FarmHouse

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking with Christine Leonard, a Minnesota dairy farmer and owner of The Grater Good, which specializes in cheese plates and cheese classes.

Leonard is a sixth-generation farmer whose farm has been passed down through the women's side of her family for the last three generations.

Before coming to work on the family farm, Leonard spent time at an artisan creamery where she learned about making cheese. By the time she joined the family farm, she knew cheese was a good opportunity to diversify operations, and she launched The Grater Good.

Leonard launched the business with curated cheese boards, but soon branched out into classes and tastings.

"Slowly my business has expanded from just the cheese and charcuterie boards to a lot of cheese tasting and education classes. So just like people can do a flight of wine, they can do a flight of cheese," Leonard said.

Leonard uses those tastings not only to introduce people to cheeses they may not have tried before, but to talk to them about the dairy industry and put herself forward as an ag ambassador.

"I like to ask before I even start the class, 'How many of you guys know a farmer?' And you know, usually it's crickets," Leonard said. "Not a lot of people have that connection to agriculture anymore. And so I always like to say, 'Now you know at least one farmer. You know me.'"

After that introduction, Leonard said she's been able to field plenty of questions from her customers, who are often curious about how the dairy industry works.

Though her days are busy between running the farm and The Grater Good, Leonard said she's happy to have found her niche in the local dairy industry.

"I really find a lot of fulfillment through my work, both the dairying side and the cheesemongering side," she said. "That's the thing about dairy farming, right? It's a lifestyle. And my Grater Good work just fits right into that as well."

Listen to the interview with Becky Collins Brookes mentioned in this episode.

Read about the history of charcuterie boards.

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Learn more about our new podcast, Farmer Wants a Wife Afterparty.

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking with Jenny Dittmar, a farmer in Kent County, Delaware.

Dittmar and her husband own Dittmar Family Farms, where they grow produce and raise grass-fed livestock.

"Growing vegetables and raising meat, they really do go hand in hand in terms of the soil," Dittmar said. "You really have to have livestock in order to grow vegetables well."

Dittmar is working to strengthen the soil food web. She and her husband use a variety of practices to keep the soil healthy, like cover cropping and, polyculture cropping and limiting tillage.

"If you take care of the soil, the soil tends to take care of the plants for you," Dittmar said.

While the farm is less than a decade old, it has already seen plenty of changes.

The initial plan was to grow, raise and sell as much as possible.

"We wanted the model of a full-diet farm," Dittmar said. "We really wanted to try to provide as much of the food pyramid as we could for our customers."

Now, Dittmar has honed in on the produce and livestock that work best.

The latest change in the operation comes in the form of Dittmar's CSA model.

This year, instead of a typical program where members receive boxes of produce, Dittmar is doing a farm membership program, where members will be able to purchase $50 of produce each week.

"We've had to sort of evolve with our customers," Dittmar said.

In addition to the livestock and produce, Dittmar makes and sells skin creams using honey from the farm's beehives.

"I really enjoy the artistic side of farming," she said.

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Florence Becot, a rural sociologist and the lead for Penn State's Agricultural Safety and Health Program.

Becot and her colleagues Shoshanah Inwood and Hannah Bridge recently published a study in the Journal of Agromedicine that explored common domestic stresses associated with women who live and work on farms.

The study consisted of 68 women across 11 groups discussing the ways they dealt with raising children on the farm.

Most of the participants reported feeling anxiety or stress related to the number of responsibilities they were juggling.

"All of the groups, at one point or another, discussed stress," said Becot. "They also talked about depression, and mental illnesses, whether or not they had been diagnosed."

Women in the study discussed feeling anxiety over raising children on the farm. Though many agreed they felt favorably about letting their children grow up on a farm, they acknowledged it comes with a unique set of challenges, especially for mothers who are responsible for performing farm work.

"Raising children on the farm is wonderful. So many moms talked about how much they love having the children around. They wouldn't do it any other way," Becot said. "But the reality is, we've talked to women farmers who said if I was a nurse at the hospital, I wouldn't be allowed to bring my kid. Why is there this weird expectation that I should have my kid with me when I'm driving this really heavy piece of machinery?"

