For 144 years, Elm Grove Farm has remained a place of pride, a central place for family gatherings and a beloved homestead.
In 1881, Blake's maternal great-great grandfather Thomas Jefferson Chapman purchased Elm Grove Farm with the money he'd earned from cutting cords of wood and selling them at Warehouse Landing. Elm Grove Farm has been passed down and remained family-owned ever since.
In October 1967 Woodford R. Chapman, suddenly passed away; the farm was mostly abandoned after that, except for a sharecropper and family using it for hunting, until 2015 when Julie 'Foster Chapman' Overholt and her husband Alan Overholt decided to build a home on the property, The original house, built mainly from hand-hewn White Oak, was carefully dismantled by Alan and meticulously revived to appear almost everywhere in their new farm cottage.
In 2019, our founder, Blake Overholt packed up his truck on a busy San Francisco street and, with his new puppy and a dream in tow, set out with a vision to build a regenerative farm on his family's ancestral homestead in Gloucester, Virginia. Founded in 1884 by his maternal great-great grandfather, Elm Grove Farm is now operated by Young Overholt and is truly a family business.
What started as an one-acre hop yard in the winter of 2020, has now transformed into a 20-acre regenerative compound with a growing herd of grass-fed Angus and American Wagyu cattle, heritage chicken breeds, goats, turkeys and our faithful guardian dogs Brewser and Penny.
Blake’s father, Alan, can often be seen felling trees on the vast property and hewing logs to build essential out buildings. Blake's mother, Julie, whose family started the homestead over 140 years ago, helps to nurture the animals, while proudly supporting the growth of the business. His sister, Heather, works behind the scenes to give the company a voice and build a brand that is true to our core values.
From raising barns to picking hops, the business is a labor of love fueled by intense passion from Blake, his family and friends.
At the root of Young Overholt is a desire to honor the past while creating the healthiest future for those we love. Driven by our core tenants of sustenance, regeneration, and legacy, we strive to provide the most wholesome food and skincare products.
SUSTENANCE
From West Coast tech recruiter to East Coast farmer, our founder Blake knows there is magic in shifting from chaos to simplicity. At Young Overholt, our first priority is providing all-natural products that truly sustain and fuel our bodies. From 100% grass-fed beef to our four-ingredient tallow butter, our products promise to provide wholesome nutrition for our customers, inside and out.
By thoughtfully and responsibly caring for our cattle herd, and carefully hand-making our all-natural tallow skincare products, we are able to build a lasting legacy that leaves a positive impact on our customers and the Earth.
REGENERATION
At Young Overholt, we implement regenerative farming practices to continually improve the health of our soil, animal and therefore our product. In order to regenerate naturally, we have to build out healthy repeatable systems and ecosystems for our livestock, so that we can ultimately deliver those nutrients to our loyal customers.
We keep our soil clean and free from herbicides, using nature instead to manicure our pastures. This means we rotate our animals as nature intended, first comes our herd of goats, they mill through pastures taking down the woodier plant species and cleaning fence lines, then comes our beloved cattle. We graze areas intensely, controlling when and where they eat. Once they have been moved our chicken tractors follow behind a few days later and help to spread manure, fertilize, and control pests like flies. We then let that area rest, just like a herd of buffalo used to as they roamed through vast valleys, ate and continued moving until they one day returned.
LEGACY
We don’t want to be remembered for remembrance sake, we want to be remembered for a true positive impact on people’s lives. This is what drives us and our business.
As we grow, we will strive to be a source of truth and inspiration towards and for the human condition. In a world full of uncertainty, untruths, and long lists of ingredients, aspire We now are embracing a larger lens, one that can have exponential impact on those wishing to use their purchasing power for something more meaningful, consumerism with an upside beyond the bottom line.
