From Our Farm to Your Table
Welcome! We are a small family farm located in Cooks Brook, Nova Scotia. We are Mom (Amy) and Dad (David) to our children Ayla and Ezekiel and passionate growers of food that you can feel good about feeding to your own family.
Snowy River Farms is committed to providing consumers with pasture-raised, products created in a humane and ecologically friendly manner. We strive to use what nature has given us to fuel our bodies, minds, and souls. Our livestock are pasture and woods raised, fed fruits and veggies and their feed is certified non-GMO so you can be comfortable knowing that we feed them only what nature provides. All together this means that our meat is higher in Omega-3 fatty acids than that of conventionally raised animals and you can be confident knowing that the meat you are purchasing was raised in such a way that gives them the freedom to express natural behaviours, plenty of sunshine and fresh air, as well as daily back scratches!
Our produce and herbs are grown naturally without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or biosolids and focus greatly on companion planting methods.
Welcome! We are a small family farm located in Cooks Brook, Nova Scotia. We are Mom (Amy) and Dad (David) to our children Ayla and Ezekiel and passionate growers of food that you can feel good about feeding to your own family.
Snowy River Farms is committed to providing consumers with pasture-raised, products created in a humane and ecologically friendly manner. We strive to use what nature has given us to fuel our bodies, minds, and souls. Our livestock are pasture and woods raised, fed fruits and veggies and their feed is certified non-GMO so you can be comfortable knowing that we feed them only what nature provides. All together this means that our meat is higher in Omega-3 fatty acids than that of conventionally raised animals and you can be confident knowing that the meat you are purchasing was raised in such a way that gives them the freedom to express natural behaviours, plenty of sunshine and fresh air, as well as daily back scratches!
Our produce and herbs are grown naturally without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or biosolids and focus greatly on companion planting methods.
Why Antibiotic Free?
It's not a buzzword for us. It doesn't mean we've treated our animals and then given them a withdrawal period before processing. It also doesn't mean that we leave sick animals to suffer and die.
For us, antibiotic free is an entire system of farming. It means that the meat you buy from us has never been fed medicated feed or treated with antibiotics. It means we have designed our farm to work without relying on them. It is preventative.
Does this mean we have never used antibiotics on our property? No, but if we do they are processed for our family's consumption. We don't want freezers full of personal meat though, so we work really hard here to keep our animals thriving.
There is so much fighting back and forth right now with consumers confused about how their food is grown and farms trying to stand up for their practices. What often ends up happening in this mix is that farms like ours; farms who decrease stocking densities, that select breeds who grow slower but have better disease resistance, who spend a lot of time designing for predation and weather related issues from their stock being raised outside - we get painted as people who let their animals suffer. It is assumed that we have many sick animals, just not being treated. This is not the case! Our practices make it so that we do not have animals routinely falling ill.
It's not a buzzword for us. It doesn't mean we've treated our animals and then given them a withdrawal period before processing. It also doesn't mean that we leave sick animals to suffer and die.
For us, antibiotic free is an entire system of farming. It means that the meat you buy from us has never been fed medicated feed or treated with antibiotics. It means we have designed our farm to work without relying on them. It is preventative.
Does this mean we have never used antibiotics on our property? No, but if we do they are processed for our family's consumption. We don't want freezers full of personal meat though, so we work really hard here to keep our animals thriving.
There is so much fighting back and forth right now with consumers confused about how their food is grown and farms trying to stand up for their practices. What often ends up happening in this mix is that farms like ours; farms who decrease stocking densities, that select breeds who grow slower but have better disease resistance, who spend a lot of time designing for predation and weather related issues from their stock being raised outside - we get painted as people who let their animals suffer. It is assumed that we have many sick animals, just not being treated. This is not the case! Our practices make it so that we do not have animals routinely falling ill.
Humans are not the only species that benefit from fresh air, feet in the soil and sun on their faces.
Our livestock always have the option to go outside, no matter the weather, and pigs specifically have a deeply ingrained need to root through soil where they access much needed vitamins and minerals. Also it makes their tails wag 🐖 🙈
#pastureraised and #woodsraised are not fancy terms we throw around here. We truly believe that a life lived outside is the best life that we can provide for our livestock. I mean, if the experts are always telling us to spend more time outside, why wouldn't we do the same for our critters too!?
Why Non-GMO?
Many farmers are making the switch to non-GMO based feeds with their livestock and seeing positive results in the health of their animals. As defined by The Non-GMO Project, "A GMO, or genetically modified organism, is a plant, animal, microorganism or other organism whose genetic makeup has been modified in a laboratory using genetic engineering or transgenic technology. This creates combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and virus genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods." While GMO (or GEO as they are also called) feeds have been developed to help decrease a need for pesticide use, many people, including ourselves, are not comfortable with the repercussions of such modifications. Firstly, they were developed to support monoculture which can have harmful effects on wildlife and insect populations and is not a way of farming that we wish to pursue. Secondly, Glyphosate is so highly used in our food systems today that it is being found at alarming levels in human hair. A study in 2018 found that many hair samples contained over 66 parts per billion (ppb) of Glyphosate which is much higher than the urine samples that studies had previously focused on which contained only 3ppb. Our exposure to this herbicide is likely much higher than what would have been anticipated before release of the product and the consequences of its use are showing up in our waterways by negatively affecting the natural habitat for amphibians and fish life. And last, but certainly not least, you have asked for the exclusions of GEO feed and since we are here to grow for you it is our pleasure to continue to keep them off of our property.
Our livestock always have the option to go outside, no matter the weather, and pigs specifically have a deeply ingrained need to root through soil where they access much needed vitamins and minerals. Also it makes their tails wag 🐖 🙈
#pastureraised and #woodsraised are not fancy terms we throw around here. We truly believe that a life lived outside is the best life that we can provide for our livestock. I mean, if the experts are always telling us to spend more time outside, why wouldn't we do the same for our critters too!?
Why Non-GMO?
Many farmers are making the switch to non-GMO based feeds with their livestock and seeing positive results in the health of their animals. As defined by The Non-GMO Project, "A GMO, or genetically modified organism, is a plant, animal, microorganism or other organism whose genetic makeup has been modified in a laboratory using genetic engineering or transgenic technology. This creates combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and virus genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods." While GMO (or GEO as they are also called) feeds have been developed to help decrease a need for pesticide use, many people, including ourselves, are not comfortable with the repercussions of such modifications. Firstly, they were developed to support monoculture which can have harmful effects on wildlife and insect populations and is not a way of farming that we wish to pursue. Secondly, Glyphosate is so highly used in our food systems today that it is being found at alarming levels in human hair. A study in 2018 found that many hair samples contained over 66 parts per billion (ppb) of Glyphosate which is much higher than the urine samples that studies had previously focused on which contained only 3ppb. Our exposure to this herbicide is likely much higher than what would have been anticipated before release of the product and the consequences of its use are showing up in our waterways by negatively affecting the natural habitat for amphibians and fish life. And last, but certainly not least, you have asked for the exclusions of GEO feed and since we are here to grow for you it is our pleasure to continue to keep them off of our property.
