A beginning farm located near Decatur Indiana, Pasture's Delights focus on raising livestock on pasture utilizing sustainable agronomic principles. While food is what we sell, we are really in the business of harvesting solar energy by means of living plants grown on healthy soil. Then grazing animals package the natural resources of these plants into a very healthy food product for people to nourish themselves with. In the case of raw milk, we offer a boarding service to people who share in the ownership of a dairy herd.
It is no secret that Americans are not as healthy as yesteryear. Similarly, America’s environmental and socio-economic health and strength as a nation has experienced a similar decline. At Pasture’s Delights our farm business model is one that positively addresses these issues.
Animals raised outdoors where they can get sunlight, fresh air, and eat healthy grass have remarkable potential for providing a higher margin of health attributes as compared to their conventionally raised counterparts. Also, on a well run organic grass-fed farm the animals should literally be HAPPY. Compare the happiness factor of our animals with those of a confinement system and you will see the difference. When people eat well they can think better and are more energetic, allowing for a more effervescent society! Furthermore by capturing sunlight, a renewable resource, with grass and allowing a variety of different animal species to economically harvest that grass we add real value (wealth) to our community which further serves to strengthen our country.
Operating any business is fraught with challenges. What gives us the ability to overcome these challenges is our sincere belief in what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. Pasture’s Delights is the real deal offering the same to the people who work here and to our customers.
It starts with the soil
At Pasture’s Delights we take the cliché “you are what you eat” literally, beginning with the soil atoms. Since you desire to be healthy by eating healthy food from Pasture’s Delights it is imperative that the animal also eat healthy food. We make that possible by growing nutritious grass/legume pasture on healthy, living soil.
We do NOT use soil-killing biocides (fungicides, herbicides, insecticides) all of which have direct and/or indirect harmful ramifications for people or the environment at some point. Since farming and producing food is biological in nature killing soil life does not make much sense to us. With an emphasis on soil biology we are able to manage our fields to minimize soil erosion, maximize carbon sequestering all the while producing competitive, albeit more nutritious, yields.
Managing at the atomic level of our soil is where we begin to grow the best food for you! With soil test results in hand, we fertilize only with manure and natural fertilizers. Since every single mineral that exists affects gene expression in our DNA, and hence our health, we place an emphasis on re-mineralizing our soils fully so that when you eat Pasture’s Delights you are getting a fuller compliment of minerals that will enhance your health.
Grass is the only plant capable of assimilating all the minerals in the soil therefore we want to make sure there is at least some grass in all our fields for the animals to eat. We also include legumes, such as alfalfa and clover, which are also very beneficial to the animals and produce nitrogen which allows us to sustainably and economically grow grass for the animals. Incidentally, clover a significant component of our pasture increases an animal’s cancer-fighting CLA content up to 30%. Since we are what we eat, if you want to be healthy then you need Pasture’s Delights!