Mercy Haven Farm

The family bought Rush, an expectant black Jersey heifer, from a neighbouring smallholding in 2022 and built the farm around her. Because Virginia law does not allow raw milk to be sold directly from farm to consumer, the farm offers herd shares: owners buy a share of the herd, pay a monthly boarding and care fee, and collect raw A2A2 Jersey milk each week.

The cows are fed grass and fresh local hay year round, with alfalfa pellets, oats and Thorvin kelp at milking, and the property is managed organically without chemical fertilisers or toxic sprays. Illness is treated first with probiotics, herbs and natural remedies, with antibiotics only as a vet recommended last resort and milk discarded whenever medication could transfer. Each cow is rested for two months before calving.