On the farm: SWEETLOVE Farm
A SERIES ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FARMERS, RANCHERS AND FOOD PRODUCERS.
Featured farm: Phil Holman-Hebert of Sweetlove Farm
Location: Oskaloosa, Kan.
Ingredients: Pastured poultry, eggs, also building a herd of Katahdin lamb
A white rock gravel road with lush green grass growing in the center strip leads to Sweetlove Farm, a 63-acre poultry farm in Oskaloosa, Kan., owned by Phil Holman-Hebert.
Within a few minutes of her arrival, Kristine Hull, a co-owner of Fox and Pearl with Chef Vaughn Good, is brushing wild carrot seed off her black sundress after chasing daughters Ophelia, 5, and Tallulah, 3, as they gleefully play with retired hens darting around the yard.
The girls have five of their own feathered friends at home: Hull raises an ISA Brown, Easter Egger, Buff Orpington, Silver Spangled Hamburg and Golden Comet chickens in the family’s Westside backyard.
Farmer Phil raises ISA Brown and standard Cornish Cross. The birds start life in the brooder, an arched coop structure that provides shelter from extremes of heat and cold.
“They’re so cute,” Ophelia says as she cradles a 5-day-old chick the size of a dandelion puff and the color of butter. Fox and Pearl sous chef Arlo Riley scoops up another chick while restaurant staffers gather around to softly coo.
Although Phil raises chickens, he doesn’t consider himself a poultry farmer. At Sweetlove Farm, chickens feed people, but they’re also a vital part of an ecosystem that improves the grass, and ultimately the quality of the land.
“We grow bacteria. I’m a soil farmer,” Phil says. “What’s good for the grass is good for the animals, and what’s good for the animals is good for the land.”
Hence, Phil’s “Phil-osophy” in action: The chickens eat grass, deposit manure, which provides organic material that fertilizes the soil and makes the grass grow.
The land that is Sweetlove Farm was a hayfield once doused with herbicides, pesticides and anhydrous ammonia. But two decades later, under Phil’s “osophy,” each 10-foot-square patch of land now supports at least 50 species of plants.
The staff makes a roughly 180-degree turn from the brooder past vegetable gardens and stops near a canopy shed for open-air poultry slaughter. The chicks will grow, of course, and eventually meet a humane end here, yet the slaughter is explained while the girls continue to play out of earshot, blissfully unaware of the shed’s significance in the cycle of life.
Following a path worn through the grass, the staff walks past a tire swing and forgotten toys, past the strawbale house that is the family homestead and stop in front of three rolling chicken coops. The durable coops protect the chickens from predators but are lightweight enough they can be moved when they have mowed the grass down in one spot.
“I am more or less obsessed with grass,” Phil says, motioning grandly to the surrounding sea of smooth bromes, a classification of high-protein grasses that provide high-quality forage for his chickens. “Grass growing for me is a never-ending entertainment!”
When Ophelia asks if she can feed the chickens, Phil obliges. He fetches a bucket of non-GMO feed from a family-owned artisan grain mill in Perry, Kan. Phil hands her a GLAD brand plastic freezer container, which he has found holds exactly 3 pounds of feed.
“Just listen to them,” Phil says, as Ophelia carefully pours the supplemental feed into a PVC-pipe trough and clucking chickens come running for breakfast. “Those are happy chicken sounds. They’re not stressed, they play with each other. When one finds a bug, it will take off running and try to hide, but the running notifies the others that chicken has a bug, and the others try to get it. It’s hilarious!”
Phil didn’t grow up on a farm, but he loves food. He and wife Sally grew up in Salina, Kan. While a student at Kenyon College in Ohio, he imagined a life that matched with his values of family, community, stewardship, peace, faith and creativity. Farming, he decided, was the logical choice.
Phil initially considered raising hogs. After finding the perfect piece of land in Oskaloosa, Kan., he decided that there were enough other people raising hogs and doing a really good job at it. Instead, he started with 25 chickens, and he’s grown the flock to 900.
Chef Vaughn initially met Phil at the Lawrence Farmer’s Market in 2015 and waited patiently for almost a year as Phil ramped up production to supply restaurants. By the time COVID-19 hit, 75-80% of Sweetlove’s chickens were restaurant-bound. While restaurants orders are down, Phil has returned to his roots with direct-to-consumer sales, offering poultry and eggs online with weekly deliveries to the Kansas City area.
“Phil is one of my favorite farmer relationships. He’s an example of the ultimate goal we are going for with farm-to-table,” Chef Vaughn says a few days later at Fox and Pearl as he places a red-rubbed chicken leg and thigh into a perforated skillet to cook over the hearth coals. “There is no other hand between Phil and us. I think that means you get a better product — more natural and wholesome.”
Factory-raised chicken are often pre-brined. The texture is more fibrous, almost sinewy, while the fat is more often white instead of a rich butter color.
“Phil’s chickens are doing what they would do naturally. They’re less confined and they’re eating a diet of what they naturally would,” he says. “The big difference comes down to flavor and texture.”
As a reaction to factory-raised birds, some chefs buy only heirloom breed chickens.
“Heritage breeds are cool, but it’s more how they are raised and their diet that is going to affect the flavor,” Chef Vaughn says.
Fox and Pearl goes through “a lot” of chicken — grilled, roasted and fried then served with hot sauce and pickled vegetables. The fried chicken is the signature dish that never leaves the menu. Chef Vaughn buys only whole chickens from Sweetlove Farm, and he resists requests from diners for all white or all dark meat, selling only whole or half birds.
“Our goal is to not waste anything, and we do that well.”
Dish: Grilled chicken with Anson Mills Sea Island Red Peas, Crum’s Heirlooms spring onions, okra and carrots
“There is no other hand between Phil and us. I think that means you get a better product — more natural and wholesome.”