Canter Hill 
Farm 

Our Mission:

We founded the farm on a simple premise:
Before chemicals, labs and factory farms got involved, God had created a perfect, workable system. We will learn about it, respect it, and we will naturally and successfully be able to be "beyond-organic" in our food supply.

New to farming, we had no pre-conceived ideas about raising animals or vegetables, and sought out farmers across the globe to learn what we did and didn't want to do. We quickly saw that most food systems raising just one type of offering needed external inputs - fertilizers, corn and sadly - sometimes chemicals and antibiotics. That's why we raise a variety of animals. Each has been chosen to serve a function for the others.

Over the last 10 years, we have grown and in addition to our home-base farm in Malvern, we lease 180 acres of grazing land from old family friends in Lancaster County.  During the summer, we rotate half of our sheep flock through this land, and most of our steers call this land home.    All of the land we graze is 100% free of any chemicals or sprays and we re-plant every other year to manage soil compression, erosion and to preserve a diversity of forage.  

Canter Hill's beef and lamb is 100% grass (or hay) feed, and supplemented only with salt licks.  We de-worm our sheep flock once annually, after lambing season (at the same time as sheering - typically the first week of June) and do not introduce any other chemicals or antibiotics. We have not experienced the same need to de-worm our steers.  We have been migrating our sheep flock from Dorset to Katahdin, and therefore most of our sheep are now 50% or more Katahdin (a hair sheep), because we believe the meat tastes nicer!  Our beef is both Black and Lowline Angus.  We are shifting towards Lowline Angus which is more tolerant of 100% grass feeding and generally very hardy.

Canter Hill's poultry and pork is either pasture (for poultry) or forage fed (our pigs dig in the forest, and our turkeys also tend to roam!).  They are supplemented with organic, soy-free feed.  How much feed vs. forage do they consume?  It depends on the weather.  If it's raining or cold, more feed than forage.  On warm days that aren't drenching, almost entirely forage.  This is why we raise from March - November. 

We STRONGLY encourage you to open your minds to frozen meat.  If you're committed to pasture raising, recognize that you can't have fresh meat in the dead of winter, and purchase a great freezer!  

We are committed to pasture-raised, antibiotic-free and chemical-free poultry, lamb and produce.