Serene Acres

SOME YEARS AGO, John Leonard became a beekeeper. He didn’t know much about beekeeping, but he knew he wanted to try. “I was as green as green gets, but I was like, ‘Let’s do it,’” he says on a blustery
winter morning, standing among orange trees housed inside the barn at the Mollie Spencer Farm, in
Yukon, Oklahoma.

Today, the farm cultivates four hives totaling about 180,000 bees, which produce award winning honey gleaned from plants across thirty-seven acres and the surrounding suburban community in Oklahoma City’s
metropolitan area. “Our honey has its own unique taste,” says Leonard, the farm’s manager. “It’s pretty amazing.”

One of the oldest family-owned properties in Oklahoma, the farm is named for Mollie Spencer, the grandmother of Oklahoma philanthropist John Kirkpatrick (founder of Kirkpatrick Foundation, which is
the publisher of ArtDesk) and great great-grandmother to Kirkpatrick’s grandson Christian Keesee.

In 2015, Keesee and his son, Blake, donated the farm to the Kirkpatrick Family Fund, one of the family’s charitable organizations, to ensure the protection of the property for public use and animal protection
for generations to come. “I think it’s a testament to how much the family and the farm have contributed to the community,” says Jesse Stroope, property manager for the Kirkpatrick family.

Thousands visit the farm annually during festivals hosted by the Chisholm Trail Historical Preservation Society (the farm is located on the historic cattle trail). As the farm now operates as a nonprofit, leaders are
exploring public-programming opportunities to benefit local students, civic groups, wildlife, and farm animals in need. “People really value this as a special place,” says Sara Maynard, programs manager for the Kirkpatrick Family Fund.

The honeybee operation is expanding to include a pollinator garden (Dutch white clover, milkweed, and more) that will sustain not only the bees but another at-risk species, the migrating Monarch butterfly. Through a partnership with the adjacent Yukon Middle School, students are learning about the direct impact of humans on the environment in a hands-on way.

“The students are definitely seeing things that a lot of urban kids just don’t have first hand knowledge of. And they’re drawn to it,” Stroope says.

The farm already sponsors local 4-H students, and a new equine rescue program will foster and create public awareness for neglected and abused horses. The horses will join two Black Angus cows, several sheep, and two donkeys, which already call the farm home. The farm’s wooded areas and pond also host local wildlife, such as deer, red and gray foxes, ducks, geese, and turkeys. Food produced at the farm is mostly given away or donated to local food banks.

Writing about his childhood experiences at the farm, Keesee remembered chopping wood, sizing up the watermelon or peach crop, and taking care of animals, “like the Brahma bull that fell into the swimming pool one time, or the occasional peacock on loan from the Oklahoma City Zoo. The place meant a lot to my grandfather…and means a lot to me, too.”

With its future secure, many more people will be able to create their own memories at the farm. “It’s a particularly special place,” Leonard says. “I love it.”

Mollie Spencer Farm will host the annual Iron Thistle Scottish Festival in April and the annual Chisholm Trail Festival in June. For more information, follow the farm on Facebook @molliespencerfarm.