At Lonely Lane Farms, nosotros offering sustainably raised, grass-fed beef, lamb, goat, and pork. Third-generation farmers Mike and Patty Kloft run a 165-acre farm in Oregon'south beautiful Willamette River Valley and charter 300 acres of grazing lands at the historic Mount Affections Abbey. This land provides infinite for the farm's animals to graze and roam freely, creating a great quality of life for the animals, a sustainable way of farming, and a loftier quality production for our customers. Locally owned and operated, we work with other local family farmers who have adopted the aforementioned standards of animal welfare. Humane practices, grazing and crop rotation, small-calibration production, on-site processing and packing, and antibiotic- and added-hormone free animals are integral to Lonely Lane'south values. Our goal is to assist build a sustainable, healthy, robust local nutrient system that our community can be proud of.

Solitary Lane meats are hand-cut and candy at our USDA-inspected constitute on our farm in Mt. Angel, Oregon. From our livestock practices through to our concluding products, we are proud to provide pasture-raised meats that our customers tin can feel good nigh from offset to terminate.

Where to Find U.s.a.

Solitary Lane meats are available through weekly local business deliveries and home deliveries in the Corvallis, Eugene, and Portland areas, and for pick-up and ad hoc sales at the Beaverton Farmers Market west of Portland. Explore our website to find out more than, curl down to meet us, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook (@LonelyLaneFarms).

The Story of Alone Lane

Farmers don't often just "sit downwards." There'southward too much to do for the animals, the crops, and the concern. But Mike and Patty Kloft sat down in Oct 2015 and then again in 2021 to talk about their history together and the story of Lonely Lane.

How We Met

Patty: Our families, the Klofts and the Bochslers, go back to the late 1800s in Mount Angel. Information technology'south ironic because Mike and I grew upward three miles apart, but we didn't meet until much subsequently.

Mike: I was just starting at the farmers market and I needed some assist.

Patty: Our dads ran into each other at the subcontract store, and my dad said, "I take iv daughters, let me see if 1 wants to help out." Then Mike picked me up on the way to the Beaverton Farmers Market and we all caravanned up.

The History of Our Farm

Mike: Lonely Lane was started in 1939 by my grandad, John Kloft, and my grandmother, Hattie Kloft. Our son John is named after him. We still have some of the original farm buildings. My grandparents started off with cereal grains (wheat, oats, barley) and did that for several years. They were raising some livestock for themselves like every farmer did and then. And they did their own processing. So it's full-circle for united states of america with our ain processing facility today right on the farm.

Patty: And since we showtime sabbatum downward in 2015, the processing facility is done! Last fourth dimension, we hadn't quite finished building out the institute. Now the ready-to-eat side is congenital out—with a nail chiller dedicated to ready-to-swallow products like smoked sausages and charcuterie, extra packaging machines to help us, and more.

Mike: We're actually proud of all of it. It'south been a huge investment, and nosotros've come a long manner since the original farm. In the early 1900s, my family started with grains and and then moved to dairy, and we did dairy into the 1980s. It got to the point that most seventy cows were being milked every day, only the way the dairy market was going, my family either needed to get a whole lot more than cows or exit of the business. I was in my early teens, and my grandfather and father chose to get out.

The dairy sold to another dairy family. I still recall the week the herd left. And so the adjacent week the equipment left. About a year later on my family unit got into beef cattle, about 15 to twenty head to outset.

Patty: Thank goodness. Beef cattle requite us a little more than time for family, and a few days away for camping.

Keeping the Farm Going

Mike: I wanted to go into agriculture since high school, but I didn't recollect the family farm would pay enough. I figured I would take to get a degree and do something on the side to support the farm, so I started going to school. I went to community higher for a few years, and then to Oregon State.

Patty: The running joke from Mike's family was that if Mike accidentally took the incorrect class he was going to graduate from OSU.

Mike: I never did get a degree, but at Oregon State I got to know my Cultural Implications of Agronomics instructor, and we started talking about whether my family was going to have to sell the farm. At that bespeak we were selling our beef on the open up market, taking it to a local packer, and 2 weeks later we'd get a check and I'd curse because we were getting docked on our beef for reasons I idea were fluff.

