Featured Farmers: Daisy's Story

Today's Featured Farmer is Daisy of Adventure Acres.

Welcome, Daisy, and thanks for joining us!

1. Tell us a little about yourself! 

My husband and I moved to his family's Iowa acreage the spring of 2014 and are working to restore it to a functional homestead and raise a seventh generation of Adventurers here. We have three children - two daughters, 11 and 8, and a Little Farmer Boy who just turned 3.

We have a laying flock of Rhode Island Reds, Barred Plymouth Rocks, Easter Eggers and a Welsh Harlequin duck. We have some champion Broken Satin rabbits, three cats and a farm dog named Rufus. (And plans to establish a waterfowl flock this spring because duck eggs are AWESOME in homemade bread!)

Featured Farmers: Quinn's Story

Today's Featured Farmer is Quinn of Reformation Acres.

Welcome, Quinn, and thanks for joining us!

1. Tell us a little about yourself! 

I'm a mother to 8 children, ages 17 all the way down to 2, and Homestead Manager on our 8 acre farm, Reformation Acres.

Neither my husband nor myself grew up farming or even gardening so everything about this lifestyle has come with quite the learning curve. But the best part about it is that we're learning together. And I home educate our children so we're always together!

Hopefully, by watching my husband and I be passionate about sustainable farming and learning new skills as we go, they'll see that example and always be hungry for more knowledge.

Featured Farmers: Krista's Story

Today's Featured Farmer is Krista of The Farmer’s Wifee.

Welcome, Krista, and thanks for joining us!

1. Tell us a little about yourself! 

My husband and I are first generation dairy farmers from Washington. We have three kids, and milk 140 cows.

I love to write, take photos, travel, and meet new people.  I love agriculture and the people in it, and I'm passionate about helping farmers/ranchers find their voice and share their AG story with others.

I love boots, possibly addicted to them. I have an addiction to chickens. They are totally a hobby, but I love farm fresh eggs and seeing them run around the farm. My favorite color is turquoise and I can't stand cats. I would love to add pigs to our farm as in have a facility built and add it to our farm as more than a hobby.

I share our everyday farm life on my blog, "The Farmer's Wifee". I am also the co-founder of "Ask the Farmers," I'm a CommonGround volunteer, and new board member for the AgChat Foundation.

Featured Farmers: Meagan's Story

Today's Featured Farmer is Meagan of Novelties and Trinkets.

Welcome, Meagan, and thanks for joining us!

1. Tell us a little about yourself! 

My husband and I and his family grow tobacco and own a cut flowers and greenhouse business in our hometown in Western Kentucky where we sell floral arrangements and potted plants. The tobacco is our main source of income that we use to fund our greenhouse, cut flowers and florist dreams.

I sell my flowers by the stem, in arrangements and through teaching floral workshops.

 My husband has grown up around agriculture. He grew up raising tobacco, helping his dad here and there with their small dairy and helping raise and sell homegrown vegetables at farmers markets. This is where his passion for owning a business and farming stem from.

Both my husband and I are students at Murray State University. My husband will graduate this May with a degree in Agronomy. I will graduate in 2017 with my degree in Middle School English Education. We will both pursue our masters degrees in the years to come- mine in literature and his in biblical counseling. We have loved our season as students, but it has been incredibly difficult to tackle entrepreneurship and degrees at the same time.

We hope to expand our greenhouse business in the future and to continue raising tobacco to help provide for this endeavor.

Featured Farmers: Amber's Story

Today's Featured Farmer is Amber of For the Love of Cows.

Welcome, Amber, and thanks for joining us!

1. Tell us a little about yourself! 

Currently I am a senior social work major at Northwestern college and getting a degree in social work and theatre. My husband and I live in northwest Iowa, where he is the herdsman of a 700 cow dairy.

 We are currently trying to start our herd in hopes that some day we will have our own 150 cow dairy. We currently have four dairy cows of our own. On the weekends and when I don't have to work or go to school, I actively work alongside my husband. My favorite part is working with the calves and the maternity pen.

2. How did you get started in agriculture?

I grew up in town, but was familiar with the agriculture and dairy industry, because my grandpa and grandma milked cows and my dad often talked about it (as he also milked before I was born).

I never had an interest until my husband and I went to college and needed to figure out a way to pay for college. We started filling every spare moment with milking shifts and eventually began raising our own calves in our backyard. This became not only a way to make money, but something that we enjoyed doing together.

Featured Farmers: Cari's Story

Today's Featured Farmer is Cari of Everything Pretty.

While Cari doesn't write about her homesteading lifestyle on her blog, she has lots of wisdom to share with us today! Welcome, Cari, and thanks for joining us!

1. Tell us a little about yourself! 

I live on a small farm with my husband, three kids, a flock of chickens, homing pigeons, and two goats. We also have 300 fruit trees and almost an acre of garden that we grow non GMO vegetables organically. There are also berry bushes and nut trees on the farm that we harvest. Although it’s considered a small farm at 12 acres, it’s been designed for self-sufficiency.

I grew up in the country, but not on a farm. My husband grew up in a small town, but he spent a lot of time on his uncles’ farms. He loved the lifestyle, and we both wanted to get out of the city that we lived in.

Featured Farmers: Christine's Story

Today's Featured Farmer is Christine of A Fly on our Chicken Coop Wall.

Welcome, Christine, and thanks for joining us!

