Bladen family finds solace in their quest

TAR HEEL – The Shelton Family bought a farm, EE-I-EE-I – Oh my!

As a follow-up to the very special and much needed concept that was launched in Elizabethtown as a “farm-to-table” store in August, we take a more in-depth look at how the Shelton family with no agricultural experience, decided to launch new careers at middle age and learn how to navigate uncharted waters.

Former military couple Scott and Hillary Shelton did something courageous and daring as they left their jobs in the military and became a first-generation farm family.

According to a YouTube page that helped to introduce them and their endeavor to their friends, family and community, they published, “Heal The Land Farm is a younger farm located in Tar Heel, North Carolina. Our hearts are all in for the regenerative farming model, permaculture, and being good stewards of God’s creation, expecting that these practices will HEAL THE LAND.”

“It all started with the chickens,” Hillary said.

From that idea generated by divine inspiration from the couple, a new farm has sprung forth in Tar Heel, North Carolina, in the northwestern portion of Bladen County.

The family purchased a 232-acre farm complete with strong corral fencing, lush grazing grass and several outbuildings. It was an empty canvas and the sky was the limit as to what this family wanted to accomplish.

From Florida to a North Carolina farm, the family just continued to grow their vision and expand their experience to be able to bless not only their friends and family, but also their community. August was the next step in the expansion as the couple opened a type of general store at 1101 W. Broad Street in Elizabethtown. The store, according to Hillary Shelton is doing very well in its infancy – and they have already experienced a greater demand than what they can supply.

As for the fruition of Hillary’s vision, the entire Shelton family was excited about not only the opening, but the impressive turnout of family, friends and community members.

“For us, it’s like a culmination and celebration of a lot of blood, sweat and tears,” she said. “We’ve actually only been farming a few years and we are first generation farmers. We jumped into this very blind, not knowing how hard it was going to be. The first two years, farming here in Bladen County, we were learning everything from scratch. It was extremely hard, painful, we had a lot of losses. There were definitely moments where we were ready to sell the farm and go back to the suburbs because it was so challenging.”

Neither Scott or Hillary grew up or were associated with farm life and in a time when many younger farmers have left the profession, they began running against the wind and did something that few could ever do at middle age without any prior exposure to the industry.

She was from Eerie, Pennsylvania and Scott was from Dallas, Texas. Both from urban settings.

“For us, both serving in the military, I was coming up on retirement around 2022,” he said. “During COVID we noticed that the food was starting to disappear off the shelves and not knowing when the supplies would be replenished. I knew there was a need – especially if this ever happened again. We wanted to be on the front lines of being able to continue our service – even though we were out of the military, we look at it as an opportunity to serve and to be prepared.”

“We also wanted to be self-sustainable ourselves,” she said. “We didn’t want to completely rely on the food system or even like the transportation systems. It’s just great to have things that are local.”

The couple both agree that to do something local that would make a difference is a part of their heart, their vision and their calling.

“It’s really God’s heart for Elizabethtown,” she said.

Their vision of going back to traditional eating, getting away from chemicals, soaps that are tallow-based all have to do with their plan for healthy living. The adversity at times has been staggering, but the calling is loud and strong and the purpose is solid.

They epitomize the idea of being servant leaders in the community and the community has truly embraced them and their vision. They are bringing quality; they are bringing local and they have truly brought their hearts.

And from a previous article, we take a closer look into the everyday workings of the farm and how everyone in the family has a part of the early success.

There have been many challenges for the Shelton family including the opening of the store, the nights laying awake trying to figure out the supply and demand ratio, handling most of their vet work by themselves and the deaths of some of their animals.

They raise the animals also as a part of the family and this is a team goes the extra mile with their nonhuman family. One especially endearing story was with one of the milking cows that was born “special needs” – and when the mother rejected the calf and refused to feed it, the Shelton family made it their goal to feed and raise the calf. Although Scott Shelton looked at “Sven the calf” at one point and said, “I’m not your mom,” somehow special needs Sven made it his goal to adopt Shelton as his true mom. It was a “be careful what you say you won’t do” moment for Shelton as the calf followed him everywhere.

