We currently have a small farmstead on almost 6-acres in Rappahannock County, Virginia. This small farmstead is enough for us to grow our own food, and provide some of our extras to our immediate family, friends, and community.
We believe this is the best way to keep your food local. America used to be made up of small farms, where small family farms and homesteads provided for up to fifteen families in their immediate location. This also requires us to manage our property well. Here are some practices we follow to keep our property in good working order and in an exceptional ecological harmony with nature.
Rotational Grazing
The process of rotational grazing on any farm is essential, but especially on a small farm. The cows go into a paddock first, then the next day they move to fresh new grass. The meat poultry go into the paddock the cows were in to clean up the bugs and shorter grass. Then they move to the next paddock the following day…and so on. The turkeys are forest raised—just like most wild turkeys—with some pasture. This way there is never any bare space for our animals to touch. The fields and woods are composted naturally. And these animals give us the best milk, meat, and vegetables one could ever ask for.
Free Ranging Layers
Our egg laying hens get free range of the property most days. The only time they may be put up is during a project around the homestead, or when the weather is bad. Otherwise, they are happy and scratching around the property. There’s nothing quite a beautiful as a deep orange egg yolk from a free range hen.
We also have hatching eggs available if you’d like to hatch some of your own chickens from our very resilient and healthy flock!
Holistic Farm Care & Practices
Probably the most unique about our farm is that we strive to never use antibiotics or other harsh remedies. Because I (Amy) am an herbalist, my chickens are also like my little unique patients. Believe it or not, it’s not that difficult to give farm animals natural remedies and watch them thrive.
You can take comfort in knowing that we treat our animals the same way we treat our family—naturally. And if there is ever a time they can’t be treated naturally (which is rare), they don’t go into the food system for consumption (eggs, meat, etc).
Non-GMO Feed
All of our animals are fed a non-gmo feed from the local Sunrise Farms Inc in Stuarts Draft, VA.
