Our Farming Values
Do no harm.
Here at Osprey Hill, we practice minimal tillage to encourage soil vitality. In addition, we put a lot of emphasis on feeding and developing our soil because that's the key to growing healthy plants without the need for synthetic nutrients or pesticides. Naturally derived soil nutrition is achieved thru the addition of organic alfalfa meal, oyster shell, organic kelp, composted hay/manure bedding from our livestock (hay is grown on site), and composted offal from our meat birds.
Seek Balance.
A healthy ecosystem has a way of self-regulating and maintaining balance that is nothing shy of amazing. So why not apply that to the farm? We intentionally build up wildlife habitat because it preserves a natural balance that we could never achieve through an attempt to control it. Our hedgerows are full of native shrubs that are home to reptiles, birds, and a whole assortment of insects. The pollinators pull their own weight on the farm as do the predatory insects that chase off the trouble makers. Viva la bugs!
Protect our natural resources.
Improve & protect.
Pretty simple ideas: reduce our reliance on outside resources; reuse all of our farm by-products (yay for poop!); leave it in better shape than we found it; and don’t take more than we need. All of our row crops are on drip irrigation or low flow "micro emitters" which cuts down on water usage significantly and we avoid over-crowding our pasture for both the welfare of our animals and the welfare of our water table. Our kids will thank us for investing in the future of our air, water, and soil.
Care & respect.
Our decision to raise animals for meat isn’t taken lightly. We value our animals and view our production as a symbiotic relationship. It’s a philosophy of respect that provides animals on our farm with the natural environment, housing, and optimal diet they need to engage in essential instinctive behaviors. In the end, nothing goes to waste. We sell meat, bones, and giblets and all the other products of the meat harvest are returned to the soil after a long process of composting
Social Justice.
Good clean food shouldn’t be a privilege. It should be a standard. While we are a small farm with a laundry list of expenses, we work really hard to make our food accessible to everyone including under-served communities like schools, day care centers, hospitals, ebt/SNAP recipients, WIC recipients, food banks, deep county folk (you know who you are), and everyone in between.