The saying goes “I wasn’t born in a barn, but I got here as fast as I could” and it definitely rings true for us!

Matt and I both grew up in the city but our lives have been marked from the beginning with a strong gravitational pull towards farming.

 

I (Tessa) have always felt a strong kinship to animals, holding and raising and training every animal I could get my hands on, starting on a city lot with a grasshopper I kept and trained to shake a paw.

As I grew older I completed ten year in the 4-H club, soaking in as much animal experience as I could get my hands on and then going on to complete nationally training animals.

I settled into a job looking after, and training domestic animals and wildlife for work in films and movies.

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Matt felt a strong draw to be a farmer ever since he was a small child. His parents used to drop him off on local farms so he could soak in the farm life.

As a young teen he began working on a farm, learning to make hay and run equipment. He went into mechanics as a career just for the purpose of being able to maintain his own farm equipment.

 

We met working on farms, and fell in love working side by side with our hands in the dirt.

 

After having experience touring commercial meat livestock operations we were horrified by what we saw and knew we could never support this industry.

 

As our little family grew it was increasingly important to know what we were eating where our food came from.

 

We started Morning Star Farm in 2012 with the purpose of raising our own animals for meat in the kindest most natural way possible.

We have dabbled in all sorts of farm ventures, from pastured hogs to organic certified vegetables before we followed our hearts to what we love most, cows!

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The whole family dove into the ranching life completely and has never looked back.

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We currently run a herd of beef cattle, make hay for our own cattle and for sales, and finish and sell beef seasonally to friends and neighbours. Our family is fed by our big vegetable garden, our delightful flock of laying hens and our sweet jersey milk cow.

The kids each have their own small herds of sheep and goats that they love raising and showing in the 4-H club.

 

We delight in this farming life and a big part of that is the satisfaction we get in giving everything on the farm the best lives possible. Every animal is pastured in the sunshine and the grass and we make sure that their unique animal needs are met and exceeded.