About Us
Our Story
Co-creators of Abraxas Farm, Hardy and Jessie Reichel grew up in different towns in rural Virginia, befriending aging farmers, and watching the rapid encroachment of development in historically agricultural areas. While neither grew up on a working farm, both planted gardens and husbanded animals (mostly dog packs), and spent life running wild beneath the canopy of oaks, pines, maples that cover the hills.
We both moved West and met in Colorado in 2016. Hardy dreaming up food-related projects off of the restaurant line, and Jessie working on a dairy farm. We acquired our first sheep a few months later envisioning a rural life together working with livestock on a hillside farm, which we found in Big Arm, MT in 2017. We founded our homestead on bare land, drawing water from the springs, dividing pastures and cutting our teeth as animal husbands. Abraxas Farm draws its name from the ancient godhead Abraxas, whom we first heard of in Hermann Hesse's novels. A figure who embodies the paradoxical nature of, well, nature. The Abraxas myth conjures the idea of oneness in life and death, hardship and pleasure, the seasons, the straight way and the winding.
As we've grown the farm, we've found new dimensions within ourselves through the experiences that nature presents in each moment. It is with dedication to craft, and the belief in slow food as healthy food, that we work tirelessly to create products that are organic, clean, and with memorable flavor. While we constantly experiment with and innovate our management practices, we give most credit to the specific breeds we choose to work with, and hope to continue writing their stories as we write our own.
