Homestead in the Heartland

09/02/2026

It's that time of year again!

We have already been through our pork from last year and can't wait for the next.

The pigs are happy and growing fast, but they are selling out even faster! 🔥

If you are wanting local. pasture-raised pork put a deposit down NOW.
We may have to buy another round of pigs, and we would be excited to do so; we just need to know how many to get. Deposits will be open for 1 month.

Check out the flyer for details. If you have any questions, please ask, and go to our website to put down your deposit. Go to our online store and select the item labeled "Bulk Pork DEPOSIT."
www.homesteaditheartland.com

08/11/2026

🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰

An immediate impact we have noticed from our rotational summer grazing this year is that there are basically NO flies on our cows!!
We’ve STRUGGLED with heavy fly pressure. Face flies, flies covering their back and everything in between.

🫟🧄We tried all the fly repellant pour ons, all the fly repellent mineral, we’ve tried adding garlic to the mineral…. Nothing was working and a lot of experienced cattleman said “well if you’ve tried all that, and you have neighbors with cows (which we do, several herds), there’s nothing you can do.”

⚖️🌱We were not going to give up that easily! Heavy fly pressure + summer heat is not a fun combo for the cows. The heat is enough for them to deal with but add millions of flies and they are stressed all summer. In our research on regenerative farming we’ve read about ecosystem balance and how to break up the life cycle of the flies by rotationally grazing.

☀️🎉This is the first summer we’ve been able to truly be consistent about it, and let me tell you, it ACTUALLY worked!! We’re so excited about it and we can definitely tell the cows are less agitated by 🪰 and because of that, they are handling the heat better than ever.

07/23/2026

We are SO thankful to be part of the Pella Farmers' Market and the best part is meeting our customers every week; new and returning! Sharing our products with you is a bonus! 🐷

Come see all the amazing 🤩 vendors today and place your pick up order from us by 2 pm.

The last couple weeks have been our BUSIEST of the year, stay tuned for Homestead updates I’ll hopefully get posted this weekend ✨

Our VENDOR SPOTLIGHT for this week focuses on Homestead in the Heartland . This young couple shows up week in and week out with their sweet baby. Support this young couple as they are the very faces of WHOLESOME and FRESH!

Straight from their hearts:

"Homestead in the Heartland started because we wanted to grow wholesome, nutritious food while caring for the land in such a way that we are improving its ecosystem health.

We are so passionate about this for our own family that we can’t keep it to ourselves!

Hi there! We are Ben and Katherine De Boef, the family behind the Homestead. At the Pella Farmer's Market this year, we are selling our pasture-raised eggs and pasture-raised pork. The eggs come from our chickens that are in a mobile coop. We keep them in our pasture where they hunt for bugs and eat all kinds of plants. The pigs were also raised in our pasture and they were fed Non-GMO feed from a farmer we trust.

We also offer beef but that is sold seasonally and in quarters, halves, and wholes.

Try some of our fan favorites: Brats, Iowa Chops, and Pork Steaks!

You can purchase a variety of cuts at the market or place a pickup order online before hand
https://www.homesteaditheartland.com/

We hope to grow the Homestead business in the years to come so that we can share with you the way of life we love and the food that comes right off our farm.

Wholesome • Convenient • Connected

Stop by our table at the market because we'd love to meet you!"

Ben, Katherine, + Karissa (15 months)

06/30/2026

It’s always a GREAT sign when the cows are happy happy! 😃

This summer we are trying kind of an experiment with grazing 🌱
In previous years, we run out of grass in the summer… not good
We have a 12 acre alfalfa field we usually baled into hay 🚜

After Ben ran the numbers, we realized it didn’t make sense to keep doing that. It’d make just as much sense to buy hay and graze the alfalfa.

There are some concerns with grazing alfalfa, one being that livestock can quickly bloat, which is not always serious but sometimes it is. We learned that if you know when to graze it and when to not based on rainfall, you can avoid bloat, which our cows have!

The benefit to alfalfa is that it keeps growing even if it gets hot 🥵 or stops raining 🌧️. So, hopefully 🤞 this summer, ALLLL summer, we have happy cows 🐮

06/18/2026

We will be at the Pella Farmer's Market today 4-7 pm!

You could get your entire Father’s Day meals for this weekend at the market today!! 🍳🥩🥕🧁

Come see us for your eggs and bacon for breakfast with delicious brats or thick cut Iowa Chops for your grill out! Then go see the other awesome vendors for your produce, cinnamon rolls, bread, and dessert!!

Place an order online or DM us by 2 pm for pick up at the market. Is the family in town this weekend? TODAY place a pick up order of PORK for $25 or more and get a FREE pound of bacon!

