Get in touch to reserve your meat, for delivery this fall. Don’t worry - you have time to make space in the freezer!

Delicious lamb raised on grass by regenerative rotational grazing

In September we’re doing our last lamb processing of 2025. We will have a few half-shares available. If you would like to reserve a half-share, please get in touch ASAP.

Here’s what’s included in a lamb half-share:

Pork sausage from happy pigs raised in forest silvopasture

We are processing our last pigs for the foreseeable future this October!

We will have country (breakfast) sausage and Italian sausage in 1 lb packs. And when they’re gone, they’re gone until…???

The pigs have done their work clearing the overgrown perimeter around our sheep and goat pastures, effectively creating more idyllic partially shaded grazing areas for our sheep and goats. Accordingly, this winter the pig zone is getting retrofitted into a cushy new nursery paddock for sheep and goat mamas and babies - just in time for lambing/kidding season 2026.

Currently we don’t know if or when we’ll get pigs again. So this is the last pork sausage that we’ll have for the foreseeable future.

Get it while you can!

Country sausage and Italian sausage - normally $8/lb, special price $7.50/lb for orders of 10 lbs or more.

To re-cap:

• Lamb half-shares $280, available for pick-up or arranged delivery late September/early October.

• Pork country and Italian sausage, $7.50/lb for orders of 10 lbs or more, available for pick-up or arranged delivery late October/early November.

To make a reservation call, text, or email Josh:

• three three six - nine zero two - two five four three

• joshuakearns [at] protonmail [dot] com

We will take 50% down as a deposit to secure your reservation, and the balance on delivery.

Silvopasture (silva is forest in Latin) is the practice of integrating trees, forage, and the grazing of domesticated animals in a mutually beneficial way.

Our approach prioritizes animal health and wellbeing, and agro-ecological and regenerative practices suited to the southern Appalachian bioregion.

2026 Offerings

This year we are focusing on lamb and duck eggs. (We do still have ground pork available, as well as a few rabbits.)

We sell on-farm by appointment: call or text Josh at 336 902 2543.

You can also catch us at the Downtown Hickory Farmers’ Market every Saturday from 8 AM to 1 PM.

Also - Saunders & Sons Grocery near Statesville carries our lamb and duck eggs.

2025 Offerings

For lamb and goat we’re planning for quarterly processings this year. With each processing we’ll have a limited number of half shares available. Please get in touch with us ASAP if you’d like to reserve a half share. We also sell cuts a la carte, of course. The half share price reflects a 10% discount compared with buying individual cuts.

We sell on-farm by appointment and at local farmers’ markets. Inquire for latest pricing and specialty products.

INFORMATION ABOUT OUR PRICING

Please note:

• Prices are subject to change, and

• We almost always have sale items available at reduced prices. Call or write, come see us at the farm, or stop by our booth at the Hickory Farmers’ Market, and shop the latest specials!

You may notice that these prices are significantly higher than what you typically pay in the grocery store. It’s a topic for another day to discuss the subsidies, distortions, externalities, un-sustainability, environmental and animal welfare issues, etc., that afflict industrial food system products. In this article we just want to provide transparency about the process we use to set our prices.

Put simply, we consider our costs for raising and processing animals as well as current market prices for pasture raised meat in our county, state, and the broader US.

Cost considerations

Infrastructure

Obviously, there is some up-front investment in infrastructure for starting up a small regenerative agriculture enterprise. Our philosophy prioritizes thrift, frugality, resourcefulness, creativity, and good ol’ hillbilly engineering to minimize costs and promote efficiency.

We’ve done a lot of work to repair and repurpose dilapidated structures that were on the farm when we got it. For example, we demo’ed part of a hunter’s shack that was beyond repair and used the wood we reclaimed to convert the other part of the shack into a barn with stalls for lambing and kidding.

The barn

We built a shelter, farrowing pen, and loading system for the pigs for very low cost. Our neighbor gave us the old tin panels used for the roof. Much of the lumber came from disassembling the porch and deck of the old trailer on the property, and the poplar half-rounds we got for free from a local sawyer. The grain bin sheets used for the loading chute were leftover from a millwright job. The water tanks (which collect rainwater from the roof), previously used for soy sauce, were purchased at low cost.

Piggo central, in their forest haven

Our mobile goat and sheep shelter (the “Winnebagoat”) is made from an abandoned livestock trailer. We gave it a little TLC (tires, greased and repacked wheel bearings, light kit) and a roof. It has served us well.

We’ve been thrifty and resourceful, and our animals are very well cared for. Over time we expect (hope!) to recoup our expenses for building out farm infrastructure. That said, up-front infrastructure costs are not explicitly added as line-items in our meat prices.

Nutrition and Wellness

Animal wellness means receiving a healthy diet as well as medications (e.g., vaccines, de-worming, antibiotics to treat sick or injured animals) when needed and physical care such as shearing and hoof-trimming.

Our sheep and goats forage grass for most of their diet, and our pigs forage greenery, certain roots, acorns and walnuts, and other forest delectables, for a portion of their diet.

From January to April, when the grass isn’t growing, we feed hay purchased from a nearby farm to the sheep and goats. Sheep and goat mamas need additional nutrition during lambing/kidding season, so we feed supplemental grain and alfalfa pellets. Sheep and goats also need supplemental minerals and a salt lick year-round.

Pigs need more nutrition than they can get from forest foraging, so we feed 14% protein hog pellets to feeder pigs, and a 16% protein feed to nursing mamas and their piglets.

Parasites (worms) can be an issue. If you’ve seen skinny, sickly goats, for example, they most likely had worms.

