25 Years of Seven Sons (Some OLD SCHOOL pics!) šø
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.Iāll never forget one evening when I was probably 12 years old. Dad sat Blake and me down and asked if weād 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 couldāve 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. š)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.š¤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, Iām 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.ā¤ļøLet 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
