourly employees hired as needed for extra harvest help. During the blueberry harvest, employ about 6 local workers, 2-4 days/week, paying $4/gallon (05).

Weeks/year in production : 46. Total weeks making sales: 37

Certification: Certified in 2005 through the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry (Food Safety Division)—this department is authorized to certify farms in Arkansas. Certified 1986-2002 through Ozark Organic Growers, OCIA, or Arkansas Certified Organic.

Markets : Fayetteville Farmers' Market, 50 miles away, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings, April through mid-November. Also special-order flowers for weddings and other occasions.

Value-added products : Bouquets made on-the-spot at market and for special orders; decorative garlic braids in fall; decorated gourds; evergreen wreaths for holiday sales; blueberry preserves.

Special expertise: Field-grown, specialty cut flowers for bouquet production and single-stem sales; blueberry production; raised-bed ‘bio-intensive' techniques for maximum production per unit of area cultivated.