Meet Modern Farmer’s Guest Instagrammer: Longest Acres Farm

It was the winter they spent in the foothills of the French Alps in 2010 that spurred this couple to farm. Nick Zigelbaum spent that season working as a butcher, and he and his wife, Kate MacLean, raised chickens while they feasted on the summer harvest canned by Nick’s aunt, for whom they were housesitting. It was a far cry from their lives in San Francisco where MacLean, 31, worked for Facebook and Zigelbaum, 32, worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council and also as a mechanical engineer.

“[In France] we were given our first introduction to honest, high quality, local, and unassuming food. At the time, that food wasn’t easy to come by in the States,” says MacLean.

When they returned to the U.S., the couple apprenticed at various farms until they were ready to strike out on their own. Since 2012, they have been farming 120-acres in Chelsea, Vermont, raising Devon cattle for beef, milk, and breeding stock, and Icelandic sheep for wool, meat, and breeding stock. Additionally, they raise Ossabaw pigs, milking goats, chickens, guinea hens, bees, and grow vegetables. They also also offer farm stays and host weddings.

Photograph by Savanah Loftus

All photographs by Kate MacLean unless otherwise noted.

If that wasn’t enough, they’re also raising a son – Leland, a two-and-a-half year old shepherd-in-training, if you will.

MacLean says their farming philosophy is simple: “No grain, no antibiotics. No added anything. Just sunshine, water, and grass.” The farm is Animal Welfare Approved, and while not yet certified organic, they eschew the use of pesticides, sub-therapeutic antibiotics, or conventionally grown grain.