Hello there!
My name is Nicholas Ham and I am the owner of Pastored Poultry and more. For as long as I can remember I have had the desire to become food independent. The idea of being dependent on the grocery store for my every need has always bothered me, and in recent years this dependency has made me increasingly uncomfortable.
The events of 2020 exposed the fragility of our food systems. I remember watching the cost of food steadily increase while scarcity increased dramatically. Stockpiling became prevalent, and quite frankly we are still feeling the ripple effects of those logistical failings today.
When I combined that feeling with research on how our food gets to the grocery store, the conviction became too much, and I decided something had to be done. Our food systems today are focused upon vertical integration, monocropping, and corporate models. If one cog of the system is disrupted, then the whole system spirals.
Local food systems can both stimulate our local economy, and provide premium quality products.
That’s the way we used to do things, so why not today?
Why “Pastored Poultry”?
As a Pastor of a small town church here in Buena Vista, I am bi-vocational. This means that aside from my duties to the church, I have to hold down an outside job. During the last year I’ve done everything from driving for Walmart and Doordash, renting out our camp trailer, and working as a handyman. In all of these endeavors the Lord has blessed, but the constant rat race and scrambling for jobs leaves me away from home far more than I’d like. As a father of two boys, I want to be present for my sons’ lives, which means working more from home.
Combining this desire for food independence with the flexibility for being home with the boys made the family farm a no brainer for me.
Our Commitment
Our commitment here on the farm is to Stewardship and to Service. Stewardship is the act of intentionally caretaking what we have been given, and this applies to both the animals that we raise and the land that we improve. We serve our community by following our values, building our local economy, and supporting our neighbors and their businesses.
We stand behind what we grow and provide to you so you can can feel that you’re making a healthy contribution to your family, your community, and your environment.
Listed below are our three founding values.
- Clean food for a fair price.
Our animals will be raised to the highest standard of quality we can provide, but we believe that the worker is worth a living wage. - Ethically Raised Livestock
On the Farm, we strive for just two bad days for our livestock, when they are given their start of life care, and on their final day. We are committed to keeping our livestock happy and healthy, no factory farms here! - Restoration of our Food System
There was a day when our food came from where we live. Here on the farm we want to encourage people to live locally again. It is our belief that the best food should be grown at a small scale and consumed locally.