Better with Thyme is a small family farm, inspired by permaculture ideals and focused on holistic wellness
Our hope is to share the knowledge and abundance we have been blessed with with others who want to get started or expand their homesteads. Read on to find out more about the background of our farm and our offerings.
Background
Moving from the NYC area, and the tiny urban food forest we learned so much by starting, our family decided to expand and purchase farmland in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. We spent a year observing our new space and then got to work, slowly transforming an old hay field into a productive homestead.
Our farm is primarily pasture and we have begun to add gardens, a small orchard and shade/nut trees as well as starting to manage the wooded areas of the farm with the assistance of animals.
We are raising a variety of animals who work together as a cohesive whole, including chickens, ducks, turkeys, guineas, pigs, sheep and cows. Our long term goal is to blend the pasture and wooded areas into a silvopasture style agroforestry system, and we’re well on our way to providing most our family’s food as well as extra to share and animals to help other homesteaders build their flocks and herds.
Organic, permaculture management
If you’re like us, you probably want to know whether the farm you’re buying from is going to provide the healthiest possible food and/or livestock. We are not certified by any third parties, but you are welcome to ask us any question you have about our land and animal management and we will be happy to answer.
- Our farm had been used for cut hay for 15 years prior to us buying it, so there were no monoculture crops or spraying on our property long enough for any previous chemicals to likely have broken down in the soil.
- Since we took over managing this farm in 2016 we have been working toward building biodiversity in the soil, plants and animals to make a cohesive, healthy and whole system, without imports.
- We don’t spray anything on our plants or add anything to our soil besides the nutrients from breaking down plants and animal manure.
- We feed our animals from our land as much as possible and any feed we purchase from off site is certified organic and free from both corn and soy.
- We also offer our animals sea salt, kelp and other natural minerals. The only material we have added in our gardens is cedar mulch, wood chips and ashes from our wood stove.
Offerings
We are currently offering hatching eggs both for local pickup and shipping throughout the US. We sell chicks and chickens locally. We occasionally have livestock guardian dog puppies available. We have lambs from our Olde English Babydoll Sheep in the spring. We hope to have family milk cows available from our Mini Jersey dairy cattle in the future.
We offer seeds, seedlings and plants from our permaculture garden. We have chicken and duck eggs for eating in the spring and summer.
Education & Support
One of our greatest joys is the work we’ve been called to do in providing education and support for those interested in holistic wellness. We offer a comprehensive Holistic Homestead Course and we also have many pages with information about natural and holistic wellness topics such as traditional foods and essential oils. Our essential oil business has grown to 130 customers and brand partners who we are so blessed to support on their wellness journeys!