The teacher asked me how we were raising our beef, if we were using hormones and antibiotics: We weren't. We've always cared for our animals to the highest standards, and nosotros use sustainable farming practices. No hormones, no antibiotics, and open environments with enough of infinite to graze. My teacher said, "You're raising grass-fed beef."

Nosotros decided it was time to market ourselves. I was still going to Oregon Country, and so we started in Corvallis. I put an ad in the newspaper, and started selling door-to-door. Nosotros were the first meat in the food co-op in Corvallis.

Patty: First Alternative Co-op is yet ane of our longest-running accounts. They've been with usa for over 20 years.

Mike: And so the circle of marketing went out from Corvallis, and now we're beyond the Willamette Valley from Eugene to Portland, and nosotros even serve the Oregon Declension.

Working with Northwest Stores and Customers to Support the Local Food System

Patty: We love to work with our grocery stores and local customers. The nice thing about usa being a small producer with total control over the procedure, is that if we're ever out of something, the longest we're out of it is a week. We don't have to rely on an out-of-state supply chain.

Mike: A strong local food system is so critical. When you purchase from us, you lot're buying from a business that supports the local surface area. The stores we sell to and our customers believe this, too. Information technology turns out—and we saw this in the pandemic—yous demand the local food organization in club to feed people in a crisis. It may be cheaper to enhance animals in the Midwest and then procedure them cheaply wherever, just in the stop, that nutrient system isn't stable or healthy when a crisis hits.

Patty: And since 2015, we've added then many new products. Nosotros have all these great fresh cuts, and we also do delicious sausages and cafeteria meats. We beloved to be able offer something that complements what a local grocery store or customer can already find—like we have great grass-fed, grass-finished Ribeyes or New Yorks, but we likewise take frankfurters, pastrami, roast beef—all with quality ingredients and no fillers.

Our batches are small and our quality is consistent. Nosotros're actually proud to be part of sustaining and growing the local nutrient system.

The constitute can exercise everything from cutting for all of our raw cuts to all of the cooking, fermenting, smoking, sausage-making of all of our ready-to-eat products. That's been a big deal for us. It enables united states to apply everything from the livestock we produce. IT besides lets us produce products that customers normally can't get from locally raised livestock or locally fabricated products.

Nosotros control or take the ability to brand whatever nosotros want, having the ability to command all the products from the grass in the field to the shelf is actually unique. That helps us fill orders quickly, which our customers and clients really appreciate. Otherwise you have to take everything scheduled way out.

Being as vertically integrating as we are not merely helped the farm but helped keep food on everybody'southward plate. Everything in ane spot immune us to continue to give people food.

The Beaverton Farmers Marketplace

Patty: We're at the Beaverton Farmers Market, but due west of Portland on Saturdays. Mike's been a board member for the market for about 15 years. Nosotros love seeing our friends and customers there, and some of our customers like to club beforehand and choice up at the marketplace.

Mike: We dearest the market because of community. Information technology was developed as a community gathering point, and the decisions that are fabricated are nevertheless based on that concept. Patty and I have the privilege of offering people the aforementioned quality of meat that we grew upwards on, and through the farmers market we get to see our customers enjoy it the same mode nosotros do.

We also get to know the people we sell to: The majority of our friends are customers from the farmers market. And when our son John got diagnosed with kidney disease in 2020, information technology was amazing to see how our friends and customers at the market rallied backside us.

Amazing Customs Support

Patty: 2020 and into 2021 was hard for so many reasons. Not only did the pandemic striking, but John was diagnosed with phase iv kidney disease in May 2020. We went through months of tests and somewhen ended up with me donating one of my good for you kidneys to John in March 2021. I feel similar I accept an accidental masters degree in nephrology at this point. John'southward doing great at present, which is the main thing.

Mike: The transplant surgeries happened at Stanford. Our friends Jenn and Tim, who we know through the farmers market, came down with us to California to help out. And our local Mt. Affections community, our families, and our farmers market and farming communities really got us through–helping us raise money through the Children'southward Organ Transplant Association for a lifetime of transplant-related costs for kids like John.

