Welcoming Visitors to the Farm With Kathy McCaskill

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re joined by Kathy McCaskill, co-owner and operator of Old McCaskill’s Farm in Rembert, South Carolina.

McCaskill originally hails from upstate New York, where she grew up on an out-of-operation dairy farm. After marrying, she and her husband bought their South Carolina property and began slowly but surely setting up a livestock operation that sells directly to the local farmers market and from the farm store.

Tragedy struck the farm in 2007, when the farmhouse burned down, but McCaskill now sees it as part of a larger plan for her family.

“We lost 30 years in 30 minutes when we lost the house. And it took us to our knees,” she said. “But I always tell people, God had a plan. Look what we have now.”

In the wake of the fire, the McCaskills rebuilt their home, now as empty nesters. After realizing they had more space than they needed, they transformed part of the home into a bed and breakfast.

Welcoming guests to the farm isn’t limited to those staying at the bed and breakfast, though. Old McCaskill Farm routinely hosts school groups and visitors with tours and event days, like shearing day in the spring.

It’s important to teach people about agriculture and where their food comes from, says McCaskill.

The disconnect between consumers and farming can be surprising, she said, reliving an interaction she’d had with a woman who’d recently purchased her own chickens.

“I said, ‘Don’t you love those fresh eggs?’ And she said, ‘Oh, we don’t eat the eggs.’ And I said, ‘You don’t, what do you do with them?’ She said, ‘We throw them in the woods,’” McCaskill recalled.

“I said, ‘Ma’am, why do you throw your eggs in the wood?’ (She said) because the chicken poops them out.”

In addition to educating the public about the farm, McCaskill also makes and sells prepared food at the farmers market and farm store and helps host a farm-to-table lunch at Old McCaskill’s farm every Friday.