Who are we?

Hi. I’m Mallorie Kelly, of O’Kelly Family Farms. Even though the Blog identifies as Jim, just know, its’s actually me. ;-)

I would like to introduce you to our Big Dream and farming philosophies, and maybe a little, to US; the Kelly Family of Lassen County. We are a family of believers, who also believe that food is medicine and what we eat really matters. We raise our food on our small family farm, we are only 4.5 acres, with the love and care we, your family and the animals deserve. All seven of us are lovers of our livestock and animal husbandry. We started our farm as a beloved hobby but always with a bigger future in mind. Now, we face a turning point where we are expanding our little farm and preparing to offer our home raised foods to other families who may not have the ability to, starting with Pastured Raised Chicken. We started this journey to feed our family real, clean and just plain better food. Healing ourselves of the ailments we had acquired was a big motivation to our farming practices being as natural as we can sustain. After 5 years in the Marine Corps for Jim (that comes with some wear and tear), several poor medical diagnoses for me (cealiac disease, hashimoto’s disease, melanoma, multiple food allergies and even more autoimmune disorders), and chronic ear infections, colds, environmental and food allergies and poor immune systems in the kids, we wanted to find a better way to eat and a to live. Farming became our healing, as cooking became our delight. We cherish the opportunity to raise healthy foods and we relish in the optimism of sharing it with others. Just know, every chick, every pig, goat, duck and guard dog has been well treated, as animals deserve. We thank them for their cooperation and their sustenance, both for our family and others. We would like to remain open and transparent, so we may become a trusted farm in our community. We do not use hormones, GMOs, antibiotics, vaccines, or artificial insemination. We allow our animals the space needed for sanitation and security; lowering their stress is a huge priority for us as their stewards. We currently raise our family dogs turned livestock guardians, Pasture Raised Cornish Cross Chickens, some very happy Barred Rock Egg Hens, Free Range Muscovy Ducks, Free Range Khaki Campbell Egg Ducks (our first ones just started laying this week!), Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats, Berkshire Hogs (who are about to wean and move onto the farm) and a variety of fruits and vegetables for our family and friends. We have learned, over a decade and a half of research and trials, that a variety of animals makes for a cleaner environment. We have learned that moving our livestock into new pastures accordingly, lowers the need for antibiotics and vaccines to nearly non existence, and we personally do not use them on our livestock and not really our humans either. We know that chickens love to follow behind other animals for cleaning (and new, tender grasses to forage) and that pigs will stomp out all vegetation if left in one space for too long. We have also learned that there is almost nothing cuter, except maybe our one year old Emanuela, than a baby goat jumping onto an unsuspecting 11 year old James’ back, and that piglets eating their feed make the cutest smacking noises, not unlike David when he was younger. Our love for our farm shows in our food and we can’t wait to share it with your family. Until next time, I’m signing off for bedtime.