bluebirdmeadowsfarm

On this episode of More Than A Mile, I'm excited to have Chris Blankenship of Bluebird Meadows Farm join me. Bluebird Meadows Farm is located in Northeast Ohio, and their passion is offering delicious premium local food directly to consumers, using sustainable farming practices to raise the livestock naturally. And he's gonna tell us all about how that works. We will hear how Chris went from the military to factory worker before farming and his enterprising son's foray into selling on Market Wagon too. As well as how they're giving back to the community through a very impactful nonprofit in Ohio. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (00:36):

Welcome to More Than A Mile, a local food podcast from Market Wagon focused on connecting you to local food through farmer stories from across America. I'm Nick Carter, your host, a farmer, and the CEO and co-founder of Market Wagon. We are your online farmer's market with a mission to enable food producers to thrive in their local and regional markets. Food is so much more than just nutrients and calories. It's actually the fabric that holds us together. And I look forward to crafting a generational quilt of farmer stories and experiences, the victories and challenges of individuals, families, and teams doing their part to help democratize food in America. Thanks for joining me for this episode of More Than A Mile, and thank you for buying local food. It's one critical step in making an investment in food for future generations.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (01:26):

All right. Well, my guest today is Chris Blankenship of Bluebird Meadows Farm. And I had the pleasure actually just about three weeks ago I traveled to our Northeast Ohio, Cleveland area hub and was visiting with some of the farmers and artisans over there at the Market Wagon fulfillment center. There I got to meet Chris face-to-face, heard a lot about your farm from before then. And we had a good conversation about lamb and grazing and farming practices. And now you get to be my guest here and we can share that conversation and more with our listeners. So, Chris why don't you introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit about your farm, Bluebird Meadows.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (02:03):

A pleasure to be with you this morning, Nick, and thanks for having me. I'm Chris Blankenship, Bluebird Meadows Farm. My wife, Julie, we have four children. It's been a long journey for us getting into farming. I, I grew up on a small farm. We raised some pigs, so I was familiar with that. But I went into the Marine Corps, came out, got a factory job. My wife is a teacher. We thought, okay, things are going great. We'll just live our lives. But as we all know, life happens and I lost that factory job. So I had the opportunity to go back to school and get my bachelor's in teaching. But while I was doing that, I needed some income because we were used to two incomes and we were down to one all of a sudden.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (03:01):

That's a big change.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (03:02):

Yeah. Yeah. So Julie's dad had been raising some flowers, fresh-cut flowers, and he was selling them at farmer's markets on the weekend, and he was making a little bit of money, but we thought, hey, anything helps. So we thought, okay, we could do that. Cause he's already got it started. And so we did it at some other farmer's markets, raised some vegetables, things of that nature, and soon realized that, geez, there's a lot of work that goes into that.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (03:36):

Wait, you mean, you mean farming's is not easy?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (03:39):

Yeah. So with the background I had in the small pig farm that I grew up on, and we had some land—and we were raising animals for ourselves anyway, just, you know, for our consumption, through meeting people at the farmer's market and seeing what was there and not, we were like, Hey, maybe a big idea to have some sausage and bratwurst. So we got about four head of pigs and this was about 18-20 years ago.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (04:10):

Okay.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (04:12):

We just started from there and I thought, okay, so four head, eh, if we don't sell 'em, I told Julie, that's my wife. I said if we don't sell them you know, we can use them, give 'em to family, or friends or something. But we soon found out that four head was nowhere near enough. And those were sold in about a month. So we just kind of grew from there. And then with that, we had some health issues with one of our children, Lucas. He's our youngest son. And he was diagnosed with EE, which is eosinophilic esophagitis which really, in a nutshell, it's his body detects allergens and his eosinophils just overreact—It causes choking, many different diagnosis for that. But the bottom line is that he had to have a clean source of food. No longer could we go to the grocery store and just pick something up off the shelf, knowing that it's full of antibiotics, full of hormones, whatever they put in there to preserve that, to give him the longer shelf life. So we were forced to kinda go that route with his diagnosis as well. And then from there, from there, Nick, we've just, we've been blessed. It's grown and here we are today—we do five farmer's markets, seven Market Wagon locations and still growing. So we're glad.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (05:52):

