Working with nature to create sustainable food systems

Oakshire Farm is a small regenerative farm in the foothills of Mount Pleasant in Amherst County, Virginia.

On our farm, our goal is to create food ecosystems that work with nature and not against it. We rotate our pastured hogs through a paddock system, giving the land time to rest and regenerate. We plant beneficial grasses and trees to restore our pastures and provide a wider variety of forage for our animals. Our farm is free from chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and GMOs. It’s a place where water is revered and recycled.

It’s also a place where we delight in the delicious food that our land produces. We are enthusiastic home cooks and bakers that are happiest with a full table. We hope to inspire you to get excited about the food you eat: where it comes from, who produced it and how, and the sheer deliciousness of it!

At Oakshire, we live and farm as part of a community. We are blessed to live in a valley full of the kindest gardeners and ranchers you could meet, and are fortunate to learn from their vast experience. We also cultivate community on the farm by hosting volunteer learners via the WWOOF program. The result is a vibrant mix of individuals growing and learning together.

Oakshire is run by Michael Ahlers and Gwendolyn Stinger

Our story

We first dreamed of living closer to the land while living in Santiago, Chile, where Michael was born and raised. Both of us had spent time on farms earlier in life: Gwen as a teenage seasonal worker on a cut-flower operation, Michael as a traveling farm volunteer in India. As we spent more and more time outside the city backpacking and camping, our desire for roots grew.

In a little Chilean town called Loanco, we built our first homestead over the course of several years, with plenty of learning experiences. In the six weeks we lived without a water source on-site, we vowed to never again take water for granted. We learned to respect the power of nature, building windbreaks to survive strong coastal winds. We were challenged–and ultimately delighted–by living in basic shelters of our own making.

The time came to look for a place to set deeper roots. When we visited Gwen’s home state of Virginia, we were inspired by the growing awareness of local and sustainable food. So we landed in a tiny mountain valley in Western Amherst County where family farmers historically grew tobacco, raised cattle, and tended to abundant homesteads. Stories are still told by those who remember when the closest store was a day’s ride on horseback and food came out of the garden (not the store). Today, our valley is home to productive small farms, ranches, and even an award-winning winery.

Get in touch

You can always contact us through our email: admin (at) oakshirefarm.com

We would love to hear from you!