A farm-to-table business has been a lifelong dream for me. Not a recent interest. Not something I stumbled into. A dream that started in childhood alongside another one: becoming a veterinarian. Both of those things eventually happened. Getting here took longer than I expected and was harder than I imagined. This is the story of how we got here.

Two Dreams, One Direction

Farming and veterinary medicine were both things I wanted from a very young age. They are not as different as they might seem. Both involve a deep relationship with animals. Both require you to understand how living systems work. Both ask more of you than a regular job and give back more than most careers can. For a long time I pursued one and kept the other as something I hoped to return to someday.

Jennifer and I did a version of the farm dream while living in Oxford, Pennsylvania, selling lamb on a small scale to people in our community. It was limited and informal but it confirmed something important: the connection between raising animals well and feeding people well is real, and people respond to it. That small experience planted the seed for what Mad Horse Meats is now becoming.

Buying the Land in the Middle of a Pandemic

At the end of December 2020, in the middle of the Covid pandemic, we purchased our property in Hancocks Bridge, Salem County. 250 acres in Salem County, approximately half wetlands, with 85 open acres being converted from row crops to rotating pasture. Bordered on both sides by Mad Horse Creek Wildlife Management Area, at a price that made sense and within a reasonable commute to work. About half the property is wetlands. The remaining 85 or so open acres had been in row crop production for decades.

The open acres had been in row crop production for decades, corn and soybeans like most of the agricultural land in this part of New Jersey. The soils were there. The location was right. The wetlands, which border Mad Horse Creek Wildlife Management Area on both sides, give the property a natural ecological richness that has only grown as we have transitioned the open acres from row crops to pasture. What was not there yet was the working infrastructure: fencing, shelter, water systems. That part we would have to build.

We moved sheep to the property in 2021 and began the long process of turning row-cropped open acreage into functioning pasture. That transition is still underway. Of the 85 open acres, roughly 40 have been converted to rotating pasture so far, with more to come. The row crop years are behind those acres. What is ahead is soil health, habitat, and livestock that can graze the way they were meant to.

Planning Something Bigger

In 2023 we began discussing something that had been in the back of our minds since the beginning: building our own USDA-inspected on-site processing facility. The ability to process our own animals would close the loop completely, giving us control over every step from pasture to package. We made contacts at the New Jersey Department of Agriculture to begin understanding what that path would look like.

In the fall of 2023 we engaged Sickles Associates for environmental planning and site plan production. In January 2024 Honey Glass Farm LLC became an official New Jersey business entity. In the spring of 2024 we hired Nicole Day of AgriForaging Compliance Services as our processing facility consultant. The regulatory path for a USDA-inspected facility is long and detailed, and Nicole has been essential to navigating it.

We also built our house on the property and moved into it in October 2024. Living on the land changed everything. The farm stopped being a place we drove to and became the place we live. That shift matters in ways that are hard to explain but easy to feel.

Going to Market

Cattle and hogs joined the farm in 2025. In the fall of 2025 we hired Marie Reedell to build the Mad Horse Meats website. In January 2026 our first lamb and beef went to processing. In the spring of 2026 product went live for sale on madhorsemeats.com. On May 1, 2026 we set up our first booth at the Elmer Farmers Market.

The markets have been one of the most rewarding parts of this entire process. Meeting people face to face, explaining where the food comes from, watching someone try a cut they have never heard of and come back next month for more. The customer base is building and has been genuinely supportive from the beginning. That response has meant a great deal to us.

We are now at five farmers markets across South Jersey through the summer, with more to add as the operation grows. Each market is a direct connection between the animals raised on this land and the people who eat them. That connection is exactly what we set out to create.

The Hard Parts

Not everything has gone smoothly. In March 2026 our first farrowing went badly. Our Berkshire sow experienced dystocia, a condition where the birth canal is too narrow to deliver piglets safely. We were unable to save the piglets. The sow was declining and we made the decision to euthanize her.

This is the part of farming that does not make it into the marketing. Livestock die. Animals that you have fed, watched over, and cared for do not always make it. A sow that was part of our breeding program and our long term plans was gone in a single night, along with the litter we had been looking forward to.

We are sharing this because transparency is one of the reasons people choose to buy from a farm like ours rather than a grocery store. You deserve to know that this work is hard, that losses happen, and that they affect us. What we can tell you is that we kept going. We have added breeding stock and we will have Berkshire pork available this year. The setback was real. The commitment to it is unchanged.

What This Is All For

The processing facility remains the long term goal. We are continuing through the regulatory and planning process with a goal to break ground in 2027. When it is built it will allow us to process our own animals on site, control every step of the process, and operate with the kind of transparency we have been working toward from the beginning.

We are choosing our breeds deliberately. Hereford brood cows for their temperament. Hereford-Angus crosses for meat quality. Cheviot-cross sheep because they are hardy and excellent for training border collies. Berkshire pigs because the heritage genetics produce a depth of flavor that commercial pork simply cannot match.

Charles Boarkley, our Berkshire boar, has become something of a social media character along the way. He has destroyed several metal feed bowls. He is young, calm, and still growing. He has no idea he is famous. He is also the foundation of the pork program we are building, and the reason Berkshire pork will be on the menu at Mad Horse Meats this year.

The real reason behind all of it, the farm, the markets, the processing facility, the five years of building infrastructure in a field in Salem County, is legacy. We want to build something that lasts. Something our children can be part of, grow into, and one day call their own. Trevor is 25 years old and already serves as our full time farm operations manager. His work ethic, his willingness to learn, and his dedication to this dream on a daily basis have been extraordinary. But this farm belongs to all of our children, and the future we are building here is for all of them.

That is how we got here. And that is where we are going.