Our Story
I started my farming journey long before I even realized I wanted to be a farmer. I grew up in Northwestern Vermont near my family’s retired dairy farm. Spending much of my free time there as a child; the horn of my great-grandmother’s Oldsmobile called my cousins and I in from the far reaches of 300 acres for dinner. After my immediate family moved to Connecticut, I remained blessed to spend summers and school vacations back on the farm. The camp, lake, land, and barn grew in importance to me each time I had to leave and head south for school and later work.
As an adult, I took every opportunity to return to the farm if only for the weekend. In 2005 the company I worked for closed, my only dependents were furry and four-legged – It was time for me to go back to the farm! It took another year of soul-searching, job searches, some college classes and a budding relationship until in November of 2006 I moved into the 200-year-old family farmhouse. I was supposed to be its caretaker for a couple of years. I am truly blessed to still call the farmhouse my home.
We started homesteading; planting a garden, building a greenhouse from reclaimed windows, revitalizing my grandmother’s raised bed garden, and planning for a homestead that would support the two of us while still working off the farm. I married William in 2007. Chickens arrived in the fall of 2008 and the first Christmas trees were planted in the spring of 2009. Wandering Moose Farms was officially born.
The chicken count grew to over 100 and we started selling eggs. The gardens were prolific, so we started selling produce to our neighbors and friends. When there were too many eggs, I baked, and we added homemade goodies to the list of items we could share with our neighbors for a modest fee. Excess produce was pickled and canned further expanding our product offerings. With help from my family and proceeds from our modest sales, we were able to plant more Christmas trees. We were still missing protein, so we bought rabbits. With both of us working and trying to manage chickens, rabbits, gardens and Christmas trees; we quickly learned that there was only so much time in the day, we were making mistakes, and something had to give.
We were re-evaluating the future of the farm when we were blessed with a new addition to our family in 2011. Harold was born. Spending eight and sixteen hour shifts away from your newborn makes you question whether you are doing the right thing for your family. Each evening or early morning that I drove back to the farm and my growing little man further fueled the need to be ON THE FARM.
We started selling Christmas trees in 2016 and I was able to leave my full-time job in 2018. Now we are working towards complete self-sufficiency. We strive to provide our community with beautiful Christmas trees and healthy vegetables, meat and eggs from happy livestock using sustainable farming practices.
