Welcome to Life Outside the Box ~
Now available - OTB Pork - Head over to our events page for details!
We are a small farm raising pork, eggs, produce & flowers for our community, without the use of pesticides or antibiotics. We strive to utilize nature as our inspiration in all we grow. Join us on our adventures in eating & living well!
Our Beginning
OTB Farmstead started as a return to our roots inspired by a child. We had moved from the city to acreage at the time our granddaughter was born. As fate would have it, she and her mom came to live with us and the seed that is our farm life started to germinate. We started out with a big garden and chickens. And by the way, chickens really are a gateway drug! We learned about Permaculture and aligned with it’s ethics & principles: Earth Care, People Care, Share the Abundance. We eventually added pigs and preserved our harvests to eat like we did as kids. As our granddaughter thrived on organically raised food, we thrived on the joy of farm life. Our quest for a farm of our own has taken us all over Western WA, from Olympia to Duvall to Issaquah and finally to our own piece of heaven on Whidbey Island.
“Take your kids to a farm so they won’t think food comes out of a box.”
— willie nelson
Island Life
With the help of our family and friends, we put in a large garden and greenhouse on our island property. We revamped the horse paddocks for pigs and in the spring of 2019, we built a farm stand for our friends and neighbors to source their produce & farm goods from. A comical mishap when bringing home weaner pigs led us to our annual Piglet Cuddle Puddle Party and a tribute to a good friend is the basis for Tayze’s Tomatoes Open Farm. These events have allowed us to share our farm with our North Whidbey community.
Our Why:
Food Raised the Way Our Grandparents Ate
A hundred or so years ago, before our food system became a food-like system, nutrient density was not a problem. All food was organic. Words like cancer, gut biome, mineral deficiency and autoimmune disorder did not exist. Fast forward to today, much of our county’s food is raised using chemicals that come with warning labels. Just a decade ago, our family had no idea there was a difference in how food was raised. We avoided milk with hormones & processed meats, but it wasn’t until research for a college paper on organic food and children opened our eyes that we changed our priorities. We started growing our own food. We had soil tests done on our gardens, added minerals that the soil was lacking as well as compost and cover crops. We learned that Genetically Modified Foods are registered with the EPA as an antibiotic. We learned firsthand that food sensitivities are real and can cause behavior problems. We experienced stomach issues, brain fog and anxiety from our food choices. Listening to our bodies’ cry for help finally forced us to change. Paying attention to what we eat and how it is grown has helped our family put an autoimmune in remission, relieved behavior issues, calmed stomach pains and eliminated anxiety. While anecdotal, it was enough for us to make changes and share with those we know and love how simple changes can help improve their lives. Please join us on our journey as we raise clean food and share our story.
