Growing Healthy Food to Support Healthy Lives
- Jul 22
- 11 min read
Meadowhawk Hollow—
Guest blog by Heather Smith Thomas
Charlie and Kenneth Cody did not grow up doing any farming themselves. Kenneth grew up on a cotton farm near Lubbock, Texas, and Charlie grew up in a town in northern New Mexico, and knew nothing about farming or animals. “I didn’t even have a dog when I was a kid,” Charlie says.
“We did have a dog later, when we got married and had our own kids. Our kids are adults now and didn’t get to grow up on our farm that we have today. Recent illnesses and other events in our lives made us consider what we were eating and how we might be able to regain our health
“We were living in Houston at the time, which has a lot of people. When things go wrong in a city, they can go wrong very quickly and there are many people who don’t know how to deal with it.” It was that awareness and other circumstances that led the Cody’s on their journey to independence at Meadowhawk Hollow near Rogers, Texas.
Developing Self-Sufficiency
Charlie and Kenneth both came from large families. “I had three older brothers, and Kenneth had four siblings, and we’ve raised five boys. We raised them in Boy Scouts and learned a lot from that –camping, wilderness adventures, etc.—and knew how to take care of ourselves. When we bought our farm in 2020, we’d only been there four months when what we call “Snowvid” hit us—the winter storm that collapsed Texas. We were without water and electricity for 10 days! We put our Boy Scout skills to work and were fine, but it really cemented in our minds what we wanted to do, and why—to be self-sufficient and not have to rely on the government or anyone else to feed and water us.”
During those winter months Charlie and Kenneth started researching the food supply and what is in the food people eat. “We thought we were eating good food and found out we were not,” says Charlie. “So, we decided we should get some chickens and start there, for growing our own food. I read everything I could find about chickens. I ordered every book I could, and my coffee table was probably covered a foot high with books. One lady spent so much time on the phone with me, talking about different chicken breeds, and she was wonderful. Then I ordered books on how to raise calves, pigs, how to butcher chickens, etc. I discovered that a lot of these books were older books, written by people decades ago-- in the late 1880s and early 1900s—people of those generations who were self-sufficient.
“We decided that’s what we were going to do, and started researching our land and our soil types, wanting to become more self-sufficient and remove ourselves from the unnatural food supply that people today buy at a grocery store. We discovered that we live in the blackland prairie and that a lot of things won’t grow here because the nutrients in the topsoil have been stripped, from years and years of cotton farming, chemicals, and other row crops. We also started researching regenerative farming because we wanted the most nutritious results.
“In our searches we came across a Holistic Management conference. That was the first one we went to, and all of us who attended went to a guy’s farm and met (HMI Certified Educator) Christine Martin. We talked to her and asked if she would mentor us. The amount of information we got from her was amazing and we still use her advice every day.
“Christine taught us about Holistic Management and rotational grazing, and we also learned more about regenerating the soil, how to measure its productivity and how many animals we could have on the pasture. Christine taught us about regenerative farming and that’s what we needed to know. We had a garden, but before we met Christine, we were using a different method that claims you can grow anything—even in a parking lot--if you have the right soil and the right fertilizer mixture. We didn’t want to use chemical fertilizer; we wanted to use regular organic matter.
“While we were growing our vegetables we were meeting with Christine and changing our pastures. We bought some Dexter cows to graze and utilize the pasture. Initially, after we purchased the chickens, we bought seven goats and some livestock guardian dogs. They were puppies and I read everything I could about how to train Great Pyrenees dogs. I trained them for a little over a year with the goats, so they would be connected to the herd and understand the boundaries of our property. They learned that they were to protect the property and the animals on the property and not leave our farm.”
The Codys also got some Kune Kune pigs. “We just kept adding one new thing at a time,” says Charlie. “A neighbor had a bottle baby calf and brought it to us and said we needed one! I didn’t know anything about cows, so I had to go buy another book! The neighbor just told us he would bring the bottle and the milk and show us how to do it. That calf was raised with the goats and thought he was a goat!