Patty: It was amazing. And it was the strength of Lonely Lane, our employees, and our customers who made this possible. We liked telling our customers during the hardest part of the kidney illness, that the main way to support usa was just to keep purchasing the meats they loved. Because thanks to our customers and the concern growing, nosotros take been able to hire an amazing crew of employees at the processing plant, have good health insurance, and keep the business running fifty-fifty in difficult times.

Life on the Farm and Our Animals

Mike: Our main motto on the farm is to brand it sustainable, keep it local, and proceed it fresh and condom.

Our animals accept an open up environment with plenty of space to graze. We mimic the weather condition they would take if they were naturally grazing, except that in that location'south a large loafing shed where our cows can get some protection from the weather. Our cows are spoiled, and we want them to be able to be dry. If it's rainy or windy sometimes a cow will become a hair-brained idea, and then they all take off into the conditions. The calves are funny: They specially like to go out even when it's rainy or cold.

Patty: In fact, we take to teach our son John to do a calf dance and so that he doesn't get kicked, because they love to kick and play and so much. But if John flails his arms and legs, then the calves don't come up too close.

Mike: Our pork comes generally from Patty'southward family's farm. Joseph and Maria Bochsler, Patty's bang-up-great grandparents, started raising pigs in the 1890s.

The lamb comes from down in Dallas, Oregon, from Atherton Farms. They are a grass-fed, grass-finished subcontract. They don't do direct sales, which is why they work with united states. It's of import to them that their lamb exist sold locally.

Patty: And now nosotros take goats! Nosotros had always talked nigh calculation something different for the farm. When we needed to articulate some brush, nosotros decided pasture-raised goats would be the style to go. They provide good humor, also.

Mike: They clamber through the fences, through the metal racks, into the bales of hay for winter.

Patty: We didn't know that we would need to caprine animal-proof every edifice! But I tell you lot what, they are very skillful at their job of castor command. Now nosotros have a herd here at Lonely Lane and at the Abbey.

Mike: With the addition of the Abbey grazing lands, we're able to do a lot more rotational grazing and have added to our regenerative agronomics methods since 2015.

What It Means to Be a Sustainable Farm

Mike: Information technology'southward of import for united states to stay true to what we market as grass-fed and sustainable: minimal off-farm input in order to keep the farm going. We don't want to truck in huge quantities of feed or fertilizers. We grow all our own feed, and everything is non-GMO. We use very, very little fertilizer for our amount of acreage. Our loafing shed provides all the compost for the next year.

When information technology comes to feed, our animals are eating the entire institute. When you hear "grain-fed," the animals are eating hard grains that are harvested off the constitute. At Lonely Lane (a grass-fed subcontract) our cows eat what they would normally be eating on a provender-based diet (oats, alfalfa, grass hay, corn silage) in the same proportions as they would eat if they were foraging in the wild. Here, if the cows are eating oats, then they're eating the whole four-foot-tall oat plant. Our hogs, in addition, become a grain ration for protein. The hogs tend to do much improve if they go extra protein.

We're proud to just go on getting more sustainable year-after-year. We use perennial crops; we've added more than rotational grazing; we accept the livestock on the aforementioned grounds where their feed is coming from; we put the manure from stored areas dorsum into the fields where the over-wintertime feed is grown; we utilize native grasses to build the soil…. And we plan to keep doing more.

A Vertically Integrated Subcontract from Start to Stop

[Note: Lonely Lane does all its processing on-site, which is rare for a family farm.]

Mike: We never knew we were striving to be vertically integrated, but in keeping everything local, including what nosotros feed the animals, we ended upwards raising all the feed on the subcontract. So now we don't have to rely on all the aspects of the supply chain to brand sure things are GMO-free and quality is high. We have our own livestock and piece of work with other small farms that are raising livestock the way information technology'south supposed to be raised.

Then, in looking for the best quality meat packer, we ended upward starting our own processing facility, because we couldn't become the consistency and quality that we needed in order to be happy with what we had. Nosotros also wanted the ability to make a wider range of products (bacon, sausages, charcuterie, for example).

In the stop, nosotros discovered that what we wanted was a processing establish run from a producer's perspective. So at present we handle the entire procedure from the ground to the consumer, and nosotros converted the sometime dairy buildings into processing buildings. The milking parlor is now the cutting room, for example.