1. Tell us a little about yourself! 

I grew up on a dead-end street in a new neighborhood in a small city. I didn’t know a single person who had a garden, let alone a farm, until I was an adult. The only farm my husband had any experience with was his grandparents’ Christmas tree farm, which required nothing of my husband except cutting down the trees to sell.

Ten years ago, we moved to a 150-year old house with a 7 acre hobby farm. Besides our 6 children, we have 25 laying hens and 2 terrible farm dogs. During the spring and summer, we raise feeder pigs, care for our gigantic garden, and can/freeze as much food as we can. Since the property has been a working farm of one sort or another for all 150 years, we “inherited” all sorts of things, from barns to black raspberry bushes, to an outhouse, to a small apple and pear orchard, to a large number of mulberry trees scattered around the property.

Featured Farmers: Amy's Story

Today's Featured Farmer is Amy of The Fewell Homestead.

Welcome, Amy, and thanks for joining us!

1. Tell us a little about yourself! 

I was born and raised in Virginia. Living out in the "plains" or "flat land" of VA was something I always wanted. My grandparents raised cattle and lived on a beautiful farm my entire life. I can remember spending summers there -- screen door open, the sound of bellowing calves. It was heaven for a child that had a nature soul. It wasn't until I married my husband that the mountains of VA became my newest adventure. I never thought I'd move away from the open fields as far as the eye could see, but I found a new and better option -- mountains with fields quietly gracing the mountainside. I was at home.

Even though I grew up around the farm, my husband and I didn't live that lifestyle after getting married. But shortly after buying our first home in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains, we decided to get a few chickens. A few chickens turned into some ducks....and some meat rabbits.....and here we are, thinking about dairy goats! All of this is happening on a half acre, which is unheard of. But we love showing people that it's possible.

We specialize in non-gmo, all natural care for our animals. We are a small hobby homestead -- meaning, we raise our animals for ourselves, and if we have something to share, we will, but it's not often. We are simply trying to get back to the way our ancestors lived. We treat our animals (and ourselves) holistically when necessary, never chemically. We believe animals should live a healthy and free life -- therefore, we encourage pasture raised chickens, ducks, and rabbits. We hope to buy a larger property in the next year or so, selling our current property as a "mini-homestead" with all structures included, and start brand new. We can't wait!

Featured Farmers: Amanda's Story

Today's Featured Farmer is Amanda of The Farmer's Daughter USA. 

Welcome, Amanda, and thanks for joining us!

1. Tell us a little about yourself! 

I am a farmer's daughter from Southwest Michigan. Growing up, I lived on our family farm where we grew mostly fruits and vegetables for our own roadside stand, as well as corn and soybeans. After college, I went to law school at Michigan State University and am now a practicing attorney. I'm just starting out in my career, but I would love to one day practice in agriculture law. When I have free time, I blog at TheFarmersDaughterUSA.com and stay active on the farm.

Featured Farmers: Lisa's Story

Today's Featured Farmer is Lisa of Fresh Eggs Daily. 

Welcome Lisa, and thank you for sharing your story with us today!

1. Tell us a little about yourself! 

I raised an assorted flock of chickens and ducks, formerly on a hobby farm in Virginia, and very recently on our new farm in Maine! We also have two horses, a German shepherd, a corgi and a barn cat. I also have a large vegetable garden and an herb garden. We don't eat our chickens or ducks, but we do eat their delicious fresh eggs! We also share them with friends, family and neighbors.

I work from home, writing my blog and posting to my Facebook page and doing freelance writing for various homesteading and chicken magazines and websites. I wrote a book Fresh Eggs Daily: Raising Happy, Healthy Chickens...Naturally (St. Lynn's Press, October 2013) and the upcoming Duck Eggs Daily: Raising Happy, Healthy Ducks...Naturally. And I'm currently working on a proposal for my third book.

I also have an Etsy shop in which I sell signed copies of my book, blown out chicken and duck eggs, chicken decals, lavender sleep sticks, nesting box herbs, and other farm and repurposed items.

Featured Farmers: Amy's Story

Today's Featured Farmer is Amy of A Farmish Kind of Life.
Welcome, Amy, and thanks for joining us today!

1. Tell us a little about yourself!

We moved to our 5 acre farm around Christmas 2011. Currently, we raise chickens (both meat and layers), pheasants, and pigs. In the past we had horses and goats but found they weren’t a good fit for our family. We hope in the future to have a cow.

We also have two 2100 square foot gardens and are adding raised gardens around the property. We have a large raspberry patch, grapevines, and are hoping to start apple trees soon. My husband works nights in law enforcement and I homeschool my sons, ages 11 and 12.

... So, Now What? (Introducing a New Series!)

I did not grow up near any of these things.

Pretty much the opposite.

I spent my formative years playing in a backyard that jutted up to four others, in a subdivision with neighbors on all sides, riding bikes while watching for cars and walking down the street to the grocery store with my mom.

Wide open spaces was something for vacations and field trips to "the farm" (which was really just a big petting zoo with cute goats).

Then, in high school, something catastrophic happened.

My family moved to rural Iowa.

And I fell in love.

First with those wide open spaces, with watching the thunderheads roll in from miles away, with the quiet and the peace and the friendly way that the old men wave at each passing vehicle.

And then I fell in love with the son of a cattle farmer who spent his childhood on tractors and filling grain bins. He knows what a commodity shed is. Knows the difference between a Charolais and Hereford.