About Us...
In the summer of 2005, our family abandoned the crime, congestion, and filth associated with one of Florida's fastest-growing metropolitan areas for the rural tranquility of Appalachia. Leaving behind good jobs in Florida, we purchased a small homestead in Willow Bend, West Virginia. The stately maple trees gracing the property inspired "Maple Hill Farm." After several years in Willow Bend, our family relocated to Alleghany County, Virginia. We were fortunate enough to find another beautiful, old farm house with acreage for our growing herd. The new herd name began as a joke about the proliferation of black snakes that keep down the rural rodent population. We embraced the unique reputation they gave our home, and decided to rename the farm "Black Snake Ridge."
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Chris and Tina Linsin, the founders of Black Snake Ridge Farm, have been blessed with a large family: Jackson, Elias, Marlowe, Ruth, and Cordelia. Black Snake Ridge is also the home to five dogs, six cats, a flock of laying hens, a herd of Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats, and some very docile ball pythons. In addition to the domestic animals, Black Snake Ridge also shares the land with whitetail deer, eastern wild turkey, grouse, squirrel, coyote, bobcat, fisher, a plethora of wild birds, an occasional black bear, and of course black snakes.
Founded upon the guiding principle of embracing simplicity as its own virtue, our family homestead mission hews to re-establishing a closeness to both land and family that modern culture has jettisoned. We believe most twenty-first century Americans, by distancing themselves from the earth, have grown too reliant upon materialism, consumption, and technology.
Founded upon the guiding principle of embracing simplicity as its own virtue, our family homestead mission hews to re-establishing a closeness to both land and family that modern culture has jettisoned. We believe most twenty-first century Americans, by distancing themselves from the earth, have grown too reliant upon materialism, consumption, and technology.
"Technology offers no cultural substitute for what it replaces."
-Aldo Leopold
Faith in the American work ethic...
We were both raised with the ideals and values of hard work and ethical treatment of people, animals, and the land. We do not believe easier is necessarily better. We compost and practice organic gardening. In the Spring, we encourage propagation of praying mantids and ladybugs to control the natural population of harmful insects. We create habitat to encourage the pollinating benefits of Mason bees. Along with adequate doses of goat manure "tea," these procedures allow us to feed our family from our garden's bounty all year.
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