Farmer donates grass-fed 40-pounder to food bank

By GRAIG GRAZIOSI

ggraziosi@vindy.com

ALLIANCE

The Vindicator(Youngtown)

Photo

PHOTO BY NIKOS FRAZIER...Jessica Bush points at a group of turkeys as her partner, Seth Sharp, and their son Lincoln look on at Premium Pastured Meats' farm. The couple raise free-range animals on their Alliance farm that provide organic, non-GMO, pasture-fed beef, pork and turkey.

For Seth Sharp, Thanksgiving is about what he puts into his 140 turkeys’ dinners.

Sharp, the 32-year-old owner and operator of Premium Pastured Meats in Alliance, and his partner Jessica Bush raise organic, grass-fed beef, pork and poultry – including turkeys for Thanksgiving dinners – on their 18-acre farm.

One turkey, Tom – which happens to be the name of all of Sharp’s turkeys – survived last Thanksgiving and grew to an enormous 40 pounds. For comparison, most turkeys used for Thanksgiving dinner top out at about 15 pounds.

Sharp knew few families would be able to cook such a massive bird and wanted to make a difference during the holiday, so he reached out to Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley and agreed to donate Big Tom.

Michael Iberis, executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley, praised Sharp’s decision to help feed the hungry during the holidays and said the turkey would be cooked and served at one of the organization’s Thanksgiving soup kitchens.

Since January, Second Harvest Food Bank has distributed more than 9 million pounds of food locally.

For Sharp, who works land his family has farmed for more than 100 years, raising food has always been a part of his life. Growing up on a hay farm, Sharp spent much of his youth farming and was active in his local 4-H club where he raised and brought animals to show.

After 30 years of farming, he decided to combine the two agricultural pursuits into a single, lucrative business. He grows the organic hay on a 70-acre plot he rents, feeds his animals the hay, then sells those animals to an ever-growing consumer base that values the source of their food free from genetically modified organisms.

His decision to raise his animals on a pasture and without the use of antibiotics and GMO-filled feed was influenced as much by business concerns as health scruples.

“There’s really a growing market for grass-fed food. People want to know where their food is coming from. ... Every year we’re growing a little more. We’re looking at getting into vegetables next,” Sharp said.

With the average age of U.S. farmers at about 58, Sharp is a bit of an anomaly in the farming community. Not only is he younger, but he also is college educated. Sharp graduated from Malone College in 2007 with a degree in nursing and went on to get a master’s degree in anesthesiology in 2011 from Youngstown State University. He now works at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

Sharp uses the income from his nursing job to grow his farming business. His partner, Jessica, with whom he has one child, Lincoln, and another on the way, is a veterinary technician and uses her skills to keep the animals they raise healthy.

Being both a farmer and a nurse means holidays off are rare, but this year Sharp and his family are planning a Thanksgiving getaway of their own; they’ll be camping with their extended family to celebrate his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary.