ABOUT OUR HOMESTEAD
Welcome to our homestead! We, Darrel and Mitzi McBride, want to take a few
minutes of your time to introduce ourselves, and give you an idea of what our
vision and purpose is for this website.
Taste and See Homestead has its foundation in Darrel’s 3-generation, 106-acre
heritage farm located in beautiful Middle Tennessee. Darrel’s father and his
siblings were responsible for clearing much of the land by hand when his
grandfather purchased the land. Although we do not live in the original
farmhouse, it is still on the property. Darrel remembers his father and siblings sleeping on the roof
during the hot summer when he visited his grandparents!
When Darrel purchased the property, he created Trace Creek Ranch. The pastures
were used for more than 20 years to breed his beloved Arabian and Half-Arab
endurance race horses. The farm was full of renown bloodlines and beautiful
horses during that season. However, we saw the seasons and the world changing
about 2015, and began to implement changes for the new vision. The horse stock
was gradually sized down to 3 favorite geldings who are retired pasture pets now.
Mitzi has enjoyed gardening and raising chickens for most of her life. She bred,
milked and showed Nigerian Dwarf goats for many years but always wanted to try
her hand at raising sheep. Their research for a foundation sheep flock led them to
the wonderful breed of Kathadin hair sheep. The original, registered purebred
stock was sourced from the top breeders in the US and purchased in 2015. This
was a great decision for Trace Creek Ranch. The first chicken flock was also
purchased then and consisted only of 6 Isa Brown hens. Gardens were attended
to half-heartedly during this time of development as well.
In 2017, as America’s food sources became more and more questionable, we
decided to make a push to do more gardening and create more sustainability.
The goal has been to create a farm-to-table, sustainable lifestyle for ourselves.
Gardening and food preservation now occupy a place of importance in our
everyday lives, and meals prepared solely from food raised here on our farm have
become a way of life.
We also added a campground for our ministry fellowship, Taste and See
Ministries. Through our fellowship and camping experiences, we began to teach
others the value of locally sourced and home-grown foods, medicinal herbs and
basic survival skills.
We believe in being guardians of the land while we are blessed to occupy this
beautiful space. We use permaculture methods and natural means of maintaining
pastures and growing our food crops. Our animals are all on pasture and allowed
the space to exist the way Yah intended them to. Feed supplements are non-GMO
and organic. We do not personally use pesticides or herbicides. Our goal is to
always improve what we have been entrusted with.
Our farm has evolved from being a horse farm with a couple of garden beds, to
some foundation sheep and 6 chickens, to our current sustainability of raising
grass-fed lamb, a large enough garden to meet most of our yearly needs and 5
poultry houses with more than 10 breeds of chickens. What we realized in
researching and learning from others who have taken this journey before we did,
is that most people embarking on such an endeavor are much, much younger
than we are! We have decided to grow our farm and garden at an age when most
people are ready to call it quits and find the rocking chairs. Too boring!
The people who have learned through our ministry have been pleased to have the
almost-forgotten skills brought to light in a practical way. It’s the combination of
our ministry, our journey of farming later in life, and the ways Yah speaks to us
through the blessing and lessons we experience on our beautiful farm that have
led us to a new name and a new look for this farm.
Trace Creek Ranch has been renamed, much in the same way people in the Bible
were renamed after a huge transformation. Taste and See Homestead has been
created for both the practical and the spiritual. Grassfed lamb, poultry and
hatching eggs are offered for sale. The blog posts will offer practical advice for
gardening and farming, as well as sharing what we are doing in an endeavor to
help others. Mitzi loves to blog the about the Blessings and Goodness of the
Creator and enjoys capturing beautiful photographs of the farm. Darrel loves
creating new infrastructure that is pleasing to the eye, and discipling those
seeking the One True Creator.
We pray we can enrich your life through our experiences and open your spiritual
eyes to see the goodness of Creator. “I would have lost heart had I not believed I
would see the goodness of Yah in the land of the living.” Psalm 27:13
SHALOM!
minutes of your time to introduce ourselves, and give you an idea of what our
vision and purpose is for this website.
Taste and See Homestead has its foundation in Darrel’s 3-generation, 106-acre
heritage farm located in beautiful Middle Tennessee. Darrel’s father and his
siblings were responsible for clearing much of the land by hand when his
grandfather purchased the land. Although we do not live in the original
farmhouse, it is still on the property. Darrel remembers his father and siblings sleeping on the roof
during the hot summer when he visited his grandparents!
When Darrel purchased the property, he created Trace Creek Ranch. The pastures
were used for more than 20 years to breed his beloved Arabian and Half-Arab
endurance race horses. The farm was full of renown bloodlines and beautiful
horses during that season. However, we saw the seasons and the world changing
about 2015, and began to implement changes for the new vision. The horse stock
was gradually sized down to 3 favorite geldings who are retired pasture pets now.
Mitzi has enjoyed gardening and raising chickens for most of her life. She bred,
milked and showed Nigerian Dwarf goats for many years but always wanted to try
her hand at raising sheep. Their research for a foundation sheep flock led them to
the wonderful breed of Kathadin hair sheep. The original, registered purebred
stock was sourced from the top breeders in the US and purchased in 2015. This
was a great decision for Trace Creek Ranch. The first chicken flock was also
purchased then and consisted only of 6 Isa Brown hens. Gardens were attended
to half-heartedly during this time of development as well.
In 2017, as America’s food sources became more and more questionable, we
decided to make a push to do more gardening and create more sustainability.
The goal has been to create a farm-to-table, sustainable lifestyle for ourselves.
Gardening and food preservation now occupy a place of importance in our
everyday lives, and meals prepared solely from food raised here on our farm have
become a way of life.
We also added a campground for our ministry fellowship, Taste and See
Ministries. Through our fellowship and camping experiences, we began to teach
others the value of locally sourced and home-grown foods, medicinal herbs and
basic survival skills.
We believe in being guardians of the land while we are blessed to occupy this
beautiful space. We use permaculture methods and natural means of maintaining
pastures and growing our food crops. Our animals are all on pasture and allowed
the space to exist the way Yah intended them to. Feed supplements are non-GMO
and organic. We do not personally use pesticides or herbicides. Our goal is to
always improve what we have been entrusted with.
Our farm has evolved from being a horse farm with a couple of garden beds, to
some foundation sheep and 6 chickens, to our current sustainability of raising
grass-fed lamb, a large enough garden to meet most of our yearly needs and 5
poultry houses with more than 10 breeds of chickens. What we realized in
researching and learning from others who have taken this journey before we did,
is that most people embarking on such an endeavor are much, much younger
than we are! We have decided to grow our farm and garden at an age when most
people are ready to call it quits and find the rocking chairs. Too boring!
The people who have learned through our ministry have been pleased to have the
almost-forgotten skills brought to light in a practical way. It’s the combination of
our ministry, our journey of farming later in life, and the ways Yah speaks to us
through the blessing and lessons we experience on our beautiful farm that have
led us to a new name and a new look for this farm.
Trace Creek Ranch has been renamed, much in the same way people in the Bible
were renamed after a huge transformation. Taste and See Homestead has been
created for both the practical and the spiritual. Grassfed lamb, poultry and
hatching eggs are offered for sale. The blog posts will offer practical advice for
gardening and farming, as well as sharing what we are doing in an endeavor to
help others. Mitzi loves to blog the about the Blessings and Goodness of the
Creator and enjoys capturing beautiful photographs of the farm. Darrel loves
creating new infrastructure that is pleasing to the eye, and discipling those
seeking the One True Creator.
We pray we can enrich your life through our experiences and open your spiritual
eyes to see the goodness of Creator. “I would have lost heart had I not believed I
would see the goodness of Yah in the land of the living.” Psalm 27:13
SHALOM!
