The Rotary Club of Akron enjoyed listening to Andrew Thorn during our January 24, 2023, Club meeting. Click here to view the presentation.Andrew works full time as a software developer, but his drive to spend time outdoors with his family resulted in the start of Rhythm and Roots Farm. He and his wife are passionate about people providing for themselves and others. They started the farm in Copley about 2 years ago with their three young children, with the intention of providing healthy pastured-raised poultry and pork for their family and others as well.
Andrew began his presentation with a slide that said “It all starts…. And ends with chickens” What started with only a few chickens has ended up with about 3,000 chickens. About 100 of these chickens are raised for egg production. The other chickens are for sale. He sells about 15,000 to 20,000 pounds of chicken every year. He also has about 16 pigs as well as goats, ducks and turkeys to name a few.
Why Chickens?
- There are health benefits with chickens raised on real healthy grass pasture and without the use of chemicals.
- Easy for the Family, farm sitters
- Ease of care for land and feeding them with free-range eating
- Ease of conversion to meat, ease of turnover and raising them, ease of cost, etc.
Why Pigs?
- Pigs convert meat just as well as chickens, if not more
- They can handle their swampy land easily and without illness
- They very rarely get sick and are easily treated if so
- Bacon
Andrew stated they raise two types of pigs. One type is the Mangalitsa. These pigs originated from Hungary and were near extinction.
What the does future look like for the Rhythm and Roots Farm?
For the past couple of years, Andrew and his wife were looking to double their business each year as the demand grew; however they find themselves scaling back at this time for several reasons:
- Rising costs for feed and butcher costs (availability of butchers is a challenge with long waiting times)
- Slow growing market
- Family time balance (Andrew’s wife works two jobs and they “home school” their children
- Farm work vs their other jobs work balance, labor costs
They hope to continue to grow, particularly with an increase in the number of pigs that they will be raising. They are looking at:
- New customers and new ways of delivery
- Consistency and customer service
- Ultimately, they just want to share their joy of growing their own food with others, and hope that others would want the same.
They have partnered with Market Wagon www.marketwagon.com to market more of their products, but also sell products directly from their business. Market Wagon offers delivery to all of northeast Ohio. https://shop.marketwagon.com/collections/vendor/4115. You can order directly from Rhythm and Roots Farm by visiting their website at https://rhythmandrootsfarm.com or contacting them at rhythmandrootsfarm@gmail.com or text/call them at 330.234.3753.
Yours in Service,
Terry Dalton
Club Secretary and Scholarship Chair
