Sowing broken hearts, harvesting loving relationships
Making an impact in our community through regenerative agriculture and fatherhood advocacy!
Our Story
My name is Clinton (better known as “daddy”) and my daughters name is Brooke aka “Booger”. We’re a first generation father/daughter farming powerhouse!! Not really… but we sure are giving it our all. In December of 2014 Brooke and I lost her mother in a tragic car accident that sent us down an unimaginable path that brought us here today. After spending years lost in the bottle, in and out of jail, and aloof in my daughters life I found my way to the farm.
I grew up around agriculture most my life but by no means was agriculture “my life”…or so i thought. Since shortly after high school a good friend of mine and I would talk about starting a sustainable farm where we could get away from the materialistic values of modern day society and embrace simplicity to live a happier life; but it was always a retirement plan sort of conversation rather than a career. As I found my way back to fatherhood thanks to some very hard lessons and an extremely supportive community. I knew that if I was ever going to be happy again I needed to build a life around what mattered most, my daughter.
One day while doing my morning stretches it hit me. The two things I wanted most in life were so intertwined how could it just now be hitting me!? Thus, Fatherhood Farms was born!! From the floor of my dinning room in my 2 bedroom apartment I vowed not to waste another minute doing things that were not conducive to my values and life goals. Tv/movies became instructional YouTube videos/documentaries, music to audio books/informative podcasts, and time in the gym became making mistakes first hand on what family land i had available.
We’ve come a long way since having to drive 30+ minutes one way to where we had production while juggling being a single parent and working 50-70 hours a week. Now we live on family land where we are producing enough food to feed ourselves with plenty left over to share with family, friends, and our local community. We are currently searching for the right piece of property of our own so that we can begin to scale up to make the impact we know is needed.
Fatherhood, in all forms…
Chickens
As most farms do, we started with a flock of chickens as our first livestock. 30 heritage breed egg layers ordered from a hatchery. We’ve got a lot more birds than that now, close to 100. They provide us with the most delicious nutrient packed eggs possible. We also raise commercial and heritage breed chickens for meat. Done so with the utmost respect, care, and quality of life in mind. Learn more about their jobs on the farm here…
Ducks
The award for noisiest and messiest animal on the farm goes to… our ducks! From splashing in the pond, penguin waddles, and quacking that resembles insistent laughter between two best friends there is never a dull moment with this bunch. We raise a few different breeds of ducks all for different reasons; learn more about them here…
Goats
Goats might be the biggest pain in the butt here on the farm! They also might be our favorite. We raise a breed of dairy goat called Nigerian Dwarf. We use their milk for various things such as fresh milk, cheese, and soaps. Learn more about our herd here…
Worms
These creepy crawlers do a whole lot more than go on the end of a fishing hook! Worms are a big factor in soil health for our gardens. We started with 1200 red wigglers in a simple DIY triple tier worm bin. Now we’ve got well over double that turning food scraps into worm castings that we use to start vegetable plants, in our compost pile that aid in breaking down waste material, and even putting worms directly into the garden to help with soil structure. Learn more about those processes here…
Rabbits
Coming soon…
Pigs
Now while we don’t actually have pigs here on the farm yet we are prepping spaces for them to be incorporated come spring 2021. Pigs will play a crucial role in our permaculture based farm, quite possibly the most important. Their main jobs will be to create pasture and prep future garden plots. Learn how pigs can turn a dead woodlot into an ultra productive vegetable garden here…
Fatherhood goes far beyond the walls of a home
If we’re truly committed to our children that means we must be willing to make ourselves, our community, and our environment a better place for our children to grow and thrive.