I’ve been interested in the idea that the food we eat should be something more meaningful in our culture for a while.

I was researching local farms online and found this powerful quote on the Pasture2Table website:

“There came a time for us to question where our food comes from. After some research we decided we wanted to raise animals in a way that was healthy, ethical, and just made sense. There are always two paths in life: one is easy and one is hard. Turns out the hard one isn’t all that hard, we can put in a little more work and in return, the land smiles back at us after we harvest our goods.”

This statement made me smile and it’s why I reached out to Abbey and Gio Sanchez on Instagram to see if I could bring my family out to talk about their story and do some photos of them and their farm.

The couple was gracious enough to agree, and one hot and humid evening we showed up with our cameras and curiosity.

While Abbey has been in the “farm life” since she was little, Gio had a more unconventional path to where he is now. He was in college procrastinating instead of studying for a test when he came across a video about sustainability. Soon he made the decision to leave college and learn all he could about farming.

“I had the intention of waiting a couple years to get everything organized. But then I got impatient and jumped ship within a couple months of being in Nebraska,” Gio said.

The two met after Abbey returned to Nebraska and their first date was on Gio’s farm at the time. Since then, they’ve gotten engaged and moved to Raymond, Nebraska where they have pasture-raised pork and chickens.

While my family visited with them and took some photos, petted some animals and had one of the times of our lives, it was easy to see that while Abbey and Gio work long hours, they also see a tremendous amount of value in what they do together.