Commentary by Mark LaFay
Indiana may be known to be a pork producing state, but there is quite a bit of great beef to be found in the Crossroads of America. Look no farther than Howell Farms in Middletown in rural Delaware County.
The Howell family has been farming the amber waves of grain for nearly 50 years. Their primary focus is corn, soy, wheat, barley and tomatoes, and now with a touch of beef!
Siblings Adam and Aaron Howell took up the family mantle to become the second generation in the Howell family to farm the Indiana countryside. The brothers are also the driving force behind the farm’s relatively new grass-fed beef program.
“We want to be good stewards of the family business and the land that it is based on,” Adam said. “By combining vegetable and grain production, cover cropping and then rotational livestock grazing, we can improve soil health.”
Ultimately, soil health drives the quality of the products they produce.
At present, the Howells have 22 head of cattle that rotate across different pastures each day. The cattle is 100 percent grass-fed and the beef is processed under USDA inspection. Customers can shop their assortment of beef products online at Farmersprovisions.com. The website provides all the current offerings as well as plenty of information about the Howell family, the farm and the beef operation.
Customers are encouraged to shop the beef assortments by the box. Free shipping to 26 states is offered with the purchase of any assortment box. Customers can also shop by the cut and build their own box to have shipped. All current and future shipping destinations can be found on the website.
Aaron and Adam focus on farming, but they do have full-time help to run the website and handle all the order fulfillment on-site. They are proud to use eco-friendly box liners to insulate the frozen product, and they ship with ice packs that are safe for the drain. Customers can expect their product to arrive cold and safe to be put back into the freezer or thawed out to cook immediately.
For more, visit farmersprovisions.com.
