Four baby chicks started it all...

We joined a CSA when they were first married in 2001. Josh enjoyed cooking and we enjoyed learning about all of the different veggies we would get in our box every week. We lived downtown and enjoyed the farmers market and had small home veggie gardens in each of our four houses. We tickled the vendors at the market when our 3 year old could identify kohlrabi at his stand and yet it seemed like we were still distant from our food. Our kids were getting older and we though to ourselves wouldn't it be nice to move to the country some day.....

Josh became fascinated with the idea of backyard chickens and in 2011 built a lovely backyard coop. We ordered four day old chicks (yes, they came in the mail) and we began our livestock journey. The chicks grew up. They started to lay eggs. We enjoyed the eggs and we loved the chickens. We even participated in the MadCity Chicken coop tour that had inspired us the previous year - the kids loved sharing their knowledge of the chickens with our guests. It might be said that those four chickens and a great DIY spirit caused us to decide to purchase a property in 2012 that we could transition into our family's farm.

Our family in 2012 in our "pasture" of weeds.

The place we settled didn't look like a traditional farm but "it had potential". It took some imagination: the garden was nonexistent, it had an abandoned house with a hole in the roof and water damage and a detached garage but no barn, the pasture had not been grazed in many years, the orchard's trees were ancient and overgrown and the once beautiful oak savanna behind the main house was hidden among overgrown scrub trees, invasive species of every type and a layer of brush and bramble so thick that it was impassable. Despite its drawbacks, we saw a farm hidden in that savanna and a barn in that garage and a studio in that abandoned house and well we are always up for a good project(s). And so we moved in 2012.

Bringing our vision to life has at times felt slow. You see, we grew up in the suburbs. We didn't know what we were doing when we started and of course, there have been mistakes along the way. But we like to do hard things. We love to learn and like to figure things out and we like to spend our time doing meaningful work. What began with four baby chickens quickly multiplied. A few more laying hens, four baby goats to grow up and help clear brush, some turkeys for our thanksgiving, some meat chickens for egg customers who wanted meat, a much bigger laying flock to accomodate growing egg demands, a few pregnant ewes to help grow a flock of sheep and recently a couple of pigs.... it feels like just yesterday we were getting started.