Wow. We are so glad to have you with us. That's quite a journey from military to factory to farm. So you're, you are I guess I was gonna say first generation farmer, but you learned a little farming from, you know, your folks you grew up, you said with some hogs now, today you raised more than just hogs. Right? You've got what, tell me what all commodities you've got on the farm today?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (06:18):

All right. So what we do we have grass-fed beef. Of course we try to, swine-wise, we do everything farrow to finish. Occasionally we have to purchase some feeders to help out if things get short. We started tinkering with lamb a few years ago. Learning a lot about lamb.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (06:42):

That's what you and I were talking about a few weeks ago. It was integrating lamb with the rotation of the beef.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (06:49):

Because I'm new to the lamb part of this I never really thought about, you know, as you were explaining to me—have them rotate behind the beef and the pastures and that's, and we'll certainly implement that this year.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (07:02):

Give it a try. They seem to crop a little lower and they like to go after things that the beef don't, but I gotta warn you so far for me, that's, that's entirely theoretical news because we we're grazing goats right now. The land that my wife and I bought is, well, I was completely taken over by thorn bushes and invasive species, and the goats are currently eradicating those, but that's gonna take several years. So we'll be switching to lamb in the next couple of years, but I haven't raised lamb myself, grew up raising beef and hogs as well. But yeah, I'm interested to see, I've seen a couple of other farms integrate the lamb really well into the rotation and interested to see if that works well for you. But I'm curious to learn more how, because in my farming head you've got, you know, from hogs are not quite as land intensive, acreage intensive, as grass fed beef. So can you share a little bit, I mean, if you went from four hogs to supplying several of our delivery locations and five farm markets with grass fed beef, was there, was there generational land available to you? Were you able, did you have family farming in your background that you were able to start to take over?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (08:10):

Yeah, we bought some land here. We always wanted to live in the country. That's where we grew up and we just like the rural setting. So we were fortunate—we were able to buy some land and we slowly started, once we realized, you know, that this was the route we wanted to go with the farmer's markets and adding more livestock and such that we slowly started adding pastures. And we just built from there.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (08:41):

Now, when you're, when you say adding pastures, were those existing pastures that then became yours or were they crop land that you went in and planted permaculture over?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (08:50):

Yeah. So this was all—the land we purchased was all crop land.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (08:57):

Corn and soy.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (08:58):

Corn and soy. Yeah. All the sprays and all the crap that they add to it to get it, to do all that. So we've been here about 20 years now and there's not been a single spray pesticide, herbicide, fungicide, anything added, but yeah, so we just slowly started developing those pastures with cover crops. Clover, you know, orchard grass, and for the hogs we do a pasture rotation with the hogs actually, and we do it in different stages of their growth. So, Through, from birth through about eight weeks, we leave 'em on our sow [pasture] for eight weeks. We don't rush 'em off. We want 'em to get that full nutrition from the mother.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (09:55):

You've got a dedicated sow pasture or a farrowing pen?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (09:59):

Yeah. And so after that eight weeks we ween 'em off. And I can tell you a story, Nick, when we first started doing this, I, you know, I, I soon realized I didn't need a vet except for in emergencies, but I'd had the vet come out and he would often try to get me to give them their iron shots and these different shots. And I was like, eh, I, I don't think I need to do that. And because, you know, by rooting and being out on pastures, they get all those minerals and that iron it's naturally in the soil. You don't need to give them those injections. They get that naturally.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (10:47):

Well, I grew up, I would've been the fourth generation on the farm where I grew up. And my dad had converted our dairy milking stanchions, that my grandfather had built, into a farrowing house, 12 crate farrowing house. We, we were, I didn't know it at the time. I didn't know any of these words. I was just a kid, but we were a CAFO. We had confined animal feeding. We had the hogs and doors and we farrowed in crates. And for our listeners who are not farmers like Chris and I, farrowing is just the term for when a hog gives birth to her litter. And that's farrowing. And that was about every eight week process for us was my brother and I'd go out and we'd pull all the litters out. And we had two shots we'd give 'em right underneath their hind legs, iron being one of them. And, but those hogs never saw dirt in their lives, except if we didn't clean out the pens fast enough. So you're right. They weren't getting any of those natural supplements.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (11:41):

