When farmer’s market season rolls around, you’ll hear the phrases Shop Local and Buy Local bandied about. The idea is to support local farmers and their products. It’s a catchy slogan and easy to remember.
But at the heart of it is people, the ones rising every morning to work the land and work with the animals to provide you with those quality meat and produce offerings. The faces of these local farmers are as varied as their backgrounds.
Some come from families that have farmed for generations, and it’s the younger sets turn to take up the family business. Others, meanwhile, are first-generation farmers. Some of those didn’t start with the idea of becoming a farmer, rather, it morphed out of a plan to embrace self-sufficiency.
That’s the basis of the story of husband-and-wife team Eric and Brianna Blend, owners of the Blended Homestead near West Liberty.
Neither grew up in a farming family nor had aspirations of getting into the producing business. Yet here they are, five years into their small homestead-style farm, providing for themselves and also offering their wares and products to the Ohio Valley.
Both the Blends have degrees and full-time day jobs. For Eric, this journey begins out of a desire for self-reliance.
“I’ve been hunting my entire life,” Eric Blend said. “I don’t buy beef, but we started educating ourselves on ow food was raised and thought we could do this ourselves, on a small scale.
“Especially with just the two of us.”
The Blends purchased their first chicks in 2015 and began raising laying and meat chickens for their own use. Each year they learned a little more and added a little more to their growing flock of fowl.
Two years later, the Blends were setting up in Warwood for the first time at a farmer’s market. Eric was asked to be on the board to provide a different perspective to the group’s membership.
Selling at other markets, as well as to restaurants soon followed.
Flash forward farther, and the Blends sold 900 meat chickens in 2020. They also raised eight pigs, sold countless dozens of eggs, and crafted everything from jam and apple butter to granola. There’s also fresh produce available.
You can find their products at local farmers’ markets, as well as the Public Market in downtown Wheeling. Like most smaller-scale farms, the Blends also operate a Facebook page where they can interact with their customers, provide answers, and also take orders.
Truly Supporting Local
The Blends don’t just talk a big game when it comes to supporting ocal. They too patronize their fellow local farmers and producers.
Being a homestead first, Blend knows that their products aren’t going to be available year-round. They also work with other local producers. Blended Homestead’s strawberry jam? The strawberries come from nearby Family Roots Farm in Wellsburg.
Blended’s homemade apple butter is a big hit, and the Blends put together a demonstration on how to make it during the Ohio County Country Fair. Those apples? They came courtesy of Packers Orchard in Adena.
The feed the Blends feed their chickens is milled locally in West Liberty at Dale Sampson Feed. The Blends love helping out fellow local producers as well as knowing exactly where their purchases are coming from, and what is going in them.
“We want to support a local mill here in West Liberty that buys corn from local farmers here and that are less likely to be spraying Round-Up.”
The Blends care about the welfare of their animals and how they are raised, no matter if they are producing eggs, or ultimately being sold for meat.
They use conventional feed locally purchased, but they rotate where the coops are housed every few weeks. They utilize everything from the chickens, including the manure. Everything is utilized. Sustainability is high on the Blends’ priority list.
So is cooperation. Blend knows that for the local producers to grow and prosper, cooperation is key. There’s plenty of business to go around.
“We try to grow and help educate other farmers that hey, we can work together,” Blend said. “If you grow tomatoes, and I grow tomatoes, we’re not fighting against each other for one small sale. Rather, we can work together, and both get in on a larger contract.
“We’re working to change that mindset.”
Continuing to Grow
The first few years, the Blends leased land fromother local farmers, but within the last year, put out a call to purchase land. They eventually came across a few acres and that will allow them to branch out.
They plan to continue offering educational opportunities for groups ranging from the Boy Scouts to 4H groups, even adults. If people want to learn about sustainable farming, homesteading, growing tomatoes, raising chickens, the opportunities will be there.
They have a lot to build on the new property, from their own personal house, a barn, coops, and other associated structures. There’s also going to be an addition to the Blend family as well, as the family is expecting their first child.
“A lot of things are happening at once, which is perfectly fine with us,” Blend said. “It’s amazing what we can grow and will grow, but sometimes it’s frustrating because you grow really great products, and people, unless they see you at the farmers’ markets, don’t even know you are here.”
The Blends are here and plan to be for quite a while. Those interested in their products or more information can contact them via the Facebook link above.
