The following is an excerpt by Charity Singleton Craig and will appear the the Edible Indy’s winter addition. To see the whole story please click on the digital link to edibleindy.com. I feel honored to have gotten to know some of the Edible Indy team and the beautiful work they do featuring Local Food and more.
The phrase “family business” takes on a whole new meaning for Jessica Smith and the folks at This Old Farm in Colfax.
In a recent interview, I asked Smith about the connection between her business and her family, and she immediately turned around
in her desk chair and pulled a photo off the wall behind her. “Why am I in this business? It’s because of this little guy,” she said,
holding up a photo of her firstborn son, Conner, who just graduated from Purdue University. “That first child makes you rethink life and how
you want to eat. He was the instigator of change, of moving from city to country. We wanted him, and the rest of kids, to have a rural upbringing.”
When This Old Farm started, it was just that: a diversified livestock and vegetable farm in Montgomery County, producing, what Smith calls
“real food.” Many of their customers came looking for healthy food to help them or family members heal from illnesses.
“Probably 75 percent of the people who came to see us were sick in some way,” Smith said. “It was heartbreaking and educating at the same
time. Those individuals had lost all hope from modern medicine and were looking to find something different to redo their diet. They taught
me as much as I was learning from reading at the time. I understood the value of good, responsible, clean food from that experience.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
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