Daniel and I grew up city kids. We became fascinated with farm life while living abroad in Brazil for Daniel’s work. While most of his co-workers in Brazil would head to the beach on the weekends, we found ourselves venturing inland, marveling at country’s productive farming community.

One day, while visiting a cattle ranch in in central Brazil, we ran into something that shocked us. As the experienced rancher talked about his impressive cattle operation, Daniel couldn’t stop looking at the man’s pigs. They weren’t locked up in stalls. Rather, they were out to pasture munching on grass side by side with the cows. They also enjoyed perusing fallen fruit from a smattering of mango, guava, cashew, and star fruit trees that dotted the farm.

From that point on all we could think about was raising pigs and cattle on pasture. So after 4 years in Brazil, we came back to the states, bought land and Ballerina Farm was born.