A Farm Tucked into the Allegheny Mountains

Myers Poultry took a visit to Footprints Farm, a 370-acre family farm tucked into a quiet Pennsylvania valley just north of the West Virginia border.

Footprints Farm raises non-gmo, pasture-raised chicken and eggs, grass-fed beef, pork, duck, turkey, and organic vegetables. Their products can be delivered or picked up at one of their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) locations.

Footprints Farm raises its animals and vegetables as naturally as possible, without antibiotics, herbicides, or pesticides. The farm’s approach is built around soil health and food connected to the land it is grown on.

To learn more, shop farm products, or keep up with what's happening on the farm, visit Footprint's Farm's website and follow them on Facebook. 

The Morning Chores Start Early

I got to Footprints Farm a little before 8 in the morning, but the day had clearly started well before I arrived.

By then, it was time to move the meat birds to new pasture. As I made my way up the forest-lined grass field, I could hear the chickens waiting for their fresh patch of grass. Not calmly, either. They knew what was coming.



Five hoop houses sat on the pasture: four filled with Cornish Cross, a reliable meat chicken, and one with Pekin ducks. Nearby, a livestock guardian dog kept watch over the pasture, and from the look of him, he had spotted me long before I spotted him.

Victor, the recently appointed farm manager, hooked the tractor to the hoop houses and slowly pulled them forward. Inside the hoops, two farmers encouraged any slowpokes to keep moving with the structure.

As the hoops slid onto fresh grass, the Cornish Cross rushed to forward, plucking grass tips and foraging for bugs. The grass is at a perfect height for them, first eaten down by a herd of cattle that passed through the field a while before.



This is a pasture-raised chicken system, and it has been expanded over time to fit the needs of a growing farm.

Cattle move through the field first, grazing the grass down to a better height for poultry. About a week and a half later, the broilers move onto that same ground. There, they scratch through the grass, eat bugs, and spread manure as they go. Once the birds move on, the pasture has been grazed, fertilized, and given a chance to recover.



The cattle and broilers are not the only ones moving, either. The laying hens, pigs, and horses rotate through their own sections of pasture, each protected by their own livestock guardians. Across the farm, the same idea repeats: animals move, the land rests, and the cycle starts again.



While the farm raises several kinds of livestock, the large open-air poultry hoop houses steal the show. Set out on open grass, they anchor the farm’s rotational grazing system, giving the poultry access to fresh pasture as they grow and clean spring water supplied by natural springs on the property.



What looks like a seamless system today was built slowly, one season at a time. 

The farm did not get here overnight. Jeremy and Ellen Swartzfager, the farm owners, have spent years growing Footprints Farm into the operation it is today, with large-scale chicken tractors, multiple employees, and a steady focus on serving their community.

How Footprints Farm Got Its Start

Eighteen years ago, Jeremy and Ellen were living in a tiny house in Monroeville with their young children. As their concerns grew over the food supply chain, so did the feeling that their small yard was not enough.

They wanted room, land, and more than that, they wanted to “raise kids closer to God’s creation,” says Jeremy.

So, Jeremy and Ellen sold their house and started their farming journey.

As the farm grew from an idea into a working operation, poultry became one of the pieces that helped shape its next chapter.

Over the years, Myers Poultry has been proud to supply Cornish Cross chicks for Footprints Farm as the operation continued to grow. 

As most farmers will tell you, getting started is rarely the romantic version people picture from the outside. There were hard, slow years. There were probably more “what are we doing?” moments than anyone wants to admit.

Jeremy described it plainly: “It took us 12 years to get where we are today. We had faith in our mission.”

That mission is still at the center of Footprints Farm today. The farm lives by three words:

• Nourish — Nourish the body with nutrient-dense food.
• Heal — Heal the human body, land, and food system.
• Inspire — Show others that this lifestyle is possible. 

At Footprints Farm, that mission shows up in the daily work: moving animals to fresh pasture, rebuilding tired soil, growing food with care, and helping families fell more connected to what they eat. 

And, that philosophy extends beyond how they raise their food- it also shapes how jeremy thinks about nutrition itself. 



Jeremy believes that a diversified diet matters not only for people, but also for the animals we eat. His view is simple: food should come from healthy soil, animals should have access to a varied natural diet, and people benefit when their plates include a wide range of fresh, nutrient-dense foods.

That idea is backed by research, too. Dietary diversity is often used as a sign of nutritional completeness, meaning people who eat from a wider range of food groups are more likely to get the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients their bodies need.

Bringing Life Back to Tired Ground

The field the meat chickens are pastured on has its own backstory.

According to Jeremy, the farm’s fields had spent about 50 years in a rotation of corn and soybeans. It had been conventionally tilled, fertilized and sprayed. Over time, that kind of use wore the soil down.

After Jeremy and Ellen took over the farm and adopted regenerative farming practices, they began to see the land change. They have noticed more wildlife, more songbirds, and more life returning to places that once looked tired.



That is one of the quieter rewards of regenerative farming. The progress can be slow at first, but over time, the results begin to show. For everyone working on the farm, those changes are a reminder that the daily routine matters, even when the progress happens slowly.

And that routine is full. Keeping animals moving, fed, watered, and cared for takes steady attention, especially on a farm that is growing in more than one direction.

The Busy Schedule

Of course, moving livestock is only one part of the day.

Footprints Farm has restaurant deliveries to organize, CSA and flexbox orders to pack, vegetables to tend, and an online presence to maintain. Behind every delivery and pickup are order logistics, customer messages, and future batch planning to juggle.



It is one thing to raise animals well, and it is another thing to manage all the details that keep a farm running smoothly.

Customers see the finished product. Behind it are countless small decisions, careful timing, and a team working to keep everything on track.

What Comes Next

Footprints Farm’s mission of nourishing, healing, and inspiring is still guiding its future.

The farm is already feeding a wide circle of people, but there is still room to grow. Part of that growth is happening in the greenhouses, where herbs and edible flowers are already started. Tomatoes will come in once the weather warms, adding another seasonal staple for CSA and flexbox customers who want more variety in their farm orders.

The turkeys are coming next, too.

Up on the hill, overlooking the rest of the farm, there is pasture waiting for them. It is a fitting picture of where Footprints Farm is headed: healthier soil under every season, more variety for local families, and more opportunity to nourish, heal, and inspire without losing sight of the mission that started it all.

Although the future feels uncertain for many folks, Jeremy remains hopeful. 

"I believe in people," he said. "I believe that the whole system can be redeemed, one 'footprint' at a time."