“Every animal we raised on pasture was with the intention that we were going to eat it. We did keep a few as pets but we named our cow Meat Head and the pigs were all named things like Sausage, Bacon, Pork Chop, Pig Tail, etc. We didn’t have meat chickens at first; it took us a while to get started with those. We tried a lot of different varieties of meat chickens before we settled on what we wanted.
“Everything just evolved as we started working the land and eliminating all chemicals. We didn’t use any pesticides or herbicides on the property after we learned about regenerative and holistic practices. We decided to just let the grass and weeds grow and let the goats, chickens and pigs use it. The only thing we were using was some fertilizer for our garden, and then we decided to eliminate that, as well. We didn’t use any bug spray on the vegetables.”
For the flies on the cattle, they looked into using natural oils. “Tea Tree oil is amazing,” says Charlie. “It keeps flies away and it can also heal skin problems. Our animals are all very healthy and we don’t vaccinate any of them except the cows for blackleg.”
With Christine’s help and determining the stocking rate on their pastures, Charlie and Kenneth determined how much outside feed they might need. “We found a neighboring farming who doesn’t spray or fertilize his pasture and hay fields,” says Charlie. “We were able to buy some clean bales of hay to get us through the winter and through the dry spells in summer. This year has been nice because we’ve had a lot of rain. The cattle are really fit and happy. It was nice to find another farmer who feels the same way we do, so we can buy clean hay.
“Once we had our own food supply going, we started sharing with our neighbors and some elderly neighbors who could no longer garden. I learned how to can and we also got a freeze drier and freeze-dried a lot of our food supply. When people came to visit and ate our food, they were amazed at how good it tasted and said they would love to buy some.
“Our friends wanted to buy eggs from us. We don’t feed corn or soy to any of our animals. Part of the reason is that I am a breast cancer survivor and soy is high in estrogen. The way soy is processed in the U.S. tends to heighten that estrogen release in the human body. In Japan they raise and process it differently and don’t have problems with it. I feel that in the U.S. it should not be used as food. We’ve also eliminated any corn in our animals’ diets. Field corn is raised to be fed to animals and it’s been altered so that it’s mainly starch and sugar, to add weight and fat to the animals (such as in a feedlot). That’s not good for the animals or for the people who eat them!
“It took us a long time to find a feed supplier that we could purchase from--to supplement our chickens and turkeys--that was corn-free and soy-free. And in trying to get an organic certification for our farm we discovered that you pay a fee to become organic and then they give you all this information on the herbicides, pesticides and insecticides that you can use! We felt that defeated the purpose. So, we finally found a feed company that was corn-free and soy-free. They are not organic, but they are non-GMO, so they might as well be organic.
“I also read that you should never feed corn to a ruminant animal. Their rumen is designed to digest grass. Chickens can eat corn, but not a lot of it, and we don’t feed ours any corn at all.
“We are impressed with our farm and the fact that we are regenerating it and bringing it back to a mix of native grasses that were here earlier, when the bison grazed this area. This is the way the land should be treated. That’s why it was so fertile when the settlers came here. We need the grazing animals today to mimic what the buffalo did, and cattle can do that. This is part of what Christine taught us—how to set up a plan for rotational grazing, and not use any chemicals.
“We are also a fan of Joel Salatin. I went out to his farm in Virginia and saw first-hand how he rotated crops and animals. We graze the larger animals and smaller-hoofed animals and then the chickens follow behind them. This is working beautifully on our farm.
“It’s a lot of work, but I don’t think I would trade it for anything else. We are between a rock and a hard place at the moment, however, because the owner of the land next to us has decided to put all of his land into industrial solar power production—with solar panels all around us. Our little patch of green is being surrounded.”
