General Description: Pike Valley Farm is a Certified Organic Sustainable livestock farm. We produce heritage breed pastured pork, heritage breed 100% grass-fed beef, pastured poultry, turkey and eggs. The farm sales are made to area restaurants, groceries, buying clubs and on-farm sales. The farm is located on 150 acres on Herrington Lake, in Garrard County, Kentucky. Along with the work, the farm provides recreational opportunities on the lake.

Internship Starts: Mid-March to Early June
Internship Ends: End of August to Mid-November
Number of Interns needed: 3
App Deadline:
Minimum Length of Stay: 8-9 months preferred, 3 month stay with shortened curriculum

Meals: Most meals are shared, all meals are provided for, with meat and vegetables available from the farm.

Skills Desired: While previous farm experience might prove helpful, it is not necessary. Beyond this, our farm is seeking people with strong work ethics and a genuine interest in agriculture. Ideal candidates would balance self-motivation and self-confidence and an ability to work alone with a willingness to seek and accept direction.

Educational Opportunities: Apprentices can expect to learn about all aspects of production, processing, and distribution of pastured livestock. In addition to on the job training, apprentices will have many opportunities for spontaneous learning and informal discussions concerning varied agricultural topics.

Stipend: $400/month, end of season bonus for those completing an 8-9 month term.

Housing: Two-bedroom mobile home, and loft area of lake house.

Preferred method Of Contact: By phone or e-mail, but we strongly encourage an in-person, on-farm interview for serious consideration.

Internship Details: Pike Valley Farm’s apprenticeship program is primarily on the job training. Apprentices will be expected to work in most, if not all, of the areas that make the operation an actual working farm. Apprentices will be expected to work 45 hrs/wk, in conditions that are much of the time challenging and physically very demanding. Apprentices can expect to work on some days in excess of 10 hours. Having said all this, we are also committed to education and we would expect the season-long apprenticeship to give sufficient foundation, both practical and somewhat theoretical, so that a motivated apprentice might ably operate his or her own small-scale production operation.

General Description: Pike Valley Farm is a Certified Organic Sustainable livestock farm. We produce heritage breed pastured pork, heritage breed 100% grass-fed beef, pastured poultry, turkey and eggs. The farm sales are made to area restaurants, groceries, buying clubs and on-farm sales. The farm is located on 150 acres on Herrington Lake, in Garrard County, Kentucky. Along with the work, the farm provides recreational opportunities on the lake.

Internship Starts: Mid-March to Early June
Internship Ends: End of August to Mid-November
Number of Interns needed: 3
App Deadline:
Minimum Length of Stay: 8-9 months preferred, 3 month stay with shortened curriculum

Meals: Most meals are shared, all meals are provided for, with meat and vegetables available from the farm.

Skills Desired: While previous farm experience might prove helpful, it is not necessary. Beyond this, our farm is seeking people with strong work ethics and a genuine interest in agriculture. Ideal candidates would balance self-motivation and self-confidence and an ability to work alone with a willingness to seek and accept direction.

Educational Opportunities: Apprentices can expect to learn about all aspects of production, processing, and distribution of pastured livestock. In addition to on the job training, apprentices will have many opportunities for spontaneous learning and informal discussions concerning varied agricultural topics.

Stipend: $400/month, end of season bonus for those completing an 8-9 month term.

Housing: Two-bedroom mobile home, and loft area of lake house.

Preferred method Of Contact: By phone or e-mail, but we strongly encourage an in-person, on-farm interview for serious consideration.

Internship Details: Pike Valley Farm’s apprenticeship program is primarily on the job training. Apprentices will be expected to work in most, if not all, of the areas that make the operation an actual working farm. Apprentices will be expected to work 45 hrs/wk, in conditions that are much of the time challenging and physically very demanding. Apprentices can expect to work on some days in excess of 10 hours. Having said all this, we are also committed to education and we would expect the season-long apprenticeship to give sufficient foundation, both practical and somewhat theoretical, so that a motivated apprentice might ably operate his or her own small-scale production operation.

What a winter it has been! It’s been so cold and snowy here on the farm; the animals have all faired well despite the frigid temperatures.

Our new intern arrived a week ago today (Super Bowl Sunday) and has gotten quite a farm-education already! His name is Clint and he’s 26 years old. His family is hoping to begin farming in Texas soon and he is here learning as much as he can before he goes to his “real job” in mid-May. He’s a commercial Alaskan fisherman! He fishes for salmon, and yes, he brought us some of his catch to share!  Yay!

He’s helped out with daily winter chores: 1. move cattle daily, take them our organic hay  (supplement only needed in the winter). 2. water feed and water hogs, freshen bedding for hogs 3. feed and water laying hens, collect eggs and change nesting hay (this has been a real treat for me to have help with this because this is my job normally, and I despise being cold!!!).  In addition to the daily chores, yesterday he got to help castrate some hogs! I know, you’re all so jealous right now!

We have some hogs that are for breeding stock, and others that we’re raising out to full size to take to slaughter. The latter are the ones that we are castrating, obviously, and yesterday was their unlucky day. This must be done so they don’t get the females pregnant and because there is something known as boar taint. The hormones produced by a boar will “taint” the meat if they are allowed to get too large. I had never heard of this until I had gone to a seminar by Will Winter, an acclaimed hog farmer and veterinarian. (he’s hilarious, too… if you get the chance to hear  him at a farm seminar you might be going to then go!)

We are expecting another “good snow” this week. I never understood why people put those words together. It seems to be a bit of an oxymoron to me!  I am so very anxious for spring to finally arrive!

