Eden Thistle Land Stewardship raises free-range swine and laying hens on natural, grain-free diets, and also offers non-GMO, hormone-free broiler chickens and different cuts of beef. (Contributed photo)From farm to front door, Eden Thistle Land Stewardship is changing the way North Georgians get meat - as well as what they get from it.
The Lookout Mountain, Ga., farm is dedicated to producing non-GMO, hormone-free meat in a way that is affordable for customers. And founder Marshall Teague aims to make filling up on the related benefits as convenient as possible by offering delivery.
Teague believes the way he deals with his animals not only improves their quality of taste, but is healthier for the consumer. Because of his animals' diet of grass and hormone-free supplemental mixes, the fat content of their meat is better than that of animals raised on grains and corn, he said. Omega-3 and vitamin contents are also higher in Eden Thistle's meat because of the animals' healthy diet, said Teague.
Eden Thistle offers a variety of different meats and cuts, with quail eggs soon to be added to the list. Pork, beef, chicken and eggs can be ordered from Eden Thistle.
Teague fell in love with the caring of animals while working on a sheep station in New Zealand. At 18, he was looking for an adventure, and found it through an elderly couple looking for help with the manual labor involved. In exchange, Teague received room, food and a chance to see the path to Mordor hiked in "The Lord of The Rings" films.
The experience put him on his own path to animal husbandry.
Teague took his love of animals back to America to raise horses with "natural horsemanship," a psychologically based training method that essentially uses coaxing. But while he cared for animals and the way they were treated, the mentality didn't translate to his own body.
"That's for hipsters. I don't care," he replied when someone told him he should care about his food and what he was putting into his body.
However, after doing research on the way America as a whole raises animals for consumption, Teague slowly had a change of heart and decided to apply his approach to raising horses to the way he raised his food: with understanding and care.
Eden Thistle raises its own swine and laying hens, while outsourcing beef and broiler chickens to "highly trusted and established farms," said Teague.
Eden Thistle delivers products right to customers' doors. Teague believes his way of farming is creating a better future, so he strives to make his products as convenient as possible. According to him and PETA, the way big corporations produce their meat is doing long-term damage to natural resources.
Some farming corporations plant food for their livestock in the same fields over and over again, depleting the topsoil at a high rate and making the land unfarmable in the future. And while some larger farms are looking into ways to farm more efficiently, according to Yale Environment 360, they still have to deal with the vast amount of manure that is not being absorbed properly into the soil due to its quantity. These "manure lagoons" are leaching nitrogen and pesticides into water runoff.
"In an emerging conversation about food and farming it's so easy to oversimplify problems and villainize farmers and companies," Teague said. "I think it is so easy, but very foolish. It doesn't create answers. It's a problem we all share, and it's a solution we all need to share. I like how Eden Thistle is part of the solution."
Eden Thistle sells a dozen eggs for $5 and delivers them for an additional $1. Broiler chickens sell for $4.50 a pound and ground beef is $8.99 a pound. In addition, Eden Thistle offers well-known cuts of beef, such as New York strip and chuck roast. Delivery for meat costs $3.50 per order.
"Animals are created with design," Teague said. "The word 'eden' has the context of the Garden of Eden - things working in harmony, animals and humans working together, functioning well. Our farm is trying to find that harmony."
Email Alex Farmer at afarmer@timesfreepress.com.