Patty: When we opened the processing institute it was stressful. It was the kickoff business organization Mike and I had started from scratch.

Mike: But now we don't have the stress of worrying if we're going to get a product back that's cut right and that we're happy with. Non to mention the health and sanitary standards we maintain.

Some people don't put much thought into that, but those are things that brand me feel condom. The best question that's been posed to me at the market is, "Would yous swallow your products?" It's a swell question. And the answer is, "Yes." We admittedly do. In fact, because of our high standards, other farms now come to us to co-pack meat for them, which means nosotros cut and pack their meat for them under their labels.

Patty: Over the years my function has grown. At present I run half the subcontract and all of the processing plant. I manage all of our inventory and scheduling and Hour. We are proud to offer competitive benefits packages and health and dental to our staff, because we know the importance of information technology. We accept a great coiffure of people from the local area that work well together and with us. They kept the farm and constitute going and stepped upwardly when we needed them when John had his kidney issues.

Mike: 6 years ago Patty helped in the packaging room, and now she manages the entire processing facility. I joke with our employees when they have a question that I too need to ask Patty–she runs the entire affair from sales, to processing logistics, to financials. I'chiliad proud of that, because it'south still rare in farming and meat processing to have a woman in accuse.

Allergen-Friendly and Special-Diet Friendly Local Meats

Mike: Patty and I similar to joke that I lost the genetic lottery in terms of food sensitivities. I am allergic to gluten and dairy, and have an anaphylactic allergy to peanuts, and so we've always made our products without those. Then as we were sharing our feel with our allergy issues, customers started sharing their experiences. And then we make sure our products are free of the "Big 8" allergens. (The "Large 8" are: eggs, fish, milk, peanuts, shellfish, soy, tree nuts, and wheat.)

Patty: Beyond the "Large 8," nosotros found there are a lot of people with allergies to capsicums and alliums, so we make some recipes without those, too (the processing institute isn't totally free of them, though).

Mike: We like to experiment with new allergy- and special-diet friendly recipes. One of our friends had heart problems and then we made a low-salt bacon for them. Our customers were asking for carbohydrate complimentary salary, and so now nosotros do a pineapple-juice sweetened salary and a completely sugar-free bacon. Nosotros love to respond to what our customers tell united states. And so now we have turned into a farm that is making allergy-friendly processed products that people oasis't been able to notice from local, loftier-quality producers.

Mt. Angel, Oregon, and the Mount Angel Abbey

Mike: Joseph and Maria Bochsler, Pattys great-great grandparents decided to come to Mount Angel because of the Abbey. [Note: The Mount Angel Abbey was created in 1882 as a Benedictine daughter abbey of the Engelberg Abbey in Switzerland. Large numbers of Bavarians were moving to the surface area, and Mount Angel has maintained its Bavarian experience.] The Klofts had come to the U.S. from Germany, and somebody from the monastery wrote to them and told them that Mount Angel looked like Federal republic of germany, so they should come up upwardly.

Patty: The Mount Affections Abbey is all the same here, and we deliver meat to them about once a week. We take our son John up and he gets a cookie from the pastry area. Nosotros've done hamburger patties for their welcome barbecue, and we made a special sausage for their Bach festival. Mountain Angel as well has a Benedictine convent, and the sisters sell coffee cakes at Oktoberfest. We sell our meat to the sisters, equally well.

Mike: The exciting new affair since 2015 is that we started leasing the grazing pastures at the Abbey. It gives us space and a lot more ground to graze.

Patty: There's 300 acres of pasture, as well equally livestock buildings. We also love that the lease gives us a great working relationship with our neighbors, since the Abbey lands border our farm. It'due south been a really nice partnership. They're excited because there were cattle and livestock at the Abbey from when it was founded until the 1970s—and now the cattle are back over again. We also brought up goats and we'll take pigs at the Abbey, also.

Mike: Working with the Abbey means we can raise more livestock and move animals between Lone Lane and the Abbey, which allows the states to do a lot of rotational grazing, and then that we but go along improving our regenerative agriculture practices.

