The Main Barn at Malabar Farm. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

By Ken Drenten

Malabar Farm State Park is no ordinary farm. Located just east of Mansfield, the farm is the legacy of a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who made his dreams come true.

Louis Bromfield, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Early Autumn in 1926, established the farm to demonstrate conservation and sustainable agricultural practices in the 1940s and 1950s. He wrote about his experiences in the books Malabar Farm, Pleasant Valley and From My Experience.

Bromfield had grown up working on his grandfather’s farm. As an author and screenwriter, he knew fame and fortune, living the good life in New York City and France in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1938, he was ready to go back to his roots. He purchased 600 acres of worn-out farmland that would become Malabar Farm.

The farm’s Big House is celebrated as the site of the 1945 wedding of movie stars Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. While he and his family lived and worked at the farm, Bromfield invited friends including Hollywood stars for short stays at Malabar Farm. The invitations came with the requirement that work would be expected of them, so stars like Joan Fontaine and Jimmy Cagney were sometimes at work husking corn or selling vegetables at the farm’s produce stand.

The Big House at Malabar Farm. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

The farm’s produce stand is a can’t-miss stop in from late spring to early autumn. Fresh vegetables are kept cool with pure, cold, running spring water. Bromfield described it in his book From My Experience: “At the market stand there is a beautiful view across valley and forest and always in the ear is the loveliest of all sounds — that of cold running water.” The market stand of Bromfield’s description is located at 3645 Pleasant Valley Road at Malabar Farm State Park and is a tribute to his vision.

Malabar Farm’s produce stand keeps vegetables fresh with clear, cold running spring water. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

After Bromfield’s death in 1956 the entire farm was donated to the state and has been a National Historic Landmark since 1973. Activities at Malabar Farm State Park include guided tours of the Big House, a visitor center, restaurant, farm market, farm animals, fishing, hiking, camping, picnicking and special events.

Malabar Farm State Park is located at 4050 Bromfield Road, Lucas.

(Sources: Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Wikipedia)

Ken Drenten is creator and manager of Dusty-Tires.com, a travel blog for out-of-the-ordinary places in Ohio.

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