Once upon a time, we lived in the suburbs. A desire to raise farm animals, be more self-sufficient and give our children space to roam led us to look for farmland. Intending to start small, we fell in love with this amazing piece of land in Efland, NC, and the idea of "small" didn't seem important anymore.  We have since devoted ourselves to raising our animals and food using "high-welfare" and "sustainability" as our guiding principles. Being entrepreneurs, we had already learned that diversity can be an important part of running a successful business, so we diversified.  Animals: cows, chickens, ducks, horse, donkey, goats, sheep, pigs and the dogs to protect and cats to keep the rodents in check.  Orchard: apples, pears, plums, peaches, blueberries, jujubes, Asian pears, grapes, kiwi, pluots, cherries, blackberries.  Garden: huge list of veggies and herbs, too numerous for this story.  Then came lots and lots of learning lessons: many expensive, some sad, all valuable.  And here we are today with a lot to share, more to learn and a thriving farm.  It's hard work, but very worth it to us.
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High-welfare and Sustainability are still tops in our value list, but we've added much more and it all boils down to raising food that is as healthy as possible and sharing it with our community.  Sharing not just the food but the farm as well.  There's just so much to learn about life that's more evident on the farm: the value of caring about all living things, the impact of kindness, the usefulness of a sense of humor through good & bad times, the importance of a good work ethic, the logic of letting common sense guide you... So we open our farm to others through our on-farm store, pick-your-own fruit, the annual Piedmont Farm Tour and the Cabin at Minka Farm.  Come see for yourself.