Our Story
It all started with a coffee date. They weren’t engaged; no commitments were made, so Joe was really going out on a limb when he eagerly began telling Jen about this book he was reading about a farmer who grew amazing food, made a living on a small piece of property, and used regenerative practices that healed the soil.
Oh, and this farming couple he was reading about…they also lived in a teepee for the first few years to make ends meet.
Fortunately for Joe, Jen was familiar with these farming practices from growing up on her family’s hobby farm. And the teepee part…well, for some reason that didn’t completely scare her away either. The two already shared a commitment to healthy, nutrient-dense food, but the intrigue of producing it themselves continued to grow. What if they could produce food for their family and neighbors that actually had the power to heal – both land and people? What if a young couple could enter a farming world of gray heads and stubborn conventional thinking and pursue nature’s way of farming without government aid and subsidies?
As they continued to read and talk, the conversation changed from a daydream to a vision for the future.
A year later, in 2018, the crazy young couple (as we have been called) were married and set out to transform the conventionally-run family farm. Joe’s family had owned this land for three generations, but it had always been rented out for conventional row-cropping, and the soil showed the effects of these chemical-dependent practices.
The corn and bean fields were transitioned to perennial grasses, countless fence posts were pounded, and within a couple years, the farm was unrecognizable with cattle, sheep, pigs, and chickens, all rotationally grazing and building back the depleted soil.
The work continues to pay off as we see the incredible progress in soil health on the farm and are now sharing delicious, nutrient-dense food with our community that we have every confidence will likewise support their own health.