Our journey into farming began with one small pig named Porkchop in our 250-square-foot backyard in the hollers of West Virginia. We had just finished reading Joel Salatin’s farmer manifesto, Folks, This Ain’t Normal, and Jack was hooked. New Hampshire residents from birth, we used our two-year West Virginia interlude to learn about and experiment with raising our own meat, and upon our return to NH, decided to buy some land and work toward starting our own farm.
Since childhood, Jack has always been passionate about animals and the natural world, so when the opportunity to buy a house and accompanying parcel of former farmland in Dunbarton arose, we knew this was the place we were destined to be. After a few hoops to jump through and what can only be explained as divine intervention, we purchased our new home and land in June of 2018. Our daughter was born just a few short weeks later, and Jack, alongside some courageous family members and friends, began the process of restoring the overgrown pastures to their former glory!
Jack eventually shifted away from his career in residential construction to dive full time into his passion for agriculture and land management. Over the years, he has been steadily transforming this place into a working farm, often collaborating with our closest neighbors to create beautiful landscapes full of thriving plants and animals, living their best and healthiest lives. That’s the thing about Dunbarton: this town just makes you want to be a part of things. The friendly, tight-knit atmosphere and the neighborly connections we’ve made here affirm our lifelong commitment to both this location and this lifestyle.
Our greatest hope for our farm is to add value to this wonderful community by raising happy animals, providing healthy food, and working to build a cleaner planet from the ground up!