Women aren't just responsible for child care, Becot explained. In addition to farm work and off-farm jobs, they're often responsible for cooking and household chores, and may also be responsible for caring for an older relative or for various community-related initiatives like church or social groups.

It can easily build into a stressful situation where women feel overburdened.

Researchers have been studying mental health in the farming industry for decades. However, Becot noted that it's only been within the past three to four years that they've started looking into how mental health manifests in women.

"We really never have talked a whole lot about women and how women's mental health might be different than men. How the stressors might be different," said Becot.

As more women join the agriculture industry, it's important to keep studying these differences, along with the unique stressors women on the farm and in rural communities are facing, to provide them with resources for help.

At the end of the day, women should be able to balance their domestic and farm responsibilities in order to succeed in both arenas, Becot said.

"That's what this work is about. It is about supporting women in agriculture, in their ability to both be a parent and a professional."

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Vermont farmer Hilary Haigh.

Haigh and her husband own Rolling Bale Farm where they raise grass-fed lamb and beef.

In 2022, the Haighs bought Animal Farm Creamery, where they raise Jerseys and make their own butter.

The creamery was initially opened in 2000 by Diane St. Clair, where she developed her butter into a high-end product that is used by chefs at restaurants like the Inn at Little Washington, Per Se and the French Laundry.

"I work sort of directly with the chefs," Haigh said. "They know this product very intimately and are very supportive of the business."

Adding on an already well-known dairy operation was a bit of a challenge at first, but in the past three years of owning both the livestock operation and the dairy, Haigh has found her rhythm.

On the livestock side, the sheep and beef are intensely rotationally grazed. While the butter is sold almost completely wholesale to restaurants, Haigh's meat products have a bit of a humbler market.

"I actually sell all of our meat through this very rustic self-serve farm stand here on the farm," she said.

When Rolling Bale was first started in 2014, Haigh spent a lot of time selling at farmers markets. She transitioned to the self-serve stand when the dairy operation was added to the farm.

"It's one thing to have an understanding how rigorous a dairy is," Haigh said. "It's another to be living in it and fully experience year after year the endlessness of it all."

Haigh makes butter six days a week, and most of it is done by hand, which adds to the uniqueness of the flavor.

But much of that specialty comes from grazing the cows. Because their diet changes with the season, the butter tastes and looks different depending on what time of year it is.

"It's a whole system that creates this product and what makes it unique," Haigh said. "The quality of the cream is the No. 1 reason the butter is unique and delicious. But what goes into controlling the quality of the cream has to do with the size of our dairy, the breed of our cows, what we're feeding them, how we're managing them. All of those factors are what is controlling the quality of the cream."

On this week's episode of the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Lee Rankin, author and owner of Apple Hill Farm in Banner Elk, North Carolina.

Rankin's journey into agriculture began with an emotional encounter with an alpaca at the Kentucky State Fair.

"It was a moment between the two of us where everything else fell away," she said, describing the moment she looked into the alpaca's eyes. "I was like, this is the coolest animal I've ever met."

Rankin followed her newfound dream to North Carolina, where she transformed a mountaintop orchard into an alpaca farm.

In the two decades since, Apple Hill has become a successful fiber farm where Rankin and her team raise alpacas, llamas and angora goats. She sells her products at a store on her farm and at craft and fiber fairs and art festivals.

In addition to the fiber operation, Apple Hill is an agritourism business. Rankin said she's seen her own first alpaca experience mirrored in the faces of those who visit the farm.

"There's people that walk in and they pull me aside and they're like, 'this is like my dream.' And I say to them, I'm not responsible for what happens now," she joked, regarding the would-be farmers she and her animals have inspired.

In 2024, Rankin's community was dealt a challenging blow in the form of Hurricane Helene when it swept through the state.

Apple Hill sustained damage to four buildings and suffered considerable tree damage, including 20 downed trees across one of its fences.

The community is still rebuilding.

It's inspiring, she said, describing the way people have stepped up to clear debris, repair damage and take care of each other.

"I'm so proud of our little town of Banner Elk, our little town of Valle Crucis and the way people came together and responded and are still responding on a daily basis," she said. "The real story is what's happened on a neighbor by neighbor basis, on a town by town basis. And I mean, it's just amazing."

