About Us

Whistleberry Farm is about good food.   We are a small, owner-operated farm located in the Fox River Valley of Northeast Wisconsin.   We are about 30 minutes from downtown Appleton and 45 minutes from Green Bay, Waupaca, or Shawano.

We raise registered Tamworth pork, free range and pastured chickens, and free range chicken eggs, as well as turkeys, ducks and geese.  We place a special emphasis on raising and maintaining the rare and heritage breeds of poultry, although we also raise some of the better-known and more common breeds as well.   Our principal goal is to raise great-tasting meats sufficient to please any gourmet appetite, and to do so using the highest quality and most responsible methods we can imagine.

We Are About Pasture

All our pigs and poultry are raised on pasture.   We maintain all the creatures here with the least amount of confinement necessary to keep them away from the neighbors, and predators away from them.   All the meat we produce is the result of birds and animals that are able to forage for part of their own feed, and enough freedom to do so.   Our reliance on pasture provides a sufficiently clean environment to permit us to raise pigs and poultry next door to non-farming neighbors, without causing offense.    I do think some of them would prefer that the roosters slept in on weekend mornings.

We are Drug Free

We supplement the pasture diet with a custom-ground feed mixture, which we provide in range feeders.    Our feed is adjusted for species, age and intended use, but it never contains antibiotics, hormones or other drugs.   We rely on good genetics, generations of natural disease resistance, fresh air, sunlight, and a relaxed and comfortable environment, not chemicals.

We are About Humane and Responsible Food Production

It is important to me to know that I am eating food that was raised and slaughtered humanely.    I also want to know that it was raised in a manner that was kind to the land and consistent with the survival of other small farmers.   If you feel that way, it is second nature to produce food you can feel good about eating.   We select housing and fencing, manage animals, move, load, feed and transport with that goal in mind.   We do our own transporting to the butcher on small trailers, and keep the distances short.   We use local custom butchers in either Green Bay or Appleton for our pork.   I use the closest professional facility available for our poultry, which is still within two hours.    We have the resources to arrange for USDA-inspected butchering at those facilities in order to permit sale to restaurants.

I disagree fundamentally with those who claim that rearing any animal for food is cruel and should be stopped.    I am horrified by their proposal to stop domestic food production, as it would spell the extinction of the domestic animal breeds I cherish and want to foster.    I do agree that as we have become more distanced from our food production, the public has become increasingly callous to the unacceptable cruelty of industrial farming methods.    The poultry and pork you buy in a supermarket have, in most cases, been raised under deplorable conditions that you would never impose on an animal in your own care, nor would you associate with anyone who did.   I have created for myself, and offer for sale, a clean-conscience alternative that is better for the animals, the land, small farmers like me, and people like you.