Many years ago in 2010 when I was in the process of promoting my first cookbook The Harvest Eating Cookbook I was booked on Martha Stewart Radio, I did that hit in a tiny sound room somewhere in Manhattan. During my short time there I saw a book by a garden guy named P. Allen Smith of Arkansas. He has many books and TV shows about gardening, landscape design, flower arranging, etc.

I watched a few of his PBS episodes and enjoyed the content. Fast forward a decade plus and I have rediscovered his content again and I must say this man is a national treasure. He has put out a voluminous amount of content that is freely watched on many platforms that are loaded with terrific tips, videos, recipes, and other forms of inspiration. I personally am learning all I can about landscape design in hopes of building a new Snow homestead in the near future, one where gardens are a key inspiration.

I love what he has done at Moss Mountain Farm, his 600-acre homestead overlooking the Arkansas river just outside Little Rock, AR. This place is nothing short of amazing with its gardens, orchards, Greek Revival Home, heritage poultry, and much more.

Celebrate Spring At Moss Mountain Farm
Visit Moss Mountain Farm to experience daffodil hill, Arkansas’ best-kept secret! With over one million blooms this display will take your breath away.
Enjoy lunch from one of Allen’s personally selected recipes, and a tour of Allen’s private home and gardens, giving you a glimpse of his daily life at Moss Mountain Farm.

If you watch enough of P. Allen Smith’s work you realize he loves history and preservation and treasures our founding father’s estates (Washinton & Jefferson) and has drawn inspiration from them. Their gardens and homesteads and conservation efforts have yielded much we can learn from today and P. Allen Smith is doing the same thing now, for us.

Not many people are doing this work at this level and allowing the public to benefit from it so freely. His farm is open to the public and holds many unique tours during the year so you can visit and learn. Tickets are available at his website.

In addition to his flower and gardening mastery, he also is doing important work in the area of livestock conservancy with both mammals and birds. He is the founder of The Heritage Poultry Conservancy where he is raising old breeds of poultry in an effort to preserve these breeds and to provide eggs and breeding stock to other collectors and fanciers.

The mission of the conservancy is simple: to raise the awareness of the loss of heritage breeds and to help foster good practices of stewardship of these breeds among breeders and young fanciers alike.

I can relate to this effort and feel this is highly valuable work in an era of CAFO farming and standardization of livestock which is the exact opposite of what we need in this country. His poultry efforts and outreach are well-financed and have specifically designed barns and enclosures for the poultry to thrive in. He also supports many programs that young kids participate in such as local, state, and national APA (American Poultry Association) sanctioned shows and events. He raises all sorts of chickens, ducks, turkeys, and geese.

His website is LOADED with informative videos in all areas that he focuses on and is such a great bounty of information. I have been binging on this great content lately hence this post. So if you have forgotten about him or never heard of him, I highly recommend checking out his information so you can learn from him.

Get To Know P. Allen Smith, He's a National Treasure

Celebrate Spring At Moss Mountain Farm