Over 20 years of bringing farm fresh foods to families in the Coastal Bend
Edelen Farms is a family owned, second-generation farm that promotes healthy agriculture and local foods through holistic and regenerative agricultural practices. Founders of Edelen Farms, Greg and Lauren Edelen, started the farm in the 1990's. Now after retiring, their youngest son Andrew, has taken over the farm after his return from the military. Andrew has a loving passion for agriculture, and what he loves to do most is to produce healthy, local foods. Andrew has a fond respect for nature and acknowledges all of nature’s natural patterns and tries to mimic those patterns within a controlled environment.
Our Grass-Fed cattle are raised without hormones. They receive no antibiotics or pesticides of any kind. They are never confined to a feedlot and are moved to fresh pasture daily. We believe we are stewards of the land and we use all of our animals as tools to grow our soil. Since cattle cover the most acreage we mainly focus our management techniques with them. Our main technique is daily rotational grazing focusing on the herbivores natural characteristics of mobbing, moving, and mowing. After over 15 years of these practices on our land we can observe healthier soil, thicker grasses, reduction of weeds, and higher levels of organic matter.
We use a floor-less chicken shelter to house our broilers (meat chickens) and our seasonal turkeys. We move this chicken house daily and regulate how many chickens are in each house dependent on their age, the South Texas temperature, and the amount of grass. Since a meat chicken does not naturally forage as much as a egg layer this allows an ample amount of daily grass and fresh dirt to scratch in each house. Moving these chickens daily allows us to revitalize our soil and we can control where the chicken fertilize, making for greener grasses, along with a healthier and better tasting chicken
On the farm we raise our egg laying hens on pasture at all times. These chickens are not confined to any house and can freely roam as far as they wish. This allows them to chase more bugs, scratch more dirt in our fields, and spreads out the manure footprint they lay down. This also allows the egg house to be moved every 2-5 days. Comparing these management techniques to confinement houses, we are able to produce truly free range eggs that are tastier and healthier.
We grow seasonal fresh vegetables. All of our vegetables are grown to beyond Organic standards. We believe the most important quality to the growth of strong plants is to grow healthy soils. Conventional farmers growing crops disturb the soil and spray chemicals regularly causing the destruction to their soil, so much so it cannot grow plants on its own. On our farm we strive to use minimal tillage, while growing the organic matter and health of our soil through adding compost, and plant materials. We add organic fertilizers into our watering cycle regularly the same way a human might take daily vitamins to promote their health.
1125 County Road 440, Alice TX
78332
United States
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