Patty: If you're ever up at the Abbey, you can come across our animals when you're walking on the public paths. Only remember to stay on the paths because our livestock baby-sit dogs do a great job protecting their animals. It'south besides fun to stop at the Benedictine Brewery if you go for a walk. Mike and I similar to go in for a cider, and John likes the root beer. We hear they have dandy beer, merely since Mike'due south allergic to gluten, we stick with cider and root beer.

Mount Angel Oktoberfest and the Fiftieth Anniversary Sausage

Mike: Oktoberfest in Mount Angel is a really big deal. Information technology started over l years ago as a harvest festival, but before that it was a flax festival.

Patty: For the fiftieth anniversary, Lone Lane was asked to make a special sausage based off what is commonly referred to equally "the Schmidt recipe." Luke and Francie Schmidt were two brothers who did meats in Mount Affections, and they had their own sausage recipe. The local priest refers to their recipe equally the holy grail. Everyone thinks they have it, but no one does, although the Schmidt family today has the closest version.

The fiftieth anniversary sausage was based on the original Schmidt recipe. Mike had special access to the Schmidt family's current recipe. (Mike'south a descendent of the Schmidt line, and Mike'due south family has their own recipe descended from the original.)

Mike: The Schmidts wanted the sausage recipe to stay proprietary, and role of the reason that we were asked to make the sausage for Oktoberfest was because they trusted united states with the recipe. Information technology was very absurd to see the ii recipes (the Schmidt recipe and our family unit'southward recipe) next to each other.

Lonely Lane Into the Future

Mike: Nosotros plan to build a firm. Nosotros were planning that back in 2015 and we still are. There's always something to be built on the farm, but fourth dimension gets away from you. We're also always looking at ways to continue to amend the welfare of our animals and our ability to graze sustainably.

Patty: From where the grass-fed meat business concern started twenty years agone to now, with everything we've done, we've been able to plow the farm into a viable family business where we tin can make a living, have health insurance, and have intendance of John. Nosotros want this business to exist something he can take over.

Mike: Nosotros're excited nigh the fact that we offer deli meats and charcuterie now, and we're continuing to grow our offerings and look forward to adding more specialized products including fermented products. The fermentation really develops the flavor. A lot of our recipes for fermented products come up from Europe: red wine lamb salami, beef pepperon, cotto salami, landjaeger…. We just go along learning.

Patty: Farming is never done. There'southward e'er work. We always tell people, "Don't get into farming unless you can't imagine yourself doing anything else, because information technology'due south grueling." Only nosotros dear what nosotros practise, and we desire our land to be farmed well. We don't want this state to become to someone who would truck in fertilizers and treat the animals poorly. It's our legacy to our community and our son.

Bonus: Meet the Subcontract Dogs

Mike: We take two farm dogs at Lonely Lane, and other livestock guard dogs at the Abbey. On the farm we have Rita, our High german Shepherd, and Benne, our Anatolian.

Patty: We got Rita effectually 2012. We came back from Las Vegas on a rare holiday—the outset 1 Mike and I took together actually—and someone contacted us that they had a German Shepard puppy. Our other canis familiaris Mara, at the fourth dimension, needed a friend and was getting older. Mara had stopped barking when our other dog Xena died. On a farm, barking is of import. When the new puppy came home with the states, the purse from the Margaritaville Cafe in Las Vegas was still on the counter from the trip. Then we named her Rita and with the two we had Mara & Rita.

Mike: Mara died in July 2017. She was completely deafened and really slowing downwards, but she nevertheless loved to walk out to the fields with us until the end.

Patty: Nosotros got Benne in 2020. She was our pandemic baby. She'southward an Anatolian Shepherd. Nosotros got her 3 days before the state close downward, and she was my sanity-keeper. Shortly after we got Benne, we found out nearly John'due south kidney issues. Benee and John became actually close. The Anatolian breed is known for existence good with children. Benne's also really bonded with our cows. When they were calving this spring, Benne was out in the pasture day and night.

Mike: Information technology's been fun to encounter her come into her own. Nosotros idea she was the 'anti-Anatolian' at commencement, because she didn't do anything that a livestock guardian was supposed to do. She thought she was a house dog.

Patty: She still tries to sneak in sometimes and sleep where she did equally a puppy on our stair landing but she doesn't fit anymore.