Sunflower Stories - Arkenberg Farms and Central Topeka Grocery Oasis

Keith and Briana Arkenberg sat down with Jackie and I to record a podcast discussing their work in Topeka and how they have grown into Arkenberg Farms. Here is a summary of our conversation, which you can listen to in podcast form on our website and most podcast apps.

In their early years of marriage, Keith and Brianna lived in an area now defined as Central Topeka, a food desert. This tight-knit neighborhood in Topeka that recently lost its grocery store, is working with the Central Topeka Grocery Oasis to bring food availability back to the community. When the couple realized they were expecting, Keith immediately knew that he wanted their future child to have an upbringing close to nature and connected to their food system.

What started as family land rented to other farmers and a small garden quickly evolved into a business plan after Keith experienced a Mother Earth News Fair in 2015 and began reading the works of Elliot Coleman and Jean-Martin Fortier. He was inspired. When Keith has an idea, he becomes a force. He knew that this was something he could plan, build and manage. Briana agreed to handle the business and sales side of this mission. She prepared for her side of the farming mission by taking a small business class through the city of Topeka. Her class included a stall at the Topeka Farmers Market.

The Farmers Market proved to be a successful avenue for finding customers. Briana wanted to keep their shoppers engaged and decided to explore a CSA model. She began with a punch card to see what people were interested in buying and to ensure steady sales. The following year The Arkenbergs began the CSA membership model the next season, with 10 members receiving weekly vegetables. As that has become successful, they have decided to tweak the model to an a la cart style to prevent the food waste woes that some members had experienced.

Keith reminds us that he loves the Market Gardening Model because you can scale up and down from season to season. As they continued to expand, they started adding hoop houses to extend their growing season and a processing facility to improve efficiency. Due to their care for their soil over their six growing seasons, they have earned bragging rights on their tasty vegetables and the prolonged shelf life of their products.

Keith’s passion goes beyond growing produce and caring for the land. His Youtube channel has hundreds of instructional videos and farm hacks, created so anyone can farm as he does. Many of these videos emphasize do-it-yourself projects that can increase efficiency without incurring high additional costs. He jokes that anyone can put him out of business by following these videos, but maybe the world would be a better place.

Expanding beyond YouTube, Briana dreams of starting an on-site classroom where people of all ages can visit, learn about the farm and develop their skills. They have a you-pick sunflower field and participate in farm tours, including the Kaw Valley Farm Tour.

You can find Arkenberg Farms at the Topeka Farmers Market, Monday Mornings at the Topeka Library Farmers Market, through their CSA program, and at on-site events.