Sharing abundance of food important to farm family

WONDER LAKE, Ill. — The earth provides an overabundance of food, but the distribution of that food is the struggle.

“I believe the line between good and evil runs right through our hearts and by being able to share and cultivate the abundance of the earth is what we were created to do,” said Betsy Zarko, owner of Arrowleaf Prairie Farm.

Zarko grew up in central Idaho homesteading on a mining claim in the middle of a national forest.

“I met my husband online and he’s from Chicago, so that’s how I ended up here,” she said on a tour of her farm during the Women Caring for the Land Learning Circle event, organized by the Land Conservancy of McHenry County.

“I swore I would never live east of the Mississippi River or be a hog farmer’s wife, but that’s my life now,” she said. “My husband is a firefighter/paramedic and he works 24-hour shifts, so he’s not here a lot.”

As a result, Zarko is the primary farmer and works on their 10-acre farm along with their six children.

“I’ve found ways to be really efficient, like growing cylindra beets,” she said. “I love their flavor and I really love their shape because they are easier to peel than round beets, so when I’m canning beets for my family, making that the easiest process possible is important to me.”

In Idaho, Zarko’s family had 20 acres and a lot of it was hillsides.

“We grew most of our own food, we raised poultry and we hunted bears, elk, moose and deer,” she said.

The family contracted with the National Forest Service to control noxious weeds.

“It is more remote than Yellowstone and you can’t operate any motorized vehicles, so we had a mule crew,” Zarko said. “I would work with my mule, Mikey, to take water to our crews in the wilderness.”

This is the third year the Zarko family has been at their farm near Wonder Lake, where they have a half-acre in vegetable production and a lot of berries and they pasture raise poultry and pigs.

They developed a set of rules for their farm that Zarko calls her measure of success.

“The first rule is to have fun within reason,” she said. “The second rule is that the farm pays for itself because we’re not willing to take on debt.”

The family gives away 10% of everything they grow. For example, if their Red Wattle sow has 10 piglets, one of them will be raised to market weight and donated, and they give away 10 chickens for every 100 they raise.

“I grow cilantro for a local food bank that’s primarily serving a Hispanic community and we give that away,” Zarko said. “This helps me remember that none of it’s mine and it keeps me balanced.”

Zarko grows only things on the farm that her family eats and those are the products she sells at the farmers market and from the farm stand at the end of her driveway.

“Once a week for the Sabbath we full stop, which gives us time to rejuvenate,” she said. “We’re built to need a rest and I know we’re more productive because we stopped.”

The family aims to have a noticeable improvement of the satellite view of their farm.

“People should know we’ve been here,” Zarko said. “And good enough is perfect because sometimes it’s good enough to poke the seed in the ground and walk away.”

Because Zarko does not want to get in over her head, she focuses on growing the farm slowly.

“I’m big on low off-farm inputs and carbon capture, so we collected all the leaves from the oaks and that’s what we’re using for compost,” she said. “Our dairy goat produces a gallon of milk per day and we don’t consume all that, so some of the milk goes back into our pigs, chickens, and we dump some on the squash and tomatoes to prevent blossom end rot.”

The last rule, Zarko said, is that people come first, always.

“We prioritize education, so there are gardens all over the country that I’ve plotted for people and I’ve spent hours standing here talking about food,” she said. “If we’re so busy that we can’t stop on a Wednesday morning and have a cinnamon roll under the trees, then we’re failing.”

In addition to the summer vegetable production, the family also grows vegetables in low tunnels.

“We do a once-a-month pickup for a fall/winter CSA,” Zarko said. “A lot of the items are harvested and in storage, but our goal is to have fresh lettuce from the ground for Christmas.”

The Red Wattle sow, bred to an Old-Line Duroc, was farrowing on the day of the farm tour.

“They produce a red meat that marbles and she is really docile and a great momma,” Zarko said. “She farrowed in January, had 15 piglets and didn’t lose any.”

Two of the pigs from that January litter will be shown at the upcoming 4-H fair.

“Those hogs are on a special muscle-builder diet and we monitor them closely,” Zarko said. “They are gaining at the same rate as commercial hogs, but they’re resilient so they can farrow outside and the meat quality is much different than a modern hog.”

Zarko deworms her hogs, but avoids vaccinating and using antibiotics.

“If it comes to the health and quality of life for the animal, then I give them antibiotics,” Zarko said.

“My son did a split on our beehives this year and that was successful,” she said. “We use the honey and lard from our pigs in our bread that we sell at market for a value-added product.”

Zarko has chickens for egg production.

“I have 20 ducks that we will harvest in September and 10 geese now, but that will be reduced to three for the winter,” Zarko said.

“We have 150 chicks that will be our next meat bird harvest,” she said. “We brood them and then they go into the chicken tractor and that is a family building exercise to move the chickens every day.”