About Us

We are a Southern Vermont based backyard farm, run by a family of 5. What began as a flock of what would (definitely) never be more than 10 chickens quickly grew into a flock of 40+ chickens, 50+ meat birds, 6 ducks, 7+ rabbits, and two goats. We were ever evolving to become more sustainable.

A few reasons drove us to take the path less traveled by.

1.    First and foremost, we are animal lovers AND meat lovers. You can’t consciously purchase your meat from the grocery store and know that animal had a good life. Even “organic” and “cage free” meat and eggs make no guarantees about how each animal was treated. The only way to ensure the meat you consume had a good life, swift death, and every bit of what it produces is respected and savored, you have to do it yourself. Now we began this journey with NO experience. As I child I (Amber) would cry over a moth being squished. I have also had a lifelong fear of birds- ha! A wonderful homesteading neighbor offered to help me process my birds and show me the ropes. We are able to produce almost all of our own chicken meat that we KNOW is humane and not pumped full of who knows what, we produced 6 turkey last year as well, we produce rabbit meat, are getting pig from a homesteader this year, and purchase much of our own beef from a farm down the road.

Fresh chicken eggs, rabbit sausage, and maple syrup from a farm down the road.

Rabbit Jerky

Our very own turkey

2.    After our family experiencing a significant amount of loss in a short period of time, we were drained. We wanted to be surrounded by life and happiness. Boy, are we surrounded with life! Death is always a possibility on the homestead and we are no stranger to it, but there is always new life. It is the most amazing therapy and it is so soothing to see the cycle of life in action- even the most saddening deaths on the farm serve a purpose; be it education or giving compost back to the earth. Farming has sad days and hard days but you always feel a deep, primal satisfaction that you are doing what you are meant to do; you feel genuine happiness.

Our first successful chick hatch on the farm

First litter of rabbits

Most colorful litter of rabbits

3.    We have a toddler. We raise him as a village, and were concerned about how often people were on screen time and sucked into really miserable mental spaces. We didn’t want him to grow up thinking eggs came from the store. We wanted him to have a childhood of playing outside and we wanted to give ourselves a purpose. We have to be outside twice a day, at a bare minimum. We are constantly building new projects which the toddler loves. He gets to (and we get to!) see the cycle of where food really comes from and how much work and time goes into it. We all get to constantly play with baby animals and run in the yard with goats. It is the best environment I could imagine to have the little one grow up in.

4.    We wanted to be more sustainable. How satisfying would it be to produce much of our own food and not be so dependent on going to the grocery store?  Why stop at just our own food, we can make so much! Becoming more self-sufficient is an ever evolving project. With our goats we will make our own milk, soap, yogurt, and lotions. We use our chickens to produce eggs, meat, and fertilizer. We produce much of our own vegetables in the summer months. Our ducks give us large duck eggs that are great for baking and eventually will give us meat. Our rabbits give us pelts that will be used for a plethora of things, meat, and fertilizer. This, of course, doesn’t count all of the bountiful amounts of love and happiness that they produce for us. 

How we got our name; our toddler named his chicken Blue and was obsessed with the color blue. We live in a hollow. Ta-dah! Blue Hollow Homestead. Each chicken on the sign represents a member in our family.