An Obscure Beginning
Sunrise. What a beautiful moment of each day. Well, more than a moment. i learned recently of a flash that occurs before dawn every day, which is the official beginning of dawn. From that point, gradually, ever so subtly, you realize after dosing off for a bit that it is indeed growing brighter. The light intensifies little by little, until suddenly that burst of flame pierces your eye, as the sun rises again.
Similarly, our story begins, and yours. We don't always see the true beginning, but once the rising sun warms our face, we know it started somewhere, sometime.
Before Dawn
Our Mom grew up on a farm. Our Dad in a neighborhood. As kids we loved visiting the farmhouse. So many delicious memories there.
Our Dad must've enjoyed it deep down as well, cause growing up we enjoyed raising chickens, (at least eating the eggs:), hogs, (they were a sort of disaster) and milk goats.(Cough).
We also enjoyed Back to Eden gardening and tried growing an acre garden with some dear friends.
Eventually, we expanded from our .7 acre lot, to a 3 acre lot which we thoroughly enjoyed.
Pasture development, garden goodness, chickens in a Rhode's style ChickShaw, and daily rotating our new milk cow, Ruby on pasture.
It was a dream coming true.
A desire was growing to do this for other people as well as ourselves, to bring healing to the land, the animals, and the people through the highest quality of food and lifestyle.
The dream was growing wings.
Suddenly Dad was bit by the bug. He spent hours while working his business of landscape construction listening to audiobooks and podcasts that small farmers crave.
"Let's go for it"
We were led like a greedy milk cow to the stanchion, a beautiful farm lot in the northern part of the state became our home.
We (or maybe just I) thought we knew what we were getting ourselves into, but boy were we unprepared for the work and lessons we experienced together. (Think milk cow analogy;)
We enjoyed the growth immensely though, both of the land, and ourselves. Still are:)
2 miles of fencing, moving new cows, spunky little pigs, garden scratching chickens, fresh milk to boot, we've had some good times.
I think most challenging and rewarding however has been the family part of the farm. Working closely with those you love most can really wrench you around. Passionate opinions, stubborn teens, and adapting to a new culture all at the same time was the hardest crop to grow. But the fruit that has been and still is being yielded is juicy, sweet, and a divine gift. (I think it leaks into the real food.)
People who have entered our lives through the farm have been fruit from the same tree.
"A friend loves at all times,
and a brother is born for a time of adversity."
This epitomizes many of our faithful customers, who have stuck with us through thick and thin, encouraging us to keep pushing through the heartbreak and setbacks that come with any noble endeavor.
Circling the Wagons
After the initial burst of energy, we had a couple years of somewhat draining maintenance and observation, learning from our mistakes and developing a more defined vision.
Slowly but surely we've been seeing the fruit of the seeds which have been planted.
The micro raw regenerative dairy was expanded in 2021, when our friends decided to sell 6 of their dairy cows to us. The pastured pigs rooted up a following and have been growing in all their glory. Beef is watering mouths years in advance, and the chicken and eggs are a local family meal staple. All of these products are grown with healing in mind.
The healing started with our own family, struggling to digest dairy products from conventional sources. Ice cream, sour cream, cheese, and just the glass of goodness itself was turning out to be a gut wrenching experience. This led us to raw milk, carefully produced following the highest ideal we can muster.
Meat and eggs we discovered carried similar tones of harmful chemicals, practises, and processing. The grain we fed was good, (Non-GMO), but we decided to take it a step further. Organic grain became our standard.
You see, our vision is not just to have our tummy full of delicious food, it is growing to be far more expansive and personal. What we do ripples to effect everyone around us, and the generations that have yet to see the light of day. When we take a step back and deeply consider the effects clearly evident in society of an ungodly approach toward food and health, we want to offer, (even if its a small thing), a part of the solution.
Temperature goes down by degrees, seeds grow microscopically underground, Trees climb 40 feet over 40 years, and the sun moves slowly into dawn.
Our Story is still being written..
Every sunrise brings a new day, new projects, new dreams, new possibilities, and new people. Our family is so thankful for what story the Hand of Providence has written so far, and we hope the story will grow to include YOU.