• We are stewards

  Stewardship is the core of our farming philosophy. We are stewards of our animals and our land. Our decisions and actions must always be based on a long-term conception of what is best for this land and these animals. The rest of our philosophy is derived from this principle.

• We only raise happy animals

  Regardless of our goals or the pressures we may be facing, every living being on our farm is provided an environment in which it can express its innate nature. Animals are not merely protein-generating machines, they are living creatures with discernible qualities and suitable environments. Our cows always have shade, our chickens earth to scratch, our pigs earth to root around in. Every animal is given the opportunity to live a life wherein their natural behaviours are not suppressed, but encouraged.

• Our land is ever-improving

  All of our activities on Mulligan Farms must concretely improve the ecosystems that surround us. The soil upon which our pastures, vegetables, and fruits grow is not degraded by any of our activities, nor is it merely left the same. Every action we take seeks to actively contribute to its improved long-term health. For instance, instead of regularly applying chemical fertilizers, we use the natural fertilization that animals, managed intensively, provide. We will always prefer courses of action that improve our land, even if it means radically more labor or reduced production.

• Our food is healthy and delicious

  When our customers spend their money on our food, we ensure that they are buying world-class food that is full of nutrients and delicious flavour. We are not producing a fungible commodity, but rather unique, thoughtfully prepared ingredients for meals that contribute to our customers overall health.

• Our customers are the most important people involved in the farm

  We seek to build long-term relationships with a stable and growing base of customers. Every bite of food from our farm will delight their pallette and naturally have them coming back, year after year, for more. Maintaining these relationships is ultimately our highest priority business activity.

The Unexpected Farmers

Mulligan Farms is run by us, Stephen and Kimberly Walters, along with our two kids, Ben and Ellie. While we are new to farming, we are not new to producing food.

Our path to running a family farm in rural Montana was circuitous, but the common thread through all our journeys has always been food. We are food-obsessed. We talk about food, read about food, think about food. We watch Iron Chef and Chopped. We seek out all kinds of restaurants, going so far as to travel to far-flung locales specifically to get some certain food. We cook food all the time. We garden, we can, we ferment, we cure. And we've been doing all that for many moons.

At the beginning of 2020, our family felt the need to move, yet again. Instead of living in a big city, we wanted to try to get a little closer to the land and live rurally and start making as much of our own food as possible. After spending what seemed like an eternity clicking on pictures on Zillow, we found a perfect slice of Eden in Western Montana to call our own. And so we came to have our little 30 acre farm.

We spent our first year on the farm making food just for ourselves, getting in the groove of our radically new career paths. We dove in head first, knowing we had a whole lot to learn. We read endlessly, subscribed to the Stockman Grass Farmer and other periodicals. We got started learning about animal husbandry and raising crops at a bigger scale than the gardens Kim had managed.

We became farmers.