We both grew up mostly in rural areas, Tom in western NY, and Niki everywhere from California (a cabin in Yosemite Park!) to Minnesota. We ended up in the same city to attend college and met shortly after graduating. Niki's degree is in clothing design, so she planned on moving to a larger urban area for a job, and Tom was too smitten to not tag along.

Food started to become more important to us at this stage. We didn't feel like we had access to local foods, other than farmers markets, which in the city means doubling your grocery bill. As we learned more about some of the abhorrent practices in industrialized farming, coupled with the inaccessibility of local foods, we were desperate to take some kind of action and decided to avoid all animal products and adopt a vegan lifestyle. Little did we know a few years later, we would be raising our own meat.

The city was great, until it wasn't. Paying most of our money to rent, constant noise and light, unending low-level stress, overworking ourselves in the name of climbing an imaginary ladder, and feeling incredibly disconnected to our food became less and less appealing over time. The cons started to heavily outweigh the pros.

After much searching, in 2018 we found a wacky little house in the beautiful Adirondack foothills region we now call home, with the intention to start producing some of our own food. The first couple years were occupied mostly fixing up the house, which needed a lot of work, while establishing annual gardens, raising chickens, and establishing some perennial fruits and vegetables.

It didn't take long to start connecting with the wonderful network of local farmers, hearing all about their raising practices and visiting some of their farms. It occurred to us that we were never against eating animals, we were against industrialized farming. Luckily, there are other options. We started eating meats, milk, and eggs from our farmer neighbors and almost instantly felt a myriad of health benefits.

Over the years, we have expanded to build a greenhouse, multiple silvopasture systems with multi-species grazing, a food forest, and a vacation rental (come stay with us!). We take inspiration from practices like permaculture, regenerative farming, and agroforestry to create a thriving ecosystem for all life. We raised chickens for eggs and meat, turkeys, ducks, geese, and sheep keeping everything to a homestead scale, slaughtering and butchering all our own animals to ensure not only a wonderful life but also an honorable death.

Raven Hill Farm was born in 2024. We provide the best eggs around by raising our chickens on pasture and in the forest, where they can play out their natural instincts and find much of their own food. Supplemental feed is home made from organic ingredients and free of soy. Our farm stand is open dawn to dusk where you'll find seasonal foods including eggs, maple syrup, fruits, vegetables, and wild foraged plants and mushrooms. You can even say hi to the chickens while you shop.

Our plan is to continue expanding our silvopasture systems into other wooded areas of the property and eventually offer forest raised pork and lamb. We are also interested in community events like classes and tours.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions.