August 5, 2010 - Many of Boggy Creek Farm's customers weren't yet born when Carol Anne Sayle and Larry Butler first began growing their own organic fruit and vegetables in 1982, at their place near Gause in Milam County. Boggy Creek was certified as an organic farm in 1991 -- one of the first in Central Texas.
"We were first at a lot of things, but that's just because we're so old," Sayle joked from a farm in Austin. Most of what the farm produces is sold at the East Austin farm, which was one of the first urban farms in the country. They still use the Milam County farm to supplement what the Austin farm can't produce.
"The only reason we started growing without chemicals was because we didn't want to poison our food," Sayle said. "We weren't hippies. We were just growing the kind of food that we wanted to eat."
When they decided to start selling their surplus produce, they set up a vegetable stand just west of downtown Austin, because there weren't any farmers markets specializing in home-grown produce at the time. Sayle said they didn't try to sell from the Milam County farm because most people in the area had their own gardens. Sayle made her living as an artist in those early days, while Butler worked in the real estate business. When the real estate market crashed in the 1980s, Butler began remodeling, repairing and rebuilding houses, which came in handy after they bought the Austin property.
"That turned out to be a real benefit, because the house we moved into here needed some serious work when we bought this (Austin) place," Sayle said. "He built about all the buildings we use here. Somebody has to be good at building and fixing things on a farm."
The east Austin house is thought to be one of the three oldest in Austin, dating back to 1830, when James and Elizabeth Smith bought the land and settled there with their three children and 11 slaves. James Smith was murdered by the plantation's overseer but the land stayed in agriculture for at least another 30 years, but was eventually subdivided down to the current five acres.
"The whole area east of Austin, along the Colorado River and its tributaries, was the predominant farming area for many years," Sayle said. "The soil was rich and there was usually a good supply of water not too far away."
Boggy Creek farm is named for a creek that once ran through the property, but has been reduced to a nameless drainage ditch in urban Austin. Not long after they bought the place and pulled up a concrete lid off the farm's 150-year old hand-dug well, they found an inscription that confirmed the creek's importance: Boggy Creek.
When the farm started selling its produce in 1991, it was one of five small organic farms in the Austin area. It was one of only two urban farms in the country, the other one being Fairview Garden in California. They were also one of the first farmers to sell to the burgeoning Whole Foods Market.
Sayle and Butler sold from their stand at the Austin farm and at farmer's markets for several years but now sell from the farm twice a week, year-round, and to Whole Foods. A dozen or so chefs routinely buy their vegetables from Boggy Creek. The restaurant customers range from a south Austin bowling alley to some of the most prestigious and expensive restaurants in town. The increased demand for organic produce has helped not only Boggy Creek but other like-minded local producers as well.
"I don't think it's a fad or a trend," Sayle said. "When you look at the whole history of agriculture, you see that it's only been in the last 60 or so years that we've used chemicals in farming. Everything before that was organic and natural, and people grew their own food and ate what was in season because that's what was available. Now you have more people who want to get back to that."
Butler grew up running cattle and also growing a fair share of tomatoes and watermelons on his family's farm near Gause. He still spends a part of each week at the Boggy Creek's Milam County farm where some of the farm's most popular items like Early Girl tomatoes, potatoes, onions and squash are grown.
The couple has three grown children. One son works at the farm and Sayle said the other two are dedicated to seeing that the farm stays in the family as a farm.
"People around here tell us that we're real pioneers, but I don't know about that," she said. "All that really means is that you've been doing it a long time. We have been doing it a long time, and we still love it, and we'd love to see it continue."
