Our roots

A LOOK BACK, 2022

Five years ago, we came together as friends to partner in this pig business. That first spring before we had any animals, we spent a lot of time together walking our woods daydreaming of ways we could provide for our community and revitalize the forest while sustainably and efficiently raising animals on this special piece of land.

We would walk the property over and over (and then over again). With each pass of the same area we would have new ideas of what could be here “someday”. We knew there was endless potential in these woods, but as with most small businesses, our starting funds didn’t allow for immediate development of all of our ideas at once so we agreed to “start small”.

Excited and energized, we started our 2017 season by spending countless hours in the woods planning the layout of our operations. We worked closely with our Land Resource Manager, Bekah, to make sure we were taking necessary steps to preserve and reinvigorate our 100-year-old forest. In addition to the time spent evaluating and clearing the grounds of our first paddock, we were very busy with the labor intense schedule of preparing the infrastructure of our land before we could welcome animals. We spent hours hand-tying 3 acres worth of fencing, designing and building our first shelters, inventing and installing our first on-demand water system, assembling our very first feeders (only big enough for a sack of food at a time), and framing out our nursery pen where we would hold our very first pigs. That year, after an intense 5 months of an all-hands-on-deck marathon of working in the woods, we welcomed just 12 piglets.

We spent that first season observing and learning by trial and errors. We were constantly checking on our pigs to watch their behaviors to help us best understand what they needed from us to flourish in the environment we outfitted for them. We soon realized that these pigs were extremely happy to be in their natural habitat and they didn’t need much interference from us to thrive.  With an established chore schedule and maintenance routines secured, we started shifting our energy into the behind-the-scenes work of business development. We developed our roles as business partners and helped each other identify where we as individuals have strengths and started to outline our “departments” within our team. We started to understand the clerical work of farmers and worked on establishing the necessary partnerships we needed to succeed. We were able to find a processor we were excited to work with and familiarized ourselves with the butchering routine.  We learned so much that first year and when we tasted our final product for the first time we knew we created something exceptional.

We were very fortunate in our early days to have close friends and family that were excited for us and what we were creating in and for our community. They supported our venture by visiting, encouraging, offering helping hands, and purchasing our first round of Chestnut Hill Hog products. (Who remembers that as our first name?) 

We are so grateful for our friends-turned-customers that very first year and as we reflect on this time that has passed,  we recognize all of our growth would have been impossible if it weren’t for you, our loyal, supportive, customers-turned-friends.

Since those first days with 12 piglets, we have grown to routinely raise roughly 70 pigs a year. This amounts to SEVEN TONS of quality, sustainable food for our community and an immeasurable experience for those who visit the farm and the pigs. Around the farm over the years, we have invested in upgrading our infrastructure to support this amount of animals and to make our work as efficient as possible. The major upgrades that have had the largest impact on our growth has been the additional permanent fencing for roughly 20 more acres, the installation of our permanent 10 ton silo for feed storage, and the purchase of 3 mobile silos that move with each paddock during rotations.

With extra land fenced in, we were able to increase the amount of animals we raise while sustaining the health of our land by allowing fallow seasons in one of the three pens. The silo project allows us to now bulk order feed which majorly cut down our feed costs and waste (we used to order feed in 50lbs bags!), and greatly improved the efficiency of our feeding routines.

We have grown in our land practices, and also our offerings! Since our first days on the farm we have expanded from only offering whole or half pork orders to offering the same bulk orders along with individual retail pieces that we sell straight out of our freezers in our farm shop! We have also since launched our very popular Cut Collection Box and added a poultry program to our expanded product list.  Within the community, we have earned a reputation for ourselves and have made our debut on several of WNY’s top restaurants’ menus and have also proudly been working with Babs of Buffalo as one of their main pork providers. We have joined the list of vendors selling our products at The Hamburg Farmers Market and we have really enjoyed being out face to face meeting the people who support our farm.

During our off seasons, we have gotten in the routine of getting together as a team to review each department of our business and address concerns and share the highlights of the year. We also use our off season as a time to plan for each upcoming year and work towards the big goals we have for the farm.

So much of having visitors to the farm is the joy shared by both parties – from the excitement of providing good food for the ones you love to returning to a connection with your food, in nature at that. Last year, one of the visions we put on our to-do list was to work on clearing and cleaning out our barn. We really wanted to be able to showcase our gorgeous barn built in 1849 and use it as a space where we could host more events for our community, especially in light of the pandemic.  We prioritized being able to bring people together again and got to work. We installed new lighting, removed some loft flooring to open up the foyer of the barn, made our freezers more shopping friendly, organized and cleaned, and celebrated by hosting our first Holiday Open House this past December. We were thrilled to welcome so many friends to the farm and agreed we must make it an annual event. As we move into this season, we are planning to add similar family friendly events to our calendar and we look forward to sharing those plans with you. If you don’t already follow us on social media, you might want to! We use our social media as a way to update everyone on our events, our shopping hours, our collaborations and where you can find our products on menus, and as always, we share pictures of our families, animals, and farm life fun stuff. We hope to see you this season, either at the farm, the market or around town.