OUR STORY
A family farm working to grow environmentally conscious meat and produce
We strive to farm as close to nature as we can. By creating a whole systems approach to raising livestock and vegetables, we are able to grow nutrient dense food with very little outside resources. Our sheep and pigs are rotationally grazed during the summer to minimize disease pressure. Our vegetables are grown without any chemical inputs.
ABOUT THE BODINE FARM
All of this began from our intention to grow food that we would want to eat. Pat Bodine, my father always kept a micro heard of grass fed cattle that we would have butchered so that we wouldn't have to rely on grocery store meat. When I came back from living overseas, I felt that the availability for pasture raised organic pork was lacking. It is relatively easy to find organic pork, but I had read about a pigs ability to gain sustenance off of forage planted clover, radish, turnip, and chicory. After some trial and error we found out what the pigs enjoyed eating and rough stocking rates for the animals. My dad had been raising sheep for about 6 years at that time, and we were able to structure the pasture using a follower system with the sheep and letting our chickens free range.
All this time we have had our own vegetable garden. During the 2019 season we stepped up the size of the garden and even grew some gardens of winter squash and mangel beets as pig food. In 2020 we expanded our gardens even greater and grew dozens of different vegetables and different varieties. We found that we were able to grow a large surplus of beyond organic vegetables, but did not have the time to sell them at farmers markets.
2021 was our first CSA season. We had 16 customers last season that received vegetables during the 20 weeks, or every other week for 20 weeks. The first year involved a lot of learning opportunities. The past three seasons have been extremely hot and dry. The 2024 season is looking like we may be in the same hot and dry pattern, which has some pros and cons.
In the future, we plan on having a full menu farm. We currently have oyster and shitake mushrooms logs that will be fruiting this year. We have been planting many berry bushes and fruit trees. In the next two years, we plan on offering pastured poultry and eggs for purchase. I am hoping for this years CSA there will also be an opportunity to purchase add on's of lamb, pork, and fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi.
The 2024 season will be our fourth year running the CSA. We are so thankful for the support the past three years, and grateful that we were able to supply local people with beyond organic produce. This year will be a little different, we are only offering CSA shares every other week because my wife and I just had our first child. I want to make sure that I have enough time to split between spending time with our son and working on the farm. Once he is a little older I am looking forward to gardening with him and we should be back to our normal 20 week schedule.
Our long term goals are to turn this 32 acres on the banks of Buffalo Creek into a regenerative full scale farm. Currently a normal year for us includes raising pigs, sheep, and chickens; along with a 1/2 acre vineyard, the beginnings of a permaculture orchard, growing mushrooms on logs, and large scale vegetable gardens. This may seem like a lot of ventures to delve into, but we believe that diversification and the creation of more environmentally conscious small farms is the correct way to produce calories without harming Earth.