10/12/2026
Seeds, Strength & a Return to the Table
October has always felt different to me.
The light changes. The air finally begins to soften. Summer crops give us their last gifts while fall greens push through newly worked soil. Garlic waits to be planted. Bread feels good in the oven again. And this year, I am noticing all of it a little more.
Many of you know I stepped away from the Farmstead while I was treated for Hairy Cell Leukemia. What I expected to be a difficult season became a lesson in medicine, patience, prayer, friendship, and letting other people tend to me for a while.
I am doing well.
In fact, my response to treatment has been remarkable. My doctors are very pleased with my progress, so much so that we have decided not to move forward with any additional treatment right now. Instead, we are giving my body time to recover, and in February we will repeat the bone marrow biopsy. That will give us a much clearer picture of where things stand and help guide whatever comes next.
For now, my biggest challenge is patience. My white blood cell count—and especially those little infection-fighting “soldiers,” my neutrophils- are still rebuilding after treatment. So while I feel good and very much like myself again, I still have to be careful.
That means I am returning to Urbana Farmstead gradually. Not racing.
Not trying to make up for lost time.
Just returning, and giving my body the same patience I would give anything else I am trying to grow. And there is something wonderfully appropriate about coming back to a farm in autumn, because everywhere I look I am reminded that growth doesn't always look like growth.
-Sometimes the field is resting.
-Sometimes the seed is underground.
-Sometimes the work happening beneath the surface is the most important work of all.
October is also usually the month when my heart begins pulling me toward Sicily. Most years, I am packing my suitcase and preparing to spend a couple of weeks there during the olive harvest—walking through the groves, watching the olives come off the trees, visiting the mill, tasting that first brilliant green olio nuovo, and learning once again from people whose lives are deeply connected to the land. For me, the olive harvest has never been simply about olive oil. It is about seasonality, patience, agriculture, family, tradition, and the understanding that truly good food begins long before it reaches the kitchen.
This year, Sicily will have to wait. I will miss it terribly, but perhaps there is a lesson in that, too. My family and friends are pressing the olives into fresh oil. And I wait for it to arrive to me this time. For once, October is asking me to stay rooted here. To watch my own fields. To notice what is growing just outside my door.
And working on my lesson in medicine, patience, prayer, friendship, and letting other people tend to me for a while.
Something New Is Growing
While I have been recovering, one of the dreams I have been working toward for years has continued to take shape. The Grain Keeper.
This fall, we are beginning an Arkansas heritage-wheat growing project centered around Turkey Red wheat, one of America's great historic bread wheats.
Working with Arkansas farmers, we are putting heritage grain back into Arkansas soil, not as a museum piece, but as food.
Food that can be grown in Arkansas. Milled and baked here at Urbana Farmstead.
And, I hope, become part of a new regional grain economy connecting farmers, millers, bakers, cooks and families. Perhaps that is another reason this project feels especially meaningful to me right now.
For years, Sicily has taught me to look backward in order to move forward—to understand that preserving an old seed, an old recipe or an agricultural tradition isn't about nostalgia.
It is about keeping knowledge alive. That same idea is now taking root here in Arkansas. A kernel of wheat may be tiny, but inside it are genetics, migration, agriculture, culture, flavor and memory.
That is why I call this work The Grain Keeper — preserving seeds, stories and soil.
And this year, instead of standing beneath an olive tree in Sicily, I will be standing in an Arkansas wheat field. That seems like a pretty beautiful place to begin.
This fall, we are beginning an Arkansas heritage-wheat growing project centered around Turkey Red wheat, one of America's great historic bread wheats. If you want to know why this matters—and how deeply wheat is woven into Arkansas's agricultural history. Read my latest story, Arkansas Wheat History: 1889 & the Heritage Grains We Left Behind. (https://www.urbanafarmstead.net/soil-to-soil-blog?p=arkansas-wheat-history-1889-heritage-grains)
A Hands-On Fresh-Milled Grain Workshop
Wheat • Flour • Bread
We will begin with the grain itself, learning about wheat varieties, milling, flour, freshness, flavor, and how freshly milled grain behaves differently in the kitchen. Then we will get our hands in the dough and turn that grain into bread. This is where the project becomes especially exciting to me. We are not simply talking about heritage grain.
We can hold it.
-Mill it.
-Bake it.
-Taste it.
It will be a great learning experience.
Learn more about The Grain Keeper (https://www.urbanafarmstead.net/grain-keeper-learn)
New Autumn High Tea on the Farm
Join us for an autumn afternoon celebrating the season one cup, one bite, and one conversation at a time. We will begin with a sparkling apple c***r welcome, then settle in for a multi-course seasonal tea.
Farmhouse Soup - Creamy Butternut Soup
Savories
--Apple, Cheddar & Sage Scones with Whipped Herb Butter
--Roasted Butternut & Caramelized Onion Tartlets
--Cucumber, Herbed Cream Cheese & Dill Tea Sandwiches
--Turkey, Cranberry & Havarti Tea Sandwiches
Sweets
--Maple Cream Pudding
--Dark Chocolate & Orange Tartlets
--Spiced Pear Tea Cakes
--Cranberry-Pistachio Shortbread
Your choice of farm tea blends
At Urbana Farmstead, we believe some of life's best moments happen around the table. Come spend an autumn afternoon with us—good food, warm tea, beautiful farm surroundings, and time to linger.
Saturday, October 31 • 2:00–4:30 PM
Urbana Farmstead • 2400 Kerrie Drive, Little Rock
