About Us
A Little about Joe and Vonda…
Both Vonda and Joe were raised on small family farms – Vonda in southeastern Putnam County and Joe in southern Montgomery County. So they fell very blessed to be able to raise their family on a farm too.
Vonda joined Joe on his 90-acre farm when they were married in June of 1996. Vonda worked in Green castle (most recently at Lone Star Industries) until their first child was born and she is now a stay-at-home mom. They have two kids, a daughter, Shelby, who is nine years old and Little Joe, who is four and a half years old.
The Phelps’ have been participating in farmer’s markets for the past 13 years. Joe decided if he was going to continue to farm back in 2008 he was going to have to make a change. The price of hogs was at an all-time low, but it didn’t seem to affect the price of pork in the grocery store. Someone (the middle man) was making money, but the farmer was left struggling. After reading several articles and books by Joel Salatin, a pioneer in farm product direct marketing, Joe decided to try selling frozen pork and beef directly at farmer’s markets. He began at the downtown farmer’s market in Indianapolis on Wednesdays and then heard about a market beginning in Carmel on Saturday mornings and began that on as well. And that is how it all began!
Now Phelps Family Farm can be found at the Broad Ripple Farmer’s Market in early spring, at the Carmel Farmer’s Market during the summer season and now the winter market through March 17th at Carmel. And they are also at Trader’s Point Creamery year around for their markets, which is on Friday evenings May through October and on Saturday mornings from November through April.
The Lord has blessed the Phelps’ on their farm and with their family many times over. Early on a customer suggested contacting Martha Hoover from Café Patachou about using their eggs in her restaurants and after letting her chefs try some of the farm fresh eggs, the Phelps have been delivering around 300-360 dozen eggs to Ms. Hoover’s Café Patachou on 126th and Gray Road each week for the past few years. Currently, they deliver to Patachou’s new production kitchen on College Street in Indianapolis.
Holy Cow Cupcake in Carmel, owned by Karen Sutton, also uses the Phelp’s eggs in her delicious cupcakes!
About the Farm…
Joe is a fourth generation farmer and farms a lot like his great-great grandfather did – small, labor-intensive livestock raising farm work. He owns approximately 90-acres of pasture and tillable ground and also rents 150 acres to raise crops on. Joe has a farrow to finish hog operation that produces around 360 hogs per year. His 20 sows are bred every four months and are out on pasture until they get ready to have their piglets. Joe usually has at least two boars with the sows for natural breeding. The hogs are a cross between Yorkshire and Hampshire, which are good meat breeds. When the sows start to have their piglets, they are housed in a farrowing house until the pigs are weaned at approximately 5 weeks of age. Then all of the pigs (sows, too) go back out to pasture. They all get lots of fresh air and sunshine and get a chance to root around in the dirt, which they love.
Joe keeps around 40-50 beef steers all of the time at various ages. The cattle are on grass (free-range) their entire lives and they also get a little bit of grain (corn) that the Phelps’ grow. No meat by-products are added, nor any antibiotics or growth hormones are injected into the cattle. Cattle are vegetarians and like grass or hay best. Joe grows hay to feed the cattle during the wintertime. Although all of the animals are outside getting fresh air and sunshine, they do have shelter to get into during the winter months.
You might say Joe is a “chick magnet”. Especially since he owns right around 1,000 hens. They are also free-range. Chickens are meat eaters and like to get out and scratch around for worms and bugs. They also like corn and grain to eat. The Phelps’ chickens are Golden Comets, a good laying breed of hen. They are light brown in color, hence the brown eggs. The hens do go inside to sleep during the night time because of all the predators around.
The farm is rounded out with three dogs, several cats, and a hamster.
If you have any questions or would like to contact the Phelps’, please call (765) 942-2047
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