Maranatha means “O, Lord come”. At our farm, we believe in Jesus and we believe in what He did for us on the cross. We are waiting joyfully for the day that He will make His return! In the meantime, we also believe that we are called to be good stewards of the land, animals, and resources He has given us. Therefore, we farm in a manner that supports healthy, happy animals and supports the stewardship of the land. 

We are located in central Virginia and more specifically Forest, Virginia. Our farm is situated on rolling pastures with the Blue Ridge Mountains as our backdrop.

Our address is 1211 Elk Hill Lane, Forest, Virginia 24551

We are 100% GMO free.

When you are not certified organic, legally you cannot use the word organic. However, we are 100% mindful to practice and produce all-natural products. We raise what we believe is the best product to feed our own family and share it with our customers.

We believe that when you get to know and trust the family raising your meat, that means more than a certification sticker on a package, so the red tape and extra cost to the consumer associated with certification is not necessary.

We are very much against the routine use of antibiotics in/on any of our animals.  However, we administer therapeutic antibiotics if an animal has a severe illness or a  life saving need. There are times where we will treat a specific problem with an animal that we know is  curable with a particular antibiotic and is necessary for the survival of the animal. If the animal does not recover quickly, then we sell it to the stockyard and do not process it for meat. In this way, we do not sell any meat with antibiotics and continue to improve the genetics of our certified herds.

Yes, our meat is 100% free of any kind of growth hormones or any added hormones.

As a matter of principle we are against the routine use of pesticides. However, if an animal is sick(i.e. Pink eye from fly bites during the summer) we will treat the flies with insecticides. We will endeavor to utilize as many natural resources as possible until these means are proving ineffective. We do not spray our pastures or land with any pesticides. We do not use pesticides routinely like in conventional farming but we are not “absolutely” against them.

We do not use vaccines. We do not vaccinate our beef, pork, chicken or lambs.

We do not use any herbicides. 

We do not use any chemical fertilizers.

We use natural fertilizers including poultry litter from our mobile chicken coops that are rotated throughout our fields on a daily basis. We also use natural fertilization of pig, cattle and sheep manure across our fields. We use naturally occurring lime occasionally to improve the pH of the soil in our particular acidic Virginia soil.

We use a Non-GMO feed from Sunrise farms. The feed is used as an added supplement for our pigs and chickens.

“Closing the loop” is a term we use to describe farming the entire life cycle of an animal. The cycle would begin before birth and go all the way through processing. The only true way to know the quality of an animal is to raise them for their entire life span. We have accomplished this with our chickens, pigs, lambs, and very soon our cows.

“Pig Paradise” is a 35 acre paddock that our Berkshire and Mangalitsa pigs call home. These 35 acres are all woodland providing a large amount of space and shade for our pigs, and contributing to a well balanced diet. The woodlands provide an abundance of acorns, roots, insects, and many other consumables that our pigs love. This space has multiple paddocks so we are able to rotate the pigs to allow the land to be worked and then given a period of rest. Pig Paradise provides our pigs with an environment they were created to live in leading to higher quality meat and better tasting meat.

Yes. We are invested in making sure every stage of the process of raising and harvesting our animals is done thoughtfully and with the utmost care and attention to the well being of the animal.

Our harvesting or slaughtering process is done under USDA inspection at our processing facility and we work hard to make sure the animals experience the least amount of stress and are slaughtered in the most humane way. This is obviously important because it’s the right thing to do, but it can also affect the quality of the meat (stress before harvest is not good for quality) so it’s important to everyone involved that animals are harvested humanely every single time.

Honest Meats is our USDA slaughter house for our beef, lamb, and pork.

Beef that is dry-aged has an exceptional flavor and tenderness. It requires extra time, commitment and cost - but it is worth it in the end result of a perfect steak or incredibly delicious ground beef. 

Pork or lamb can be eaten soon after slaughter, but that is not the case with beef. Beef benefits from aging to promote tenderness and enhance flavor. Soon after slaughter, most beef sold in the US is split into large pieces called primals, vacuum sealed, and boxed up for transport, where it “wet-ages” during transit to grocery stores, meat distributors, and similar locations.

When it arrives it is ultimately cut into steaks, roasts, and other familiar cuts for the consumer. Ground beef is often packaged and shipped without the benefit of any aging at all. In contrast, dry-aging beef involves hanging it in just above freezing temperatures in a humidity controlled room with ample air flow.

We prefer 21-28 days for optimal tenderness and to impart a unique taste and delicate consistency to the meat.

Dry-aging is a craft tradition that used to be the norm, but it is slowly being replaced in favor of expediency and efficiency. However, we at Maranatha Farms firmly believe that dry-aging creates the best possible beef. We don’t cut any steaks or grind any beef until the entire carcass is well aged.

Purely grass-fed meat doesn’t always benefit from dry aging as it is often too lean without much marbling, but because we finish our cattle on a diverse non-gmo grain that gives a great marbling, dry-aging is an optimal way to create a premium product for our customer. 

Every animal is slightly different, but we aim for between 85/15 and 80/20 for our ground beef. 

Our farm store is located in a renovated barn on our farm. We have signage that will direct you to our store once you arrive at the farm. Our address is 1211 Elk Hill Lane, Forest, Virginia 24551

Our store hours are Monday-Friday from 11am-5pm and Saturday from 9am-2pm

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