Rankin is also an author. She recently published "Farm Family: A Solo Mom's Memoir of Finding Home, Happiness, and Alpacas," a book chronicling her experience of starting Apple Hill while raising her son as a single parent.

"I was 40 when I started the farm, when we moved here. I was 60 when I published that book or started the publication process," Rankin said of what she wants other women to take away from her story. "We're never too old to do something and to live a dream."

We recorded this special episode of FarmHouse live from the 2025 Pennsylvania Farm Show, where we had the honor of participating in the Celebrate Women Powering Agriculture event.

The event kicked off with a speech from Temple Grandin and was followed by a series of conversations and presentations from women working in agriculture.

We sat down Dr. Erin Luley and Dr. Hayley Springer to talk about what it's like to work as livestock veterinarians for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, why there are so few female livestock vets and what can be done about the vet shortage.

Dr. Luley is the assistant director of the Dept. of Ag's Bureau of Animal Health and Diagnostic Services. Before coming to the Dept. of Ag, she spent several years in private practice and became board-certified in veterinary anatomic pathology.

Dr. Springer is the Bureau of Animal Health and Diagnostic Services' region five veterinary medical field officer. She has spent time in private practice and as an on-staff vet for a dairy operation. She's also served as a Penn State Extension Veterinarian.

On this week's episode of the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Hayley Painter, half of the sister duo that created Painterland Sisters.

Painter and her sister, Stephanie, are the co-founders and co-CEOs of the organic skyr yogurt brand.

Skyr is an Icelandic style yogurt that the Painter sisters make with milk from their family farm and about 25 other organic dairy farms.

"Most skyrs are higher in protein, naturally lower in sugar and are really thick and creamy," Painter said.

The sisters started the business to keep their dairy farm afloat during years of bad milk prices and have since made it their mission to support as many other dairies as they can.

Painterland Sisters yogurt is organic. The sisters' family farm made the switch to organic in 2003, and during the certification process, the family realized it had already been utilizing many organic and regenerative practices.

"It's not just about soil health," Painter said. "It's about the health of the animals and the health of the farmer and the health of the agriculture industry being able to sustain itself."

When Painter and her sister decided to branch out into the world of a value-added product, they met their fair share of challenges, many of them due to the fact that both are young women.

During the early stages of the business, she said they'd have to hire an older gentleman to act as a spokesperson on their behalf for business deals.

But as the business has grown in size and recognition, Painter said those specific challenges have eased.

"I heard once that your biggest challenge is also your biggest strength," she said. "That is equally true of being young women starting a business. We have this optimism about us. We have this young energy."

The Painterland Sisters were rewarded for their dedication by being named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, a goal they envisioned long before becoming entrepreneurs.

"We didn't actually think we could make that list, ever. That was impossible in our minds," Painter said. "Your biggest goals, even if they seem unreachable — keep them in your back pocket."

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Asia Kalcevic, a fifth-generation farmer at Kalcevic Farms in Bennett, Colorado.

Kalcevic joined her family's grain operation after studying communications and ag literacy at Colorado State University. Since then, she's grown into her role as the administrator and operations associate on the farm, where she's responsible for a variety of tasks from data entry to running the farm's social media and marketing.

But all that hasn't kept her out of the fields. Kalcevic has also been a grain cart operator during the wheat harvest for the past seven years.

"That's what we're planning for the whole year. Those moments when we're running 17 to 20 hour days in the field," Kalcevic said of her farm's harvest. "But you sit in your cab and you listen to some music and you go after it."

Kalcevic Farms has been in operation since 1898.

Being part of a business rooted in her family's history has given Kalcevic an appreciation for the generations of farmers who came before her — some of whom she's been able to work with.

"It's something to not take for granted and to take the opportunity to learn from the past generation that was farming in the 1950s and was born in the 1930s during the Dust Bowl," she said. "I love to see the difference between what they were doing then and what we're doing now."

One of the biggest differences is the approach to equipment maintenance.

"Back in their day, they if they didn't have it, they built it. And now it's like, if we don't have it, we run to the park store or we buy it," she said, also noting that today's air-conditioned cabs and air ride seats seem like luxuries compared to the pared down seats and umbrellas earlier generations employed.

