Hale Family Farm

“Starting from heritage chicken breeds, we have bred and raised our flock to be Missouri-climate hardy and predator savvy.”

Our grandparents, William and Edna Hale, started the farm in Farmington, Missouri in the 1940’s, raising cattle and crops, and barely making ends meet.  Our father, Ron Hale, labored on the family farm growing up, often without “luxuries” like shoes in the summer or heat in the winter.  In 1992, after his daughters had graduated from high school and Ron had retired from the Navy, he was finally able to return to the land he loved and begin growing organic produce and alfalfa hay with his son. For several years, Ron was able to farm the land and get involved with a number of regional organic and slow food initiatives that were just getting started, including Slow Food St. Louis and Fair Shares St. Louis, and he co-founded the Farmington Farmer’s Market. Then, in 2008, Ron died in a farming accident at age 61 and family farm operations came to a tragic end.

A decade later, Ron’s children set out to continue his legacy. After nearly two years of cleaning, clearing, planning, building and planting, Hale Family Farm is now producing the next generation of specialty produce using organic methods.  In addition, to heirloom tomatoes, we will be offering unique varieties of cucumbers, radishes, eggplant, melons, a range of sweet, spicy and mild peppers, and lots of variety in fresh herbs, leafy greens and lettuces. We are also ramping up production of wildflower honey and pasture-raised chicken eggs, so look for new products to be added in the future.

Hale Family Farm has been developing a flock of beautiful, Missouri-climate hardy, predator savvy chickens that lay a rainbow of colorful eggs. In 2021, we began offering a few of these unique heritage hybrids for sale to the public as sexed chicks and fertile hatching eggs.

Farm Size

120 acres, with half an acre in vegetable production.

Flock/Colony Size

• 30 chickens
• 2 bee colonies (40,000-80,000 bees)

Products

• Produce
  • Specializing in heirloom and heritage varieties of tomatoes
• Fresh herbs
• Eggs
• Baby chicks and fertilized eggs
• Honey

Rotation

Chickens: free range of 120 acres

Conservation Practices

• Cover crops
• No synthetic chemicals
• Compost
• Nutrient management plan
• Drip irrigation
• Integrated pest management

Additional Practices

• Transition of 60 acres of previously conventionally farmed land to hay fields
• Heritage breed chickens: Dominque, Crested Cream Legbar, Speckled Sussex, Welsummer, Golden Spangled Appenzeller Spitzhauben, Silver Spangled Hamburg, and mixed breeds of the above
• Bees are never fed white sugar, if needed, they get supplemental feed with their own residual honey from de-capping their comb during harvest
• Chickens are never debeaked