OUR FARM STORY
Callene and Eric met at a hog farm in 1990, even with Callene covered in every substance imaginable, Eric still wanted to date her. They got married in 1993. Before The Rare Hare Barn, the first farm was Rock Creek Paints located in Missouri on 40 acres. Riding lessons and guided trail rides were given and they raised Paints, Quarter horses, and Quarter Ponies. In 1995, as the hog farm grew, they knew that wasn’t how they wanted to live. With Eric having family in Wichita, they packed up the farm and found the property they are on today.
With as many food recalls as there were, we decided that what we wanted was to supply a more personal and sustainable food resource. Eric had raised rabbits as a kid and as we did research on rabbit breeds, we realized some of the rare rabbit breeds were the same ones his grandfather raised. As we began raising rabbits in 2003 we didn’t quite know what to do with the culls and that is where our meat business started. We started selling with Heritage Foods in New York but quickly developed a market in the Kansas-Missouri area.
Eric and Callene both have served two terms on The Livestock Conservancy board of directors nad Callene as a chair for a year. Heritage breeds are important and need to be preserved. We both believe livestock should get to be livestock. We are big fans of low-stress handling and believe that by handling them in a calm manner helps both farmer and livestock. Animals should be able to thrive without a lot of input and everything we raise works perfectly for our farm.