History
Our grandparents, William and Edna Hale, started the farm in Farmington, Missouri in the 1940’s, raising cattle and crops, and barely making ends meet. Our father, Ron Hale, labored on the family farm growing up, often without “luxuries” like shoes in the summer or heat in the winter. By 1970, at age 24, Ron had become the first in his family to go to college, married his college sweetheart, joined the Navy, and completed his first master’s degree. In 1992, after his daughters had graduated from high school and Ron had retired from the Navy, he was finally able to return to the land he loved and begin growing organic produce and alfalfa hay with his son. For several years, Ron was able to farm the land and get involved with a number of regional organic and slow food initiatives that were just getting started, including Slow Food St. Louis and Fair Shares St. Louis, and he co-founded the Farmington Farmer’s Market. Then, in 2008, Ron died in a farming accident at age 61 and family farm operations came to a tragic end.
New Beginnings
A decade later, Ron’s children set out to continue his legacy. After nearly two years of cleaning, clearing, building and planting, Hale Family Farm began producing the next generation of specialty produce using organic methods. This year, we will again have multiple varieties of heritage tomatoes, focused on maximum flavor. We will also have lots of variety in fresh herbs, leafy greens, spinach and lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, and a range of sweet, spicy and mild peppers.
New for this year, we are offering baby chicks and fertile hatching eggs from our free range flock of colorful egg layers. We will also begin offering wildflower honey, harvested on the farm.
Our new farm store is about to open, so you will be able to buy our products, at your convenience, throughout the week. The farm store is in the front of the blue metal building with the white roof, located at our main entrance off Highway OO, next to the cell tower.
You can browse available products online, and can place an online order for pickup at the farmers market, or at the farm.