We love getting to show you how your food is grown, but we also love getting the opportunity to show you the people who grow it. We’re (Ann Bell Stone, John Bell and Mac Stone) the managers at Elmwood Stock Farm and we’re proud to lead a team of field crew, delivery drivers, farmers market employees and office staff who help keep our sixth-generation farm going.
Siblings Ann and John grew up here farming with their parents, Cecil and Kay Bell, in what started as a traditional cattle and tobacco operation. Ann met Mac Stone at a farming conference right around the time she and John were transitioning the farm to a diversified organic farm. A few years later, Ann and Mac were married. John and his wife, Melissa Bell, live on the farm, too, and are raising their children here— they’re the seventh generation of family farmers.
A few years back we answered a few questions about our life, work and passions here at the farm and we thought it would be fun to share an updated version, four years later:
Mac: My favorite job is mowing pastures. The barn swallows and purple martins swoosh all around the tractor catching flies churned up by the mower and I know the pasture will be healthier with less weeds and my wife will tell me how nice it looks.
John: Engineering or planning something new or revision of something old because of the opportunity for growth and improvement form what we have learned. This could be a tool, an enterprise, an SOP or a process.
Ann: Seeding in the greenhouse is a favorite, harvesting cut flowers is always fun being surrounded by such beauty, and then giving out CSA shares or talking with customers at farmers market is rewarding to see and get to the know the faces of who we grow for!
Mac: My favorite season is the fall. I can see the fruits of my labor come together knowing the turkeys will delight many a Thanksgiving table, the lambs are weaned and growing nicely on their own, and the days are shorter so I get more rest.
John: Spring baby! Rebirth, reawakening, renewal and hopefully the great eraser that is the winter freeze has removed all of last years mistakes.
Ann: Spring time is the best: the farm is special as everything looks so nice, animals are calving and lambing and hatching out new life, flowers are blooming and bees are buzzing, everyone is excited for the new cropping season – overall it’s just so full of life!
Mac: My favorite farm meal is a burger with a thickly sliced cherokee purple tomato, corn on the cob, and a composed salad. Or maybe; chicken thighs with a few slabs grilled zucchini, and an arugula/goat cheese salad. Or maybe: grilled lamb chops with a big baked yukon gold potato and a kale salad. Or maybe: I could go on and on and on….
John: I’ve been going back to pork chops and creamed spinach often lately for my family meal night. While it’s just one item, Coulter and I both still jones for Sarah’s fresh salsa – the perfect cilantro ratio!
Ann: Kale salad remains my hands down favorite, and then adding fresh veggies or herbs to it based on the season of the year; homemade pizza is a close second with a farm protein of roasted pasture raised chicken or one of our delicious merguez or Italian sausages, fresh spinach or arugula, farm ketchup or marinara for the tomato sauce, fresh tomatoes, fresh onions or pepper strips and topped with fresh basil.
Mac: This work is important because people I know and love are getting great tasting food, that is good for their health, body and soul, and knowing a little piece of the planet is well cared for.
John: It’s an honor to be entrusted to tend to the soil and livestock in as delicate manner as possible in order to feed my community healthy, healing food. It’s a blessing to get to do it with likeminded people I care about. I’m grateful that I was afforded this opportunity by introduction from my parents and grandparents and equally appreciative my current family allows this opportunity to continue.
Ann: While it can be tough physically, mentally, and financially to be a farmer, it is work that produces tangible results where you can feel proud of what you do at the end of the day. What job can be more honorable than growing healthy food to feel our community?
Mac: The one thing I hope to improve upon is making roll out nest boxes for my four egg mobiles so the eggs will be cleaner and take less time to clean.
John: The old farming adage – What’s the difference between a good farmer and bad farmer? Answer – 2 weeks. Reminds me that both in farming and at least my life, trying to do too much results in a whole lot of nothing. I need to remember that with proper timing, often less ends up being more.
Ann: I would like Elmwood Stock Farm to be able to provide as many local farm food items to our community as we can and support other smaller farms in our area. We should be able to meet the needs of families that are looking to source locally and source the highest quality, healthiest, safest food that they can.