35526 S. Highway 82, Vinita, OK 74301, US
For more information about family farming at MooShine Ridge, you can reach us at (918) 944-8816, your local Oklahoma farm.
About Us - MooShine Ridge Family Farm Oklahoma
Meet the farmer
Greetings from MooShine Ridge in Langley, Oklahoma! I’d like to take the opportunity to introduce myself and my family while sharing a bit of history about how two lab geeks from Minnesota transitioned to life on a family farm in this rural town. Our story might remind you of Green Acres. I only recently started watching that show via Amazon Prime. While it’s amusing and somewhat out of touch with reality, there are elements I can definitely relate to.
My husband, Kevin, grew up on a hog farm in a small town called Montrose, Minnesota, while I was raised in Bloomington, Minnesota, the proud home of the Mall of America. Although Kevin spent several years as an adult in the big city, he never lost his passion for wide-open spaces and the land. In contrast, I reveled in having numerous grocery stores and at least four major malls at my fingertips. I cherished my creature comforts, such as fast food and movie theaters, and had no desire to live in the middle of nowhere.
Kevin and I met while working at a large biotech firm in Minneapolis in the late '90s, where he was a chemist and I was a lab tech. Shortly after our marriage, we moved to a quaint little town called Elk River, about 50 minutes from the Twin Cities, where we found a charming house on 10 acres. This property was the perfect location for us to explore our dreams of family farming, raising a few backyard chickens, and possibly some ducks. Both aspects significantly fueled our desire to embrace farm life at MooShine Ridge.
We lived in Elk River, MN with our two children for some time before the bitterly cold winters got the better of us. We both dreamed of one day leaving for a warmer climate and often discussed where our family farming adventures might take us. With Kevin’s chemist days behind him and now working remotely for Sprint as an IT tech, we had the freedom to move anywhere in the lower 48 states. However, having too many choices can be daunting, so we relied heavily on God for direction in our journey.
After a few years of praying and exploring different Southern states, I thought I had exhausted all options. Then, a thought that felt like a divine whisper entered my mind, urging me to consider Oklahoma. It felt like the perfect place to pursue our dreams, potentially at MooShine Ridge, where we could embrace the joys of living on an Oklahoma farm.
In January 2013, knowing little more than that Northeast Oklahoma is green for most of the year, Kevin and I drove to Tulsa and spent three days at an extended stay hotel with plans to shop for a house or land to buy for our family farming aspirations. We left snowy Minnesota, and Oklahoma welcomed us with a sunny 71-degree day. After a whirlwind three-day tour, we discovered our forever home at MooShine Ridge in Langley, Oklahoma. Just three months after our exciting journey through Oklahoma, we packed up our house along with 22 chickens, five ducks, three cats, and two dogs, and headed south.
We lived in Langley for 2 years before we decided to add cows to our little family farming venture at MooShine Ridge. While living in cattle country certainly influenced our decision to get cows, it all really started with just a few backyard chickens. Hatcheries really should warn people that chickens are the gateway animal to farming.
In addition to our chickens, ducks, and cows, we now have goats and pigs on our Oklahoma farm. I still chuckle when I tell people we have pigs. That was the one animal my husband swore we’d never have. Despite growing up on a hog farm, he had zero intentions of ever raising hogs again.
Sometimes I tease him and say, as I point to myself, 'You have no one to blame but yourself for what you’ve created here. I was happy living in the city until I met you,' and the rest is history!