Midwest Pastures plans to expand menu

The first installment of a Waseca Winter Farmers Market  being held indoors at Farmamerica took place the morning of Saturday, Nov. 8, inside the main building. Parked outside, under the white sky with just a few snowflakes beginning to fall, was a vendor by the name of Lucia’s Cocina, ready to serve from either her breakfast or lunch menu.

 

In the main building’s ballroom were nine vendors including Midwest Pastures, Magnetic North, Little Driveway Shed, Phat & Hapi, the Tattooed Baker, With a Smile, McCarty Farm, Loon Lake Co. and Custom Quilts. The large room was pretty full, but there was room for more vendors who may be interested in the event. In the middle of the room were circular tables set up filled with crayons and coloring books, dotted amongst the tables were a few children, keeping quiet while mom and dad shopped.

 

Chelsea Schnepf, 36, of Midwest Pastures was there, sitting behind her table with a cooler on her left and packaging on her right wearing a pink hoodie. She’s originally from Nicollett, her husband, Brandon, 42, has deep local roots as a third-generation family farmer. They’ve been married for the past 5 years and live a few miles south of Janesville. Their focus right now is chicken, boneless skinless breasts, leg quarters, wings, chicken feet by the pound, or whole birds. Their animals are all grass fed through a new type of feeding called concentrated feeding/aggressive grazing. They have 30 acres between the two of them, and they’ve been operating Midwest Pastures for the past couple years now. Said Chelsea, “We wanted to get away from conventional methods and practice farming that gives back a little. We also sell online, we have about 500 chickens currently, 30 of those are egg layers. Next spring we’re planning on expanding our menu to include goat and sheep meat. We have 35 goats and 10 sheep, all grass fed.” She went on to explain the type of grazing they’ve been practicing, “By moving our animals intentionally across pastures, we give the land time to recover and thrive, bringing new life to fields that had been worn down over generations.”  

 

Midwest Pastures can be found online at www.midwestpastures.com.