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WE HAVE REACHED A MAJOR MILESTONE!! Order number 10,000 left the farm on Monday, November 14th.
This order went to one of our long time customers in North Carolina. As part of our celebration of this event in our lives, we are delivering this customer's next order in person! We had planned to do this for a number of years and we're happy that we will get a fun trip out of this. Thankfully our neighbor wasn't the one with order 10,000. That wouldn't have been much of a trip!
Our MissionTo produce the highest quality organic grass fed beef, pasture raised pork, and pasture raised poultry and make it available at a reasonable price to all those who seek it.
A Little Bit About “Who We Are”!
Good Earth Farms, (not to be confused with or family's farm "Gifts From the Good Earth Farm" is the culmination of years of friendships between our farm and five other organic pasture-raised farm families in Wisconsin. Because time marches on, kids get older and move away, and life throws a curve ball at us once and a while, Good Earth Farms came into being so that we could continue to offer our friends and customers the humanely raised organic meats that they needed. Our herds and flocks are grazed in an Intensive
Rotational Grazing system to ensure that they are eating only from lush, tender
pasture, which is grown from soils receiving only natural amendments such as
compost, Our beef and pork is processed in a USDA inspected butcher shop (Pete's Market) and packaged in easy to use portions. Our poultry is processed in a USDA inspected facility, packaged and frozen whole or in many different packaging options. We would love to hear your comments and questions; please call us toll free: 1-888-941-4343, or use our feedback page to send us an e-mail.
A brief history of our farming adventure Gifts From the Good Earth Farm came into being in 1995 when we purchased an 80 acre dairy farm near the central Wisconsin community of Milladore. When we came to this land, the farming activities that had been in place for the past 100 years had just about exhausted the life from the land. There were very few trees, the cows were allowed to walk through the ½ mile long waterway leaving nothing but mud and canary grass, and the buildings had been neglected. There were many days that we wondered what God had in mind for us when he landed us on this piece of ground. We eventually uncovered his plan, but it took trust and patience. We immediately began working towards organic
certification of our farm. In 1998, once our three-year transition period was
complete, we achieved Certified Organic status through OCIA (Organic Crop
Improvement Association). Two years later we switched to our current
certifier, MOSA (Midwest Organic Services Association). We have maintained
certification without interruption to this day. Spring 1996
Summer 2004 We manage our farm following holistic farming practices and have worked each year to improve the farm where we live so that it not only supports us financially, but enriches our lives through its increasing diversity. In our early days we grew pasture-raised chickens and a few head of beef. We worked hard to improve the biodiversity of the farm itself by planting a few thousand trees each year, restoring wetland areas and planting native prairie grasses and forbs. We fenced the cattle out of the waterways and restored the original drainage. Buy 2000, we had diversified our farm with the addition of pasture-raised turkeys, pasture-raised pork, and a foundation herd of purebred Belted-Galloway cattle. In 2005, we teamed up with two Amish family farms who are certified organic and share our commitment to animal welfare and quality products. As a team our production for 2005 included 15,000 Certified Organic Pasture-Raised Chickens, 2,400 Certified Organic Pasture-Raised Turkeys, 24 Organic Pasture-Raised Hogs, and 73 head of Grass-Fed beef of which 35 where harvested for meat. As the years past, we added three more area family farmers to our group, each producing either organic beef, organic lamb, or organic pork. It is important to note that we work without contracts; no signatures on dotted lines, just trust and friendship and a shared goal of producing the best quality organic pasture raised meats at a fair price. Our farms are sustainable because we work with nature, not against it. On our farm, all of the land we own or rent is kept in permanent sod. We try to minimize the disturbance of soil from cultivation so that the roots of our grasses can build the organic matter in the soil. When we do need to work the ground, it is worked and reseeded immediately, it doesn't sit bare over the winter to erode in the wind. Second, we protect and enhance the fragile pieces of the landscape such as wetlands, waterways and woodlands. Finally, we don’t use man-made chemicals or fertilizers on our farm. We’re not certified organic because it’s a sales pitch, we’re certified organic because it’s what we believe in. Contact InformationIf you would like to call with questions, do so. We'd love to talk with you anytime before 6 pm Monday through Saturday. We don't answer calls or do business on Sunday. Farmers don't spend much time in the house when the sun is out so either leave a message or E-mail is a great way to contact us. We are very good at returning calls and mail daily. If you will be in the area and would like to visit. Please call first. We would love to show you the farm, but we need to be here to do that. If we're not too busy, I'm sure we can make arrangements that will work for all.
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Send mail to
farmer@goodearthfarms.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
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Hello. We are Mike and Deb Hansen, and along with our three children,
we own and operate an 80 acre
farm named "Gifts From the Good Earth" near the central Wisconsin community of Milladore. We strongly believe in
the benefits of organic production and raise our grass-fed Belted Galloway beef cattle
in methods that meet and
exceed the National Organic Program standards. In 1998, we achieved organic
certification and are currently certified by the
green
manures and minerals. Because of this, we believe that you will find our meat to
be a more pure, fresh and flavorful product than most.
