Before ever having a farm, we have always managed a garden. My mother raised us similar to how she was raised; putting up your own food in the freezer and on the shelf. By providing for your family through the winter months with canned goods, you can drastically cut down on your food bill and that gives you the security of knowing where it comes from.

Since moving to the farm, we have expanded our gardening to so much more! The farm came with a vineyard and orchard already established that just needed some TLC. We make apple sauce, apple butter and grape jelly. We don’t spray fungicides, so our apples may look a little rustic — but they’re perfect for pies, sauces, and all your favorite recipes.

Rows of vegetables can be seen first as you come up the lane. Just to name a few; tomatoes, peppers of all kinds, rhubarb and so much more! We eat a lot of fresh produce during that time and preserve our excess by canning in a hot water or pressure canner. Some things like pumpkin puree and corn, we store in freezer bags.

For around 3 years now, we have been featuring our homegrown goods at our local Farmer’s market. When in season, you’ll find the freshest, most flavorful products from our farm straight to the market.

Our shop is mainly set up for woodworking and stained glass. Adrienne builds custom furniture and signs. She has made a variety of signs from a lighted marquee sign to a simpler scroll saw sign. If you are interested in a custom ordered sign, please feel free to reach out to us through our Sign Shop section. She also likes to make unique cutting boards and charcuterie boards. Adrienne also has been adding construction to her lists of skills. She built her goats a new pen, and has done many other projects around the farm to help with production.

Connie has a stained glass studio where she likes to tinker with new patterns. Dennis built her a wonderful glass rack that spans a section of wall in the shop and she has every color she could imagine. What she really likes to create is custom pieces for her children and grand-children. Connie also helps Adrienne with harder tasks such as shearing alpacas, and helping load up the meat chickens to take to the butcher.

Dennis uses the tools from the shop to work on the bigger projects around the farm. He built the original chicken run and then added on an addition to it. He also replaced the grape arbor without ever moving the vines. As of recent, Dennis has also built an alpaca barn, a greenhouse, and chicken tractors. His hard work is much needed to help this farm run efficiently. His skills don’t just aid our farm, he also has laid brick work for our local church.

From the house, we create all sorts of things throughout the entire year. Twice a year, Connie works in the basement making batches of soap. She started making soap about 6 years ago as a hobby and has now expanded it to a small business that her daughter runs. Together they make, package, and brand their soap from scratch. Adrienne designs all the boxes from scratch and cuts them out on her Cricut. Adrienne currently has a Cricut Maker 3 that she utilizes for custom decals and more! Papercrafts are how Hickory Homestead Creations got started

Starting in 2021, we started the journey of raising our own meat. When possible, we try to always order our meat from local farmers, but we wanted to start taking that task on ourselves. We began with Cornish Crosses that we picked up from Myer's Poultry. We were able to sell most of them and keep some for ourselves. Of course our 30 hens provide us with delicious eggs and we are also able to sell the extra.

In 2022 we moved four of our seven alpacas to the farm. Elvin, Luther, Cupid, and Donner are our boys that were able to be moved to the farm first. Right after shearing, we moved them by trailer about 20 miles from their original farm. We are waiting on our new alpaca shed to be built before we bring our girls over. The alpacas provide us fiber that we send to be processed and then we sell in our store as yarn or finished products.