The adventure that we now call Cedar Brook Homestead began several years ago with an animal loving child that wanted chickens of her own to tend to. As parents, we felt this would be a great opportunity to learn about responsibility and caring for other beings. We raised our first flock in the backyard of our one acre home in a residential neighborhood.
In later years we were fortunate enough to purchase 19 acres of raw land and build our dream home. With this move came the unfortunate necessity to part with our small flock of chickens. It was always the intention to raise another flock which we were able to do after building a new coop from left over house materials. Before we knew it, we had chicks in the brooder box again.
As life progressed our family became more and more interested in the concepts of sustainability, local food sources, and animal welfare. Out of this interest and with the support and encouragement of a friend we took on the all new and much larger project of raising our own pork. We continued to raise pigs for friends and family over a number of years eventually adding meat birds to the mix as well.
Fast forward ten years, hundreds of broiler chickens, and dozens of pigs later, we found ourselves in a global pandemic. During this unprecedented time it became clear to us that it is increasingly important for a community to have food products that are grown at hand rather than sourcing from afar. We came to realize that we had the skills, interest, and resources to help provide this for our community. This is in line with the values we have developed during our combined 50+ years in the public service industry as Firefighters, EMTs, and a Registered Nurse.
Our first official year as a farm has been a time of learning and growth. It has been a year of farmers markets, workshops, and receiving mentoring. These experiences, and all of the people we have met, have provided us the inspiration to continue refining and growing our business in years to come.
Our first year product offerings have kept us busy for sure, but the close of year one has left us asking ourselves, what else can we offer our community?