Yeah. So, so from the waning, you know, the eight weeks we, we move 'em into a, you know, our first pasture. And that just is basically a Clover, alfalfa, orchard grass mix. And they love that. They love that. So they'll stay in there up to about 75-90 pounds somewhere in that range. Then we move 'em to our next pasture. And in there, we like to plant sweet beets with a cover crop.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (12:16):

So they've gotta go digging for those.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (12:18):

They've gotta dig it. So what that does that accomplishes multiple things. They're utilizing the whole crop cause they eat the root and the top and they're also tilling the land. And so I just simply, once we move 'em, you know, once they eat that pasture down and we move 'em to the next one, I just go through with the disc. So it's a minimal carbon footprint, right. I'm not plowing it. I'm not doing all this—the pigs have already plowed it. I'm just smoothing it over a little bit and re-seeding it.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (12:51):

With sweet beets.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (12:52):

With sweet beets and a cover crop. Yeah.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (12:55):

Do they? So on our farm, one of the problems we have is they'll, they'll find a waller and they will compact that soil real, real bad. Does your rotation keep them from being able to be on the same spot long enough to make that compaction in a hog waller?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (13:12):

For the most part. I'm not going to say one hundred percent. There's times where they'll get that rooted out good. And we'll need to kinda get the loader and get that top soil back in there and kinda level it off a little bit.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (13:27):

Mainly we, this whole conversation now has devolved into me just getting farming tips from Chris. So the rest of you are just incidental to this conversation as you're listening in. Well, one of the things we talk about Chris, and I love talking about your rotations and I wanna frame it as we continue to talk about it is for our listeners, farmers are your mediator of your relationship to the land. If you're buying food from somebody else who grew it for you yeah. They're your food supplier, but they're mediating your relationship with the earth. And, and what you're listening to here is how Chris stewards the earth as a mediator for you, because that's ultimately what feeds us all is the soil that we, that we sustains us that brings us our food. And so we're talking about here with Chris is rotational grazing, and we'll continue to talk about your hogs. I'm also curious to learn some of the other things that you do to be sustainable on your farm, how you you've managed to not use any sprays or chemicals to sustain this pasture for 20 years. So just keep, sorry to interrupt you, but keep, keep letting us know how you're, you're doing this because I think it's fascinating and our listeners need to learn about it. What comes after sweet beets, Chris?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (14:37):

Okay. So after the sweet beets at that point, they are roughly about 175 to 200 pounds. I'm just eyeballing these animals when I do this.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (14:52):

Yeah. We get pretty good at weighing an animal with our eyes. Don't we?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (14:55):

Yeah. After you've seen enough of, 'em gone through this, they're roughly a hundred seventy five, two hundred pounds. And then we move 'em to our finished pasture, which goes back to the alfalfa. Cause we wanna keep the protein in 'em to finish off the alfalfa, the Clover and the orchard grass.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (15:13):

Yeah.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (15:15):

And they'll finish off in that pasture. We like to finish em off a pasture. I think if you can get that thing up to about 280 pounds, you you're doing really good. You know, the factory farms, they like to get these hogs to 240, 250, 260 in there. And on the pasture they need to get that weight up. They need to get that weight up because there's so much leaner—that muscle is being used, it's not standing in a barn.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (15:44):

Well, I'll share a little bit more about the economies of it. The when I was a kid, it was 220 lean hogs. Will anybody want it? And the reason is because those last few pounds to add are expensive from, from a standpoint of feed, you know, just think about how we grow, you know, by the time you're, you're 18, you're about full size. You may fill out a little bit more, but the amount of food you gotta take from the age of 18 to whenever you hit your, you know, adult weight, there's a lot of food versus what it took you to get to your, your mostly big size. And so from profitability standpoint, we started finishing off hogs really early on. We started these campaigns in the eighties called the other white meat. Well, pork shouldn't be white. And the best part of pork is the fat that's where a lot of the flavor comes from. But it's costly to make that fat with the feed rations that are used in confined animal feeding operations. So we basically trained Americans to eat lean pork. Pork chops that are dry. You gotta be, you gotta work hard to make sure they don't come out like shoe leather, cuz they never let 'em finish up that last piece, which you're talking about, which is that finish the marbeling. And I think that makes for a delicious hog. It's a high quality, high quality meat.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (16:53):

