It really was that simple. Our farming journey began when Cynthia came home from a yard sale with a book about beekeeping, and Stephen later reached out to a local beekeeper and asked for some help getting started.
Bees make excellent honey. We don't think we need to do anything else to it. Some of the stuff available in large supermarkets is not... well it's not natural.
Our honey is collected, spun or scraped out of the comb and then passed through a fine filter to remove any bits of wax or honey bees parts. We'll also sell it without straining if you want all that crunchy, natural goodness. We sometimes also have whole honeycomb for sale as well.
Stephen became enamored with raising cattle visiting Cynthia's Uncle Hobson in southern Indiana. He's been developing his herd on Hoosier grass and hay for over 30 years - he was raising grassfed beef before it was popular! While participating in 4-H as a youngster he noticed that the spectacular show animals at the county fair would look sickly only a few weeks later when put out on pasture. That's what inspired him to raise "beautiful animals with shiny coats" on grass and hay.
Simply put cattle are marvelously made to grow and thrive on pasture. A diet of grass and hay results in leaner, healthier beef. So we allow our cattle to do what they do best... forage in lush green pastures of grass and clover. They have beautiful shiny coats and eat apples from our orchard out of hand. Our cattle are rotated on pasture all year with hay provided during the colder, winter months.
We provide our cattle immunizations before weaned at seven months of age and minerals are available by free choice.
We're not currently certified by a grassfed association but we may be in the future - right now we let common sense guide our care.
Pigs just like mud. They also like to run, wallow, snort, root, dig and squeal. They weren't made to live in a small pen on a concrete pad so we let them roam around on pasture.
Hogs (monogastrics) need more than forage to thrive so we also provide a high-quality, Non-GMO feed consisting of corn, soy meal, beans, sunflower oil, minerals and vitamins. Additional minerals are available by free choice.
A sick animal will always receive necessary treatment if it is a sustainable option; we provide our children immunizations and antibiotics when they're sick, and we do the same for our animals.