Hello!

We are Kyle and Katelyn Stenersen; we started our family farm in 2013 in Scotts Hill, NC. Neither of us grew up on a farm or had any interest in becoming farmers. We both attended North Carolina State University; Katelyn studied Spanish and Literature, and Kyle studied Horticulture - where he discovered a love for plants. We got married our senior year of college and after graduation we were at a loss for what to do. Katelyn wanted to move overseas to teach ESL or do mission work, and Kyle wanted to stay in Raleigh where we’d find some sort of job. Around that time, friends of ours, who owned a small organic farm in Burlington, NC, contacted us about needing a full-time farmhand (complete with a cute farm house for rent on the farm). We both saw it as an exciting opportunity and after much prayer and thought, we had an overwhelming peace and decided to go for it!

After two years of working and learning (so much) at Sunset Farms, we had a tug to come back to our coastal roots, to start our own farm and provide quality food for the people of southeastern NC. With our 10 month old daughter in tow, we moved back to Wilmington in the fall of 2012. We were thrilled to be back on the coast and near all four of our daughter’s grandparents! Kyle worked a full time job with a landscaping company to provide for our family while we talked and prayed and dreamed about somehow starting a farm. We weren’t completely sure if farming was to be a hobby or a career and lifestyle for us. However after Kyle went to a SSAWG (southern sustainable agriculture working group) conference in January of 2013 we felt assurance and guidance from the Lord to move forward with starting a farm and pursuing sustainable farming as a career.

We began with a 15 member CSA that summer, built a greenhouse, and started planting seeds before we even had land to farm. It was definitely a leap of faith. We prayed and asked God to lead us and provide land for us along with a lot of other needs (including a tractor). We looked at land to buy, then decided to try to rent land instead.

There was one piece of land Kyle had dreamed about farming since we lived in Burlington, NC. It was the land he played on as a boy growing up in Scotts Hill. We didn’t own the land but we knew who did and we wrote a letter and sent it out, unsure if it would be received into the right hands or if they would be open to the idea. A few days later we heard back from the land owners only to find out that they had been hoping to find someone to farm their land for quite some time! We were blown away, amazed, and so very grateful! Oh, and it turned out they had a tractor we could use as well! It grew our faith to experience God’s beautiful provision and guidance through each step of the process. And this is how Humble Roots Farm began.

Over the years we have experimented and adjusted the variety of food we produce, from only meats, to only vegetables, to meat and vegetable combinations. We finally arrived at a wonderful mix of produce, chicken, pork and eggs. This variety helped us keep a full time staff, and provide a nice variety for our wide customer base.

In the winter of 2021 we learned that the land we were renting was sold to developers and we had to move our family and farm in the next couple of years. This was not a shock, but still caused some stress as the thought of moving our entire farming operation and residence loomed in the future. This reality caused us reflect on the Lord’s provision for our family and we are reminded of Psalm 11, that God is still on his throne and still cares for His people even in the face of adversity, so what do we have to be afraid of? By God’s grace we were able to purchase 14 acres in western Pender county where we can have a fresh start for our farm and family.

Currently we are working to move our operation and build a farm from scratch, which has its own set of obstacles and benefits. On one hand, the financial implications of such a move are challenging to deal with, but on the other hand we are able to build our needs into the design of the farm from ten years of experience, and hopefully start back up smoothly in the spring of 2023. We are not yet sure of the variety of food we will be producing in the future as our new farm has more limitations on it than the old one, but we do know that we will continue to provide food to our loyal customers and remain part of the local, sustainable agriculture community in southeastern NC.

Thanks so much for reading our story, we look forward to serving you in the future and if you are one of our amazing customers, Thank you! We couldn’t have done it without you!

-The Stenersen Family