Leaving a Sustainable Footprint on the Land

community spotlight

Leaving a Sustainable Footprint on the Land

by Martin Miron

When Ellen and Jeremy Swartzfager started Footprints

Farm 10 years ago, they both had professional jobs, she in youth ministry and he in construction management, while living in Monroeville. Tired of suburban life, Ellen learned about food as medicine and was heartbroken over the industrial model of cheap, mass-produced food that was harming the health of many. She was convinced that by changing the family’s diet, they could take control of their health for the rest of their lives.

“We asked Ellen’s grandmother if we could rent her farmhouse if it ever became available and surprisingly, about one year later our lease was signed and we were moving to the farm with our new daughter Elsie in tow,” says Jeremy. Their mission is, “Healing land, nourishing foods and thriving families.” Their goals are to pursue a triple bottom line—land/people/profit.

The farm team also includes Jeremy, Elsie, 12, Isaac, 10, and Hannah, 8. “We currently have two additional full-time employees and three or four seasonal part-time employees. Most of our employees over the years have been fresh out of addiction recovery and find great peace here caring for the land and animals,” says Ellen.

The farm’s beginnings were humble as the couple relearned many of the skills they had learned from their grandparents’ generation in their childhood. Ellen says, “We fell in love with draft horses and the reconnection with the land turned work into pleasure. Seeing what we produce in the hands of smiling and thankful customers at the end of the day gets us up in the morning excited for another. We provide products to our customers that nourish, heal and inspire.”

Jeremy’s Grandma lived through the Great Depression on a farm that provided for all of their food needs along with many of their neighbors. The farm kept them alive and well-nourished while the world around them seemed to be falling apart. “What seemed like a total drag of weeding row after row of the family garden and running around with my buddies while my aunts and uncles butchered hogs and cows as a child has brought deep meaning in my adult years,” he recalls.

Footprints Farm currently maintains an egg-laying flock, meat

chickens, ducks, turkeys, pork, beef, edible garnish, herbs and heirloom vegetables. “The focus of the farm is flavor. By raising all of our animals in a way that mimics their natural instincts, behavior, abilities and patterns, every member of the farm is moved on a revolving landscape. The constant moving, rest, regrowth and re-grazing allows each animal’s diet to be highly diverse, which means it is packed with flavor.” Says Ellen.

In a normal (non-COVID) year, they deliver food for about 30 restaurants in the region, several institutions and 100 families weekly, monthly or bimonthly. Buying clubs are open to the public with home delivery in certain zip codes in the off season from December through April.

“Our model is simple—place an order through our online store, arrange a pickup time and location near you and we meet you there with your order in a contactless drive-through model. We do not offer typical CSA models, but give the public the opportunity to order anything in inventory through an a la carte online ordering system. We also offer pre-buys with an order cutoff in late March and sell many half and whole pork and beef, chicken bundles, grilling packages, recurring egg orders throughout the year,” says Ellen.

Footprints Farm uses regenerative practices because that is what they believe in and what customers are looking for. “What regenerative or sustainable means to us is that we leave the Ellen and Jeremy Swartzfager and family farm better than when we arrived, and this can best be seen through improvements in the soil and improving the water cycle on the farm. Our farm is mountainous and only has around 20 tillable acres, 80 additional acres of open ground and 250-plus acres of hardwood forests. The tillable acres were worn out from monocropping and roundup residues when we arrived, and by returning them to perennial pastures (grass growing every year with no bare soil) we have been able to increase the carbon content by several percent over 10 years. When carbon in the soil increases, the water holding capacity is increased, and therefore less water can run off and cause erosion.

“The remaining 80 acres of open ground had been tenantfarmed for nearly 50 years, with some of it barren from an unsuccessful strip mine job 40 years ago. When we first arrived our goats and sheep could barely get one grazing each year from the pastures, and many bare “coal” spots persisted. After 10 years of pulsing the pasture with grazing (leaving the farmers gold (manure) behind at each grazing, our pastures support cattle grazing at least three times per year,” says Ellen.

“Our cattle, being herbivores, are fed only grass and hay, because that is what they are designed to eat in nature. Our chickens, ducks, turkeys and pigs are omnivores and are fed a non-GMO diet, along with fresh pasture on the appropriate interval (chickens every day, egg-layers every three days and pigs every week) and we also sell soy-free eggs, chicken and turkey,” she explains.

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“We practice humane handling of all of our livestock and benefit from having poultry processed on the farm. Our USDA-certified beef and pork processor lies less than two miles from the farm.”

Jeremy notes, “Many shoppers are unaware that the fake industrial packages in the grocery store showing idyllic photos of red barns, smiling farmers and animals on lush pastures are really a faux front for the cheap industrial factory farm produced meats. We have real, lush pastures, a beautiful barn, almost 100 years old, and you can actually visit the farm to see all the things that are happening.”

Prearranged farm tours are available on Mondays and Saturdays as well as pasture walks, egg collection, or star- and sunset-gazing. Future plans include building a retail direct to family market, providing more value-added products with even greater flavor without all of the yucky stuff found in industrial food channels and eventually helping other younger farmers develop their dreams and viable business models.

Footprints Farm is located at 184 McClellan Ln., in Gibbon Glade. For more information, visit the online store at FootprintsFarm.com.

March 20217