The family behind the farm
Have you ever thought how strange it is that society doesn’t encourage young people to become farmers? Every one of us depends on food not only for enjoyment, satisfaction and connection, but for our literal, physical survival. And we need it not occasionally, but every day for our entire lives. The quality and availability of our food determines our strength, our intelligence, our longevity, our children’s health, even our beauty.
But when Dillon was a young man, who loved animals and his family land and hated sitting at a desk with every fiber of his being, no one ever told him he could be a farmer. It wasn’t until years into adulthood, after being introduced to the work of Joel Salatin and other regenerative farmers, that Dillon’s gifts and desires finally made sense and he knew he had to go into farming. That was just the beginning, of course—it’s been a long story of trying, failing, waiting, trying again, praying, and God providing abundantly. But Dillon finally made his dream a reality. Now he spends every day caring for animals and people, out in the sunshine where God created him to be.
Dillon’s wife, Allison (hi, that’s me) grew up eating my mom’s from-scratch cooking and drinking raw milk from our friends’ cows, but I never cared very much about eating healthy. Until, of course, I had my first baby. As I researched the best way to nourish my little son, I quickly abandoned the standard perspective on eating and began striving to bring the most nutrient-rich foods I could into my kitchen. At the same time, Dillon was gardening and beginning to raise our meat and eggs. Without ever setting out to be homesteaders, we wanted a lifestyle that included shelling green beans on the porch and using our land to create food rather than relying on the grocery stores. Nowadays, I’m obsessed with feeding my three growing boys and hard working farmer husband the most delicious, most satisfying, and most vibrantly healthy food I can. Possibly the most important building block of that nourishing diet is good meat, and plenty of it—so you can imagine how excited I am whenever Dillon comes home from the butcher with an entire van load of it. I can’t wait to cook it myself, and I’m excited for everyone who will get to buy some.
As stewards of God’s earth, raising animals in a peaceful and wholesome way gives us a tremendous amount of joy. Serving food we have grown to our family, and seeing our children thrive on it, is a priceless experience to us. We’re so thankful and delighted that we get to share it all with you.
