Health

Barb doesn’t have easy work boots to fill. She homeschools Aleesha and Lee. She makes homemade cheese, yogurt and butter and the family meals, as well as helping out with farm tasks. The same stuff Barb does week in, week out, brought her replacement to tears more than once.

Neither Barb nor Mike grew up on a farm, but both liked rural life and sought foods hard to find off a farm, like unpasteurized milk and organic eggs. Starting seven years ago, they gradually learned about farming, taking internships at organic dairy farms and taking on the management of gradually bigger farms.

Their all-natural diet began with a health problem Aleesha had. “What started us on this journey was finding out artificial colors, preservatives and dyes were a big cause” of attention-deficit disorder, Barb said. After a friend told the Haigwoods about this possible connection, they took additives out of their diets, and noticed a difference in Aleesha.

Since then, they’ve gradually adjusted their diets.

“We took baby steps,” Barb said. “We took out refined sugar and wheat, added more fat, then, boom, 100 percent raw.”