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We're a seventh generation family farm in Rhodelia, KY, on the ancestral lands of the Osage, Shawnee and the Cherokee peoples. We raise Organic produce, 100% grass-fed beef, pastured chicken and pork on our 260 acre farm. We believe in healthy food, healthy people and healthy community. That's why we've chosen to farm and feed our local neighbors, including you! Everything we grow is raised with love and care to ensure the best quality and nutrition for our customers and to take care of the soil for the next seven generations. We're one of the first farms in the area to offer a Customizable CSA Farm Shares.
CSA Farm Share Member comments:
THANK YOU!!!! I have loved doing CSAs for 7 years, but now I've finally found the one I will stick with indefinitely!
The CSA brings such wonderful, nutritious, and beautiful food into our home. We are so lucky to be able to have this in our lives. I look forward to it each year!!!
The personal touch you bring to everything you do is noted and appreciated. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your farm family. I love knowing that we're helping to support a local enterprise.
The CSA brings such wonderful, nutritious, and beautiful food into our home. We are so lucky to be able to have this in our lives. I look forward to it each year!!!
The personal touch you bring to everything you do is noted and appreciated. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your farm family. I love knowing that we're helping to support a local enterprise.
Adam Barr and Rae Strobel farm land that has been in Adam's family since 1835. We recognize we are on the ancestral lands of the Osage, Cherokee and the Shawnee peoples.
We have a 175 member veggie CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and raise about 40 different varieties of vegetables for CSA and farmers markets, including lots of greens in the spring and fall, heirloom tomatoes, squash, okra, sweet potatoes, winter squash, broccoli, cabbage, onions, garlic, etc. We also raise grass-fed beef, pastured chicken and pastured pork.
The whole family farm is about 260 acres total. Each year, we raise 2000 chickens for meat ("broilers") on pasture, so the chickens are on fresh grass, which increases nutrients in the birds, provides fun for the chickens and helps grow better grass for the cows. We have a 30 head cow/calf operation where we feed and finish the cows 100% on grass, and sell the grassfed beef at area restaurants and farmers markets, and through our Meat CSA.
We have a 175 member veggie CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and raise about 40 different varieties of vegetables for CSA and farmers markets, including lots of greens in the spring and fall, heirloom tomatoes, squash, okra, sweet potatoes, winter squash, broccoli, cabbage, onions, garlic, etc. We also raise grass-fed beef, pastured chicken and pastured pork.
The whole family farm is about 260 acres total. Each year, we raise 2000 chickens for meat ("broilers") on pasture, so the chickens are on fresh grass, which increases nutrients in the birds, provides fun for the chickens and helps grow better grass for the cows. We have a 30 head cow/calf operation where we feed and finish the cows 100% on grass, and sell the grassfed beef at area restaurants and farmers markets, and through our Meat CSA.
Farm Philosophy
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Since we are a seventh generation family farm, caring for the land and soil for the next seven generations is in the forefront of our farming practices. We nourish the soil with compost from our farm, and other natural ways to bring nutrients and minerals back to the land to improve the health of the soil, land and crops. We do not use chemical fertilizer, herbicide or pesticide, but instead work to maintain a balanced, healthy soil to help grow healthy plants and food. We see our farm as part of a larger community-- a network of people who are interdependent with each other. We grow healthy food for our family, friends and farm community.
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Adam Barr
Adam grew up in Lexington, coming to the family farm on weekends and in the summer. After graduating from Case Western Reserve University with a dual degree in Biomedical Engineering and Spanish Literature, he lived abroad for a few years working as an intern at the State Department in Argentina, and in environmental nonprofits. Adam first became interested in sustainable agriculture after reading Wendell Berry while living in South America. Adam moved back to the US and spent a couple of years apprenticing and working on other small, family farms. This helped Adam decide to continue farming his family's land, to preserve the heritage of the farm, and contribute to developing a local food infrastructure in Kentucky. He is involved with the Community Farm Alliance, a nonprofit that uses grassroots organizing to affect policy change at the state and local levels. He is also on the bard of Sustainable Agriculture Louisville, which helps educate young farmers. He is passionate about developing ways for young people to get on land and begin to farm. Outside of farming, he enjoys playing and watching soccer, speaking Spanish, and traveling.
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Rae Strobel
Rae grew up in Louisville, and graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in English and a minor in French. After college, she spent time living in the mountains of New Mexico, and in Portland, OR, where she first became aware of our country's industrial food system, and the need to know where our food comes from. She apprenticed on a farm in southern Kentucky before traveling around the world for a year, working on farms, doing pilgrimage, and connecting with people in the countries where she traveled. Rae spends her time helping Cedar discover the world, working one day a week in Louisville at the Kentucky Foundation for Women and organizing a Fresh Stop in Meade County through New Roots. She helps on the farm with planting, cultivating, mulching, harvesting, marketing, canning and whatever needs doing. She is passionate about building community and combining spirituality with eco-justice and eco-feminism. She is a spiritual director, and leads farm-based reflection retreats. Contact Rae at joyfuljourneys@gmail.com for more information about retreats or spiritual direction.
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Alternative Energy & Practices
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Solar
As part of our commitment to caring for the earth, we are implementing alternative energy systems when possible. In 2011, we installed a solar-powered water pump for irrigation from our pond. This system provides irrigation to our vegetables, and drinking water to the animals. To help offset the costs for this system, we applied for renewable energy grants from the KY Department of Agriculture. |
Horses
Currently, our draft horses are recreational only. Occasionally, we might use them to help us do farm work such as cultivating sorghum or other crops, as well as pull wagons. We have been in several parades, including the Derby Parade in 2007, and the St. Patrick's Day Parade in 2012.
Compost, Cover Crops and Biochar
We're always working to improve the quality of the soil. Healthy soil grows healthy people. Cover crops help bring nutrients into the soil and prevent runoff. We make our own compost on the farm, and are working with a neighbor to make "biochar" which brings nutrients into the soil and stabilizes them for generations to come. It's a "new" (ancient) way that we're learning and bringing back.
We're always working to improve the quality of the soil. Healthy soil grows healthy people. Cover crops help bring nutrients into the soil and prevent runoff. We make our own compost on the farm, and are working with a neighbor to make "biochar" which brings nutrients into the soil and stabilizes them for generations to come. It's a "new" (ancient) way that we're learning and bringing back.
