Hey there! That’s us, the Haiders. By day, Ryan is a web developer and business owner and Jessica is a stay-at-home homeschooling momma. In all our extra time we are stray chicken-catching, seed-starting, cow-milking, tractor driving, honey-spinning, foraging and fermenting farmers.
We bought our farm in 2018. We knew we wanted to stay close to our family, our church, and to be honest, suburbia but we were ready to stretch our legs. We found the perfect place near Josephville with trees and pastures and a big old ranch home. We had raised small livestock before and done quite a bit of gardening but now it was time to do more. Ryan had always dreamed of owning horses and Jessica would garden all day long if she had her druthers. We jumped right in with goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, cats and dogs. Bees and pigs and horses joined the farm the next year. In 2020 we bought a milk cow, a couple sheep, and the adjoining acreage. Throw in a nice orchard, half a dozen large gardens, and more cows and sheep somewhere along there and that’s about where we are now.
We really really love it. It’s a ton of work of course, but there is a satisfaction and contentment that comes from working the land and providing for your family. We have been able to produce for ourselves an annual supply of many, many things. From basil pesto to eggs, from strawberry jam to pork sausage. From elderberry wine to green beans. And dozens of other things too. As we have learned how to raise and grow all these things, we’ve also learned a lot about how conventional agriculture and food production is done. And it’s not a pretty picture. We have come to believe that the best way to steer clear of poor health is usually to eat fresh, whole, minimally-processed foods sourced from local regenerative farms. And move your body too of course. And boy do we get plenty of opportunity to do that on the farm.
We also like sharing what we learn with others. It has been a steep mountain of learning these past few years, a mountain we are and probably always will be climbing. But as we go, we absolutely love bringing others with us, teaching them to become more self-reliant, teaching them the skills and knowledge needed to grow, raise, and preserve their own food.
Let us take a minute to share with you our goals and vision for our farm and our family. Our hope is to continue to provide for ourselves as much of our own food as possible. Our children join us in this endeavor and help more than you could ever imagine to keep all the animals fed and watered and all the garden beds weeded. We also want to feed our friends and family this fantastic food. We want to enable and encourage others to feed themselves as well. And finally we’d love to be able to provide for the financial needs of our family through the farm. Farm work is a pure and life-giving enjoyable work. But, small-scale local agriculture also needs to be financially sustainable. But that takes lots of people like you, dear reader, willing to support us, our farm, our way of life, our dreams. Please join our farm family. Please enjoy our food, learn from our experience, celebrate life with our flowers. I trust we will all benefit from the nutrient-dense food, the sense of community, and the joy of finding ourselves living in harmony with God’s world and wise ways.
Thanks for stopping in. Thanks for sharing this moment of your day with us. And let’s chat more later.