Yes, absolutely. Nick, we're so excited. We started tinkering around with some fodder last year.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (17:02):

Okay. Tell, tell us what fodder is.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (17:04):

So my definition of fodder is we use an organic seed. We want to get that higher in protein, something like barley. And basically just to summarize it real quick, you soak that seed. You, you stick it in a plastic tray. You want to have ambient light and average temperature of about 65 degrees. And within seven days you're going to have, so I'm not any chemicals to make this seed sprout and grow. I'm not even using soil. It, it just grows in this plastic tray, so to speak. And in seven days, you know, you, you water it each day. And in seven days it will have sprouted about five to seven inches. And I've gotta tell you, the pigs love it. They, they will eat that over anything. I did some experiments, you know, I'll put our non GMO feed in a dish and I'll roll that fodder up and put it in a dish beside of it. Every time without doubt, they go to the fodder, they don't even mess with the feed. And so that's talking about sustainability is something that we are really going to ramp up this year. We want our goal is to be able to finish our hogs off on fodder without the use of any grains.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (18:45):

So the grains that you would've fed 'em because you've talked about pastures, but hogs do need something beyond the pasture. And for most farmers that means grain whether that's some corn or soy or a mixture of 'em you're using barley, it sounds like, but instead of just letting them eat the grain by itself, let that grain sprout. And then the grain's own natural process is gonna convert the sugars it has in the seed to a tiny little plant called a cotalie. And so that it's same amount of energy going into the hog, but they like it better.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (19:18):

And there's no waste. They eat the roots, they eat the top.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (19:22):

Yeah.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (19:23):

And it's better for their digestive system rather than trying to digest, you know, those grains. It's more of a natural, sustainable way of raising livestock.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (19:35):

That is fascinating. And the barley that you're getting where do you source that from? Is that difficult to find, or are you growing it on your own?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (19:44):

No, we, we source it from our local feed mill. It's an organic barley, maybe in time as we expand this fodder operation, we might need to do that on our own. But, but right now we get it from our local feed mill and I've just been amazed at how the, you know, how the hogs just enjoy it. Now, our challenge is gonna be getting that right protein mix to get them finished off, to get that nice layer of fat at the end.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (20:11):

That's really neat. Well, so that's your hog operation sounds like you've, you've really, I mean, fine tuned this rotation with the hogs now, what, how's that different from what you do with your your ruminate animals, which are your cattle and sheep that digest just the celluloses from grass far differently than the way a hog does. Those are they're on different pastures. They're not rotating in with the hogs. Okay. And, and these are pastures that you've reclaimed from crop ground. So they used to be corn and soy. Now they're back into a permaculture and what's the process look like with that?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (20:49):

So what we do with our beef is, let's see, we have six, six pastures, and we rotate those. And depending on the type of, or not the type, the time of year, it is, you know, when the pastures are going great in the spring and early summer, you know, they can stay on those pastures a little bit longer. And of course, when it gets to the drier months, they have a shorter time they're able to stay on that pasture, cuz you don't want them to eat that grass down so low cause it's harder for the grass to recover or the Clover or whatever you have in your pastures. It's harder for that to recover if they're eating it down to the ground. So we like to, once it gets down about three inches, four inches, we get the cows off of it and move 'em to the next pasture.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (21:44):

That'll also prevent parasites by the way, especially in your lambs.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (21:48):

Exactly. And we follow our chickens. We have some laying hens and they follow the cows in the pastures because you know, they help to scratch and break up those manure piles that they leave.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (22:06):

Yeah. Cow pies.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (22:08):

Yeah. Yeah. The cow pies. But in terms of the beef, they're, they're an all grass diet. We don't put up our own hay, but we source our hay from a guy just around the corner who doesn't spray his fields. Matter of fact, he owns an organic dairy farm and he has hay.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (22:29):

I was gonna ask you cuz you no secret you're in the Northern states here. So that grass isn't growing, like for example, right now, as we're recording this on February 18th, so you've got hay, but it's coming from a nearby farm.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (22:43):

Right? Who follows the same, you know, who believes the same way we do in terms of not using the pesticides or fungicides on his fields for that hay. And so the cows are eating that, you know, when the pastures aren't growing.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (22:57):

