Our story
Misfit Kitchen Gardens is an educational farm in Ramah, NM, where anyone can come learn to grow food, build, and put up a harvest. Lucas started it. We’re keeping it going.
Our mission
Our mission here at Misfit Kitchen Gardens is simple; create an educational farm where people of any age can come learn self sustainability. We provide hands on experience in permaculture farming, as well as other important skills such as building, food preservation and how to build community.
Our story
Lucas “Redbeard” Knapp started Misfit Kitchen Gardens with one plain idea: an educational farm where anyone, of any age, could come and learn to take care of themselves. People would leave knowing how to grow some of their own food, fix and build things, and lean on the folks around them.
He built the place around that. Growing food the way the land wants to be worked. Building with what’s at hand. Putting up a harvest to last the winter. Getting people together so what one person knows doesn’t stay in one set of hands. It was always meant to be passed on.
Today his apprentice, Daniel McGill, carries it on, on Lucas’s land and with the permission of his next of kin. The work goes on the way Lucas meant it to: out in the open, with willing hands, teaching the next person what the last one learned.
The land
The farm sits on private land in the high desert near Ramah, New Mexico. Big sky, hard ground, and weather that teaches you patience whether you want to learn it or not. It’s the kind of place where working with the land instead of against it is the only thing that pays off.
Out here, permaculture isn’t a theory. It’s soil built up by hand, water caught and held where it falls, and beds that grow a little better every year. You learn it by doing it, and the season decides what’s next.
Stewards
The work here is hands-on and personal. Right now that’s Daniel, who learned it straight from Lucas.
Daniel apprenticed under Lucas “Redbeard” Knapp and now runs the farm on Lucas’s land, with the permission of his next of kin. He keeps the work going the way it was taught to him: out in the open, hands in the soil, teaching whoever shows up willing to learn.
This farm grows through the people who show up to learn and lend a hand. If you’d like to be one of them, there’s a place for you here.
Who we are
Misfit Kitchen Gardens runs as a non-profit educational farm: a place to teach and learn how to take care of yourself, open to every age and background. It’s about the work and the people it serves, not a bottom line.
Everything here is meant to be taught and learned: permaculture farming, natural building, food preservation, and how to build community.
The farm is for kids, elders, and everyone in between. If you’re willing to learn, there’s a spot for you in the beds, at the build, and around the table.
We’re set up to serve the mission, not to turn a profit. Gifts and volunteered time go straight back into keeping the farm growing and the gates open.
Misfit Kitchen Gardens is run as a non-profit educational farm. We are not currently a registered 501(c)(3) organization, so gifts are not tax-deductible at this time. Your support still goes directly toward the work — the land, the lessons, and the people who come to learn.
Carry the work forward
This place keeps going because people show up. See what we teach, find a way to get involved, or support the work directly.
