The Kratochvil family runs a family farm, have built their own houses and raise most of their own food. A chicken roams the yard.


Kratochvil’s 100-acre farm is glimpse of days past


JULIANA GOODWIN PHOTOS BY DEAN CURTIS FOR LIVING WELL


O


n a gray spring day, with dense rain clouds hovering above and wind whipping across the


field, Joey Kratochvil ducks inside a greenhouse to show off a sea of tomato starts.


This is his family farm and its roots run deep.


The Kratochvils own Crossroads Gardens, a 100-acre farm in Pineville, and sell their wares at the Mountain Home Farmer’s Market. Four generations live on this land, including 80-year-old grandma Charlene Moser, who was born here in 1936.


Her grandparents, Jeff and Nora Lovelace, bought the property when Moser’s mother was a child. The farm is named after Cross Roads, which used to be a town with a cotton gin, store, church and post office.


Joey and his dad built the greenhouses, hoop houses and chicken coop with recycled materials and lumber from the land —some repurposed from fallen trees after an ice storm. There isn’t much on this property that isn’t homemade or hand-built — including the beautiful home where Joey lives with his wife Beth, and their daughter, Elizabeth. Joey and Beth, 37, have been together since they were 14 and started dating in school.


Beth Kratochvil, who is a teacher in


Beth Kratochvil says she lives an “old-fashioned modern life” which includes chickens roaming the property.


Living Well i May/June 2017 9


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