Farm Partner · Sherman, Texas
Prairie Farmstead
A regenerative North Texas farm raising animals on pasture while working to leave the land better than they found it.
Chuck Trowbridge and his family steward Prairie Farmstead in Sherman, Texas, where pasture-raised eggs, pasture- and forest-raised pork and other farm foods are produced with close attention to animals, soil and the land beneath them.
Prairie Farmstead at a Glance
- Farmer
- Chuck Trowbridge and family
- Location
- Sherman, Texas North Texas
- Farm approach
- Regenerative farming focused on soil and pasture health
- Eggs
- Pasture-raised hens living on pasture year-round
- Pork
- Pasture- and forest-raised
- Supplemental feed
- Soy-free · Corn-free Non-GMO ration milled locally
- Pastures
- No herbicides or pesticides
Where our sourcing begins
Before the food, there is the farmer
It is easy to reduce better food to a list of claims. Pasture-raised. Soy-free. Corn-free. Non-GMO. Those questions matter to us.
But Chuck Trowbridge's approach at Prairie Farmstead is one of the reasons we keep coming back to a deeper question:
How does this farmer think about the land, the animals and the decisions in between?
Farming requires thousands of choices that never make it onto a carton, package or certification. We want to know the person making those choices and understand what they are trying to build.
That is why knowing Chuck matters.
At Prairie Farmstead, animal health, pasture health and soil health are not separate conversations. They are parts of the same farm. Prairie Farmstead · Sherman, Texas
The land has a story too
Farming begins with the place you are standing
One of the things we appreciate about Chuck is how often his decisions come back to the land itself.
Prairie Farmstead sits in Sherman, Texas, on North Texas ground historically connected to the Blackland Prairie.
Chuck thinks about what that land can support, how animals affect it as they move across the farm and what can be done to improve the soil rather than simply take from it.
Hens move across pasture. Pigs work through pasture and forest. Cattle graze. Different animals interact with the farm in different ways.
The goal is not simply to raise animals on land. It is to make the land part of the farming decision.
Regenerative farming
Regeneration is something you should be able to observe
Prairie Farmstead's goal is to improve the soil and care for the land it stewards. That shows up in the everyday decisions made across the farm.
The soil
Farming practices are chosen with the life and health beneath the pasture in mind.
The forage
Animals move through pasture where grasses and other plants are part of the working farm system.
The animals
Hens, pigs and cattle are given outdoor environments where natural behavior becomes part of farm management.
The inputs
Prairie Farmstead does not use herbicides or pesticides on its pastures.
Regenerative farming is not simply a label.
It is a direction the farm keeps working toward.
How the hens are raised
Hens that actually live on pasture
Prairie Farmstead's laying hens remain on pasture year-round, where they can scratch through grass and forage for bugs, worms and whatever else the pasture offers.
The birds are moved across the farm so pasture remains part of the system rather than simply serving as scenery around a coop.
Their forage is supplemented with a locally milled soy-free, corn-free, non-GMO ration.
Pasture-raised should tell us where a hen actually lives, not simply what appears on the carton.
How the pigs are raised
Pigs with room to root, forage and move
A pig is built to investigate the ground beneath it.
Prairie Farmstead raises pigs in pasture and forest where rooting, foraging, running and resting are part of the animals' environment.
That behavior is not an inconvenience the farm has to eliminate. It becomes part of how pigs interact with the land.
Their diet is supplemented with a locally milled soy-free, corn-free, non-GMO feed ration.
Better husbandry begins by asking what the animal was designed to do.
Know what your food ate
Feed matters too
Pasture gives hens and pigs the opportunity to forage, but pasture-raised animals still require supplemental nutrition.
That is why feed is part of our sourcing conversation rather than something hidden behind the word pasture-raised.
We also appreciate that Prairie Farmstead thinks about feed alongside the larger system of animal health, pasture and soil.
Current supplemental ration
What Prairie Farmstead currently feeds
Prairie Farmstead currently supplements its pasture-raised hens, pigs and pasture-raised chickens with a locally milled soy-free, corn-free, non-GMO ration. The animals also forage in their respective pasture and forest environments.
Beyond the checklist
The checklist matters. The farmer matters more.
Pasture, feed and regenerative practices matter. But every one of those choices begins with a person.
We care about what the animals eat, where they live and what inputs are used on the land.
But those practices are the result of decisions made by a farmer who is observing the farm and deciding what happens next.
That is one reason our relationship with Chuck Trowbridge and Prairie Farmstead matters more to us than simply collecting another list of claims for a package.
Standards tell us what to ask. Relationship helps us understand the answers.
What local food means to us
Bring the people and the land behind the food back into view
Food becomes more meaningful when its story does not end at the package.
When a ROCK Farmhouse family brings home eggs or pork from Prairie Farmstead, we want them to know that the food came from a working family farm in Sherman, Texas.
We want them to know Chuck Trowbridge's name and understand why pasture, feed, soil and stewardship are part of the conversation.
That is the kind of connection industrial food systems tend to erase and the kind of relationship ROCK is trying to restore.
Local food is not simply about fewer miles.
It is about fewer degrees of separation.
From farm to family
From Sherman, Texas to families across Dallas–Fort Worth
Prairie Farmstead is a regenerative family farm in Sherman, Texas, north of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.
Through our relationship with Prairie Farmstead, ROCK Farmhouse helps North Texas families connect with pasture-raised eggs and pasture- and forest-raised pork from a farmer whose practices and philosophy we know.
ROCK Farmhouse is a private North Texas farm collective. Our role is to make relationships with independent farms and producers easier for families to maintain without making the farmer invisible.
Our Mission
To bring the farmer back into the family’s food story.
Long before food reaches our table, there was a person behind it. Someone tending the land, caring for animals, watching the weather, making decisions, and doing work most of us will never see.
Somewhere along the way, modern food made it easy for that person to disappear.
ROCK exists to bring that connection back.
We build real relationships with independent Texas farmers and small producers so the families we serve can know more than what is written on a label. They can know where their food came from, something about the people who raised it, and carry a little of that story home with them.
Because food was never meant to end as a product. It was meant to come home, gather people, and become part of a family’s story.