MEET YOUR FARMERS
Hello, welcome!
We’re Shane and Esther, and these are our seven free-range children, our heart and soul farm-team!
We are “that” family. You know, the ones who have a gaggle of children, build their own furniture, butcher their own meat, collect their own eggs, tending to an array of fermented babies, baking the breads, milking the cows, making-all-the-things, homeschooling, and have an herb, or oil for just about anything!
We take our tea very seriously, we’re fond of butter, bacon grease, and too often than not, we’re whipping up something decadent and scrumptiously delicious in the kitchen.
We relish spending time together outdoors on the farm, getting our hands dirty in the rich farm soil, playing board games, riding horses, sipping tea, and enjoying the everyday graces and blessings God provides.
For 17+ years we’ve been growing food for our own family, and 6 of those years, we’ve been sharing it with families like yours!
Growing and raising food is one the hardest most labor-intensive areas of work we’ve ever done. We are delighted when farm-friends tickle their taste buds with our fresh organically grown produce and pasture-raised meats. We love knowing tables are being graced with healthy and nutritious farm to plate goodness, just like ours.
Eden Ridge
Our 26-acre farm is nestled in beautiful Prole, Iowa in the gorgeously gentle rolling hills of the Warren County countryside, just 15 minutes south of West Des Moines. Eden Ridge is a small but growing regenerative farm. We’re using animals and plants to prune the pasture, rebuild the soil and revitalize the land.
We grow food the way God intended things to grow. No chemicals, no antibiotics or growth hormones, just nutrient rich soil and good clean water and lots and lots of weeding! We offer Des Moines and surrounding communities with a delectable pleasing array of organically grown seasonal farm-fresh produce.
Fruits, veggies, herbs, raw honey, pastured poultry, pastured pork, chicken & duck eggs, farm tea blends, natural home goods and essentials.
Farm Beginnings
How it Started
We’re 1st generation market garden and pasture raised animal farmers.
With different types of farming in both of our backgrounds, our passion for growing things was birthed in each of our lives, due to each of us having special family members who shared their love for animals, plants and farming.
In 2006 our first garden began. It was full of everything, including weeds! We learned quickly that reading and collecting information was helpful, but there was NOTHING like hands on learning!
Playing in the dirt was a hobby we quickly grew to love, and one that bloomed into ongoing learning about organic farming methods, herbalism, regenerative farming, and pasture-raised animal practices, beekeeping and all things homesteading. We dreamed of owning more land and having a “farm”, but we were also content with our cozy little homestead.
With 2,000 sq. ft. plus of raised-garden space we added over the years, we had an abundance of tasty vegetables and herbs. Nineteen fruit trees and a variety of berries scattered all over the property, along with our bees to pollinate everything! It was a dreamy packed-full homestead.
With sweat and tears, trial and error, along with great success, our 2-acres became very much established. It’s where our enthusiasm for growing things kept on growing. Our daily living and everything we loved doing, began making a little income and eventually we ventured into the local farmer’s market.
Beauty in the Chaos
Just two weeks after arriving home from China with our newly adopted 6- year-old daughter, she was diagnosed with a life-altering condition. We began making trips 3x a week to Des Moines for medical appointments. During that time, we were also in the middle of branding Eden Ridge, our little haven at the lake.
In January of 2017 Eden Ridge became an official business. We began selling our garden produce, homemade teas and herbal goods online. It also became very evident it was time for our family to move closer to the Children’s Hospital. We were torn and broken.
Saying good-bye to our community, our friendships and the little haven we built for over 17 years was incredibly painful. We trusted God that he had better plans, but at that time, we had no clue where we would even end up.
Abundantly More
To make a long story short, we transplanted new roots in Prole, Iowa, to our gorgeous 26-acre farm. God gave us far more abundantly than what we dreamed, or even prayed for.
We literally mean “transplanted”. We brought small plant starts from our acreage to begin again here on our farm. The very first year, we began planting 2 orchard areas, and began setting up the largest garden we’d ever had! After seeing the land for the first time, the name Eden Ridge fit even more perfect than before.
The 1.5 – acre pond at Eden Ridge
History of the Land
In 1854 the DeVotie family purchased the original land from the United States Government. The farm was once part of several hundred acres, stretching from Churchville, Iowa to where Highway 92 now resides in Prole, Iowa.
For twenty-years, a portion of the land was mined for coal. It saw the Great Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Western Co. Railway make its way through part of the original property, now known as the beautiful Great Western bike trail of Warren County, Iowa!
Over the years, the land was passed down from family members to family members, parcels sold off and inherited through wills.
Today, we feel extremely honored to own such a treasure of land. Though we have no relation to these families – we have committed to cherishing these original precious preserved acres.
The best way we know how to “share” this little piece of haven with the locals, is to provide the community with the beauty and bounty of the land.
A tableside reunion of farm and family.
Esther’s grandpa on the family farm in Minnesota.
Simplistic Focus
Our farm is unique in the fact that we do not want to be too big for our britches! You heard us right! We are focusing on the local communities that surround our farm within a 30-40-mile radius.
This does not mean we do not serve anyone outside our circle, it simply means, our focus is going right back into the communities and the families that work and live near our farm.
Families like yours deserve the best, to know and trust the hands that grow and raise your food. Cutting out the middleman, also means lower cost for you as the local consumer.
At Eden Ridge, your local farm, we are dedicated to serving you foods you can confidently eat.
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