{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Regenaissance Podcast","title":"Isabelle & Garrett Heydt - Building Community Around Food, Farming & Family | #83 ","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":4249,"description":"Farm tour #8.\nIsabelle and Garrett Heydt, of Rucker Farm in Virginia share their journey from vastly different childhoods to building a thriving regenerative farm and raising three young children. They discuss how they started with just a handful of chickens, grew into pigs and cattle, built community through barter events and markets, and navigated the challenges of balancing family life with the demands of farming. Their story highlights both the struggles and rewards of choosing a life close to the land.\nRucker Farm is a regenerative family farm in Virginia raising pastured beef, pork, and poultry with full transparency and care for the land. They rotate animals daily, avoid confinement, and even invite the public to their on-farm harvests to reconnect people with real food.\nKey Topics\nFrom contrasting childhoods to a shared farming path\nStarting with 50 chickens and scaling up\nRaising a family while running a farm\nFamily, farming, and community at the center\nRegenerative vs. conventional cattle operations\nMarketing, markets, and authentic customer ties\nTimestamps\n00:02:00 – Isabelle’s upbringing on Rucker Farm and her family’s farming background\n 00:07:00 – Garrett’s childhood in Baltimore and path into outdoor guiding\n 00:12:00 – Meeting in West Virginia, homesteading, and renovating their first house\n 00:20:00 – Moving back to Rucker Farm in 2020 during the pandemic\n 00:23:00 – Why they started with chickens and how it scaled into pigs and cattle\n 00:25:00 – Hosting barter tables and building community around food and farming\n 00:33:00 – Partnerships, land access, and support from American Farmland Trust\n 00:37:00 – Advice for new farmers on building relationships and opportunities\n 00:39:00 – Isabelle’s approach to marketing, storytelling, and authenticity\n 00:45:00 – The realities and challenges of farmers’ markets\n 00:55:00 – Educating consumers on cooking grass-finished beef\n 01:01:00 – Raising children on the farm and connecting them to nature\nConnect...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/al8BwjjnR2m8I-3vEq0Iyx2E0FqQ9QB0aLPF4D6flnY/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS81YzE3/NmFmYjZiNmRkZDdm/Y2MwYzk5ZjI5ZjRj/YzgwZi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}