Six Buckets Farm: Food, flowers and farm experiences

Six Buckets Farm, located about 1 mile north of Tuscarawas on state Route 416, holds many memories for Seth Teter. The farm is a special place that has been in his family for five generations, and now Teter, his wife Lyndsey and their three children are making more memories for their family and those in the community.

The farm was purchased in 1949 by Teter’s grandfather, Earl Paulus, and Paulus’ father. They raised turkeys there in the 1950s and 1960s. The Teters purchased the farm in 2015.

“We knew we wanted to keep the farm in the family and keep it as a place that the family could come out to. Grandpa just absolutely loved the farm, so it is an honor to be able to carry on the tradition,” Seth Teter said.

As former city kids, the Teters are enjoying life on the farm and providing those experiences for others.

“I did not grow up on a farm,” Teter said. “My wife and I both grew up in town, a small town in Southwest Ohio, and so it was our own desire to find something that was meaningful, real, connected to the earth and the community that drew us out here.”

The couple’s children are Molly, 11; Eleanor, 10; and Clara, 4. The girls help in the business, running the cash register and feeding the pigs.

They have turned the original farmhouse into a store, selling home-grown pork products including pork chops, sausage and hot dogs; flower bouquets; homemade soap; and a variety of other items.

“We're just trying to figure out where we want to go,” Teter said. “We breed pigs year round. We sell direct to customers, and we supply a butcher shop in Columbus.”

They also hold butchery classes about once a month and host private classes as needed. The classes start with a whole hog carcass with groups of eight people. There has been much interest.

“We break it down into retail cuts for their freezer, and then they're able to take that home with them. They learn a little bit about where the meat came from and see how it's raised,” Teter said.

The couple is always adding new products and experiences and trying out new things on the farm to see if they will be successful.

“Everything is just kind of by accident with us,” Teter said.

Just like the name of the farm.

“When we bought our last (hobby) farm, which was in Mount Vernon, there was this big barn that needed cleaned out and a lot of stuff on the property that needed done. The only tools that we really owned were six 5-gallon buckets that we found,” Teter said. “It seemed like every job we were doing we were carrying stuff around in these buckets, whether it was feeding animals or carrying water. We didn't have any infrastructure to do anything; we had to do everything ourselves. That kind of became a metaphor because everything we do is six buckets at a time.”

Lindsey Teter makes the soap that is sold at the farm. The couple is partnering with friends and neighbors to add products to their store, which has become a place to shop for items that are all from Tuscarawas County.

“That's a big thing for us, working with other local farmers and small producers, just to see how we can lift each other up and serve the community,” Teter said. “We think Southern Tuscarawas County is really going to be growing in terms of tourism over the next five or 10 years. There's a lot to offer down here, and I don't think people realize how much potential there is. We want to showcase Southern Tuscarawas County, the great food, artisans and experiences.”

In addition to pork, the store will soon add beef and chicken from their neighbors. Also look for some new colorful sausages in different varieties that are made with blueberries, beets, goat cheese or cilantro that will be in stock in about a month.

The pork they sell has more marbling, which is one of the things that makes the meat tender.

“You’re not going to find that in the grocery store,” Teter said. “The pigs that we raise are called a heritage breed. These are the pigs that farmers raised 50-100 years ago, and they put on a lot more fat. That is where all the flavor comes from. We also raise them outdoors so they can forage on the pastures, get some exercise and sunlight. It’s more natural. The difference really is in the flavor and the fat. It's just such a higher quality.”

The large flower beds on the farm make use of the pig compost.

“We have several thousand linear feet of flower beds, and I love it,” Lyndsey Teter said of her hobby that has turned into a best-selling product. “I'm not a floral designer. I watched a couple YouTube videos, put some flowers together and see if it works.”

The flowers grown on the farm also carry on the love of wildflowers and butterflies of Seth Teter’s grandmother, Dorothy Paulus.

Lyndsey Teter enjoys hosting the farm dinners. At one dinner they took guests on a short hike to the back of the farm to see some of their more than 100 pigs.

“We always forget everyone's kind of dressed up, but we went out to the pig pen anyway, and people are so excited. They don't see pigs every day,” Lyndsey Teter said.

The couple wants to provide more experiences on the farm including pick-your-own pumpkins, cut-your-own flowers or farm dinners.

“We just want to be a gathering place for the community,” Seth Teter said, “for the people that didn’t have the experience of growing up on a farm or maybe they did and their kids have never experienced it. We appreciate having a space where they can come out and get a taste of farm life. I don't know exactly what we're going to be doing moving forward, but that is kind of the purpose we want to serve.”

For more information on Six Buckets Farm and its upcoming events, visit the website at www.sixbucketsfarm.com or on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/sixbucketsfarm.