About
Providing a wholesome meal for yourself and your family day in and day out is a challenge.
With all of the options at the grocery store, different dietary advice, and the lack of connection to the farm, it’s hard to know what kind of food you’re bringing home and be confident that it is the nourishing, life giving sustenance you seek.
Just like you, my wife and I are health conscious eaters. Wanting to have a stronger connection to our food, we started growing a small garden. As we expanded the garden we began canning food, and growing crops that we could store for use over winter. Eventually, we tried raising some broiler chickens in our yard. We had great success and wonderful support from my mom and dad who traveled to help us butcher our first batch of chickens.
The difference in quality from the food we raised at home to the food we bought at the grocery store was, and still is, remarkable. After our first son was born, it felt great to be able to share that with him knowing that it would help him grow strong and healthy.
In 2016, we moved home to the Bartsch family farm where we’ve expanded our farming endeavors with grass-fed beef and pastured poultry being the focus. Since then, we’ve had a second son, and life has gotten a little crazy between maintaining full-time jobs, shuffling kids to and from daycare and preschool, and finding time for ourselves, each other, and the farm, but it is definitely worth the work.
We are hearing from more and more people about how pasture raised meats have helped them achieve greater health, and the exceptional flavor compared to what they find at the grocery store. Personally, the changes I’ve noticed on the land have been dramatic. The soil is full of earthworms, the grass is buzzing with crickets, grasshoppers, butterflies, and bees, and birds grace the skies and fence lines. The pasture is healthy and full of life and we are striving to transfer that into the most nutritious, life giving food for our friends, family, and community.
Stop in at the North Mankato Farmer’s Market to say hello!