The green plant shown in the photos below is Lespedeza. It’s often used for soil conservation, for example in areas where erosion is bad, and disturbed areas like along highways, since it grows in very poor soils and helps to stabilize the land.

Lespedeza (the plant, not the goat! Her name is Clarice…)

Lespedeza forage also has natural inherent anti-parasite properties. It’s growing in some of our pastures and we have plans for strategic seeding of more Lespedeza in key zones on the property for parasite control.

Our animals have had little to no issues with worms. On occasion we have had to use medical dewormer on a sheep or goat when they first arrive to our farm from another farm where worms are a problem. But babies born on our farm have not needed deworming, and during our Fall 2022 herd health check we did not deworm a single animal. Getting some Lespedeza in their diet and rotational grazing in general for breaking the parasite life-cycle probably explain our good luck with parasite absence in our flock.

Wellness costs for sheep, goats, and pigs also include straw and/or wood shavings for bedding for mamas and babies.

In very rough terms, we estimate feed and wellness costs of about $100 per year per sheep or goat, and about $200 per year per pig.

As I’m sure you’re aware, the costs of just about everything are going up these days. Though the Federal Reserve may peg the rate of inflation in 2022 at 7.5-8%, our feed costs have gone up 14-24% over the same period.

December 2021 - April 2023 cost trends per 50 lb bag of feed for alfalfa pellets, 16% protein layer chicken pellet feed, 14% protein hog pellets, sheep and goat pellets, and shelled corn (snack and moving assistance) from our local family-owned feed mill.

Our animal processing and meat packaging is done by a nearby family-owned facility. Our processing costs are about $150 per sheep or goat, and about $200 per pig.

Thus our total estimated costs for raising and processing animals into packaged cuts are about $275-$350 per sheep or goat, and about $400-$500 per pig.

Of course, we are new at this having only been going for a little over two years. So these figures will be refined over time as our experience grows and we have more cost data to work from.

Market prices for pasture raised lamb and pork

Keeping in mind these cost estimates, we also look at what other farms are charging in our county, state, and in the US in general.

Wilkes County, NC

We have drawn a huge amount of inspiration from our friends at Sheraton Park Farms. They raise pastured meat chickens, egg layers, turkeys, rabbits, pigs, and cows. In a recent (October 2022) video, farmer Chuck identified their top-five sellers at farmers’ markets around our region. They sell chicken, eggs, and beef, which we don’t, and we sell lamb, which they don’t. But to give you an idea of what they ask for their products, here are prices for their top-five sellers.

1. ground beef - $9.50/lb

2. chicken breasts (bone in, with skin) - $11/lb

3. boneless pork chops - $15/lb

4. bacon (uncured, smoked) - $15/lb

5. pasture raised chicken eggs: $4-$5 per half-dozen, $7-$8 per dozen

We charge similar prices for our bone-in pork chops and bacon. They sell ground pork for around $10.50/lb, whereas we currently charge around $8/lb. So our prices are comparable or a little lower than those of Sheraton Park (certainly we are not over-charging compared to them).

State of North Carolina and US

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture (NCDA) publishes handy reports each month listing ranges and averages of retail prices for pasture raised lamb, goat, and pork (and beef, dairy, poultry, etc.).

These can be found here under the heading “Direct to Consumer.”

Very simply, we look at these reports, in particular at the average prices that different cuts of meat sell for in NC and in the broader US, and we set our prices close to these values. Sometimes NC prices are a little higher than the US average, and sometimes they are a little lower. But they are typically comparable.

Are we profitable? Are our prices fair?

The “million-dollar questions,” so-to-speak… Let’s look at some ball-park, conservative figures.

Based on our retail prices of packaged cuts, one sheep would be expected to gross about $350, and one of our kune kune pigs about $700. Subtracting the costs of raising and processing a sheep ($200-$250) or pig ($400-$500), that would net us $100-$150 per sheep, and $200-$300 per pig.

It is from those net values that we can begin to pay back our initial investments in infrastructure, and cover various other sundry costs that weren’t included in this “back-of-the-envelope” analysis.

Are our prices fair? Does this explication ease the “sticker shock” one might feel when comparing our prices to grocery store meat? Should we be charging more? That is up to you, dear reader. Let us know what you think!

Share Magpie Hollow Farm News

We’ve been experimenting to find the right lavender variety(-ies) that grow well at our place along with optimizing the growing conditions. We’ve been selling lavender bundles at the farmers’ market beginning summer 2024 and want to include to other lavender products as we expand our production.

They measure about 12” x 6” x 8,” have an insulating liner and a zipper closure, a mesh pocket on one side and a solid fabric pocket on the other side. Great for packing a lunch or keeping your farmers’ market items warm or cool as needed.

“Space blanket” insulating interior liner.

Cool bags are available for $8 plus shipping.

Shetland wether during shearing, late April 2024.

Shetlands with their winter coats (foreground) while Jacobs look on from the background.

Fleece laid out to remove bits of dirt, wool “dreadlocks,” excess straw bedding entrained in the wool, etc.

The fleece is stuffed into a water-resistant liner. The liner slips into a (synthetic) fleece-and-suede washable mattress cover.

Roxy took it for a test drive and loves it!

If you want to order one for your pet we’ll happily assemble it and ship it right out to you. Or if you’re in the area, come by the farm for pickup.

Here’s a sizing chart to help select the right model for your pet, along with a price list (shipping not included in prices shown).

Prices reflect our materials costs plus the quantity of fleece needed to stuff the bed.

Call/text 336 902 2543 or email joshuakearns@protonmail.com if you are interested to order a bed.

Our QA/QC department gives these pet beds a five star rating, as shown here tested by Elijah for A+ level floppability…