06/02/2026

Come see us this Thursday at the Pella Farmer's Market!
There are so many unique vendors and the perfect place to shop local
We will have our farm fresh, pasture-raised eggs 🥚
and NEW this year is our pork!! 🥓
We will have anything from bacon, to brats, to your Sunday dinner roast.
Excited to see you there!

Welcome to Week 4 of Pella Farmers' Market! This week is the first week of Thursdays In Pella so the uptown fun promises to go up to a new level! Pella Farmers' Market is supporting their themes for the next several weeks so the whole square is alive with a similar vibe.

This week's theme of 😄Level Up Your Fun will bring out a beautiful community spirit that is wholesome and family-friendly with activities for everyone!

But don't forget to come out and support our hard-working vendors with their fresh garden produce, flowers, handmade and artsy items, coffees, and sweet deliciousness of all kinds. We also welcome back the Pella ArtMobile and Book Bike who will be distributing $1 Pella Farmers' Market Bucks for children.

🌻Remember to bring your Pella Farmers' Market bag and receive $1 token!

This week's vendors:

Abrie’s Crafts
Art 101
Beaming Belly Bakes
Coal Miner’s Flavored Cinnamon Rolls
Colorful Curiosities
Crust & Crumb
Em’s Sourdough
Forest Dweller’s Boutique
Freedom of Expression Ink
Gifts by Laidlaw
Grandma Pearl’s Dutch Letters
Heartland Reformed Church
Homestead in the Heartland
Hoyt’s Creative Design
Jireh Macrame & More
Johnnycake Lavender
Lisa Van Gilst
Mahaska Native Plants
Miles Goodyk Photography
Miss Harper’s Macs
Pauline & June
PFM Children’s Table
Primal Aromas
Quail Creek Homestead
Red Rock Gift Shop
Rick Terpstra Woodworking
Rise Up Acres/B’s Petite Patisserie
Riverside Farm
Sheepgate Coffee
Stamily Acres
Suikerspin Cotton Candy
Sunnyslope Greenhouse
Sweet Bee Sundries
Sweet Doe Company
Sweet Henry’s
Sweetly Made by Hannah
The Dragon’s Hoard
The Flower Court
Three VP’s Farm
Trevor’s Chicken Eggs
Two Skins Farm
You & Me Coffee

FOOD TRUCKS:
Gonzales Tacos

IN FRONT OF THE FLAGPOLE
Pella Art Mobile & Book Bike

05/18/2026

🚨BIG NEWS🚨
We’re now delivering pork straight to your door! 🥓🐖
Stock up on favorites without leaving your home - wholesome, connvenient, and connected 🤝
Everything from bacon, to ribs, to delicious bratwurst for your summer cookouts! ☀️

Comment “DELIVERY” to get the 🔗 to our online store!

And don’t forget to add a dozen eggs to the order 🍳

Deliveries are Saturday mornings ☕️

03/26/2026

This is only our second year bale grazing and we’ve already seen significant changes in the health of our pasture soil and grass! 🌱🌾
When your soil is healthy, the grass is healthy, and that means your beef or pork or eggs is FULL of vitamins and minerals essential for your health 💪

Check out the video to see what bale grazing is!

03/12/2026

🐐🤍The baby goats are here!!🤍🐐

Last year, late summer, we bought a herd of 20 Kiko goats. We also bought a buck to use to breed them… so now we have baby goats! 😍

Baby goats are cutest little things you’ve ever seen!

Why did we buy goats:
📈The goat market is consistent compared to other livestock.
💰 We will sell goats at the sale barn and that profit will be used as extra income to the farm
🌳 They are amazing weed-eaters, brush-eaters, and lawn mowers 😄 we will use them to graze timber and when we increase our herd size in the next few years they will be used on our row crop ground as part of the “crop rotation” to help regenerate the soil and make nutrients more available for the crops through their grazing and manure

Who knew goats could be so helpful! 😉

01/23/2026

If I had to do a 2025 Wrapped 🎉 (a little late:), it would be of our piggies! 🐷

Ben and I both have lots of experience with multiple species of livestock 🤠 but neither of us had previous experience with raising pastured pork 🌱🥓

I think we can confidently say -it was a SUCCESS!-
The pork is deeelish 👏👏 and it was fun 🤪

It’s kinda sad there are no pig chores right now 🪣
•Soemthing about their little snouts 🐽•
But we’re excited to get some more this spring and do it all over again!! 🔄

Come see us at the Pella Farmers Market 🧑‍🌾👩‍🌾 this summer/fall to try some pastured pork!! We’d love to meet you & see old friends 🤗



-Homestead in the Heartland
• WHOLESOME • CONVENIENT • CONNECTED •