Posted originally on KWCH

SEDGWICK, Kan. At Jacob Farms in Sedgwick, there’s a small acre corner of the corn fields that’s dedicated to what’s called a chaos garden.

“A typical garden is fairly high maintenance. This is, you plant it and you forget it,” said Ryan Speer, co-owner of Jacob Farms.

Ryan’s wife Jennifer is part of the Harvey County Food and Farm Safety Council.

She wanted a way to get fresh fruits and vegetables to people in Harvey County who did not have access to them.

Modeling his garden after a friend in Oklahoma, Ryan decided to plant 45 species of fruits, vegetables, flowering plants and plants that produce nitrogen.

“When it really starts to go, we’ll start getting 2-5 laundry baskets of vegetables every other day. So we have to come out here for 2-3 hours every other night with laundry baskets, and load them up, and she hauls them to Newton and delivers them to the place in Newton,” said Ryan Speer.

Since there are no neat, clean rows, harvesting is hard work.

“it’s a scavenger hunt,” Ryan said as he walked through the garden. “Especially cucumbers because they’re green. They’re really hard to see in there. Yellow squash show up really nice.”

Now in their second year, the Speer’s planted three gardens in different areas. Because of all the flooding this spring, they’ll only be able to harvest about one and a half gardens.

Speer said the idea is to try and inspire other people to do this.

Eyewitness News and DeVaughn James Injury Lawyers surprised Ryan with a $1,200 Helping Hand so they could continue to produce these gardens.

“I sure appreciate that,” Ryan said with a smile on his face. “That’s amazing.”

When the Speer’s met with Dustin DeVaughn they told him the money will help them start more projects to help more communities in need.

“Thank you for all that you do for those in need and we’re excited to give you a Helping Hand,” said DeVaughn.”

“Thanks for this generous donation to help us with our community gardens.” said Jennifer Speer.

Contact Jacob Farms

9733 N. 151st West
Sedgwick, Kansas 67135
(316) 796-1015
ryan.speer7@gmail.com

Owners: Steve Jacob & Ryan Speer