The bond that was formed was close and remains that way today.

The early successes in learning to sharecrop, to be able to process and sell milk from their cows, beef from their longhorns and free-range chicken comes from a lot of study, a lot of hard work and a love for God.

If you had to put a scripture to how much they have accomplished, you could certainly quote Nehemiah 4:6 “So we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together half its height, for the people had a mind to work.”

“Every morning I get up early and I pray,” Scott Shelton said. “And I have my quiet time and my coffee and then my kids get up. Part of what we are doing is that I want my kids to enjoy it as much as learn from it. It’s a lot of work – and we are trying to include them as much as we can.”

The day starts around 8 a.m. for the full family unit which begins by prepping for milking. The two younger girls, Vivian (7) and Moriah (5) are in Emereau Bladen charter school while the two older children Arianna (15) and Silas (12) are homeschooled. The family and a young man who has come aboard as a farm hired hand is also considered an adopted child is Liam Sgro (21).

The main milkers are Scott, Liam and occasionally Arianna and Hillary who mentions that she’s on the bottom of the milking list. At this point, they have a milking machine, but they all have learned and prefer to milk by hand. Neighbors are a precious commodity in rural Bladen and the Sheltons have had a lot of help from generational family farmers Cameron and Kelly Lewis. It was actually the Lewis’ who provided the milking mentoring. There are currently three cows which are milking and that product goes for family consumption and for sale at the Heal The Land store in Elizabethtown.

“One of the reasons I milk by hand is that I am more confident with the process,” he said. “Since we don’t pasteurize, I care about every bit of accountability for cleanliness and so that our product is safe. We use a filtering system and then it goes to the freezer immediately.”

“It’s a special dairy filter,” Hillary Shelton said.

The family calf-shares, so milking for production is done once a day while the second milking goes straight to the calves that are being raised.

Not only are there challenges in the care of the animals, but also the temperaments and moods that come forth similar to human interaction.

“When we got ‘Rose,’ our first dairy cow, we were not going to use her to milk,” Scott Shelton said. “We didn’t know she was pregnant when we bought her, but to make a long story short, she was. Her calf was still-born and we had a cow who was producing milk.”

Again, some may say the positive in the midst of the negative, the silver lining or just a divine intervention. It was an evidence of receiving the things that were needed and the things that would sustain this family in their unchartered waters.

“When we got Rose home, we put her in the barn and she wouldn’t have anything to do with anyone,” he said. “She would just put her head in the corner when anyone came into her pen. It was like, ‘Not interested, stay away.’”

With a lot of patience, giving the cow the space to learn to trust and a lot of love, she finally warmed up to him.

“One of the biggest challenges for me is my consistency in milking,” he said. “I am learning that if I stay consistent, the production is greater.”

Another real-life lesson the children are learning is actual production of the animals, getting them ready for sale. In the case of their chickens, they have a humane kill system and then a plucking machine.

“I can remember that first time we had to kill chickens, I went around the corner and I cried,” Arianna said. “But my job is to do the processing after they’re dead. I don’t want to say that I’ve gotten used it because that sounds too insensitive and sad, because I still want to honor the animal for the lives they are giving. So, I’m used to it, but I’m not used to it.”

Arianna’s younger sister Vivian said that she likes to help with things around the farm like the plucker. As for the actual death of the animals, Hillary said that she was very interested in the process and was right there watching as close as she could.

“We came here with nothing,” Scott Shelton said. “No equipment or anything. We bought this place because we wanted to build a house, but we realized we couldn’t build a house and have enough money to structure a farm. This had a nice house, built in 1984. Hillary’s uncle who is a farmer called and was with us in the whole process.”

Another coincidence, perhaps, but “Uncle Denny Pyle” as they found out had a hobby of restoring tractors and machinery maintenance can be overwhelming and very expensive to a farmer.

It wasn’t long after finding out that fact and also the fact that nothing comes for free – for most people, that another miracle occurred that there was no denying mysterious forces were at work.

