Wolf Lake Farm Interview

Wolf Lake Farm

Kristen & Nate Johanson feel that eaters should know and trust their farmers. This belief along with Joel Salatin's books, You Can Farm and Pastured Poultry Profit coupled with the Farm to Table & PASA conferences inspired these consumers to become farmers for the first time ever in 2008. The Buy Fresh Buy Local® team had the opportunity to sit down with them to talk about how & why they began Wolf Lake Farm.

BFBL: Why did you want to become farmers?
Nate: In short, we became farmers because it seemed like the right thing to do.
Kristen: We wanted to learn how to grow our own food.

BFBL: Why poultry?
Nate: It's funny, because poultry farming wasn't something we had ever considered.  But the more we read Salatin's books, the more we learned how poultry was good for beginners who wanted to make a living farming. This was important to us since we didn't have a lot of the necessary farming skills and we wanted to start out with something that had the potential for success during our first season.

BFBL: How did you learn to farm?
Nate: We learned a lot from attending the ’08 PASA conference, reading all of Joel Salatin’s books as well as an amazing book called Raising Pastured Poultry – Ten Years of Success published by the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (APPPA).  We also had a lot of help from Kim and Dianne Miller along with a farmer named Tom Colbough who we met at the ‘08 PASA conference.  Tom’s farm is called Happy Farms located near Philadelphia.  Poor Tom must have fielded dozens of “emergency” calls from us. We’re so grateful for the help and advice we’ve had along the way.

BFBL: What are your backgrounds?
Nate: I have a Masters in sculpture and worked as a designer of toys for special needs children.  Kristen was a massage therapist and also worked in a wellness center educating parents about natural treatments for children with developmental delays.  Neither of us had any experience farming.

BFBL: How did you come to farm your piece of land?
Nate: Honestly, the farm found us.  After last year’s PASA conference we put out an ad stating,

“FARM WANTED:  Compassionate, educated, talented, young, energetic, married couple need small acreage and home to start alternative, sustainable, humane pastured poultry operation.  Would like to lease/rent farm or hopefully barter land in exchange for helping owner with part-time work.  Husband is jack of all trades!  60 miles or less from Pittsburgh would be best.  Email or call Nate and Kristen at 412-980-7832.  We look forward to hearing from you!”

We put this ad on the Western Region PASA Yahoo board, on Craig’s List and in the Horse Trader. It wasn’t a week later when we got a call from Kim Miller (the past president of the board of PASA) who invited us to have a chat with him and Dianne.

Kristen: After our first meeting with the Millers we knew that something really amazing would soon follow. It just seemed like it was meant to be.

BFBL: What is the importance of the land that you've selected?
Nate: Kim and Dianne’s farm is almost exclusively set up for cattle.  This means that the land is split-up into smallish paddocks by electric fencing.  The advantage to it being used for cattle is that Kim had each of these paddocks plumbed with water.  This is really handy when you have to water chickens several times a day.  As far as the land, we tried to choose the smoothest, least sloping terrain available to be able to pull our field shelters daily to new grass.  If it’s hard to move chickens it doesn’t make farming fun.

BFBL: Was it difficult to kill the 1st few chickens?
Nate: For me it wasn’t that difficult when I considered that it was scarier for me to imagine someone else whom I did not know, killing my food in ways I didn’t know.  For me, taking responsibility for my food and helping others find good food is something that makes me happy.
Kristen: Butchering chickens isn’t tons of fun but we feel it’s necessary as it’s the only way be can guarantee quality from start to finish. Of course it was more difficult killing our first batch being that we had raised them from little chicks but honestly, it just becomes part of the cycle. Most people don’t stop to think about how food reaches our plates. I truly believe that one should be able to take responsibility for the food one eats.

BFBL: In the future do you plan to diversify?
Nate: In the future we are definitely going to try our hand at all kinds of stuff.  Another new venture will probably be growing herbs and some select vegetables that will nicely compliment our chicken sales.
Kristen: Being that one couple can only do so much, we would love to find a few people who are interested in a community farm-type of thing. With more people involved we could add a lot more to our farm and be able to offer our customers more too.

BFBL: Why is farming in a sustainable manner important to you?
Nate: One of the reasons we got into farming was because we were recently converted vegetarians looking for good, safe, healthy meat to start eating again.  And since finding food like this wasn't always easy, it forced us to ask the question of why all food wasn't being grown or raised in a sustainable way.  I think Joel Salatin and Michael Pollan were such an inspiration here.  After reading their books it just seemed to make so much sense that food should be raised in a humane manner that also took into account the long term affects upon the people consuming it and the connected eco-system.  In other words, sustainable farming is important because healthy food and health farming practices are reflected in healthy people and a healthy planet.  In my opinion, these issues cannot be separated.

BFBL: How do you practice sustainable agriculture in your farming?

Nate: I think it’s better to say that our practices of sustainable agriculture are always a work in progress.  In a way it’s like the pursuit of truth; you never really get there.  So too it seems with farming.For us, it is critical that our practices do not represent a negative load factor upon the immediate ecosystem of the farm or the chickens themselves.  This is why we compost all our chicken wastes whether it’s the litter from the brooder or the offal from the butchering.  When the chickens are out on the field, the droppings they leave on the grass is some of the best fertilizer grass could ask for.  Imagine our excitement when we saw how a mediocre-looking field of grass was turned lush and green weeks after our chickens had left for a new paddock.

BFBL:  Is there a benefit to farm-raised chicken?
Nate:  Chickens raised on pasture are lower in saturated fat while higher in Omega 3 fatty acids, certain vitamins and CLA, a 'good fat' that protects against cancer and lowers cholesterol. This also applies to our laying hens.
Kristen: The fact that they're raised on grass makes all the difference. The result is a cleaner, healthier and happier bird. I should also mention that we do not use any antibiotics, hormones, pesticides or fertilizers.

BFBL: What do the chickens eat?
Kristen: In addition to having access to all of the grass and bugs they desire, our chickens are given a custom ground mix of local grains, vitamins, minerals and probiotics.

BFBL: Where do they live?
Kristen: They live in large, portable bottomless field shelters that Nate built. This allows them to freely move around and gain access to grass while being protected from predators and weather. We move these shers at least once a day to fresh grass.

BFBL: Where can I purchase your products?
Kristen: Once a month we have an on-farm pick-up day. We process chickens in the morning and customers can pick them up fresh that afternoon. We also provide chickens for Kretschmann CSA as well as a few other buying clubs. We will be selling eggs and frozen chickens at the Farmers @ Firehouse market in the Strip District on Saturdays until November 22nd. We can always be reached by phone or email to see if we have chicken or eggs available. People are always welcome to come to the farm to purchase chicken or eggs.

BFBL: Farming obviously is not for everyone, but it seems to be a great path for you! Any final thoughts that you'd like to share?
Kristen: I think it's very important for customers to know and trust their food producers. We encourage people to learn as much as they can about where their food comes from. If anyone is interested in seeing our farm or learning more about how we raise our animals they are more than welcome to visit us. We also welcome anyone who might be curious about the killing process to come help us butcher sometime.