HOW IT ALL STARTED
In 2018, Jake and I had both come through difficult divorces and were a newly married and blended family – Jake had 6, Amanda had 4, and we had one together for a total of 11 under the age of 12! We had two mini-vans, a shed, a few thousand dollars to spare, and a whole lot of mouths to feed. We were starting over {literally} in life. Our land was our actual blank slate to build on – there were almost no trees, no garden, no fences.. just fields filled with dead grass and sandy soil.
Our seemingly difficult situation was actually a blessing in disguise as it forced us to find creative ways to make things work. We had to go against the grain of the mass expenses of modern farming to find an affordable way to raise our own food. We had no farming experience or agriculture related education, and no loans or outside investments. No barn, shop, or tractor. And no savings to fall back on if we failed. We looked to the pioneers and homesteaders of old and believed that if they could do it without the fancy buildings and equipment then we could too.
Together with our kids, we built our farm from the ground up. We raised and sold heritage breed pigs, chickens, rabbits and livestock guardian dogs, started a one acre market garden and sold organic produce and flowers to families in our local community.
During those first years, we also set a personal goal for our family: to grow, process and preserve all of the meat and produce our family needed to eat homegrown all year. And we vowed to do it all without a pesticide, chemical, or store-bought fertilizer touching our land or livestock. It took us 3 years and a whole lot of trial, error, and research, but by year 3 we had finally achieved our goal.
As we shared our journey, we began getting inundated with requests to teach how to do what we were doing. We decided to start a garden class series that met once a month from January to September to share everything we had learned to do from planning to processing. It sold out in a week. We opened up a second class, and it sold out too. Then we started a monthly Homesteading class to teach more about living off land and livestock. It sold out too. And we kept getting more and more requests asking if we could film our classes and put them online so that they would be more accessible to people near and far.
After 2 years of filming, editing, writing, etc., we are finally able to begin launching classes. Wow, has it been a journey (and so much more work than we ever imagined possible)!
The most unexpected surprise of this whole crazy ride has been the community that has formed from these classes. We went from feeling like we were the only people around that believed in pursuing freedom from the food system to now being apart of an entire community of people who not only share our beliefs, but are also willing to pursue them alongside us. If you desire to grow your own food too, then you're in the right place and you are our kind of people! We are excited to welcome you to this community and can't wait to have you join us all in pursuit of food freedom!
To see more about us and our farm, visit our farm website:
