A Summer of Fun at the Farm

Save 5% + a FREE Item + $25 Cash Back

written by

posted on

July 12, 2024

In the midst of many summer farm projects, thousands of orders being shipped to homes across the country each month, and normal "life" highs and lows, our family has gotten together for some F-U-N times and fellowship this summer.

And you know what? I'm actually really proud of that.

The truth is that it takes intentional commitment to foster friendships and love, and getting together to be with each other in the same space is an unmatched way to do just that.

As you know, we value transparency in caring for and raising animals and producing food. But we are also happy to give you a deeper glimpse into our family—your farmers, too.

With that, here's a quick recap and some pictures of what we've been doing this summer.

1950s Drive-in Movie Night

Some of our time together required a little more coordination than others, and my sister-in-law Katrina helped lead one such event, a throwback drive-in movie night at the farm.

We dressed the part, had delicious "theater" snackables, and watched a number of Andy Griffith episodes on a big screen projected against the barn.

Brandt (the 7th son) and his wife, Marissa, nailed their costumes and enjoyed the movie in their Dune Buggy.

Blake (the 1st son) and his wife, Kim, also showed up in style in Blake's old green pickup you may have seen a time or two on our Instagram stories.

Below, Bruce (the 6th son) looked pretty dapper while he gathered snacks for himself and his young family.

Last but not least, the "late night" crew of my dad, Brandt & Marissa, Brock & Katrina and a few of my neices and nephews stayed up til 2 am watching Star Wars episode 2.

Blaine's son, Bryton, was looking 1950s cool as a cucumber...

When you have Seven Sons and 16 grandkids, you have A LOT OF CHAIRS at your homemade drive-in:

We have to give a special shoutout to our hostress, Katrina Hitzfield (pictured below), for organizing such an awesome event.

Fireworks as a Family

The weekend before the 4th of July many of us got together at a local church for a fireworks display that absolutely knocked our socks off. The show lasted over 30 minutes in its entirely, with the grand finale lasting close to five minutes or so.

It was a pretty late night for my wife, Charis and I, and our family of six...but the memories were worth every minutesand the tiredness we felt the next day. We were happy to be joined by Brock his family, as well as Bruce and his wife Alyssa (pictured below) and their three little ones.

Independence Day Parade

For many years my father-in-law has invited us to participate in the Warren, IN 4th of July parade. This is the we surprised him and made it happen. 😁

It sure was great to get Mom, so many of us brothers, and our families involved at the last minute. I know my wife, Charis, was proud to have all of us represent the farm in the small town she grew up in.

Team Party at my House

Last but not least my sister-in-law Catherine (Brooks, the 5th son's wife) was instrumental in putting together one of our biggest events of the year.

We hosted the family and farm team at my house on July 6th for more fireworks, delicious farm food, cornhole, buggy and ATV rides, swimming in the pond and lots of laughs.

The truth is that Seven Sons is so much more than just my brothers and I and our families, and connecting off-site with the incredible team we lock arms with and their families is one of the most important and fulfilling things we get to do a few times throughout the year.

Last Saturday was one of those fun days. :)

A trip to the Zoo

Several of us got together for some zoo time on an overcast June day...our little Hitzfield animals were impressed!

On the Farm

More from the blog

Why I So Desperately Wanted to Leave the Family Farm

Today I’m writing about something I haven’t shared with you before. Over the years, I’ve told you a lot about our mission of restoring trust in food. That story is true. But it’s only part of the story that drew me back to my family’s farm...

America's BIGGEST Nutrition Policy Blunder

Good morning,Today we look back in time...The year was 1992. I was six years old.That was the year the iconic Food Pyramid was introduced to the public. It quickly became seared into the minds of Americans as the symbol of a healthy diet for the next 30 years.Schools taught it.Doctors referenced it.Food companies built entire marketing campaigns around it.I remember walking the grocery store aisles as a kid and seeing a barrage of marketing claims on cereal boxes and Pop-Tarts that proudly read, “Part of a healthy diet.”Looking back now, that claim feels almost unbelievable.The original Food Pyramid never bothered to distinguish between refined grains and whole grains. And it treated all fats as bad.So Americans were told, for decades, to build their diets around foods that were often highly inflammatory and damaging to gut health. Since that day, here’s what followed: Obesity rates doubledType 2 diabetes skyrocketedUltra-processed food consumption surgedMore than 70% of American adults are now overweight or obeseNearly 90% of healthcare spending now goes toward treating chronic disease When people ask me what I think about the recently introduced “Upside Down Food Pyramid,” my response is simple: Why did it take more than 30 years to turn this thing on its head? In my opinion, the 1992 Food Pyramid will go down as one of the great policy blunders in modern American history.The USDA's updated dietary guidance is finally acknowledging what many regenerative farmers have understood for decades: It recognizes healthy fats as an essential part of a restorative diet.It emphasizes the importance of gut health, including fermented foods.It plainly states we should avoid highly processed packaged and prepared foods.It directly (and correctly) links the Standard American Diet to the wave of chronic health conditions Americans are battling. The guidelines also acknowledge that people with chronic disease, like myself, may need to adapt these dietary recommendations to their own health situation. That point is incredibly important. And one last thing.This shouldn’t be taken as a political statement.The truth is, the low-fat, high-carb diet didn’t come from one political party. It was embraced by both Democrats and Republicans. And, for more than 30 years, neither side seriously questioned whether it was working.Meanwhile, chronic disease kept rising and the industrial food system kept expanding.I’m simply thankful to see this policy finally getting turned upside down the way it should have been all along.At the end of the day, most of us don’t need a government chart to tell us what good food looks like.Real food raised responsibly.Ingredients you recognize.Meals shared around a table with people you care about.That’s the kind of food system we’re working to build here at Seven Sons.And we’re grateful to have so many of you walking that path with us.

