They’ve traded in full-time careers for Dennis in the National Guard and Keba as a schoolteacher to focus on the farm that now specializes in pastured beef and chickens. He also roasts coffee, and she is a potter.
They spend considerable time in the summer at farmers markets from Piqua to Greenville to Vandalia and early this year were part of the first winter indoor Market on the Miami in Troy. Among their offerings are coffee by Dennis, mugs by Keba and mug rugs by Keba’s mother, Keneil Blaho, who also resides on the farm.
Keba grew up on the farm before heading to college in Dayton, where she met Dennis. They started investigating a new way of life after Dennis, with his guard work, was sent to South following Katrina as well as to St. Louis and Alabama following tornadoes.
“One of the things I came to realize over the course of all these events was how dependent we are on this infrastructure that we’ve created to make anything happen,” Dennis Hitzeman said.
A turning point was a brick house standing alone in a Mississippi town after Katrina. A plywood sign on the front carried the message that occupants had their own food, water and ice adding, “We don’t need help,” he said.
“That kind of stuck in my head; these people have something going on that we don’t,” Dennis Hitzeman recalled.
Around that time someone recommended a book, “You Can Farm” by Joel Salatin, and Dennis was hooked. After a lot of discussion and research and with Keba’s father in failing health, they decided to move north to the farm.
They’re happy with progress so far, and have a number of other steps they’d like to take including adding more chickens – they have a long egg waiting list already – along with turkeys and possibly pigs. They hope to eventually grow all their feed at the 185-acre farm.
They’ve advertised their offerings through word of mouth, on Facebook and at the farmers markets.
They’ve been reaching out to others with more experience as well as those with less. “As far as I am concerned, there are no state secrets in this,” Keba Hitzeman said. “I tell people there is no dumb question … We will talk with you about what’s happened with us and help you get on your way.”
For more information, visit the Innisfree on the Stillwater page at Facebook. Keba Hitzeman's blog is at keba.hitzeman.com/innisfreefarm.
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