The annual Christmas Open House was held at Malabar Farm in Richland County last week. As a new board member of the Malabar Farm Foundation, I was invited to share the holiday cheer and encourage the faithful to support the farm and its work.

Malabar is the 1950s home of novelist and conservation writer Louis Bromfield. It has been a state park since 1976. After years of insolvency, it was deeded to the state of Ohio in 1972 and operated jointly by the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources until ODNR took over and it was made a park. Now like so many other state properties, Malabar is threatened with the loss of staff and in need of support.

While I am no expert on Louis Bromfield and his beloved farmstead, I have read his books “Pleasant Valley” and “Out of the Earth.” And I have written several articles about his times and work. More importantly I have had the chance to speak with many farmers and farm leaders who did know Bromfield and have vivid memories of Malabar.

I recall asking Max Drake, Malabar’s first farm manager, what Bromfield would have thought about no-till farming. “He would be all for it,” Drake told me. “If it was a way to save the soil, Louis would have been a supporter.”

Earl McMunn the longtime editor of “The Ohio Farmer” once confided in me that during Bromfield’s time farmers around the state “enjoyed his books about sin, but didn’t put much stock in what he was writing about farming.”

McMunn claimed that he once filled time for Bromfield at a speaking engagement at the Neil House in Columbus when the author was held up by a snow storm.

As a reporter, I live for a good story and the Christmas Open House gave me another chance to hear first-hand tales of Malabar and Bromfield.

I met Bob Huge and his wife from Columbiana Station. Huge was the son of the farm’s second farm manager. For the first 12 years of his life Huge had the run of the farm and lots of adventures to go with it.

As we stood in the kitchen of the big house, Bob recalled how the cook would pay him to go catch snapping turtles out of the farm’s pond and creeks to be made into soup and stew. “I used a hook and a line with a red thread to attract them and when I pulled them out the water they were mad,” Huge recalls. “I’d go get the cook and he would come out with a butcher knife and cut them up.”

Huge says his dad often bumped heads with the owner. “Louis was pretty set on doing things his ways. I remember my dad didn’t like having hedge rows along the road. He’d tell Louis that’s where varmints and critters were hanging out and they should be mowed to make room for hay. Louis liked the fence rows and needless to say the fence rows were not mowed.”

Another open house visitor Jerry Payn, from Wooster, also spent his early childhood at the farm. In his tender years Payn lived in the “mail order house” that is now a hostel where visitors can stay on the property.

His father was in charge of dairy and poultry operations at the farm. He took another job and they left the farm about the same time the Huge family arrived. “My dad told me Louis was hard to get along with,” Payn confirmed. “Dad never much cared for all the celebrities that were coming and going while he was trying to get farm work done. We don’t have any pictures or memorabilia from that time. He just wanted to get on with the work.”

Payn recalls riding a bale elevator to the second floor of the old Quonset style barn. “It was way up there and was pretty little. I was scared.”

Sybil Burskey, the administrative assistant who coordinates volunteers and school field trips at the farm had a story of staying over night in the big house. There was lots of giggling when a group of women naturalists spent the evening in the back quarters, however as the group started to drift off to sleep the farm’s new air conditioning system kicked on with enough force to slam the room’s door shut, the laughter immediately turned to screams.

David Greer, president of the board offered a special salute to Brent Bowman who will retire after 30 years working at the farm. Kim Pruitt, a student intern from ATI received special recognition for her farm work as well.

If you are interested in supporting Malabar Farm go to www.malabarfarm.org or contact Greer at [email protected].