We moved from Moody, AL to Ashland in the spring of 2020 with the dreams of starting a small homestead that would sustain the 2 of us. We waited until our 2 daughters moved out before we started looking for property in the country. When we found our 30 acres we knew instantly it was going to be ours! We knew we would have a few chickens for eggs and meat and a couple of dairy goats for milk since we make soap. Keep in mind, we both grew up in the city and knew nothing about livestock, farming, preserving food and pretty much anything homesteading! In December of 2020, we found a newborn calf in the ditch on our road. We knocked on doors to see if anybody was missing a calf but they all said no. We brought her to our farm and figured out how to care for her. Bottle feedings twice a day at 3:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. That had to be the feeding schedule because we both still worked full time. We did that for 13 weeks and after miraculously surviving, we built a bigger area for her to live in and got her a goat as a companion. She now lives at another farm where she can be a cow with other cows! After we got 1 goat we quickly added more goats to our farm and then started breeding goats so we could have their milk. We are up to 16 Nigerian Dwarf goats and are getting lots of milk every day. In the middle of all this we have a big veggie garden that we tend to every day in the summer and have added honey bees!

What do we do on our farm you ask? We make goat milk soap, shave soap, body butter, lip balm and beard oil. We are learning how to make cheese with our goat's milk as well. In our garden we have all kinds of peppers from sweet and mild to face melting super hots! We also have tomatoes, okra, squash, zucchini, beans, peas, corn, melons and luffah. We make our own salsa, hot sauce, spicy salt, pickles, and jams that we sell at the farmer's market. We have fresh, free range chicken eggs that we sell at market as well. We also have t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats and koozies with our logo that we sell at craft shows along with all of our skin products. We have a website in the works that will keep everyone informed on upcoming events and what we have available for sale.

If anybody told us we would be living in a small town growing our our food one day, we both would have laughed in their face! The only regret we have is that we waited until our 40s to do this! What a blessing it is that we get to be stewards of our beautiful land and animals and in return they can take care of us in such a bountiful way that we are able to give to others! Everyday we learn something new and love to share that knowledge with others with the same crazy dream we had.

Learn more about the farm and what we harvest by visiting our Sweet Grown Alabama profile here!