DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine (WABI) – Becoming a farmer has always been Dan Kaplan’s lifelong dream.
In 2013 he bought five cows and Heartstone Farm was born. At 60, Dan began raising beef cattle on his farm in Charleston.
The business has picked up following the pandemic as many families have started to change their habits around buying meat.
“What’s more important than the food you eat and knowing where it came from? Four meat processors control 85% of meat processing in the United States and it is not coming from here. It’s coming from feedlots in the Midwest and conditions are inhumane,” said founder and CEO of Heartstone Farm, Dan Kaplan.
Through a partnership with 50 small farms across the Northeast, Heartstone Farm delivers all-natural beef, chicken, turkey, and other meat products – directly to families.
“We’re giving them the ability to market their products and make a living at what they love,” Kaplan said.
Heartstone Farm has expanded in recent years. They have customers from Maine to Virginia, shipping out 2,500 orders each month at their distribution facility in Dover-Foxcroft.
Myles Whitney is a third-generation farmer who raises pigs, which he sells to Dan. This saves him time and money.
“If I didn’t sell my pigs to Dan, all my spare time would be spent at farmers markets and whatnot,” he said.
Whitney is also one of the company’s ten employees helping grow the farm’s sales.
“People want to go smaller. They want their money to stay in their region a lot of times and they want to support small farmers, and this is a great way to do that,” he added.
Heartstone Farm just launched its equity crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine. This campaign offers customers and investors the opportunity to own a piece of the farm.
More than 100 customers have already come on board, investing in over $170,000.
“It’s motivating I’ll tell you this much when your customers are actually your owners, you’re like, I better go to work today,” Kaplan said.
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