Britni and Troy Teeters intended to grow food for their own purposes. Then word spread, and their herbs, eggs, and lettuce found their way onto tables at area restaurants and into the inventory of online marketplace Local Source. Now, Moonlight Hollow Farm is expanding its line of clean, natural food products.
When the couple moved to their 11-acre property seven years ago, Britni was working as a remote project lead for PSCU (now known as Valera) of Advisors Plus based in St. Petersburg, Florida, while Troy was a welder and fabricator for Vogler Metalwork & Design in Haubstadt, Indiana. The couple had always been interested in growing their own food and herbs, but the stress of corporate life and Britni’s resulting health issues prompted them to expand their farm to encourage her recovery journey. Five years ago, they introduced animals, and three years ago, they added consumer sales.
“We just wanted to do it for ourselves. … We didn’t want to depend on other people for our food and wanted to know where our food was coming from,” Troy says. “We’ve always had a garden … but nothing on this scale,” adds Britni, sharing that their children, Omelia, 11, and Oliver, 8, help with farm chores.
On five acres, they grow Parisienne carrots, dazzling blue kale, crisp mint lettuce, Chinese red meat radish, early scarlet globe radish, purple plum radish, zlata radish, black cherry tomatoes, peppers, berries, beets, cucumbers, and squash. Herbs include basil and oregano, which restaurant venture Turn Table procured while operating out of Arcademie. The Teeters’ chicken eggs have been poached and paired with asparagus and used in fresh, house-made pasta dishes on Belly of the Wolf ’s menu. Their lettuce appears in salads at Copper House and the Pangea family of restaurants. They also sell pork and poultry meat alongside herbal remedies, soaps, natural bug sprays, and brownies at farmers markets, including Market on Main and Franklin Street Bazaar.
Last year, the Teeters connected with Mary Winstead, co-owner of Beautiful Edibles, and Local Source, who assisted in establishing their online marketplace presence last year, which linked them with more restaurants. The Teeters’ goal is to expand their current farm- to-table offerings to include more vegetables, edible herbs, and meats. “The Salanova salad mix is the most productive in the farm-to-table restaurant orders,” Britni says.
That said, the Teeters prioritize the production of natural and healthy food over expansion. “We’re small batch. …We do all of this with love and make sure we have a clean, natural environment,” Britni says.
