From our animals, to your dog's bowl.
H&N Homestead started with our own animals, a dog who needed a different way to eat, and a belief that good things shouldn't go to waste.
It Started With Our Own Animals
Before H&N Homestead was a business, it was simply how we lived.
We were already raising animals, growing food, hunting, gardening, and finding ways to feed our family well. Then there was Ellie.
When we realized that a raw diet was a better fit for her, we started looking much more closely at what went into her bowl. We wanted her food to be simple, natural, and as close to its original form as possible.
We also realized how many perfectly useful parts of the animals we raised were being treated as waste.
So we started using them for Ellie.
From Our Homestead to H&N Homestead
What started with feeding our own dog slowly grew into something we wanted to share.
We began making treats from the animals we already raised and the extra pieces that had no purpose for our family. Friends and other dog owners started asking for them, and H&N Homestead grew from there.
We never set out to build the biggest treat company. We wanted to build something that fit the way we already lived: thoughtfully, locally, and with as little waste as possible.
Raise - Use - Share
Neighbors Feeding Neighbors
As H&N Homestead grew, we realized we weren't the only small family raising animals this way.
Families across Wisconsin were raising rabbits, sheep, cattle, pheasants, and other animals primarily to feed their own families. Often, they had pieces left over that their families simply didn't need.
We did.
So we started driving to farms and families across the state, purchasing those extra pieces and giving them another purpose. It lets us make great treats for dogs while putting money directly back into the hands of the small families who raised them.
Small families. Real animals. Purposeful sourcing.
We want to support our neighbors, our communities, and small agriculture.
We've spent our lives around agriculture, and we've seen how easily small family farms can get overlooked.
We'd rather spend our money with a family we know than send it to a huge corporation we'll never meet.
These families are raising food for themselves, their neighbors, and their communities. When we purchase the parts they don't need, we're helping create another source of income while keeping those pieces out of the waste stream.
To us, that's what neighbors feeding neighbors should look like.
Raised With Purpose
We believe animals should be treated with care and respect throughout their lives.
That's why we raise our own animals with room to move, forage, graze, and behave like animals. It's also why we personally visit the farms and families we source from.
We want to know where our products come from and how those animals were cared for before anything reaches our hands.
Nothing Goes to Waste
We believe every piece has a purpose.
Pieces we can't use in our products may become food for our own dogs, chickens, ducks, or quail. Other scraps go into our compost and eventually back into our garden.
Even the parts left over from processing have somewhere to go. We don't believe something should be thrown away simply because it doesn't have one particular use.
We Do It Ourselves
When something reaches H&N Homestead, it doesn't go through a long chain of processors and distributors.
We trim and prepare the pieces, dehydrate or freeze dry them, package and label them, and get them ready for your dog's bowl.
When we're working with animals raised by us or our neighbors, we're involved in the processing side, too.
It's more work this way, but we think it's worth it.
SOURCE → PREPARE → PROCESS → PACKAGE → SHIP
Still Small. Still Growing. Still Ours.
H&N Homestead has grown far beyond what we imagined when we started making treats for our own dog.
We're still a small family business. We're still raising animals, working with our neighbors, learning as we go, and finding new ways to use what is already around us.
Our goal isn't to become the biggest. It's to keep building something we're proud of, something that supports our family, our neighbors, our animals, and the customers who trust us to treat their dogs.
Something we're proud of. Something worth building slowly.