Triple B Farms

Watch out for the goats!

Goats sunning on a cool summer day

Driving through the winding roads and steep hills to the Buterbaugh's farm and home was a relaxing experience, passing horse drawn buggies and a group of cows that seemed to be drinking water right off of someone's front porch!  Once parked at their farm, we were greeted by three lively dogs who welcomed us with boisterous barking.  We stepped into their barn to meet their pigs, goats, and sheep, and heard that we just missed a good show of their pigs running around with the dogs out in the yard! After snapping a few pictures of the animals in the barn, we headed outside where their daughter Aurora brought out a bunch of goats and let them run free with the dogs.  The goats were just as boisterous as the dogs, running up and down the hill, putting on the quite the show. "You have to be a billy goat to live up here," was a phrase Gretchen repeated as we chatted and watched my daughter Madelyn chase their dogs up and down the yard.
Originally in the business of commercial rabbitry (the only ones in this business of raising rabbits for human consumption in the area), this family of four has started growing vegetable plants, flowers, and produce on around 16 acres of land in Marion Center, PA.  Ben and Gretchen Buterbaugh, along with their two children Austin and Aurora, started their interest in farming with rabbits.  The rabbits started out as an incentive to encourage responsibility among their eldest child, and grew into a business for the whole family.

Ben with one of his goats

In 2008 the family moved to Marion Center on a place of land I'd consider paradise, free from busy traffic with rolling hills all around.  On their farm they housed the rabbits in a small farmhouse which now houses goats, sheep, and pigs, as well as rabbits! The pigs they have are 4-H projects for their children who show them at the fair each year.  
Eventually they started a small garden that continued to grow.  According to Gretchen, farming has been "a hobby gone wild."  They don't do much with rabbits anymore, but do still raise goats and lamb that they sell at auction.  If you want to grow your own tomato plants, this is the place to stop and buy them, already growing tall and in pots for you to take home.  If you'd rather buy just the produce already harvested, you can do that too.  The family grows a wide variety of produce, and this season Aurora is growing lima beans, peas, and carrots as a part of a 4-H project.  She mentioned to me at the market last week that she has her own organically grown pumpkins too!

They have been at the Indiana Farmers' Market for two years now and they also sell in Strongstown and Homer City markets.  

Austin, Gretchen, and Aurora Buterbaugh

Produce sold at the market:

Onions--Eggplants--Tomatoes

Cucumbers--Green/Yellow Zucchinni

Yellow Squash--Green/Yellow Beans

Peppers--Lettuce--Kohlrabi

Lima Beans--Peas--Carrots