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Our story all starts with this barn. We were relocating back to the area in 2008, and kept being drawn to this old farm a few miles out of town. The house was falling down, the barn was falling down, yet we felt at home. There were big burr oak trees, rolling hills, old pastures, and ponds galore.
We bought the old farm. We fixed the old barn. We fixed the old house. We brought the old farm back to life. We are home. Fifteen years and 4 kids later, we are farming and constantly learning about this wonderful, challenging, rewarding lifestyle. |
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Our farm name came about one day while my oldest daughter and I were loading up two of our hogs to go to market. We were separating 3 litter-mates, keeping the sister to breed, sending the two brothers to market. After struggling to load the two brothers in the trailer, we finally shut the door. The sister then was standing outside the trailer - alone, stunned and quiet. It maybe seems silly, but we felt the pain of this pig.....my daughter and I sat down on the trailer step and cried as if we could feel her pain. This was really hard, but we knew we had to take this difficult, yet important step. Then one of my husband's favorite Bible verses came to my mind: Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance (James 1:2). Maybe this wouldn't be the biggest trial we face in life, but even so, it was a trial for us that day. Through our tears, we knew we could have pure joy knowing that we had given these two hogs a good life, raising them with good care and lots of hugs (literally). That was just the beginning of our farming trials, but it is a moment in time I will savor for the rest of my life. The hard parts aside, farming has filled us with an intangible sense of pure joy as we care for our animals and connect with our land in a new way.
The word pure means 'free from contamination' and we aim to raise our animals as purely as possible. They live in the environment they were created to live, eating what they were created to eat, so that we can offer you a pure product.
So Pure Joy Farms it is - pure joy on the good days, pure joy on the hard days.
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Incidentally, my husband's grandmother's maiden name was Joy. The name has been passed down into the generations in family nomenclature, and we as well chose to preserve it. Our oldest daughter has Joy as a middle name. It has been a beautiful suitable name for her.
The word pure means 'free from contamination' and we aim to raise our animals as purely as possible. They live in the environment they were created to live, eating what they were created to eat, so that we can offer you a pure product.
So Pure Joy Farms it is - pure joy on the good days, pure joy on the hard days.
* * * * * * *
Incidentally, my husband's grandmother's maiden name was Joy. The name has been passed down into the generations in family nomenclature, and we as well chose to preserve it. Our oldest daughter has Joy as a middle name. It has been a beautiful suitable name for her.