Our Story
Wild Meadows Farm (formerly Green Pastures Farm) is a family farm and business made up of Suzy, Mike (left) and Doug (right) Dougherty. In early 2018, Mike and Doug decided they both wanted something different from life - we wanted a way to bring our family closer, we wanted out of the rat race and we wanted to be connected to the land - and that is how Wild Meadows Farm was born.
Our mom (Suzy) and dad bought the farm in the 70's and at one point had similar dreams of starting a direct marketing farm business. Suzy had grown up on a small traditional farm in Wisconsin and had all the experience needed - but life happened (the rise in interest rates put a crunch on finances and kids started to come), so like many small farm families they both worked to pay the bills and continued to farm on the side - simply because they loved it, it certainly was not a huge money making venture! When the idea came up to start marketing our beef to more than family and friends and to try our hand at raising pigs on pasture (our mom and dad raised pigs in the 80's before the hog market crashed) Suzy quickly got on board with the idea.
As I write this (early 2020) we are expanding our customer base quickly (it seems like each week we get 5-10 new customers excited to try out products) and are working away at expanding our production. We are in the process of expanding our existing beef herd as well as buying in new cows to help it grow faster, planning on almost doubling the number of pigs we will be raising and on raising our own chickens and turkeys (we have been working with a neighbour farmer who raised pastured chickens and turkeys). Both Mike and Doug have been working off farm jobs in addition to running and building Wild Meadows Farm - it is our intention to grow the business to the point where we can dedicate 100% of our time to the farm by the end of 2020.
In the meantime, Suzy will continue to mentor her sons and we will continue to do our best to produce and deliver quality products to our customers. We truly appreciate everyone's support!
Our Vision
We've had the privilege of growing up on the farm, eating meat that has been raised here, eating vegetables grown in the garden and understanding where our food comes from and what it takes to produce quality, nutrient dense foods. Unfortunately, this is not the case for most people.
As the business has grown, we've had the chance to get to know many of our customers and to reflect on the bigger picture and how important local and healthy food is to our community. Whether it is someone who simply wants to know where their food comes from and the people who raise/grow it or it is someone who has seen their and/or their loved one's health significantly improve since focusing on real food, they all care about how the animals have been raised and the quality of the food.
Our goal is to build a customer focused business that provides quality, healthy and reasonably priced products to loyal customers throughout Southern Ontario. When we say reasonable, we don't mean cheap - we mean fair pricing that allows us to make a living doing what we love while also providing our customers quality, local products that they can trust. It's a win-win! It is very important to us that as many people as possible have access to eating locally grown and quality food. The benefits are many: healthier people, healthier and more connected communities, ethically raised livestock and an improved environment. For these reasons, we are excited and lucky to be doing what we are doing. We'd love to be your farmers.