27 Aug 2017 Good recruiting skills led to family’s next mission

by Jan Spann

When Steve Lunk was stationed at Fort Rucker, Ala., in 1992, he had a second job as a Taco Bell shift leader. When he hired a young woman to run the front register, Carissa didn’t realize she was signing on for so much more. Both were Army brats, and Carissa had sworn she would never marry a soldier, but that was before she met Steve.

The young couple married in March 1993. For 13 years, he served as a nutrition care specialist and dining facility manager at Army hospitals around the world. The family grew to include a son, Adam, and daughter, Amanda. For the last seven years of his Army career, Steve was a recruiter in Conway, and that job led him to what would be Steve and Carissa’s future civilian assignment.

Eleven years ago, Steve was recruiting a young woman in an area north of Conway. Her boyfriend was homeless and lived in a makeshift tent in a wooded area across the road from the girl’s house because her family didn’t approve of him. While taking food and warm clothing to the boyfriend, also an eligible recruit, Steve saw a beat-up sign: LOT FOR SALE. The Lunks bought that two-acre lot located on a rocky ridge, and later bought the adjoining lot where the young man had camped. Now came the hard work.

The couple spent two years clearing the first lot, pulling vines and burning brush. They read books on home building and kept to their must-have list: functional, energy efficient, one-story, split bedrooms plus front and back porches. The steep drive up the hill levels off to a ridge that’s nearly the perfect width for the walkways around the home and the gardens.

As the couple cleared the other lot to gain access to the full four acres, Steve began to think about the gardening chores he had when he was growing up. “My folks always had some kind of garden, as did their parents,” Steve said. “I wasn’t very interested in gardening during my teenage years, but those memories helped me recognize our land’s potential.

“As we began to grow things up on the ridge, we would build another raised bed or two every year, often using the many rocks scattered around to build the beds. The ground was just too rocky for a productive vegetable garden as it was. We amended it with lots of homemade compost from our small flock of chickens. We grew what we liked to eat, so we had lots of sweet and fiery peppers, tomatoes and garlic.”

To the west of the raised beds, the couple left the native trees and carved out a shady retreat with comfortable outdoor seating, which they repurposed from discarded patio furniture they found over the years. “It’s where we spend most of our time,” said Carissa. “Steve doesn’t sit still for long, so he can work in the garden while I sit here and read or help him.”

On this day, Steve was harvesting garlic. He digs each bulb individually (more than 500 this year), and the couple then carefully strips the outer bulb wrapper to reveal the clean, white heads, sometimes braiding several strands together. Then they are hung in bunches of 10 on cedar limbs.

The homestead — named Cedar Rock Ridge for three things that define their property — also includes 11 hens and a rooster, with a hen house built from materials left from building the Lunk home. The hen house and enclosed pen are situated among the filtered shade on the east side of their home, and during the afternoons, the girls roam the rest of the property, eating mosquitos, small snakes, ticks and bugs of all kinds. Occasionally they even find a grasshopper.

In 2008, when Steve retired from active duty, the couple was accepted into Conway Locally Grown as a grower. “We spent the first five years as a small grower, continually adjusting our crops based on what we could reliably grow,” said Steve. “We also wanted to share some foods we enjoy producing.”

Besides peppers, tomatoes and garlic, their food items also include candied jalapenos, wicked hot dill pickles and cornbread muffins, along with barbecue sauce and Beaverfork Blend, two items that incorporate Steve’s favorite thing to produce: smoked jalapenos. He smokes the organic peppers over peach wood for six hours. Cedar Rock Ridge also offers flowers, herbs and vegetable plants for consumers to grow in their own home gardens.

Four years ago, after volunteering almost every week, the couple was offered the opportunity to officially take over daily operations of Conway Locally Grown. The mission of CLG is to foster the local food economy by connecting Central Arkansas producers with Conway area customers. Farmers in the CLG network adhere to humane treatment of animals and environmentally friendly food systems.

The couple’s commitment goes even further, and they produce organically grown food. “The chickens help with many of the garden tasks as they range free in the garden and woods,” said Steve. “We also use crop rotation and homegrown compost to keep the soil sustainably fertile.” Marigolds, anise hyssop and scarlet bee balm flowers attract garden pollinators. Steve also has rain barrels and a greenhouse built from recycled sliding glass doors.

As CLG managers, the couple works with growers within a 150-mile radius of Conway. The CLG managers also make sure the market has a good range of products, including fresh produce, baked goods, eggs, meats and locally processed foods and goods (soap, jellies, honey, relish).

Carissa and Steve’s son, Adam, lives in Conway and has worked at Torreyson Library at the University of Central Arkansas since he graduated two years ago. Their son-in-law, Specialist Jacob Beagley, recently transferred from Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio to Fort Gordon, Ga., bringing his family — Amanda and 2-year-old and a 4-month-old sons — closer to Carissa and Steve. “Amanda swore she would never marry a soldier, just like me,” said Carissa. “And look what happened! It must be in our family genetics.”

And in case you’re curious about the two military recruits that led Steve to this little slice of heaven, they both enlisted!

A Conway resident, Jan Spann has been gardening for 20-plus years and has been involved with the Faulkner County Master Gardeners for 11 years. She and her husband, Randy, have five children and eight grandchildren.