Today we’d like to introduce you to Alicia Stump.
Hi Alicia, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Kevin and I (Alicia) started our farm four years ago. While looking to relocate from Spring, TX, my Dad was selling his two acres in Magnolia. We dreamed of having a garden and growing our own food after being worn out on grocery shopping for “real food” or finding it hard to get our hands on clean local groceries. We jumped on the opportunity to purchase the land and dove right in. With little to no previous experience in agriculture, we self constantly educated and at all times via reading, videos & podcasts. At the time, we also were both working full-time jobs. Kevin was a master custom carpenter and I was a medical aesthetician.
Year one we spent adding animals and building the infrastructure our property lacked, like fencing, hen houses & making repairs. There was a lot of “failing forward’ with our gardens, lol. Our gardens were very small and regular goat parties in them while we were away working made learning gardening even more of a challenge. But we learned a ton! Also, we wrote down ideas for how everything we grew, foraged, milked & raised could be used towards a goal of being more sustainable individuals and began creating.
The next year we got it together! We had a large bountiful garden. We’re able to process our own meats ethically, had flourishing beehives & wonderful farm pets! As we built our dream mini-farm, we felt the need to share the passion we felt with other people. Realizing there was such a lack of awareness of farming and connection to growing food across all age ranges led us to wanting to make that change.
That year we joined our first farmers market. The idea that we just wanted to produce for ourselves was out the window and we were moving fast. Within that time, we were able to build a full market garden and began canning seasonal produce all naturally farmed by us.
The best part is our ability to connect with our community and help them create that relationship with their food. Talking about how we grow to produce, what’s in season & assisting our customers to have healthy locally made food alternatives is everything we hoped for. Through sharing our farm & food story, we have had speaking opportunities and a platform to advocate for small-scale farming.
We regularly encourage backyard gardens and edible landscaping in any form. Where we felt a little hopeless in our neighborhood those years ago searching for better food, we want others to realize that it is possible on any scale and regularly assist our patrons with plant knowledge, gardening tips, selling organic plant starts and Kevin has even built some really awesome backyard chicken coops for residential homes!
As of now, we are farming full-time! The past four years have been a roller coaster of challenges, fun times, sweat, learning & love! We currently are in three regular weekend farmers markets and are only getting busier.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The path we took certainly was not an easy one, but our passion for food awareness really drove us to keep pushing. It allowed us to grow quickly and build a brand our community feels trusting and supportive of. Day to day and month to month, we face weather challenges, predators on the farm & with being natural farmers, pests are always an issue as well.
At any time, we can lose a crop that drastically affects our income. All we can do is be preventative as possible and keep building, but we also have to admit that we can’t win them all. Farming certainly takes a level of blind optimism, but it always feels worth it.
Our start-up has also been completely self-funded. Getting grants and navigating extra funding for a start-up is no joke. Not only have we had to learn the agriculture side, but running a growing business requires we learn how to track our progress so that one day we can possibly get assistance to expand.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Stump Farms?
We are full-time natural small-scale farmers. Family run, our goal is to keep our community knowledgeable about how and where their food is grown, encourage scale farming of any size & hopefully make farming seem a little more fun and realistic. Less than 1% of farmers are under 60, so we are the minority in the field.
Our farm specializes in regenerative practices that renew soil instead of causing dust bowls, erosion & mass carbon release. We also love producing unique heirloom variety vegetables annually so that our customers can enjoy different flavors and cooking experiences at home.
One of our favorite practices is canning, and we rely heavily on preserving our farm’s unique foods to get us through off-seasons. Being able to create healthier and locally grown alternatives to what you can buy in a store is pretty special. It also keeps us excited to come up with recipes and dishes that everyone can readily use at home.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Being relatable in our journey has really assisted us in our customer following. We stay open and forward with our availability of products and journey. Sharing the bad times with our community along with the good has helped us to attain better relationships with customers and opened our ears more to what we want to share.
Consistency in presence is also extremely important. Farming is a rain or shines business and our community knows we will be there to deliver!
Contact Info:
- Email: inquire@StumpFarms.com
- Website: www.StumpFarms.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/StumpFarms
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/StumpFarmsMagnolia
