Centre County regenerative farm benefits land, consumers. Here’s how

Do you know exactly how your holiday turkey made its way to your dinner table? What kind of life did it lead before it wound up sitting alongside the green bean casserole and the yams? If you purchased that turkey from Pole Cat Hollow Farm in Howard, it’s no mystery.

Nancy Kaltenbach and her husband Greg Stuber purchased their property in 2017. Kaltenbach, whose day job is as a senior quality engineer at GE HealthCare, grew up on a farm and always wanted a big white farmhouse, citing the rural lifestyle and the community that comes with a direct sales farming operation. Meanwhile, Stuber worked in the entertainment industry and traveled for work about 200 days each year.

But when the opportunity presented itself, Stuber made a career shift and the couple began building what would become Pole Cat Hollow Farm. Today, they raise beef, lamb, pork and several kinds of poultry, including broiler chickens, ducks and turkeys for the holidays — and they specifically pride themselves on operating a regenerative farm.

“It’s leaving the land in a better condition than you found it,” Kaltenbach described of the concept. “That’s very important for our farm, because, around 2010, it had been logged and the stumps had been bulldozed out. Then, it had just been pretty much left fallow. People put some fence in, but they never really farmed it. Then, it was sold as an investment property.”

By the time Kaltenbach and Stuber came on the scene, the fields were in “horrible shape.”

“There was very little grass,” Kaltenbach continued. “The wood left from the logging operation looked like driftwood, because there was no fungus left in the soil to decompose it.”

While regenerative farming may sound like a buzzy new marketing term, it’s actually a process that has long been observed in the natural world, with Kaltenbach pointing to the buffalo herds that historically roamed the Midwest as an example. Animals come in, eat down the grass for a short period, add carbon back into the soil and then move on, allowing the soil to regenerate.

Ultimately, the process benefits not just the soil quality, but also the health of the farm’s animals, as well as that of the broader community.

“We judiciously manage where the animals are on the farm, feeding them healthy foods. We use non-GMO feeds for the animals that are supposed to eat grains. For the animals that aren’t supposed to eat grains, like cows and sheep, they’re grass-fed,” Kaltenbach said.

Cows and pigs move from fresh plot to fresh plot of grass as needed, while the sheep have free rein. Chickens and turkey move every day, in specially designed structures that give them access to fresh grass while protecting them from aerial predators. As the birds move about, their waste naturally fertilizes the fields, negating the need for chemical fertilizers.

Because the animals are living healthier, better-quality lives, Kaltenbach noted, they end up being a higher quality product on the consumer end as well. Pasture-raised turkeys, for instance, become more flavorful, moist and nutrient dense, compared to commercially raised alternatives. The turkeys at Pole Cat Hollow Farm are still around the same size as any turkey in the grocery store, as the farm simply allows the turkeys to grow over a longer time period, versus pushing the birds to grow as much as possible, as quickly as possible.

However, nature does sometimes interfere.

“One year, it was very hot and dry, and that’s a great breeding season for grasshoppers,” Kaltenbach said. “Our turkeys were out in the field and they were eating all these grasshoppers. We can’t control that. ... They were eating all this extra protein and the turkeys got really big. We were sending out emails [to customers] like, ‘We know you ordered this size [turkey], but — grasshoppers.”

Pole Cat Hollow Farm’s loyal customer base didn’t seem to mind a little extra turkey that year.

This customer base is made up of a mix of individuals. Some are foodies who are looking for better-tasting products. Others are health-conscious consumers who don’t want to eat meat products raised on chemical feeds or exposed to subtherapeutic antibiotics. Then, there are others who appreciate the farm’s work for its positive environmental impact.

“Just seeing the pictures of what our farm used to be versus what it is now — we’re still not the idyllic farm, but our fields are looking much better,” Kaltenbach said. “That impacts not just our farm, but the downstream [as well]. We have a stream running through our farm…. When the logging operation happened, our downstream neighbors during that time couldn’t use their water supplies, because there was so much runoff of soil contamination — so, we feel like we’re not just impacting our property, but we’re impacting our community.”

While turkey orders for Christmas were processed at Thanksgiving, Pole Cat Hollow Farm still has a lot of other products to potentially add to your holiday spread. From leg of lamb to pork roasts, to even gift packs and gift certificates, orders can be placed at polecathollowfarm.com.

Holly Riddle is a freelance food, travel and lifestyle writer. She can be reached at holly.ridd@gmail.com.