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First-generation farmers join community-supported agriculture movement

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Above: Farm owners Karis and Alex Tressel discuss logistics as they walk from the section of the pasture currently being used for their laying hens on the Old Road Farm.

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Mark Marietta

Mark Marietta/Observer-Reporter Laying hens cluster around their portable coop, feeding at their temporary pasture location on the Old Road Farm.

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Mark Marietta

Mark Marietta/Observer-Reporter Laying hens investigate visitor Adeline Tressel (age 7) in their temporary pasture spot on the Old Road Farm.

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Left: Esther Dale (left) and Annabelle Tressel (center), both age 9, collect the morning egg harvest from the portable coop in the pasture of the Old Road Farm.

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Above: Laying hens investigate Adeline Tressel, age 7, as she visits their current pasture location on the Old Road Farm.

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Previous pages: The laying hens tag along as Adeline Tressel, Esther Dale, and Annabelle Tressel carry the mornings’ eggs from the portable coop in the pasture of the Old Road Farm.

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Mark Marietta

Mark Marietta/Observer-Reporter Farm owners Karis and Alex Tressel discuss logistics as they cross the pasture of the Old Road Farm.

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Left: A morning mudbath suits the hogs at the Old Road Farm. Pork raised the way Old Road does with a pasture diet is significantly higher in key vitamins, minerals, and omega 3 fatty acids than most commercially available products.

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Bottom: Annabelle Tressel leads Melody the dairy cow past the sheep and goats to Melody’s current spot in the pasture of the Old Road Farm.

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Below: Nine-year-old Annabelle Tressel is joined by sister Adeline, age seven, and friend Esther Dale, also nine, as she leads Melody the dairy cow to her current spot in the pasture of the Old Road Farm.

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Top right: Karis Tressel finishes a morning milking session with Melody the dairy cow at the Old Road Farm.

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Top left: Eleven-year-old Ben Tressel checks on the hay supply in the barn of the Old Road Farm.

Before Karis Tressel launched the Old Road Farm, a regenerative farm in Buffalo Township, with her husband, Alex, she had never picked up a chicken.

Karis is a naturopathic doctor from Southern California, and Alex is a helicopter pilot from Berlin, Germany. When they moved to Washington County 2 1/2 years ago after Alex accepted a job as a medical helicopter pilot at Allegheny Health System Canonsburg Hospital, the couple unexpectedly discovered an opportunity to pursue a healthy lifestyle, healthy food and healthy land.

Karis searched online for a small home with just enough property to park the recreational vehicle they’d traveled the Western states in with their three children for the past year-and-a-half when a historic 62-acre farm and farmhouse caught her eye. She had big ideas for the small farm.

“Did I always want to do this? No, but I love it,” said Karis, laughing. “Originally, we planned to travel the East Coast on my husband’s off weeks. But I saw in the farm the opportunity to raise the food I wish my family had access to and that I wish my patients had had access to when I was in practice in California. I had an idea to do something for people who, like me, were looking for that kind of food, pasture-raised, organic-fed, raised in a low-footprint way that was going to be protecting and improving our soil, water, and air – an option to big (agriculture).”

And so, the Old Road Farm was born.

The Tressels had absolutely no experience in the gritty day-to-day challenges of raising animals before they launched the Old Farm Road. But they learned through trial and error, by reading books and watching online videos, and by following the guidance and advice of local farmers.

The family raises pork and chicken (for meat and eggs) on rotated pastures.

The animals are fed certified organic grain that supplements the abundant grubs and grass Karis calls their “self-serve buffet.”

The family also raises lamb, rose veal, and a small amount of 100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef.

Two Great Pyrenees serve as livestock guardian dogs, roaming freely to fend off predators, including foxes and coyotes.

The Tressels are part of the community-supported agriculture movement, where families buy “shares” of a farmer’s food. The bounty is delivered during the summer and fall to shareowners.

The couple aims to create a more holistic way of producing and distributing food – local farmers growing food for local people and growing it in a way that enriches the soil and local ecosystems rather than depleting them.

As regenerative farmers, they want to put back into the land what they take from it – and grow food in sustainable, humane, ethical ways.

“We want to provide the community with foods that are healthy for them and healthy for the planet,” said Karis. “The food raised on pasture is definitely more nutrient dense, and it provides the best flavor. It’s better from an environmental perspective, too. When we put cattle in feed lots, we’re polluting the air, we’re polluting the water, we’re ruining the soil, we’re trucking things in and making a big footprint. The healthiest, most sustainable way to feed our country is with small farms. It’s not the cheapest way, though.”

The Old Road Farm currently serves as the family farmer for about 100 families.

The Tressels’ five-year plan is to serve 300 local families.

The farm has become a playground and learning space for the couple’s children, Benjamin, 11, Annabelle, 9, and Adeline, 7.

On the farm, the kids lend a hand, helping with all the chores ranging from collecting and packing eggs to rounding up animals that escape the fencing.

“Living on the farm has been so good for the kids. They have learned how to be gentle with baby chicks, strong with stubborn cattle, and responsible with all these lives that depend on them, rain or shine,” said Karis.

The work is hard, and the days and nights can be long.

On days when she gets discouraged about the challenges of farming, Karis looks at a wall on which the Tressels have posted photos of families who are CSA members.

“Our farm customers are our friends. They are like our family. It adds a lot of meaning to the hard work of farming when I know whose tables this food is going to and which bodies it’s going to nourish,” said Karis. “That really helps keep us going.”

Karis explained that regenerative farming is essential for good health, which appeals to her as a doctor.

“As a physician, absolutely, I’m doing this in order to produce the healthiest, most nutrient-dense food possible, with the least amount of toxicity, with the most good things and the fewest bad things,” Karis said. “As a regenerative farmer, I’m practicing a different kind of root cause medicine because you need this kind of food to have healthy healing – you need clean air, clean water, living soil, for good health.”

The first-generation farmers live on property that dates back to 1776. The sprawling farmhouse and barn were constructed in the 1870s and 1880s.

The farm, it turns out, is called the Old Road Farm because the Tressels’ long driveway once was part of the township’s original main road.

Having traveled widely – in twelve years of marriage, the Tressels have lived in three countries and four U.S. states and have spent 18 months traveling – Karis says the family can’t imagine a better place to pursue their farming dreams.

“This is only the second time we’ve stayed in the same place for 24 months. I’m super excited about the CSA and the difference we’re making,” said Karis. “We plan to stay here for many years, and we want to be a part of the solution.”

To sign up for the Old Road Farm CSA, or for additional information, visit the website at www.oldroadfarm.grazecart.com. Customers can pick up orders at the farm or at a designated pick-up location. The Old Road Farm also periodically will be a vendor at the Main Street Farmers Market this season. Visit The Old Road Farm on Facebook or Instagram at @theoldroadfarm.

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