By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

MANSFIELD, Ohio — There are state parks and there are working farms. Malabar Farm State Park, located in Lucas, Ohio – just outside Mansfield – is Ohio’s only state park that is also a working farm.

The first two weekends in March, this Richland County farm will be host to the Maple Syrup Family Festival. This 33rd annual event, sponsored by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), is free and features sugaring demonstrations, historic tours, horse-drawn rides and plenty of sweet maple treats.

Nestled just 12 miles southeast of Mansfield, Malabar Farm was created in 1940 as a demonstration farm for progressive conservation practices, by American Pulitzer Prize-winning author and conservationist Louis Bromfield. Bromfield was a proponent of organic and self-sustaining farming. In addition to being a working farm, the land was used as a government testing site for soil conservation.

The farm is situated in north-central Ohio, known for its rolling hills and remnants of Ohio’s forested past. Natural features of Malabar Farm are representative of the diversity of the glaciated Appalachian Plateau region of Ohio.

The region is renowned for its sprinkling of woodlands, lakes, streams and bogs in an area also known for dairy and grain farms.
Today, visitors may see the house and farm as it existed in Bromfield’s time. It reflects the agricultural tradition of Ohio, while focusing on Bromfield’s life and philosophies. Wagon tours of the farm are offered May-October and during the growing season, Malabar Farm offers educational tours of its vegetable garden.
Malabar Farm State Park offers primitive campsites and a 19-bed dormitory-style hostel on-site. The farm has three hiking and 11 miles of bridle trails. Canoeing is popular in the area.

The Malabar Inn, which is a restored stagecoach inn built in 1820, has a restaurant which features food grown at the farm, along with produce from other local farmers. The gift shop sells honey, maple syrup, fudge and other products. A farm market is held May-October.

The farm is also home to square dancing parties, cross-country skiing, fishing and hay rides.

It was Bromfield’s wish to keep it up and running long after his death. In his book, Pleasant Valley, Bromfield wrote: “Every inch of (the house) has been in hard use since it was built and will, I hope, go on being used in the same fashion so long as it stands. Perhaps one day it will belong to the state together with the hills, valleys and woods of Malabar Farm.”

In 1972 Bromfield’s dreams were nearly dashed when the Louis Bromfield Malabar Farm Foundation was threatened with foreclosure. But the Noble Foundation, which held the mortgage, agreed to erase the mortgage and accrued interest (totaling close to $280,000) after the state accepted Malabar Farm as a gift to the people of Ohio.

Between 1972-76 Malabar Farm was operated jointly by the ODNR and Ohio Department of Agriculture. The farm became a state park in 1976.
To find out more about the park or the maple festival, contact Malabar Farm State Park at 4050 Bromfield Rd., Lucas, OH 44843. Phone the park at 410-892-2784.