Hello, and welcome to our site! Thanks for your interest in our story!
The people
I’m Myla, the owner of this homestead. Picture this: it’s 2017, and I’m about to marry into the wonderfully crazy family that is the Browns. My soon-to-be husband, Shaun, and I are both stuck in a local factory job, and that means we’re missing out on valuable time with our kids. We’re heading into work before the kids wake up for school, and when we get home —after the kids— we’re instantly diving into house chores: Shaun starts cooking supper, and I’m catching up on laundry. We quickly enjoy a meal as a family, make sure everyone has their homework done, and before we know it, it’s bedtime for everybody.
This way of living sucked, and we knew it wasn’t sustainable; we were exhausted and had no real time for family, friends, or fun.
The business
Brown Family Farms was created as a way for our family to live a healthy, happy life. Both Shaun and I grew up gardeners, and we appreciate knowing what’s in our food and where it comes from. We did some research and confirmed that Iowa —with its abundance of farmers— still had a gap in the market for local people who grew more than just corn and soybeans. We could see we had unused space, and —after making preparations— jumped at the opportunity to leave our old jobs and turn our family’s garden into a full-time farm. Our farm uses sustainable, beyond organic (meaning we don’t apply chemicals) agricultural practices to provide a variety of vegetables; Maple Syrup; free-range, pasture-raised chickens; eggs; and baked goods.
The vision
Our hope is to expand our farm to provide a wide array of local, high-quality products for our family and our community. Our short-term goals include adding pasture-raised pork, ducks, and knit and crochet home goods to our line-up of products. Down the road, we also hope to offer items such as comb honey, smoked cheeses, and hand-spun wool yarn. Side note, if you’re interested in our chickens or pigs, message me on our Contact Us page or email me at BrownFamFarms@gmail.com so we can get an idea of how many to raise in order to meet our demand.
The reality
So far, Shaun and I don’t regret leaving our factory jobs, and I doubt we ever will. This farmstead has opened our schedules up tremendously, even with the extra workload it creates. Now, we have the freedom to do pretty much everything we’ve always wanted to do. We get to spend quality time with our boys and teach them new skills —during early spring, Shaun showed the boys how to tap our Maple trees, and everyone was excited when the sap came out sweet. We now also have the time to get involved with our community and meet our neighbors. Since we started homesteading, our family has gotten to know many people and we’ve made great friends, and we hope to continue doing so, thanks to Brown Family Farms.