25 Years of Seven Sons (Some OLD SCHOOL pics!) 📸

A few weeks back, at our annual team Christmas party hosted right here in the farm order fulfillment area, I took our team members and their guests on a trip down memory lane.While we served over 25,000 unique families in 2025, the truth is that our farm had VERY humble beginnings, rich with challenges, uncertainties, and failures.I’ll never forget one evening when I was probably 12 years old. Dad sat Blake and me down and asked if we’d be willing to invest the cash we had saved in glass jars to help pay for the first cattle fencing we needed to build.That was a lot of weight for young boys to carry.But we said yes.Looking back now, I never could’ve imagined that those jars of cash would one day multiply into what Seven Sons has become today.The purpose of my storytelling that night was to enrich the team's understanding of our farm's story, and celebrate 25 years of serving customers, regenerating the soil, producing nourishing, healthy food, and raising animals with care.It was a fun exercise. :)And, so, for just 2-3 minutes I invite YOU on this same journey. Take a trip down memory lane with me... The year was 1999, and Y2K (the fear of what would happen when all the computers rolled over to a new century) was on the horizon.Mom, Dad, Blake, and I worked hard to create our first-ever product, Canned Beef - a shelf-stable staple item in high demand at the time.It was the only product we sold.The good news is that it sold very well!!The bad news was that after Y2K passed without a hitch, people had too much, and demand plummeted. While we still sell our canned beef today, we had a BIGGER vision than selling one product, so we got busy innovating. In the late 1990s / early 2000s, the internet and "selling online" was just in its infancy. Mom and I agreed that a good home schooling project would be for me to build the first Seven Sons website. (pictured above).I'm happy to report I finished my project, but I'm unhappy to report we NEVER earned a single customer through this first version of SevenSons.net.(The marketer in me now understands why. 😂)Thankfully, the spark for online marketing was ignited in me, and I continued to learn and take steps to effectively reach customers online in the coming years. Our next step was to open a self-serve on-farm store so that customers could buy from us 7 days a week, and we could support our sales beyond the few sales we'd make at farmers' markets in the area.It was about this time that I started dating my wife, Charis.On one of my early visits down to visit her family in Warren, IN, I happened to notice this shed (pictured above) on the back of her family's property. I couldn't help but notice that it looked like a pretty ideal farm store.🤔She encouraged me to ask her parents if we could buy it to start our family's on-farm store, and they gave it to us. Interestingly, Charis' grandpa has started a business with the same shed years ago, and so her parents were more than happy to see the tradition carry on.We were in business shortly thereafter... With the vision of growth and packing more and more orders over time, we built our first fulfillment and packing "room".With the mix of a refrigerator, a few freezers, and an area to weigh and package goods, we were on our way to working more efficiently. My friend, this BIG truck, affectionately called "THE BEAST," is what we used to make our first home deliveries in the area, and eventually all the way to Chicago.There were many, many days of rolling down the interstate, first with Blake, and then with my other brothers as they got old enough to make the trip. There was no A/C, so those July and August trips were especially warm. And, sometimes the trips were adventurous...One memory stands out more than most...I remember standing in the back of that reefer truck on a cold November day in Munster, Indiana. Ice and rain were coming down, and there were more than 30 families lined up behind the truck waiting to pick up their Thanksgiving orders.As I think back on that moment now, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude.Every one of those families chose to skip the grocery store.Every one of them trusted us with their holiday meal.And those choices repeated thousands of times over the years, are the reason this farm is still here today. And that brings us to our first ever team Christmas party...The impact this year for our people, our greatest asset, was strong as they could look around the room to see the now nearly 100 people enjoying a meal, playing games and leaving with some thank you gifts.Each word of this story is only possible because of the folks reading it. If you read our Manifesto, you will learn that behind the scenes of this 25-year journey, there were many hardships that nearly ended the journey.The belief, patience, good will and partnership we've received from our customers over the years means more than you know to mom, dad, my brothers and I.THANK YOU.❤️Let me close by saying that 25 years in we are more inspired than ever and the vision we have is grand.We invite you to continue on that path with us...to enjoy healthy food you can eat with confidence, and help us continue to lead for much needed change in the food systems and agriculture

No matching products found.