Everything has to start from something. The Ward family purchased 79 acres in Isle of Wight County, Virginia in late 2015 – down payment on the dream of developing a family farm. Their first four cows – Dexters, a heritage Irish breed renowned for their small stature, friendliness, hardiness, great-tasting meat and plentiful milk – arrived in mid-2016, about the same time as the first chickens. A couple of years later, the first hives got buzzing, supported by the orchard, wildflowers and, within the bees’ foraging range, hundreds of acres of woodland as well as cotton and other crops.

The enterprise is named after the Australian farm co-proprietor Matthew Ward’s grandparents started shortly after World War II, which he grew up on. Cornucopia North because this one isn’t Down Under. Elizabeth Ward also has farming in her veins – her grandfather’s boyhood home was the Vermont dairy where her father spent summers.

Developing a farm is a process. The Wards sold their Dexters as beef shares to start with, while last summer they started selling a growing range of products – beef, honey, eggs, some jams and jellies – at Portsmouth Olde Towne Farmers Market. They will return at the end of August 2022, when USDA-approved processing of the next batch of beef begins.

So while the ribeyes and burgers have been tantalizing taste buds already, the Wards have more recently began offering the high-quality genetics to current and prospective Dexter breeders. Check out the Sale Barn page for initial offerings of American Dexter Cattle Association (ADCA)-registered heifers, cows and bulls that fulfill the breed’s promise of homestead cows that are friendly, perfect for beginners, good milkers and good on the end of a fork.

The Wards don’t know where this journey will ultimately take them, because who does, but they will continue to build upon what they’ve started. They invite you join them, even if it’s just stopping to say “G’day” one Saturday morning in Portsmouth.