Healthy Food, Healthy Lives
With healthier food and life style has come multiple benefits for both Charlie and Kenneth. “We don’t eat any processed food and hardly buy anything from the grocery store except coffee and avocados. We also buy some cheese but it is fresh goat cheese from a gentleman who is partnering with us in a farm store. It’s raw goat milk and not processed—and his animals don’t receive any antibiotics.
“With our healthier diet, my husband has lost about 40 pounds and has been able to get off nearly all of his medications. Our friends and neighbors are all very interested in purchasing our healthy food. It’s not cheap, but definitely healthier. Our corn-free, soy-free pastured chicken is $8 per pound. We feel that you either pay now (for better food) or pay later with health problems.”
Charlie goes back to her oncologist every year for a checkup. It’s been 11 years since her breast cancer. “He told me that I am his only healthy patient. This is how we got started on this journey—to eat healthier and be healthier—but we didn’t realize it would be as big a deal as it turned out to be. We mainly wanted to have a homestead and be self-sufficient. We also wanted to make sure that if anything major happened in this country, our children would be able to come to the farm and have food and water and be able to raise a family and survive. It turned into more than we envisioned; there are a lot of people who need good quality, healthy food and are willing to pay us to raise it.
“I’ve learned a lot in those years; I never thought I’d live on a farm! I’ve even learned a lot about bees. There is a gentleman who comes here to put bee traps on our property and catches bees for hives. We’ve learned about the difference in local honey. The honey gathered from our farm is different than the honey that’s gathered at his farm. We are less than 20 miles from each other, but the flowers and blooms are different, and it shows up in the honey.”
Charlie worries about the new solar farm next door, fearing that it will negatively impact the bees because of habitat fragmentation and disruption of pollinator plants. “Bees use landmarks to guide them back to the hive; it’s like their own GPS system. When they fly over an industrial solar farm, it all looks the same to them and they can’t find any landmarks—and lose their way back to the hive, and then they die,” says Charlie.
Their beekeeping friend caught four of the hives from their farm, to move them somewhere else. “That made me feel good that they will get put on a place where they won’t get lost. We need bees here, however, to pollinate the native blooms. There are many native plants coming back, now that we don’t plow and till the ground,” she says.
“We believe in doing the one-third, one-third, one-third way of managing the plants. The cows eat one-third, trample one-third and leave a third and we move them to the next pasture. The chickens follow behind and eat all the flies, and leave their own fertilizer. We also have rabbits. Rabbit poop is great because you can use it directly on or into your soil; you don’t have to compost or ‘cool’ it like chicken manure—which is considered too ‘hot’ as direct fertilizer.
“Our oldest son is a disabled Navy veteran with a head injury and now he lives with us. He has a drone that he flies over the farm and he has some drone footage with amazing pictures of where the chicken tractors have been in our fields. We have 20 acres—10 in the front and 10 in the back—and you can see the green square where I moved the chicken tractor every day and the grass grew back greener. It’s like a checkerboard. You can see the path of the chicken tractor all the way down to the fence and then it makes a circle and turns back.”
The Codys have also increased their marketing opportunities by joining in with other local farms on a shared farm stand. “A few years ago, we joined with four other farms to sell what we produce,” says Charlie. “The Halverson property is where the farm store is located and they sell vegetables from their garden and goat milk from their goats. We sell pastured pork from our Meadowhawk Hollow Farm, and another farm sells pastured pork as well. Another farm sells elderberry elixir and elderberry tea. One woman brings fresh sourdough bread. We are open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. and through the summer we are open from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursdays.”
Charlie is grateful for all the community support they have received over the years to learn how to farm. Although it has been a lot of work, she’s glad they made this decision to move to the farm and grow healthy food that they can eat and sell to others who want to support their own health but can’t grow their own food. She’s also grateful for what she learned from her Holistic Management mentors like Joel Salatin and Christine Martin. By being open to all these avenues of mentorship, Charlie and Kenneth have been able to create the self-sufficiency and health they wanted in their lives.
