Our Story

Keith grew up farming with his family.  He has always been a part of the farm, but after college and working a few other jobs off and on for a few years, he came back to the farm full time.  When we were married (2013) I was excited to be part of the farm and raise things for people to eat.  While always growing a garden, my background was focused more on the natural sciences and ecology than on agriculture.  I loved exploring an undisturbed natural area and discovering all the variety of plants, birds, insects and any other wild things I could find, but I also liked the idea of raising food.

Working for a seed corn company one summer in college, combing through every foot of many highly productive corn fields, it really struck me how dead they were – nothing but corn.  Very few insects, no other plant diversity, and in the center of the fields, hardly a bird could be heard.  At the time, I knew something was wrong, but it seemed that that was the way to produce food – I loved the natural areas but people needed to eat, so I concluded that we also must need intensive agricultural production.

Keith and I have since discovered that this is not the case –  it is possible to meld the natural world with productive food production.  Through books, observation, conferences, more observation, networking with others, trial and error, and more reading and observing, Keith and I are building our farm into a productive ecosystem, producing food for people to eat, with plenty of room for as much wildlife as we can encourage – from the tiniest soil microorganisms to insects to birds and beyond.  We see them all as essential to make our farm viable and resilient into the future.  We strive to be good stewards of the land that God has entrusted to our care, always learning, observing, and improving our management and practices.

With every decision we make with the animals, we are thinking about how we can make life best and most peaceful for the animals, how our grazing might influence the wider ecosystem of our farm and the world, how our care will influence the flavor and nutrient content of the meat we produce, and on and on.  We make a point to continually educate ourselves on every aspect of soil, pasture, cows, sheep, animal heath, human health and everything in between.  To add to that knowledge, we spend time and effort observing our animals and pastures and the whole ecosystem that God has given us to manage so we can effectively use the knowledge we gain from conferences, books and magazines. 

Truly delicious, healthful meat is so much more than just grass and animals – it is the whole complex system that goes along with it – a system so complex that we will always be students of God’s wonderful creation and design.  And the next best thing about raising animals in this way? 

We have the best-tasting, healthiest meat to nourish our family. 

And it would be our pleasure to share it with yours!