Our fathers, grandfathers and their fathers and grandfathers before them were all American farmers. And those before them were German farmers. It is in our blood. This is a story of the traditions of generations before us being continued. With our own little spin, of course, as I'm sure Grandpa's Christ and Frank would have laughed at the idea of a "blog" and sharing the family's food with "cityfolk." We may poke a little fun now and then, but in all honesty and respect, it is important to Josh and I that we live as our family before us did, and work the land as they did. We are grateful for what others consider a luxury, for what we took advantage of growing up: knowing where our food came from, and growing it with our own hands. This is our attempt at telling our little story.
God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food."- Genesis 1:29
Josh and I grew up the same as most "farm kids." We each had gardens our families grew vegetables in, our fathers raised cattle, hogs, chickens, etc. to fill our giant freezers to last through winter. Our grandmothers and mothers canned, and most importantly: our parents filled our growing bodies with fresh, healthy food. To quote Tom Petty, "we grew up strong, and we grew up right" and we set out into the "real world" to make something of ourselves besides small town farmers. This is where it gets interesting...
Although we knew each other in high school, Josh and I really became friends afterwards, working together at the local grocery store (shout out to Loutre Market!) The summer of 2006 we began dating, and we both relocated to the big city of St. Louis. Me (Megan) for nursing school, and Josh to pursue training to become a chef. But this isn't a love story about us... it's a love story about food.
Josh trained at UMSL catering, and later Wolfgang Puck's at the St. Louis Art Museum under Chef Cary McDowell(another shout out!). Later, Cary asked Josh to be his Sous Chef at Revival. Josh loved his time in the kitchen, and through hard work he gained unforgetable experiences. By the time 2009 rolled around, I was starting work and Revival was sadly closing. We had a fun time in the city, but we missed the lightning bugs, and the stars, and most of all the fresh air. Driving home every weekend was becoming a pain, so we made the decision to move home the same month that we got married (June). It wasn't long before Josh missed being in the kitchen. We needed to come up with a way to bring the two together. We needed to share the fine mix of city and country that we knew so well with others: This was the birth of Pohlmann Valley Farm as we know it today.
Living in St. Louis made us both realize that having a meal grown completely on the family farm is not something that everyone knows. We took advantage of this growing up. We look around now and see kids who have not had a carrot, who think mashed potatoes really come out of a box, and who's mom says they have to pay for strawberries with their allowance because they are too expensive. This saddens us. We also realized that the demand for "organic, fresh food" is high... it was always just regular food to us. It is now our goal to bring the food we love to grow to a whole new market at a fair price. We do not believe parents should have to buy from the box because it is cheaper than fresh veggies, and we don't believe we have to import quality fruits and vegetables from Chile... we have them right here in Missouri.
We are starting out small right now, and have many goals and dreams for what we will become in the future. Most importantly though: we will be here. We will be farmers. We will "live where the green grass grows" (Tim McGraw), and we will "grow where we were planted" (unknown) in the house of the Lord.
Side note: In the future, we plan to post news, what is ripe/in season, prices, visitors, friends, other vendors, buyers etc. at this location. Please become our friend on facebook as well!
