We are Annie and DJ Loden. With our two little helpers, Harrison and Lilyann, we are going to continue Sarah and Ryan’s exceptional job of raising and providing quality meat, eggs, and more to our community.
Annie has been dreaming of having all the animals forever! Annie grew up in Goleta, CA. She majored in Animal Science at Cal Poly planning to become a vet but realized that working with the healthy animals and managing them in a way that kept them healthy was way better than treating the sick ones. She has been practicing holistic management since working at the Cal Poly sheep unit and owned her own goat grazing business for a while until she decided that she wanted a family and it didn’t quite fit with that plan. Annie currently works at Epoch Wines as the barn manager taking care of all the animals there and still helps with the farm at home.
DJ was drawn into animal life after meeting Annie in college. He has helped Annie with sheep, goats, chickens, horses, cattle, and more! He actually has been a tax accountant for the past 7 years and has decided to become a full-time farmer to run BeeWench farm! He still plans to do some accounting and taxes on the side, but is really excited to have an outdoor office. DJ was born and raised in Atascadero and is excited to meet everyone at Farmer’s markets and on deliveries. We had to change delivery days to Wednesdays because DJ is a high school football referee also.
Our farm is located in Paso Robles and we have been raising goats, sheep, chickens, bees, and ducks on it for the past 5 years. Using holistic management and planned grazing, we are bringing back the soil fertility with the help of the animals. This helps the land and creates much healthier animals. We also have a small business called Sustainable Chickens. We have been raising pullets for anyone who wants laying hens of their own and have our own laying flock providing delicious pasture raised eggs. We plan to continue this, so if you are looking for your own chickens (we highly recommend this for everyone who can have backyard layers!), ask us about that and check out our website.
We look forward to meeting all of you and are happy to answer any questions you may have about our practices and animals!
