Twenty Years of Gratitude

 This week, as I'm preparing for Thanksgiving, I find myself overwhelmed with gratitude.

Twenty years ago, Andrea and I started with borrowed land and hand-built chicken coops. No safety net. Just a crazy belief that farming could be done differently.

Last year, we bought the neighboring farm and welcomed Chuck and Claire from Michigan. This year we signed for 150 sheep. Every decision felt impossible until it wasn't.

None of it would be possible without the community around us.

I'm thankful for the farmers in our co-op who show up every day. Mary and Emanuel, an Amish couple in Tunas who farm with draft horses. Every visit leaves me inspired to live simpler and buzzing with 5-10 new ideas. The Martin Farm crew, where four Mennonite farms work as one, young men showing up in the rain and mud to help each other. That might be the most revolutionary thing happening in rural America right now.

I'm thankful for Andrea, who naturally mastered animal husbandry while I built the co-op. We survived bootstrapping a farm while changing diapers because we found our lanes.

I'm thankful for our Grass Roots team, the kind of people who could work anywhere but chose to fight for small farmers instead. They treat every farmer's survival like their own family is on the line. And they treat you the same way, answering questions, solving problems, making sure you're taken care of. It's not just a job, it's a calling.

I'm thankful for our butchers at Cypress Valley and Natural State Processing, now employee-owned, who handle every animal with care and craft.

And here's the truth: without you, none of this exists.

Twenty years ago, nobody believed our model could work. Now Chuck and Claire are building their farming future on land we almost didn't buy. Young farmers at Martin Farm are staying in rural America instead of leaving. Mary and Emanuel are raising their children on a thriving farm. Our team has meaningful work fighting for something that matters.

Your support ripples outward in ways you might not see, into rural communities that were dying, into soil that's coming back to life, into the next generation of farmers who now have a path forward. You're not just feeding your family well. You're helping rebuild what industrial agriculture tore down.

That's worth being grateful for.

From our family to yours,thank you for believing this crazy dream could work.

Your farmer (counting his blessings),
Cody