Laura Young
ECB Publishing, Inc.
When Kiona and Chris Wagner lived in South Florida, their backyard garden was so productive that they had plenty of excess vegetables to share. They so enjoyed growing their own food and nicely packaging the extras for friends that they began to dream of leaving their day jobs and taking up farming full-time.
Kiona, who worked as the director of Student Programming at the North Miami campus of Johnson and Wales University, and Chris, who worked as the director of Culinary Operations on the same campus, started looking for a farm to purchase.
Originally they set their sights on a strawberry farm nearby, but eventually their search led them to Monticello. In the summer of 2019 they moved to a 13-acre parcel on the Waukeenah Highway, and by the spring of 2020 they had launched Rocky Soil Family Farm.
“We are market farmers,” says Kiona, explaining that they plant more than 30 varieties of vegetables and herbs each season using an intensive growing method. Right now they have rows of — get ready for the long list — arugula, choy choi, onions, purple bok choy, lettuce mix, red-veined sorrel, merlot lettuce, sweet potatoes, fennel, cilantro, dill, turmeric, lemon grass, turnips, spinach, broccoli rabe, radishes, tat soi, radicchio, collards, mustard greens, Swiss chard, red cabbage, bell peppers, sweet peppers, carrots, parsnips, kohlrabi, beets and spring onions. Then there’s the chickens and the bees and the bread!
“We plant what we like to eat,” says Kiona, noting that Chris is a chef by trade. “When we learn about something new, we like to try it and introduce it to the community.”
As a chef, Chris wants to grow vegetables and herbs that are colorful and vary across the palate. This means thinking about what will taste spicy, bitter, earthy or sweet. They start every plant from seed, either in the field or in the “tunnel” greenhouse.
The Wagners are looking forward to becoming embedded in the Monticello community as they develop their farm and expand into offering “dinners in the field.” They have nearly finished fitting up an outbuilding with a full commercial kitchen/bakery and room indoors for intimate, by-appointment dinners.
Currently, produce from Rocky Soil Family Farm is most easily available through online ordering, with a number of options. Customers who want to meet the farmers who grow their food and see how it is produced can order directly from the farm’s website at rockysoilfamilyfarm.com and then arrange to pick their order up at the farm.
Another option is to use the Red Hills Online Farmer’s Market, which can be accessed directly at www.rhomarket.com or from a link on the farm’s website. Orders placed through the Red Hills Online Farmer’s Market can be picked up locally at their delivery hub at United Country Southern AgLands Realty on South Jefferson Street in Monticello.
The Wagners also make weekly weekend trips to the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market in Tallahassee and occasionally open a farm stand on their property on Sunday mornings. They keep active Instagram and Facebook accounts where followers can be alerted to when the stand will be open.
“We open the stand when we have at least 10 different items ready,” says Kiona, “so that it is worth the trip out for customers.”
Patrons of Tupelo’s Bakery & Cafe on West Washington Street may have tasted some Rocky Soil Family Farm produce and seen them listed on the cafe’s suppliers’ board.
The Wagners have ambitious plans. With one full season under their belt now, they have a growing sense of what it will take to make their dreams a reality. They have learned that a lot of people in Jefferson County are homesteaders or have their own abundant gardens. They’ve adjusted their plans to be able to provide a wide range of items people might not be growing at home but still value and appreciate buying locally for their table.
Although the land that is Rocky Soil Family Farm does not contain any actual rocks, the name is a metaphor for how the Wagners see things: “When life presents a rock in your path you have three options, ‘go around it, under it or over it.’”
Kiona, who grew up in southern California, and Chris, originally from Germany, met when they were colleagues at the Johnson and Wales University branch campus in North Miami. They have a 14-year-old son and twin girls, who were born after they moved to Monticello.
The Wagners enjoy working for themselves now, living simply and sustainably on the land while at the same time taking a modern approach to crop selection and marketing. So far, it’s a combination that allows them to “hold on to that feeling of peace and gratitude.”
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