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OUR STORY
One day we were a traveling business development and marketing team in the oil industry making the big bucks, and the next we were knee deep in pig poop and infinitely happier. That is the short version.
Kevin and I moved to Tennessee when we became empty nesters. At the time we were the business development and marketing team for a company in Houston, TX. It didn’t matter where we lived since 85% of our months were spent on the road and in airplanes traveling in and out of the country. This was not the life we had dreamed of when we were first married, but life being what it is - plans change, kids need raised and bills need paid! It was the economical factor that prevented our talks about living on a farm and raising livestock from becoming reality.
Fast forward to 2020. We were in South America when the pandemic changed everything. Our employer grounded us by February due to the company social distancing policy and we were officially working from home. Up until then, the physical labor involved in maintaining our property was the therapy we both craved when we would return from business trips, but suddenly it was becoming part of our daily schedule. We absolutely loved it. There was a pandemic going on, but for us, our world got more connected. More time with each other doing what we loved, more time with our neighbors and building friendships right here in Tennessee. We were settling in and growing roots. By August our minds were made up and by March of 2021 we finished the pens in the barn and purchased our first boar and sow.
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This has truly been a labor of love. It’s in our blood. Long before the two of us met, Kevin was a hardworking teenager raising his own hogs and working for his father’s stockyard business buying and selling. I was growing up on a small rural farm helping my Daddy with our hogs. Watching the important men in our lives love what they do, planted seeds in us. It has not been glamorous and it hasn’t been easy, but it has been wonderful. We never thought we would make such a big life change while in our 50s. We both took local jobs, and spend our “free” time being Middendorf Farms. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
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Kevin & Paula
ABOUT
MIDDENDORF FARMS
A three-crate farrowing room and two very happy boars make it possible to house 40 to 60 hogs at all times throughout the year. Our indoor/outdoor set up provides the hogs with shelter while eating, drinking. and sleeping when they aren't out rooting around and playing in the mud. In season, we rotate their pens out to give them time in the pasture.
We invest the time to grind and mix the hog feed of corn, soybean meal and vitamin supplements. In return, they help us produce beautiful vegetables in our two gardens by supplying us with fertilizer to compost! We spend time canning and preserving our produce, and the extras get sold at our local Farmer's Markets alongside our USDA pork cuts.
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From early spring through early fall we run goats along the edges of the farm to earn their keep fighting back the kudzu from taking over. We prefer myotonic fainters, and have found this as a fantastic solution to the kudzu problem.
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The most recent addition to the farm is a small chicken coop and five laying hens. Or perhaps three laying hens and two freeloaders! They too contribute to the compost, but our main objective is to have the fresh eggs to enjoy as the perfect companion to our delicious bacon and sausage!
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Everything at Middendorf Farms is honest work -- From mowing, tending animals to trimming the trees around our 16 acre slice of heaven. We do enjoy a little fishing, however most spring and summer days end with the two of us sitting on the back porch watching our neighbors cattle graze in the pastures around our pond.