Working with multiple generations on the farm means succession and transition are ongoing conversations critical to the operation's success.

Kalcevic said they're very intentional about creating pathways within their operation to leadership and ownership. If an employee — family member or not — is interested, there's a way forward.

"It's really been something that I've looked forward to growing up, that I have an opportunity to have a seat at the table," she said.

You can read the articles mentioned in the episode here:

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Are you interested in becoming a sponsor of the FarmHouse Podcast? Email [email protected]

This week on the FarmHouse, we're talking to Hannah Smith-Brubaker, executive director of Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Smith-Brubaker also runs Juniata View Farm where she raises pastured Shetland sheep for fiber.

Her farm is participating in Pasa's Soil Health Benchmark Study, which includes a variety of farms from conventional row crop operations to pasture-based dairies to organic vegetable producers.

"I think the study is an example of the power of the Pasa community in that we are a big tent organization," Smith-Brubaker said. "If you want to engage in the sustainable agriculture conversation, we welcome you to the table."

Smith-Brubaker has a long resume in the ag sector including serving as Pennsylvania's deputy secretary of agriculture and testifying before Congress on sustainable agriculture.

"I love being a part of agriculture," she said. "I hope that every endeavor I have for the rest of my life has some connection to agriculture."

As Pasa's executive director, Smith-Brubaker is gearing up for the organization's annual conference that runs this year from Feb. 5 to 7 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The event, with speakers and over 80 sessions, attracts attendees with a variety of ag interests and backgrounds.

"I know what it's like to be the only woman in the room," Smith-Brubaker said. "I want to make sure that every person who's in the room feels like they can step up to the table and have their voice be heard."

Learn more about the Sustainable Agriculture Conference, Feb 5 -7, 2025, in Lancaster, Pa.

Listen here:

You can read the article mentioned in the episode here:

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Are you interested in becoming a sponsor of the FarmHouse Podcast? Email [email protected]

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking with Shanelle Lee, co-owner of Heritage Tree Farm in Rothsville, Pennsylvania.

For the past 15 years, Lee has farmed four varieties of Christmas trees with her family: blue spruce, concolor fir, Douglas fir and Fraser fir.

She acknowledged that Christmas tree farming comes with unique challenges, starting with the length of time it takes to grow a tree until it's ready for sale. Many customers don't realize that it's not as simple as planting a tree and leaving it alone to grow for a few years.

"(It's) seven to 10 years of us fertilizing and using herbicide and trimming and mowing around it. So, a lot of work goes into that one little Christmas tree that goes into someone's home," she said.

Forecasting for the future can be difficult as well, starting with the fact that trees must be ordered before the farm starts selling for the season.

"You have to order your trees in the fall, so you don't really know how many you're needing to plant in the spring," she said, adding that it's impossible to predict how conditions like drought and wet seasons might impact harvests nearly a decade in the future.

On top of that, the window to make a profit on the farm's crop of trees is short.

"It's very difficult when you have a month to make all your income," Lee said. "Even though you make money for one month a year, you have to spend money pretty much every month of the year."

It may be challenging, but Heritage Tree Farm has found success, which Lee credits to trial and error and the help of the Pennsylvania Christmas Tree Growers Association.

The farm provides a combination of precut trees and the option to cut your own. Due to rising demand, visitors must now book appointments for the cut-your-own experience, which is limited to just one weekend each season.

Lee understands why people still get excited to cut their own trees, even if it requires a little extra effort.

"I think it is a magical part of the season because it allows you to feel a little bit rustic and a little bit like a farmer," she said. "It's a time that you get to be outdoors with your family. You get to pick a tree together, drink some hot chocolate and enjoy a little bit of farmland. It feels nostalgic."

More Info

You can find the article on food safety for your pets here:

Can My Dog Eat Turkey? Holiday Dishes That Are Unsafe for Pets

You can find the recipe for Steph's tomato pie here:

Indulge Your Sweet Tooth With These 10 Must-Try Pie Recipes

Go to our TikTok to watch Steph making the tomato pie and the Lancaster Farming team trying it.