About Us
The Orrick Family
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13
The above Bible verse seems to fit our family perfectly. We are fish swimming against the flow of the world. Our views on family, education, farming, and life as a whole are far different than those of the conventional world. The idea for Narrow Gate Farm was planted many years ago as we began to realize that the “normal” American life was not for us. We wanted to find a way that the whole family could be together, and also create income. The driving force of our farm is family: family togetherness, family growth, and strong relationships that come only from time spent with one another. As homeschoolers, we want our children to view the world as one big classroom. Working and learning as a family unit is allowing us to instill a good work ethic in our five children, and at the same time creating a safe place for them to learn how the world works.
Our view of agriculture certainly goes against conventional “wisdom”. We do not plow up the ground to plant grains for animal feed. Cattle were not designed to eat corn. Crop farming, though occasionally necessary for management, increases our dependence on foreign oil, pollutes the soil with chemicals and fertilizers, and is a major cause of erosion. Cattle were created with legs to move themselves to their own feed. They have mouths perfectly designed to harvest grasses, and they can naturally fertilize the pasture at the same time. We can’t learn much from our animals sitting on a tractor making feed and dumping it in a feeder. How much richer the experience when we walk among them daily and lead them to fresh pasture. We believe in building a sustainable local economy instead of outsourcing our food production to factory farms.
Contact Information
Jonathan Orrick
11345 Wildwood Court
Sister Bay, 54234
Home: (920) 854-9480
Mobile: (920) 421-1335
jonathan@grazethrunarrowgate.com
