Our Farm History
Hi! We’re Bob and Tina MacCheyne. We purchased High Point Farms in the fall of 1998. We were looking for a small farm on a main road to grow our own food and maybe start a farm business. We purchased almost 50 acres with a pond, a stream, a 3 bedroom house and a large barn. We named it High Point after Tina’s father’s horse stable’s in Texas. He passed away early in 1998. Not sure what we wanted to do with the property we started a roadside veggie stand from 1999 to 2002. With us both keeping our day jobs and raising children our stand was self serve. With all the labor involved picking before and after work each day and the theft at the stand we decided to stop this venture and just grow a small garden for ourselves.
Through the years of reading Omnivore’s Dilemma, Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara King Solver, magazines like “The Stockman Grass Farmer“, researching farms like Joel Salatin’s and watching movies like Food Inc. made us want to feed ourselves and customers healthy humanely raised food! In 2001 Bob convinced Tina to buy some beef cattle. We had been purchasing our beef from a friend by the half or whole cow every year. So the decision was made then to raise our own. It wasn’t until 2007 that we had enough supply to start selling grass-fed beef by the cut. Our sales were limited to a local, small, summer farmer’s market and a space in our local grocery store.
In 2008 we added pasture raised pork and free range chicken to our meat selection. But the day we came home to find our 12 year old daughter chasing a pig off the front porch with a broom was when we decided to find a trusted farmer to raise our pork for us. Being on a main highway is just not the place to raise pasture pork. The pigs rut the ground and short out the fence and tend to get out! When we added more meat choices to our selection to sell we opened a small on-farm store; setting the hours around our off-farm work schedules. In the spring of 2009 we started selling our meats through a Meat CSA (Community Shared Agriculture). With the support of our CSA members through the purchase of CSA shares up front, the farm is FINALLY self sustainable. 2010 was the first year we did not have to financially support the farm with income from our off-farm jobs. It still isn’t able to support us. We put any farm income right back into the farm; but we have been able to expand and purchase the much needed equipment to make the day to day work much easier for us. 2011 was the first year we hired a part-time employee to help on the farm. It is nice to have someone we trust help us keep up with farm maintenance and do the farm chores on the mornings Tina is working her off-farm job.
Our children are now grown. Our son is 24 and just starting his career as a police officer and our daughter will be graduating high school this year with plans of attending college. At this time neither one is interested in farming; but they enjoy eating well and do help on those occasions that more hands are needed. We plan to retire from our off-farm jobs in a few years.
Our goal is to make the day to day farming as sustainable and efficient as possible with our farm being a happy and healthy place from animals to be raised. With this in mind we are trying to expand our CSA memberships. The more families who have a vested interest in our farm the better we all will be! We encourage our customers to visit the farms their food comes from! It is important to witness the farm’s practices Consumers should never take the farmer’s word for it. If you are not allowed to visit the farm, don't buy from that farmer! Contact us and schedule a visit today!
Through the years of reading Omnivore’s Dilemma, Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara King Solver, magazines like “The Stockman Grass Farmer“, researching farms like Joel Salatin’s and watching movies like Food Inc. made us want to feed ourselves and customers healthy humanely raised food! In 2001 Bob convinced Tina to buy some beef cattle. We had been purchasing our beef from a friend by the half or whole cow every year. So the decision was made then to raise our own. It wasn’t until 2007 that we had enough supply to start selling grass-fed beef by the cut. Our sales were limited to a local, small, summer farmer’s market and a space in our local grocery store.
In 2008 we added pasture raised pork and free range chicken to our meat selection. But the day we came home to find our 12 year old daughter chasing a pig off the front porch with a broom was when we decided to find a trusted farmer to raise our pork for us. Being on a main highway is just not the place to raise pasture pork. The pigs rut the ground and short out the fence and tend to get out! When we added more meat choices to our selection to sell we opened a small on-farm store; setting the hours around our off-farm work schedules. In the spring of 2009 we started selling our meats through a Meat CSA (Community Shared Agriculture). With the support of our CSA members through the purchase of CSA shares up front, the farm is FINALLY self sustainable. 2010 was the first year we did not have to financially support the farm with income from our off-farm jobs. It still isn’t able to support us. We put any farm income right back into the farm; but we have been able to expand and purchase the much needed equipment to make the day to day work much easier for us. 2011 was the first year we hired a part-time employee to help on the farm. It is nice to have someone we trust help us keep up with farm maintenance and do the farm chores on the mornings Tina is working her off-farm job.
Our children are now grown. Our son is 24 and just starting his career as a police officer and our daughter will be graduating high school this year with plans of attending college. At this time neither one is interested in farming; but they enjoy eating well and do help on those occasions that more hands are needed. We plan to retire from our off-farm jobs in a few years.
Our goal is to make the day to day farming as sustainable and efficient as possible with our farm being a happy and healthy place from animals to be raised. With this in mind we are trying to expand our CSA memberships. The more families who have a vested interest in our farm the better we all will be! We encourage our customers to visit the farms their food comes from! It is important to witness the farm’s practices Consumers should never take the farmer’s word for it. If you are not allowed to visit the farm, don't buy from that farmer! Contact us and schedule a visit today!