Tom Truelove and Lindsay Rush pride themselves on running a pasture-based farm raising heritage breed pork, grass-fed beef, heritage turkeys, and roasting chickens. Their free-range eggs are out of this world.
Truelove Farms was started in 2009 by Tom Truelove, a Bethlehem native, on family friends’ land that had been fallow since the 1970s. Four little piglets—Tamworth pigs— were the beginning of his dream to run a sustainable farm. Tom is part of the nationwide movement of young and educated new farmers, who—despite a lack of family farming background—have made a conscious decision to help change a food system that many view as broken. Truelove Farms strives for an “old fashioned” style of farming, based on pasture rotation and animal welfare. Raising animals this way is much more labor intensive, but the folks at Truelove Farms believe it’s the right way, both for consumers, animals, and the land.
With help from his girlfriend Lindsay Rush and his mother Jane who is a retired school teacher, Tom oversees the 109 acres of land of which half is pasture. Lindsay lives there but only works at the farm part-time — she is a full-time researcher in Middletown. “I do farm chores on weekends and handle the farm business and marketing. Tom is the main farmer year-round, with his mother, aunt, and farm property owner helping in the busy summer season.” Lindsay grew up in rural Pennsylvania and enjoys being outdoors. She went to grad school at Yale, getting a Ph.D in genetics, then getting her post doc at Wesleyan. Tom grew up in Bethlehem, attended the University of Vermont for his undergraduate degree, and Breadloaf School of English at Middlebury College for his Masters degree in English. They are focused on using natural, grass-based practices to ethically raise their animals. They don’t use growth hormones or sub-theraputic antibiotics, and all of their animals are brought up on pasture for a better quality of life and a higher quality product.
Pork is the main product at Truelove Farms. They have 90 pigs being raised exclusively outdoors, in both the shagbark hickory grove and a second-growth hardwood forest. Gregarious and social, the pigs are kept in herds and rotated through their woodlot pastures. Truelove Farms relies on heritage breed hogs, specifically Berkshires and Tamworths, old breeds out of favor industrially, but ideally suited to producing fantastic pork when raised on pasture. ” The pigs are allowed happy lives. They sleep in the shade and wallow in the mud and behave in a perfectly piggy fashion. In our woodlots, the hogs are truly at home, raised in a millennial old tradition in synch with the land, the seasons, and most importantly, the nature of the pig.” With plenty of room for movement and a naturally balanced diet high in vegetation, the pork they offer is not only leaner than what comes from the factory, but far more flavorful, and the lard they provide is pure and perfect for baking or just frying farm-fresh eggs.
The laying hens live in mobile coops, roaming around the fields and spending their time nibbling grass and hunting for bugs. With bright golden yolks, thick whites, and unparalleled flavor, the completely free range, pasture-raised eggs are in huge demand. With almost a thousand chickens laying eggs, they are able to sell about 50 dozen eggs at the Farmers Market in Coventry on Sundays.
The beef from the herd of about 60 is lean and flavorful. Their cattle are raised with care, eating the grasses of the fields, the hay from neighboring farms, and just enough supplemental grain to keep them healthy and happy. With no pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers on the pastures, the cattle are completely hormone and antibiotic free. “We use management intensive rotational grazing to get the most out of our land and our animals, and whether it’s a perfectly grilled summer burger or a warming pot of braised short ribs, we believe you’ll be able to taste the care and attention we put into our beef.”
Local customers are reached through several area farmer’s markets and at the store on the farm, where they sell beef, pork, sausages, eggs, roasting chickens, and turkeys in the fall. All are grass-fed and pasteurized. “We’ve been fortunate to build a dedicated customer base, that has not only made our business possible, but really grounded us in the community. One of our goals is to help people connect to their food and we frequently take customers around to show them our practices. Some people can’t make it in person, so we actively post about our animals on both Facebook and Instagram. We’re proud of how we raise our animals and take great satisfaction to see it resonating with people who might never have thought twice about their shrink wrapped meat from the supermarket,” says Lindsay Rush.
It’s not easy to make a living running a farm and Tom and Lindsay take it one day at a time. They set their goals modestly. Last year they received a grant from FACT (Food Animal Concern Trust) and they used it to renovate the old barn, with new stalls. They would like to build a better space for their store one day. Hiring more staff is also a goal. For now, they feel that they are very lucky to have access to 109 acres of land with happy, healthy animals roaming around. And their customers are happy too.
Truelove Farms products can be found at these Farmer’s Markets in the summer: Stratford Farmer’s Market, Old Greenwich Farmer’s Market, Branford Alps Farmers Market, Monroe Farmers’ Market, Wooster Square, Coventry Farmers’ Market. In winter they will be at City Seed Indoor Market in New Haven.
There is a small convenience store at the farm, open weekday afternoons and weekends from 10am-6pm (or later, if you see the open-flag out). You can stop by and pick up anything from a dozen eggs to a top round roast.
Truelove Farms
122 Thomaston Rd
Morris, CT 06763
[email protected]
203.217.6234
www.truelovefarms.org
www.facebook.com/pages/Truelove-Farms/227668727774
www.instagram.com/truelovefarms
