In this episode of Return to Nature, Melissa interviews Jen Craddick, a multi-sector entrepreneur, former petroleum industry professional, and a founder devoted to restoring traditional food systems while strengthening family centered farm life. Based in Kalispell, Montana, Jen operates Lovenwater Farm, a small agricultural enterprise focused on upscale, boutique style dairy production, livestock stewardship, and organically cultivated produce and flowers.

Before moving to Montana and expanding Lovenwater Farm, Jen worked within multiple divisions of the oil fields in Western North Dakota. This background gives her a unique perspective, combining technical precision and practical knowledge. Jen’s work centers on offering the highest quality, nutrient dense foods using old world methods. The entire vision of Lovenwater farm is centered on a commitment to transparency, stewardship, and regenerative practices.

Above all, Jen’s primary purpose and guiding role is serving others. Her work on the farm and business is rooted in building a stable, meaningful life not only for her own family but for many other families in the community. Sharing hard learned and gritty lessons she is preserving a legacy of independence and connection to the land. She views farming not only as an occupation, but as a calling that supports all future generations.

Jen Shares:

• How she and her husband moved to North Dakota for jobs in the petroleum industry
• The poor soil conditions at her property in North Dakota that led her to starting Lovenwater farm
• Her high performance mentality that ultimately showed her that she wanted to step back from corporate life
• The pull many women have felt to be at home with their children, but also still be a provider and how she bridged that gap for herself
• The financial and regulatory realities of being a dairy farmer
• How and why she got into dairy farming when she moved to Montana
• Why raw milk became seen as dangerous to our health
• All about pasteurization and homogenization of milk
• They importance of localization in farming
• The regulations surrounding raw milk in Montana
• The health and life of a Lovenwater farm cow
• The specifics of raising Jersey cows
• How different types of cheese came about based on different regions, soils, and grasses
• The importance of eating regionally
• How she reversed her lactose-intolerance with raw milk

You can connect with Jen via Lovenwater Farm:

Website: www.lovenwaterfarm.com

Instagram: @lovenwaterfarm

Facebook: @lovenwaterfarm

Intro/Outro Music by Ken Belcher

In this episode of Return to Nature, Melissa interviews Will Harris, the owner of White Oak Pastures, a holistically managed regenerative ranch and farm in Bluffton, Georgia.

Will is a fourth-generation cattleman, who tends the same land that his great-grandfather settled in 1866. Born and raised at White Oak Pastures, Will left home to attend the University of Georgia's School of Agriculture, where he was trained in the industrial farming methods that had taken hold after World War II. Will graduated in 1976 and returned to Bluffton, where he and his father continued to raise cattle using pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics. They also fed their herd a high-carbohydrate diet of corn and soy.

These tools did a fantastic job of taking the cost out of the system, but in the mid-1990s, Will became disenchanted with the excesses of these industrialized methods. In 1995, Will made the audacious decision to return to the farming methods his great-grandfather had used 130 years before. Since Will has successfully implemented these changes, he has been recognized all over the world as a leader in humane animal husbandry and environmental sustainability.

Will is the immediate past President of the Board of Directors of Georgia Organics. He is the Beef Director of the American Grassfed Association and was selected 2011 Business Person of the year for Georgia by the Small Business Administration. He is also the author of A Bold Return to Giving A Damn, a memoir-meets-manifesto on betting the farm on a better future for our food, animals, land, local communities and our planet.

Will Shares:

• How his great grandfather and grandfather ran the farm and how his father transitioned to industrial practices
• How he was raised and educated to believe that there was nothing wrong with industrial farming practices
• His observation of the quality of his farm’s dirt versus the untouched soil in the woods
• The reason his daughters have chosen to come back to the farm and work at White Oak Pastures
• The unintended consequences of industrial agriculture and taking cost out of production
• How transferring from industrial to regenerative is a long term process
• The importance of allowing animals to express their instinctive behaviors
• The resiliency of regenerative agriculture versus the efficiency of industrial agriculture
• How label regulations can affect farmer’s profitability
• The pandemic’s role in their creation of White Oak Pasture’s new distribution avenue: online orders
• The right amount of growth for a regenerative farming operation to make sure short term profitability is not the main focus, but rather generational profitability
• White Oak Pasture’s non-profit, which helps educate people on their regenerative practices
• How the government could be instrumental in making a national shift to regenerative agriculture
• Why the shift to regenerative will most likely happen outside of the existing industrial model

You can connect with Will through White Oak Pastures:

Website: www.whiteoakpastures.com

Instagram: @whiteoakpastures

Facebook: @whiteoakpastures

Intro/Outro music by Ken Belcher

Sound Mixing by Andrew Pals

In this episode of Return to Nature, Melissa interviews Cole Mannix, the president and co-founder of Old Salt Co-op. As fifth generation of the Mannix family, his love for people, ranching, and land stewardship is deep rooted in Montana. Though his schooling and professional life have taken him many places beyond the ranch, his heart remains devoted to the cause of bringing people together around a love for life and all of its beautiful diversity.

He founded the Old Salt Festival, a food & music celebration of Montana land stewardship hosted on the Mannix Family Ranch in Helmville, MT, bringing together wood-fired cooking, Americana musicians, Montana ranchers, and Western makers to celebrate in high Montana style.

Cole Shares:

• The deep history the Mannix Family shares with their Ranch in Helmville, Montana
• How his time away from the ranch got him interested in the distribution side of the operation
• How the Salt of the Earth Rancher’s Cooperative was started and why it evolved
• The problem with food labels
• The issues with policy change when it comes to agriculture
• How the Old Salt Co-op came to be
• The necessity of making an entirely new system versus just trying to change production of meat
• The importance of broadening our idea of success and wealth
• Why and how producers should have ownership in distribution avenues
• The fallacy of failure when it comes to regenerative ranching and truly healing the soil
• Having an organic mindset even when you have to rely on conventional methods
• How familiarity with the process can build trust for a product
• How labels and certifications can be true but not meaningful

You can connect with Cole through Old Salt:

Website: www.oldsaltco-op.com

Instagram: @oldsaltcoop

Instagram: @oldsaltfestival

Intro/Outro music by Ken Belcher