Your Farmers

The Yegerlehner Family

Alan and Mary, along with their daughter Kate and son-in-law Doug, own and operate the farm located in Clay City, Indiana.  Kate is the seventh generation of Yegerlehners to manage the farm, and Doug helps however he can when his off-farm job allows. This crew takes care of the daily management of the animals, including milking, moving fences for grazing rotations, feeding and moving chickens in the eggmobiles on pasture, and egg collection/washing/packaging.

Alan and Mary also have two sons, Luke (married to Lauren) and Jess (married to Brittany), who live and work off farm, and three energetic grandchildren, Eli, Lucy, and Adeline, who keep everyone on their toes!

Paul & Jennifer Doyle

Although they now make their home in Indiana, Jennifer was born and raised in the Central Valley of California and Paul was born and raised in Liverpool, England. They met and married in Santa Barbara County and lived and worked there for ten years. Then they moved to California’s Central Valley which is where the vast amount of the world’s almond supply is grown. It may be surprising for some to know that California is one of the biggest agricultural producers in the United States. So they were surrounded by dairy, produce, and orchards of nuts, peaches, cherries, and olives. Growing up and living in and around agriculture deepened the passion for Paul and Jennifer.

They lived in central California up until 2015 when they decided to pack up and move to Indiana to have their own homestead with their animals. It was not an easy task driving 2,254 miles in two trucks; each of them pulling a fully loaded trailer. The cross-country move took a lot of planning and organization. They have found it worth the effort to make it to Indiana with all their beloved animals.  Their chickens even laid them fresh eggs along their journey! Their long envisioned homestead, now christened Autumn Leaf Ranch, to the south of the town of Clay City was a welcome sight and took years of work and time to achieve.

Paul and Jennifer are blessed to have found the Farm Connection on the north side of the town of Clay City. It is a great place to be; a true multi-generational working family farm. The Farm Connection has a wonderful grass-based dairy and pasture raised, non-GMO fed chickens which produce healthier eggs. The best thing about the Farm Connection is that they are a lovely family. Paul and Jennifer enjoy helping out there. Paul helps with wrapping butter every week and starting this year plans to be part of the butter-making team as well. Helping make ice cream, occasionally milking cows, and going with the Yegerlehners to market deliveries are some of the fun tasks. Jennifer is coming on board this year full-time as well, and with another enthusiastic farmer around, Farm Connection will be able to grow our own broilers and pigs again too!

Paul and Jennifer are developing their own first generation homestead in the Martz area which is to the south of Clay City and working toward raising and growing more of their own food. Their newest addition to their homestead is their St. Croix Hair Sheep which fit in well with their horses, pony, ducks, turkeys, chickens, guinea hens, dogs, and cats. Their chickens are pasture raised, fed non-GMO feed, and produce large brown healthy eggs.

Paul and Jennifer are gearing up to have a market garden on the farm this year to add to the Farm Connection’s great selection of products.

Jackie & Tim Ditto

Jackie and her husband Tim have been diving in to growing and raising much of their own food on their homestead for several years now, and Jackie’s interest in learning dairy processing was fueled a bit more when she participated in one of our cheesemaking classes in 2022. The next year she tackled learning the art of making both butter and cottage cheese!

She has also been known to lend a hand in the milking parlor and with other farm chores when we needed some extra help. And that is no small thing, believe me!

Additionally, you have the opportunity to appreciate another of Jackie’s skills…she makes some pretty amazing homemade cinnamon rolls, and they’re stocked on Farm Connection shelves!

Although most of the ewes now were raised on the farm, Mike and Laura
Gentry still have some of the ewes they started their flock with nearly 6
years ago.  The ewes are named after the ewes Laura remembers from her
mother's flock of 100 ewes.  Growing up raising
sheep with her mom and sister, Laura was eager to get back to
shepherding when Mike and she built their home in rural Owen County. 
The abundance of grassland and their efforts fencing off several
pastures for frequent rotation, made raising grass-fed lambs
a natural choice.  Now they are pleased to offer the same lamb enjoyed
by their extended family (9 grandchildren now!) to yours!

The farm’s nucleus is grass fed and finished beef cattle. Pastured laying hens were added to help control flies behind the grazing cattle herd in “egg mobiles”. Meat bird poultry in Salatin-style pens was added when it was noticed the pronounced effect laying hen manure had on the previously row-cropped, and very depleted soils. Maple syrup seemed interesting to Jake one winter and has now become an intense part of the winter month’s activities (and a very delicious part it must be added), and a neighbor corroborates with the farm to grow up honey bee hives and produce a measurable honey crop. The bees thrive in the 660 acres of Organic pastures, wild crop forests and fields. Vegetable greens, Einkorn Wheat and produce, as well as a certified organic orchard are taking shape in 2020AD in an effort to offer local families a well-rounded monthly delivery “BUNDLE” of Farm Fresh Goodness.

Providence Farms, LLC was founded by Scott and Julie Foster through the inspiration received from their two children, Jake and Maggie. Jake became interested in cattle and chickens, and Maggie became interested in organic, holistically grown, all-natural foods and provided her father with the only book he ever read about raising beef cattle, “Grass-Fed Cattle” by Julius Ruechel. That was 2011AD. Both children are now grown and married, bringing Abigail, and then Trapper into the picture as spouses. Add grandchildren Matthew, Andrew, and Clare into the picture, as well as grandparents to help at the farm, and you have a traditional multi-generational farming family affair. Providence Farms encourages all people to take an interest in where their food comes from, and invites all its customers to the farm for a visit and to share the wonderful natural environment.

The entire experience has been “Providential” to say the least. We have come to see ourselves as Stewards of creation. We are daily amazed at the Intelligent Design woven through nature and the undeniable goodness and benefits to human health and well-being of pasture raised, nutrient-dense food. We want to share the good things from the land with our neighbors.