Finally, we found out  from where two of our summer interns are coming. They are in a program called the MESA program. If you clicked the link, you will learn that it is a program that allows agricultural students from around the world to learn a particular area of farming in the United States. We had many people apply, but the ones that were suggested to us are the ones we accepted. The first man is from Ecuador and he has had experience with various livestock. He is a man in his early 20’s I believe. The second man is 40 years old from Gahna, Africa. He also has had some experience in raising livestock. I had heard at a recent American Grassfed Association conference, in Lexington, KY, that approximately 98% of cattle farming in Gahna is all grassfed and no antibiotics or hormones. So, he’ll likely have a good understanding that we never feed them grain or the antibiotics or hormones that many farmers use today. We’re very excited to get them both here safely and learn about their culture as well as teeach them about ours. Part of the program is to immerse them in some American culture, invite them into our home for dinners, to church, and more. They arrive the 31st of March!

Well, that’s about all I have time for right now, as I’m getting the children ready for church as my husband and Clint are finishing up morning chores. Have a blessed week. Until next post…

It’s been a while since my original post! Wow! I guess life got so busy I forgot to get back to this! Well, the conference itself was great. I learned a lot from many well-versed nutritionists, NPs, health care professionals and “foodies”. The conference began with my asking a woman where I should begin. I told her I had the Nourishing Traditions book by Sally Fallon but hadn’t heard her speak. I told her I was a newbie and that I wanted to learn as much overall information as I could because I had a lot of customers that are WAP followers.

It turns out that this woman was Sally’s personal assistant. She was standing in front of a conference room looking in a bit of a panic. A sea of excited conference attendees looked as if they were swimming in the hallway separating us. She caught my attention and yelled for me to come over to her. I approached her and she asked me to stand at the door to greet participants of Sally’s class. I also had to sell booklets which had notes from the class. She introduced me to Sally and we spoke for a few minutes. They asked what I raised on my farm; we had our name listed in the program because we donated some items. When I told them how many chickens we were planning on raising this year, they thought we must raise them in a warehouse. YUCK. I told them that they were raised out on pasture, moved every day. I also told them that we’ve been told many times that we are the largest pastured poultry producer in America. While I’ve never verified this, I’ve been told by enough people who are somewhat in authoritative positions, that I do believe it.

I heard one speaker on the benefits of coconut oil and its effects on Alzheimer’s Disease. Wow! I was absolutely amazed at her personal experience. This woman was a pediatric physician but her husband, at the age of 50 or so, began to develop very aggressive Alzheimer’s. Her personal drive for an answer led her to find alternatives to what the doctors were doing. Late one night she came across a very brief discussion about the possibility of Coconut oil being the kind of fat that is needed for the brain. She decided since it was simply a food, that she would incorporate it into his daily diet. After a few weeks, she noticed remarkable improvement. Long story short, he is back to a functioning healthy adult; it’s not completely out of his life, but now merely lurks in the rafters of his mind instead of being front row.

Most of the food was wonderful! They believe in using butter, butter, butter! Quite a nice reprieve from my normal thought of “I’ll put a pat of butter on these whole grain pancakes.”  No no, they literally piled it on! It was rather comedic at first, I couldn’t believe I was watching people put probably 1/4-1/3 cup of butter on a stack of pancakes or a pile of mashed potatoes. The bacon was piled high at breakfast; the appetizers were whole milk (usually raw-milk) cheeses, pastured meats, etc… I fit right in! Since we raise pastured meats and eggs, I was in a room full of supporters. There were a LOT of people there, I was so surprised how many “die-hards” were there.

We donated chicken livers and chicken legs. The chicken livers were made into a pate. It was delicious and I heard so many people raving about it. Many times, they didn’t know I was the owner of Pike Valley Farm!  The chicken legs were for the children’s meals, and of course they were a big hit! I will try to post the recipe on this website under “Appetizers” soon.

The only negative thing I will have to say was that there was one booth that was out of my comfort zone. Otherwise, the conference was well worth my going and I’m so glad I got to learn more about this group and their findings on food and nutrition.

For more information, click here on this link to visit their website.

Sometimes there are these little quirky things you find when farming. Like in the same nest box a normal egg, which would be in the large to extra-large range, and then one that is only an inch big! Good stuff. ;-)

Fun Find

I’m in Schaumburg, IL tonight preparing for a weekend conference based on teachings of Weston A. Price. My, how far I’ve traveled. I’m not speaking of my flight from KY to here, no, I’m talking about a travel much more radical. I used to be a vegetarian. For many years, in fact, I didn’t eat anything “that had a mother.” I will blog more about that another time. I am NOT a vegetarian anymore, just in case you’re wondering. :) I have opened my eyes.

I am very anxious to learn more about the WAP movement and how nourishing foods can truly be. I know this to be true, I just want to learn more from this perspective and understand the ’science’ of it all a bit more. More to come…

Let everyone know that our new website is up. With lots of photos, information, recipes and more, we hope there a reason for  you to come back time and time again. You can even post some of your own recipes you enjoy using our products! Take a picture and submit it (be sure to credit it to the creator of the recipe). We would love to have lots of recipes so you can come on here to get a healthy, tasty idea for dinner.

Friend us on Facebook! We love to connect with people on there! Follow us on Twitter! Connect on LinkedIn. There are so many ways to stay connected and get involved. Do you have any photos of a visit here to the farm? Have you taken pics at a conference and one of us is in it? Submit them and maybe we’ll post them on our site! Thanks for your interest in our farm. We work very hard to insure a great quality, healthy, tasty food for you and your family.

Welcome to our Blog Page! We’d love to hear what you have to say about lots of different topics. Maybe you want to let us know of an article or news show you’ve seen about the type of farming we do. Perhaps you want to share a favorite recipe using Pike Valley Farm meats, poultry or eggs. Submit photos and your name so we can include them with the post.
We are just getting started on this, so check back often to see if your post has been added!