Green Wood Farm

The Green Wood Farm homestead in Gid Brown Hollow
The homestead

The Green Wood farm was established in 1748 by Mr. Gid Brown right against the Blue Ridge Mountains in Rappahannock County, VA. At that time it amounted to about 1,200 acres. Over the years the farm was split up and partially sold to its tenants which included slaves. My father retired from the military in the late 1950s and bought one of the remaining parts in 1960 then called Hilltop Farm. The family has been trying to put back the original Green Wood farm ever since. We now own 975 acres of the original acres, which includes the original homestead .

Gid Brown Grave
Gid Brown Grave
It is now a cattle farm raising purebred Angus for breeding purposes and cross breeds for consumption. We have a herd of about 125 mama cows. All our cows are free roaming and are on grass all year around. In winter we feed them hay from our own pastures. We do not use any pesticides, or chemical fertilizers on our fields. We do not administer any growth hormones or antibiotics as part of their feed. We believe that Mother Nature will mostly take care of them. The cattle earmarked for consumption are given some extra food in the form of grain for about 2 months to ensure that the meat marbles well, which is what many people prefer.

We treat our cows humanely, which means that we provide them full access to water, shadow in the heat, leave the calves with the mamas as long a possible, no prodding, etc. Quite frankly, we consider treating animals humanely common sense, a happy animal is easier to handle and ultimately produces a better piece of meat.

All 975 acres are in “Scenic Easement” which means that they can not be divided in any lots smaller than 200 acres (one lot for ourselves, one lot for each of our three daughters . In addition we fenced of all streams, ponds and woods to protect the environment; particularly the Chesapeake Bay watershed. All we are trying to do is to be good stewards of the land we have been given so that our children and hopefully their children can enjoy it as much as we do.

The beef you order from us now will be available March or April of next year. This may seem long, but it takes about 2 years to grow a good cow from birth to consumption.

You can order a quarter, half or whole beef from us for delivery in the spring.

We hope you will enjoy our beef.

Dick McNear and family.