Our Story
First a little more about our family, Loretta and I both grew up on small family dairy farms in Lancaster County PA. We got married in May of 2017 and moved onto a 45-acre farm we had leased, where I took care of a commercial turkey operation and had a small welding shop. In the spring of 2018 after ongoing health struggles and meeting a friend who introduced us to the benefits of raising poultry outside on grass, we began to be interested in a different type of farming. We began to research the benefits of raising animals outside.
Through this, we learned of PolyFace Farms in Virginia. However, we were in the middle of a five-year lease. In December 2020, we decided to take a weekend getaway before Ezekiel joined our family in Feb of 21, we booked an Airbnb and headed to Virginia and took a tour of PolyFace Farms. Needless to say, we were convinced and I bought the book pastured poultry profits and headed home.
In the summer of 2021, the poultry company we were contracting with graciously allowed us to raise some turkeys outside on the grass, we were grateful for the opportunity and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Fast forward to spring of 2022, we tried our first year of Back to Eden style gardening. Also, I had an opportunity to buy a small herd of Red Devon beef cattle from the estate of a friend who passed away. By May we were in the last six months of our lease agreement. We began looking for property to purchase that we could call home for our family, which didn’t look long. We found a 72-acre property for sale in Southern Ohio; the amazing part being the former landowner had not been using harsh chemicals or synthetic fertilizers and had only been taking hay approximately once a year and leaving the land rest. On Dec 28th of 2022, we pulled into the driveway, with our animals and belongings following the next day.
We sincerely hope you will join us on the journey of leaving the land in better health than we found it.
