Greenfield farm to be featured at Farm Aid 2023

GREENFIELD, Ind. (WISH) — Tyner Pond Farm sits on hundreds of acres in Hancock County.

Once fields of corn, since 2010 it has been home to grass-fed cattle, pasture-raised chicken, and locally-raised pigs. It also focuses on Regenerative Farming practices.

The practice of farming holistically is a process aligning with the mission of Farm Aid, a nonprofit founded by country music legend Willie Nelson to help family farmers in a myriad of ways.

“As you know, Farm Aid is a nonprofit organization that works to build a family farm-centered agricultural system in the United States. Their mission is to keep family farmers on the land and to help them access new markets, transition to more sustainable practices, and survive natural disasters,” Chris Baggott, founder of Tyner Pond Farm, said.

This week, Tyner Pond announced Farm Aid has selected the farm to be featured at the popular Farm Aid festival. It is returning Sept. 23 to Ruoff Music Center for the first time since 2001. The event is sold-out.

“We are truly grateful for the notice.  Our mission is restoring soil health. We accomplish this by holistic management of our land with equal consideration for the soil biology, living plants, the herbivores, and the people who manage it all,” Baggott siad.

As Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, and a slew of other musicians take the stage, hungry festival-goers can find family-farm sourced foods at Farm Aid’s Homegrown concessions. This year, Tyner Pond will supply grass-fed beef for the brisket.

“They told me that as they were researching farms across Indiana and many people suggested they talk to us.  Tyner Pond Farm epitomized their mission. A family farm working on Regenerating the soil and bypassing the commodity trap by working directly with consumers,” Baggott said. 

While the complete 2023 menu has not been released, Farm Aid has kept the 2022 menu up on its website to give people an idea of what to expect: family farm-raised fruits and vegetables served in a variety of ways, chicken tenders, tenderloins, stuffed sweet potatoes, shrimp and grits and more.

“We believe that consumers have the power to create the world they want. Those who support us by buying our meat are sending a message that they care about things like the environment, like food security, like nutrition, like animal welfare, like globalization, etc.,” Baggott said. “Farm Aid gives us a large platform to share that message to an Indiana audience.”

Tyner Pond offers free delivery of its family-farmed beef, chicken and pork to central Indiana customers. An online shop has everything from grass-fed ground beef and ribeye steak to pork chops and whole chickens.

Along with Farm-Aid choosing Tyner Pond to supply the grass-fed beef, the nonprofit also sent world-renowned photographer Scott Streble out to photograph the farm last week and captured 100 images.

“The day was perfect and you’ll be seeing a lot of his work in the coming weeks,” Baggott said.