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Melvina Jones, Potwin

Posted on by Pat Melgares
Closeup- Melvina Jones amid corn stalks
Melvina Jones

What’s growing in the garden? Corn, potatoes, tomatoes?

Yes, all of the above, and more. Today we’ll meet a long-time volunteer who supports her local community garden plus other projects that benefit her community.

Melvina Jones is a volunteer with the Potwin PRIDE program (now known as Kansas Community Empowerment at the state level), including the community garden in Potwin. She grew up on a farm near the Anderson County town of Welda and earned a teaching degree at Emporia State. She retired after a career of teaching.

Her family always had a garden. “I grew up in 4-H. Gardening was one of my projects,” she said. After moving to Potwin, she and her family had a garden of their own.

In 1984, the Potwin mayor invited community organizations to have a representative on a newly forming local PRIDE group. Jones joined PRIDE as a representative of the Parent Teacher Organization and has been active ever since.

Continue reading “Melvina Jones, Potwin” →

Renata Goossen, Renata’s Garden

Posted on by Pat Melgares

How about we go to a garden store? Or, what if the garden store could come to you?

Woman standing at back door of white school bus
Renata Goossen

Today we’ll meet an innovative young rural-preneur who has created a mobile system to bring vegetables, herbs, ornamentals and plant care information to the public.

Renata Goossen is the founder of Renata’s Garden in her hometown of Potwin. Her parents gardened, her dad raised tomatoes, and her mother’s family operates Henry Creek Farms, a fourth-generation family farm.

“I grew up in 4-H,” Goossen said. She tried the horticulture project and found that she loved it. “Our Butler County extension horticulture agent, Larry Crouse, was excellent at encouraging young people with judging and plant identification. Our extension agents influenced me greatly.”

“In junior high, I started a project I called Renata’s Garden,” she said. She raised special varieties of plants, created a catalog and marketed those plants to the community. “Thankfully I have great parents who were willing to drive me to deliver those plants when we went to school or 4-H functions.”

Goossen attended Kansas State University where she earned her degree in horticulture. “The College of Agriculture is really great at helping you find where you fit,” Goossen said. “I had great professors who helped me.”

Continue reading “Renata Goossen, Renata’s Garden” →

Laurie Bruce, Bruce’s Bullseye Farms

Posted on by Jason Hackett

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

Bullseye! That’s what we say when we hit the target right in the center. Today we’ll meet a couple of first-generation farmers who are using the name Bullseye and hitting their target of producing and marketing value-added agricultural products.

Laurie Bruce
Laurie Bruce

Laurie and Joel Bruce are the owners of Bruce’s Bullseye Farms near Augusta. Laurie grew up at Potwin. She met Joel while working in El Dorado, and they married, moving to follow his job in the pipeline industry.

“We came back to Kansas,” Laurie said. “This is where we wanted to put down our roots.”

Joel got a job with Kansas Gas Service. After being a stay-at-home mom, Laurie earned an education degree at Wichita State and became a teacher.

They knew they wanted to live in the country. In 2000, they bought a house and one acre in Butler County. In 2013, they bought an 80-acre tract and expanded that a few years later. Continue reading “Laurie Bruce, Bruce’s Bullseye Farms” →