Our Mission: We feed our community healthy, well-raised food; indefinitely.
Our mission encapsulates the love of creation and neighbor that we strive to bear out in our lives. Our farm and our vision for it constantly adapts to the changes around us, so stop back to see our progress!
Indefinitely
Indefinitely. The last part of our mission is the foundation and has two aspects, sustainability and generational timeline.
The sustainability we strive to practice at Lovefield Farm is not a particular set of rules preceded by a capital letter. It is not a particular certification or organization. Rather, it is a commitment to emulate as much as possible the cycles of nature that we are stewarding. Sustainability is cyclical—processes from water to nitrogen to plants and animals following a path where their existence is nurturing to the whole.
These endless cycles are important because we are planning for Lovefield Farm to be operational for generations, whether those generations are our children or others. We have visions and projects on the farm that may not mature in our lifetimes, and that is ok, because we are not the end and this is not merely for us. These projects include tree planting, forest management, soil building, and ecosystem integration. We don’t currently have all the animals we would like at the farm, but we may not have the bandwidth to do so in our lifetimes anyway.
Healthy and Well-Raised
The healthy and well-raised food we seek to provide is the “immediate” output of the farm. The plants and animals that farmers raise use the nutrients and food they are given and convert it into food for people. As the old computer programming saying goes, garbage in, garbage out.
Our animals eat more similarly to how they would eat in nature, not force-fed a mono-food diet to maximize growth in a short period of time. This creates food that has been regularly shown to be more nutritious than its grocery-store counterparts.
This also lets animals live healthier, longer lives. While doing so, they fertilize the soil, distribute seeds, cultivate, and eat a range of plants. The animals do what they were meant to do, give us the nutrition we need, and create a healthier ecosystem in the process. Win, win, win.
Community
Our community is incredibly important to us. We live in beautiful Rockbridge County, VA and the community has nourished us as we work to nourish it.
During COVID we all saw that ecosystems and supply chains are fragile. The food supply chain should not be. We hope to be one small part in a robust, local food supply chain. This is economically beneficial to the community and provides long-term security for our most basic needs.
Our community extends beyond our county, though. Our family and friends are integral to our lives, and anchor an extended community that keeps us connected.
“A half million square miles possessed by landowning small farmers is a greater basis of national strength and endurance than the landless and roving tenant who drifts from farm to farm, skinning them as he goes, or the still more landless and rootless crowds of humans, who, in the cities shift from apartment to apartment and surge back and forth on the trolleys, subways, elevated railways.” – Tree Crops (1953), J. Russel Smith
Lovefield Farm is a family farm owned by Meghan and David Ryan with their four kids and numerous pets and farm animals. We bought the farm in 2021 and moved in later that year—after 6 months in living in a log cabin together during initial renovations!
David is originally from Newport, PA, an Appalachian town that makes him feel at home in Rockbridge County. After graduating from West Point, he served the Army for five years in Oklahoma, Hawaii, and Iraq. He now works for Devils Backbone Brewing Company, helps Meghan manage Lexington Animal Hospital, and occasionally farms in his free time.
Meghan is originally from Arlington, VA. She has enjoyed animals her entire life, which helped her identify her calling to veterinary medicine. After graduating from Penn Vet, she worked multiple emergency and general practice jobs before buying Lexington Animal Hospital and making it her own. As a mother-of-four business owner, the farm is often times a distant dream.
Our kids love to help with farm chores when they feel like it, and it is a joy to see them collecting eggs, engaging with animals, learning the life, and being excited. Their love and wonder are truly what makes this patch of ground magical.