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Our Story
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Diana Endicott
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Good Natured Family Farms
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Farm to Market Coordinator |
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My
husband, Gary, and I left our landscaping business in
Dallas, Texas, in order to return to our family farm.
Our major goal was to make the farm self-sustaining.
When our tomato crop out produced our needs, I decided
to sell them to grocery stores. At first I simply tried
the small grocery stores around our area, but there were
a lot of farmers selling fresh tomatoes to those stores.
I got the idea of taking the tomatoes to Kansas City and
sell our ripe, freshly picked tomatoes to Hen House
Markets. That was 10 years ago.
Today, we raise both cattle and chickens, plus we own
and operate a United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) federally inspected processing plant. These years
have certainly been a learning experience.
First of all, I didn’t realize what small, family farms
were up against until I set out to sell our tomatoes.
You have to initially find a market for your product.
Then, if you are fortunate enough to locate a store
willing to carry the products, they have to let people
know that the product is local and better tasting and
healthier. I guess what really surprised us all was how
much money it takes to do that.
Most people I talked with said small family farms
couldn’t succeed in the general market place because of
the time and expense to market their products. But I was
lucky. I met the people at Hen House Markets, and they
understood what I wanted to do.
The people at Hen House believed in supporting small,
independent family farms. They understood that without a
market for selling family farm products, these farms
can’t survive. So we all worked together to bring the
All-Natural Beef to the Hen House stores. That was the
beginning of the All-Natural Beef Co-op.
Today our Co-op is comprised of 18 family farms in
Kansas and Missouri who raise beef cattle according to
very strict guidelines. In fact we can trace every piece
of meat we sell back to its source. In addition, we are
in the process of becoming USDA Process Verified. That
means that the USDA has reviewed the procedures we’ve
developed to control the quality of our products, and
will give us the authority to state that our products
are Process Verified. We’re very proud of this since
only seven other meat companies in the United States
have achieved this status.
But beef isn’t the only thing we do now. When we
realized that there were other products our customers
wanted and other farmers who needed to market their
products, we decided to create a brand name to encompass
all of the products. That’s how we came up with Good
Natured Family Farms. Today our brand name appears on
our beef, chickens, eggs, milk, sausage, ham, bacon,
Heritage turkeys, eggnog, bison, Farmhouse cheese, and
honey. All of those products come from small family
farms surrounding the Kansas City area. Every time you
purchase one of our products, a portion of your dollars
go to keep those farms alive.
We feel that
Good Natured Family Farms is the connection between you
and our farmers. Without your purchases, all our efforts
would be in vain. So in addition to saying welcome, I’d
also like to say thank you–from our farmers and their
families and from my family and me, we wish you a Good
Earth, Good Food and a Good Life.
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