What This Farm Has Taught Me

I think homesteading has become so romanticized today.

People see the pretty pictures. The baby animals. The fresh eggs. The sourdough bread. The beautiful sunsets.

But they don’t see the rest of it.

They don’t see the hard work of taking care of animals every single day. They don’t see the heartbreak when you lose one or have a stillbirth. They don’t see the vet bills or the fear when your cow isn’t acting like herself. They don’t see the dirty rags piled up from milking or the frustration when your cow kicks over a bucket of fresh milk and you literally watch your money run across the ground.

They don’t talk about how excited you are to fill your freezer, but how your heart still hurts because you raised that animal.

But they also don’t talk enough about the little things.

Walking outside before daylight when it’s just you, God, and your animals.

Hearing the rooster crow as the sun comes up.

Your hens singing after they lay an egg.

Your goats hollering because they heard you open the gate and then following you all over the farm like they’re having a conversation with you.

Those are the moments that make all the hard stuff worth it.

I started Broken Picker Farm because I wanted my family to eat clean food, and I wanted to give other families that same opportunity.

I never expected what I’d get back.

Some of y’all have become friends. Some of y’all feel like family. I look forward to pickup days because I get to catch up with you. We don’t just talk about milk or bread. We talk about life, kids, recipes, prayer requests, and whatever else is going on that week.

I guess somewhere along the way Broken Picker Farm stopped being just a farm.

It became people.

And I’m really thankful God chose this path for me because it’s given me so much more than I ever expected.