Family Farm to Your Table {Boggy Creek Farm}
Words by Sam Lauron Photos by Eric Morales
When Larry Butler and Carol Ann Sayle first laid eyes on the farmland that sat along Boggy Creek, it was overgrown, run down, and in foreclosure. “The roof was caved in, there was garbage everywhere, and nobody wanted it,” Carol Ann recalls, “so we thought, ‘Oh my gosh, let’s try to get it.’”
That was late summer of 1992. By February 1993, the farm had been restored and was open for business. “Lettuce grows fast!” remarks Tracy Gibson Geyer, Carol Ann’s daughter.
Larry and Carol Ann were pioneers of the urban farming industry. As one of the first urban farms in the United States, Boggy Creek Farm was unlike anything Austinites had ever experienced. The couple first introduced their farm to the city by setting up a card table outside of Wiggy’s on West 6th to sell their organic produce. This was not common at the time, and even the concept of “organic” was foreign to most. “People would say, ‘What do you mean organic?’” Carol Ann remembers.
“Once people knew about us, we were able to stop going ‘off campus’ to sell at Wiggy’s and other farmers’ markets but did continue to sell to Whole Foods for many years,” Tracy recalls. And so, after a few successful years of sidewalk sales, they began to focus their efforts on selling directly at the farm, making Boggy Creek Farm stand—which still runs today—one of the first farm stands in Austin.
Before coming to Austin, Carol Ann had very little farming experience. However, with Larry by her side, she was able to learn the ins and outs of farming and face all of the challenges that come along with it. “You have to be tenacious and creative to be a farmer,” says Carol Ann. “But it turned out, we were perfect for it.”
After 26 years of running the farm together, Larry passed away in June 2018. But just before his passing, Tracy left her job as a dental hygienist to join the farm full-time. Tracy has been involved with Boggy Creek Farm since its inception, helping out wherever she could. But now, as she’s preparing to someday take over, she knows there’s a lot more that she needs to learn. “It’s scary,” she admits. “But my plan is to see it continue for 500 years.”
Built in 1841, the farmhouse that sits in the middle of the property is among one of the oldest homes in Austin, along with the French Legation. For nearly 100 years, the property served as a farm, even accommodating guests like Sam Houston when he was president of the Republic of Texas. When Larry and Carol Ann bought the property, they dedicated themselves to preserving the rich piece of history that lives within the walls of the farmhouse.
Boggy Creek Farm regularly gives tours of the property, educating people not only on the process of urban farming but also on the history that’s rooted there. They want to be able to offer visitors an authentic farming experience and a chance to slow down. “This house belongs to the community, this land belongs to the community,” Tracy states. “We’re taking care of it so that the community has a place to come and take a step back in time.”
Boggy Creek Farm’s loyal customer base has long shown their support, something that Carol Ann and Tracy never take for granted. When a tornado hit the farm in 2001, it left everything in disarray. The next day, the community showed up, unprompted, to help. It’s this type of support that has proven that Boggy Creek Farm has an impact on the community and that same spirit motivates the family to do everything they can to keep it going.
“We’ve had a lot of regulars who have been coming since the beginning,” says Tracy. “And they tell us that they want to leave Austin, but they can’t because they’d miss the farm.”
As Tracy is preparing to take over the farm, she’s thinking ahead, too. She has three kids who are all “very passionate” about the farm and are prepared to carry on the role of farmer one day. Tracy admits, “It’s comforting to know that there’s an additional generation here.” When it comes to the future of Boggy Creek Farm, Carol Ann shares, “We were the first ones here, so we figured we’ll be the last ones to leave.”
Smoke-Dried Tomatoes
In 1994, unfortunate weather ruined a ripe crop of tomatoes at the farm, just before they were in season. Larry used this opportunity to get creative. The weather was too humid to sun-dry the tomatoes, so instead, Larry built a small smokehouse to smoke the tomatoes resulting in his now famous smoke-dried tomatoes that Carol Ann says, “taste and smell like bacon.”
Contact:
3414 Lyons Rd.
boggycreekfarm.com
@boggycreekfarmstand
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