Now one thing I know is, and many of our listeners might realize grass takes a lot of nitrogen. If you've had a, if you'd like to have a good flush lawn in your front yard, you're buying nitrogen at the hardware store every year, you're paying somebody to treat it. How do you in 20 years you haven't sprayed your fields. How do you keep enough nitrogen in the soil for those pastures to keep producing lush grass, to produce the beef that you're getting off of your farm.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (23:22):

So we raise broilers. Which are meat, burns, chickens. They're different than the hens. And these boilers, even though they're on, we like to have them on pasture as well. Everything is a pasture based system, but when it's colder weather, I mean, the reality is they're not out on the pasture very much.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (23:45):

Yeah.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (23:47):

So that manure, that chicken manure, which is rich in nitrogen tends to build up and we use that and it gets spread on the fields.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (23:59):

And so you are producing enough nitrogen inside the ecosystem right there on your farm to keep the fields nourished.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (24:08):

Yes. There, we do need to reseed about every three, four years. But it's doing an adequate job.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (24:15):

Wow. That's really neat. I appreciate you. You walking us through the, the whole system like that. Why is this matter so much to you, Chris? I mean, you are, it should be no secret. The way that you're doing things is not the easy way. I mean there's this pellet, you can go by called urea and it's just pelletized nitrogen, and you can go spread that on the field. It's way easier than raising one bird over here in order to get this off this byproduct that then you can transport. Why is all this matter so much to you?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (24:49):

Well, we just believe when I say we am talking about my wife and I, that it's our responsibility to preserve and to make this land, that we have to be able to pass it on to future generations. And so they can farm on it and have a healthy land. I guess we just want to extend that, you know, it's our job to take care of this land that we have. We can't destroy it because it can't be replaced. So we want to just take care of that and pass it on to future to generations.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (25:28):

That's what it's about. And you've got you said four kids growing up in there on the farm. Yeah. And we're gonna be talking with one of your sons next week, Zach. So the little, little teaser. Zach Blankenship and his food business that he's been able to, to start. I don't think it's a stretch for me to say from the inspiration of his dad and what he's seen take place in the family farm there. Now, how important is it to you? I mean, what does it mean to you to see your kids now becoming adults and entering into food businesses?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (25:59):

Yeah, it's so exciting. I mean, as a father, you know, when you're growing up and your kids are working with you sometimes you're like, I know they don't wanna be out here, but they're doing it anyway. But as they become their own people and adults move on in their life, it's nice to see them wanna take ownership and be part of what, you know, we've been doing our whole lives pretty much. And Zach is, he's all in. He is all in. He loves it and that's just so exciting and rewarding to see. I mean, it, it just is. And he has an entrepreneurial mind. He went to school and he got his four year degree in ag business. And I don't wanna take too much of his thunder, but he went from a desk job to, to now he's a full-time employee here on the farm and has some of his side businesses going, I'll let him talk more about those.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (27:00):

That's exciting. I look forward to that conversation that we're gonna have in our next episode with Zach but back to Bluebird Meadows Farm, and Chris, this has been a fun discussion. Thanks for sharing a little bit more of the detail of how you steward the land and and how you're raising it sustainably. Now, how do people, other than you being invited as a podcast guest and spend a half an hour explaining it, how does, how do your customers know about this? I mean, do you, is there a label on the product that says that you rotated your pastures or how are you able to get this message out to customers?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (27:37):

So we use a couple different methods. Of course, we have our website, BluebirdMeadowsFarms.com. Folks can go on there. And, you know, we have our story, how we got started, you know, type of practices we use and things of that nature. So they can do that. We like to communicate through social media, Facebook, Instagram, which we've been able to develop some relationships with our Market Wagon customers through Facebook and Instagram. That's been great. And also just, well, a couple other ways, you know, our in-person farmers markets, you know, folks are curious, they wanna know how things operate on the farm and you have those face to face conversations. And then before we went through this COVID pandemic, we like to have once a year, we would have like a hog roast or just a way of saying, thank you. And we'd have folks out. And they could see for themselves what we're doing and, you know, take a look around and that type of stuff.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (28:38):

