We are all about your food and how we produce it for you. Our food is:
LOCAL
Why does this matter? From New Market, Tennessee, we deliver to 36 surrounding zip codes.
= Our customers are close enough to visit us and see firsthand what makes us different.
= Our customers support their local community and economy, not another region or even another country.
= After years of study, Jane Goodall, internationally acclaimed anthropologist, concluded that when it comes to protecting the environment, eating locally is the number one action we each can take to make a difference.
HUMANE
Lick Skillet Farm rejects factory farming. Period. Come walk our fields and see. We never confine our animals in pens – they are truly free range, enjoying full access to carefully planned “gourmet salad bar”; pastures. Our cattle have never tasted grain and are fed and finished entirely on these pastures. They’ve lived here for 20 generations. We do not de-beak our hens, dock the tails of our pigs or sheep, or dehorn our cattle. We delay weaning our hogs and cattle twice as long as normal, giving our young animals greater access to their mothers’ care. For 100% transparency on this important issue, we are currently pursuing external certification of our animal welfare program, and we will keep our progress posted here.
HEALTHY
Antibiotic Free
It’s shocking to realize that 80% of all antibiotics sold in the United States are in our food supply, because factory conditions are such that antibiotics must be included in daily feed. We’ve never fed antibiotics. If one of our animals really needs antibiotics – typically 1 or 2 per year – we medicate it, just as we would our own children. Such an animal is tagged and sold through conventional channels where antibiotics are the norm.
No Added Hormones
Virtually all factory-farmed livestock is either fed or implanted with growth hormones. These have been traced through the US food supply, and found to trigger serious health concerns for consumers. Lick Skillet has been 100% hormone-free for years, having chosen to accept lower growth rates in exchange for safer food.
No GMOs
Many genetically modified organisms were created to allow repeatedly broadcasting powerful weed killers into desired crops. To avoid foods that were sprayed with such herbicides requires buying from a certified GMO-free producer. To ensure your safety, we grind all our own feed on the farm, using only non-GMO ingredients.
No Corn or Soy
99% of all livestock produced in this country is fed corn and soy because they are cheap: mass-produced and heavily subsidized by the federal government. These are so cheap that even many certified organic meats and eggs are produced on diets of corn and soy! Yet, these are among the top food allergens, and food produced this way tastes bland. We buck the trend, and do not feed our hens and hogs corn or soy. Instead, we use barley, sorghum, oats, peas, and sunflower seeds, supplemented with alfalfa, minerals, vitamins, probiotics, and enzymes, besides whatever they discover grazing or rooting in healthy pastures. Lick Skillet Farm protocols cost us more than twice as much as conventional factory farming costs. We are OK with that. Our goal is not to give you the cheapest food you can find; our goal is instead to give you the best food you can find.
Our family has built our farm's foundation on the core values of sustainable and ethical production.