Liz Graznak fuels her passion and purpose on Happy Hollow Farm
by Sara Schafer | sschafer@ruralmissouri.coop
Tucked into the rolling river hills outside Jamestown, Happy Hollow Farm is a tiny farm with a mighty footprint. Beneath the arches of high tunnels, tender leafy greens thrive; in the fields, team members pluck ripe strawberries; and rainbow rows of flowers sway in the breeze. Watching over it all is Liz Graznak, a farmer with big ideas and dirt under her nails.
Liz is always in motion. Every morning, she’s planned her day before most people pour their first cup of coffee. Liz checks her vegetables, fruit and flowers — identifying which are ready to harvest, which need more time and whether pests are becoming a nuisance. She sets the pace for her team of around 10 employees, who tend the field and then sell the crops at farmers markets. Every day brings countless decisions, but for Liz, it’s the reality of running a first-generation farm built from the ground up.
Surprisingly, Liz never set out to be a farmer. She grew up in Columbia but fell in love with plants while digging in the dirt in her grandmother’s garden. Liz attended college in Iowa and then earned a master’s degree in plant breeding at Cornell University. While in New York, Liz became a member of a local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm. She helped on the farm in return for shares of produce throughout the season.
That focus on building a community around healthy food took root for Liz. She decided to return to Missouri and start her own CSA farm. “I was young and super naïve and thought, ‘Well I can do that,’” Liz recalls.
To learn the business, Liz started working for Dan Kuebler, who owned The Salad Garden in Ashland. Beyond production basics, she also learned she needed a “real” job to start saving money. She went to work for a garden center but kept her eye on the farming prize.
In 2010, the stars aligned for Liz to buy what is now Happy Hollow Farm. “The farmer approached me and said, ‘Hey Liz, are you still looking to farm? Because I’m selling my farm,’ ” Liz recalls. “When I saw it, I said, ‘Oh my God, yes, I will buy it right now.’ ”
The farmer knew Liz wanted to grow produce in a sustainable way. Two years later, she left her garden center job and became a farmer. “The farm has grown a little bit every year,” she says. “Every penny I’ve made has gone back into building the farm.”
Today, the farm includes 16 acres of produce and flowers. Liz built a packing shed, multiple buildings and a 20-kilowatt solar system, which powers nearly all of the farm’s energy needs. Liz and her team produces hundreds of varieties of plants all year, thanks to several high and low tunnels that extend the growing season. They also have a flock of chickens for farm-fresh eggs.
“We grow in a lot of tunnels and that helps me control the environment for what we’re growing,” Liz says. “But it also means a lot of hand labor versus if everything was just out in a field with the tractor — so pluses and minuses.”
The farm is USDA Certified Organic, meaning they don’t use synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers. Instead, Liz combines old-fashioned farming wisdom with new techniques such as planting cover crops to naturally fight off weeds and testing soils to determine when to add natural minerals to boost fertility.
Every plant starts from seed. Tiny plants are moved through several greenhouses to grow stronger before being transplanted outdoors. “There’s lots of moving plants around — it’s like playing Tetris,” Liz says.
The incredible volume of produce the team harvests is sold through a CSA program, a year-round booth at the Columbia Farmers Market, a seasonal booth at the Overland Park Farmers Market in Kansas, and through several local grocery stores and restaurants, such as Columbia’s Beet Box, Sycamore and Barred Owl Butcher & Table.
Liz’s CSA program includes around 80 customers subscribing to a weekly box of in-season produce. Customers can choose options that vary by season or quantity. For instance, a full share contains seven to nine vegetables each week. Customers can customize their boxes with flowers, eggs or protein from Liz’s farmer friends.
CSA customers can pick up their produce at the Columbia Farmers Market, a few other locations or have it delivered to their homes. Some even pick up their shares from the farm.
Around 10 years ago, Liz added flowers to her crop mix. The custom bouquets of local flowers were a hit at the farmers markets. “Flowers are only about 20 percent of our acreage, but the profit on the flowers is much larger than on vegetables,” she says.
The Happy Hollow Farm team includes eight to 12 H-2A visa employees from Mexico, one local full-time employee and several part-time employees. Most live on the farm, so they are also her neighbors.
Some of her team had previous farm experience, but Liz is always teaching them more — and she learns from them. “I have one guy who loves working on machinery, which is awesome,” Liz says. “I mean, hello, it’s a farm? We have stuff break all the time. He may not have known what fennel is, but I can teach him that.”
Liz easily switches between English and Spanish as she walks employees through the fields, explaining what she’s noticing. Before hiring H-2A workers, she didn’t speak a word of Spanish. “I think I talk like a four-year-old in Spanish,” she says. “But I’m getting better.”
For four hours every Saturday of the year, the Happy Hollow Farm team can be found under orange tents at the Columbia Farmers Market. During the summer, 5,000 to 6,000 customers descend on the market, and Liz is proud to sell them beautiful and healthy food.
“People shop with Liz because they know her and trust her; she grew up in Columbia and she’s part of the community,” says Corrina Smith, executive director of the Columbia Farmers Market. “She’s educating young and beginning farmers all the time. She’s an amazing resource for people here in mid-Missouri to talk to about farming.”
Since Liz keeps adding acres of produce, she became a vendor at the Overland Park Farmers Market in 2024. “I have to drive two and a half hours to get there, but on a peak Saturday they might have 10,000 customers come through,” Liz says.
Even with the endless work, Liz is happy to raise her two daughters, Sylvia and Ellowyn, on the farm. While they may not love pulling weeds or picking radishes, they are learning the value of hard work and big dreams. “I know they will appreciate growing up on a farm when they’re older,” Liz says. “If they want to farm that would be great. If not, that’s fine. But I’m not going anywhere.”
Liz has built more than a farm outside of Jamestown. She’s built a legacy — one seed, one bouquet and one box of vegetables at a time.
To learn more about Happy Hollow Farm, visit happyhollowfarm-mo.com.