“Uncle Denny called me and said that he’d been praying about it,” Scott Shelton said. “I am going to give you the tractors. This week he’s bringing down a hay baler. So I don’t know if he’s living vicariously through me or if he wants to retire here. No, but seriously, he’s been a huge blessing.”

In addition to learning about dairy cows, the family also raises longhorn cows which is another entity of farming. So, chickens, horses, ducks, roosters, dogs, cats, goats, a pig, dairy and beef along with crop sharing crops of corn and wheat. Not to mention knowing the local predators. The farm is split into 60 acres of pasture and 54 acres of ag production. The rest is woods and water. It has been a very busy life.

On becoming a farmer after living an urban lifestyle, Arianna has some thoughts.

“It was a slow transition at first,” she said. “At first dad would go and do everything on his own and at first there wasn’t much to do except taking care of goats and dogs. As it was a slow transition, it wasn’t like a rude awakening of ‘Oh you’re a farmer now.’ Today, I know I’m a farmer and I know that’s the lifestyle I live. On a good day, sometime I think, ‘I’m not a farmer, I just live in a nice house on a lot of land with a lot of cute animals.’ In the long run, I think it would be cool to live here and work with my mom and dad.”

She also helps out at the store with customer service and running the cash register. She has aspirations of going to college to get a degree in social work.

As for Vivian, one of her favorite farm chores is giving treats to the cows.

“And, dad said that we might get some sheep,” she said with a huge smile.

As for Scott Shelton, he said that his favorite part of being a farmer is the animals among other things.

“I love being connected with the land and just understanding the complexity and temperament of the animals,” he said. “They’re more than just beef to me.”

And not to forget that one of the cows knows him as “mom.”

“They help me heal,” he said. “Getting out of the army, I didn’t really know what I was going to do. This has been the proper transition because it’s hard and it’s confusing and there’s a lot of things you have to solve that you don’t have answers for. It takes a team and I couldn’t do it alone. It’s making me grow as a leader because I’m used to the army and people following orders and they have to follow orders here, but they have to know why. That doesn’t happen in the army. It all brings our family together. Also, raising longhorns kind of gives me my inner desire to be a cowboy.”

“I never thought that I would be this young and get to say that I’m living the life,” Liam Sgro said. “Genuinely, being on this farm is a conscious choice for me. I don’t have to be here, but I want to be here because I love it so much. The only time I have a part-time job is so I can one day do this full-time. It is one of the most manually exhausting and mentally taxing jobs I’ve ever had, but it is the most fulfilling job I’ve ever had.”

For Hillary, she wears many hats as a farmer’s wife, a farmer, an animal veterinarian, a school teacher, a baker and chief cook and bottle washer. She is also very quality oriented in everything she does and in how she manages a family, her kids, her husband and her animal babies.

“For me, it’s getting the cuddly-cute animals and having my time of animal therapy,” Hillary Shelton said. “Sometimes you have those days where you are emotionally drained and you need to just go pet something or cuddle something. I also love the food we are producing. There’s a significant difference in the quality and the taste of the food that you raise for yourself versus the stuff you are buying at the grocery store. For instance, the first time I tried one our chickens, I knew I would never buy grocery store chickens again. There’s a night and day difference in the quality. I am completely grateful for where we are at – although we are not 100% sustainable yet, in the political and world climate I have an urgency to get to that point.”

They are adding to their sustainability in layers and in everything they do. Little by little they are progressing and becoming veterans in a profession that they didn’t grow up in the midst of, nor were they preparing to do so. They are bringing up their children with the same ideals – in the good times and the trying times – giving them a confidence that whatever they encounter, they can overcome instead of being overwhelmed.

Visiting the Heal The Land store in Elizabethtown is an overload for your culinary senses. Visiting the Heal The Land farm in Tar Heel is a holistic approach to healing your heart, going back to a simpler time, getting in touch with your inner child and understanding the synergy between family and the earth we inhabit.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” – II Chronicles 7:14

(Additional pictures from the farm on this week’s Picture Page)