So it's all about relationships. You're building relationships through social media, you're building relationships at your farmers' markets. I love to hear that you're are building relationships on MarketWagon.com. You've got customers that are following you and understanding what your practices are. Thanks for taking the time to build relationships with the people that are buying the food. It's more than just a transaction, isn't it? It's a relationship you have with the land and with the consumers. But I understand there's also another pretty important relationship in your community there that I I'd like to give you a chance to tell us about, cuz it sounds like a really fascinating story. You've already, you've shared that your son had some pretty serious health issues that kind of led you down the path of this farming method that you guys have taken to, but there's a camp nearby that other families that are affected in a similar way enjoy and, and you've been able to build a relationship with them. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (29:29):

Yeah, absolutely. So it's called Flying Horse Farms. It's down in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, founded by Paul Newman and it is such a wonderful place. When Lucas came down with the diagnosis of EE, not only did he struggle with, you know think of a 12, 13, 14, 15 year old child in school having to deal, you know, not be able to eat pizza or cookies, like, you know, his friends are doing. And so Flying Horse offers camps for kids with serious illnesses. And we were fortunate enough to find out about this and take him down there for camp. And it just did wonderful things for his confidence, for how he handled his illness. And we just wanted to be able to—we saw how much they did for him. And we wanted to be able to help in any way we could to help other kids, not only with the disease Luke has, but they foster kids with—or they have camps for kids with cancer or any serious illness you can think of.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (30:46):

They have camps for these children. And my wife's volunteered down there. My daughters have gone to sibling camps down there. Julie, my wife contacted Flying Horse Farms about, 'Hey, what do you think about doing a partnership?' We come up with some type of sausage because I mean, that's what we started this whole Bluebird Meadows Farm with was four hogs and some sausage. How about we'd come up with a sausage and the proceeds we just donate back to Flying Horse Farms to help you know, them to complete their mission of helping these kids out with serious illnesses. So we came up with our blueberry maple. So last year, all of our proceeds from our blueberry maple sausage, we were able to donate back to Flying Horse Farms to help them complete their mission of helping kids, not only the kids with the serious illness, but their families as well because families go through a lot with those children. So it, it's a great, it's a great place. It's dear to our hearts and we were fortunate to be able to, to give back to them. And we look forward to doing that again, actually.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (31:59):

So does that mean that if I look for blueberry maple sausage on Market Wagon, that a portion of those proceeds are going to this camp?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (32:08):

Blueberry maple breakfast links, a portion of those proceeds go to Flying Horse Farms.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (32:14):

That's awesome. That's really cool. And I'm glad that you shared that.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (32:18):

Yes. Thank you. Thank you. It's it, and I'm sure folks especially in Ohio around Columbus, I'm not sure where they have other camps at, throughout the state or throughout the nation. But I know folks around Columbus are probably kind of familiar with Flying Horse Farms. And it is just a special place for us. And we are so grateful to be able to give back to them.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (32:43):

In the time we've got left, tell us if somebody, other than finding you on MarketWagon.com and looking at Bluebird Meadows Farm, how else can people connect with you? Where can we find you online?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (32:52):

On Facebook we're at Bluebird Meadows Farm. Instagram, it's BBMeadowsFarm. And hey, if you're in Northeast Ohio, and you're not too far away from Lorraine County, we have our little farm store. You can swing by and pick up some nice healthy meat and local products.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (33:12):

All right. Well, if you're traveling through Northeast Ohio, look up Bluebird Meadows Farm. Are you gonna be on Google maps? Can we get navigation out there?

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (33:19):

Yeah, yeah. We're on Google maps. Yep.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (33:21):

Go by the farm store. And if you're not Northeast Ohio check 'em out on MarketWagon.com or on Facebook or Instagram. My guest today has been Chris Blankenship. Chris, thanks for joining me to talk about farming.

Chris Blankenship (Bluebird Meadows Farm) (33:31):

Absolutely. A pleasure to be with you, Nick. Thank you.

Nick Carter (Host, Market Wagon) (33:40):

Thanks for listening to this episode of More Than A Mile. Be sure to sign up for Market Wagon at MarketWagon.com or after downloading the Market Wagon app for iOS or Android. Follow us @MarketWagon on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook for stories, recipes, special announcements, news, and just digital handshakes from our friendly farming community. If you enjoyed More Than A Mile, please rate the podcast and write a review on iTunes, CastBox, PodChaser or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Thank you for continuing to support local food.