‘Mother Nature makes it good’

Meg Campbell, a stylish yet simple farmer, abides by the trendy concepts of sustainable farming and is taking her newfound agricultural career to a higher level of customer service.

While her family has farmed since the 1930s, Campbell didn't come to Culpeper until the '90s.

After growing up in Philadelphia, graduating with a master's degree in international economics, and working for organizations such as the Untied Nations and the United States Department of Agriculture, she opted for a change after her father died and her mother needed help on the farm.

Now she is part of a dynamic trio of female farmers, including her mother Laura and sister Desy.

"This is a very different life," Campbell said of her now being a second-generation farmer.

Dressed in a jean skirt, pink shirt, Crocs garden shoes and pearl-shaped earrings, Campbell walked Croftburn Farm on a cloudy day last week.

"C'mon babies," Campbell shouted toward a herd of sheep grazing on grass. "C'mon babies."

Within seconds about five lambs came running toward her, hoping for bottles of milk.

They followed Campbell around, reaching their heads toward her hand and trying to suck on her fingers.

"These are the orphans," she said.

With 80 ewes to care for, sometimes all of them don't make it and sometimes a mamma sheep has more lambs than possible to feed.

While the "babies" are cute, they have a grim future being someone else's dinner.

For anyone whose tasted Campbell's lamb sausages, though, they might understand why her products are so sought after.

She sells three different types of sausages: apple, garlic and rosemary, sun dried tomato and pine nuts, and Merguez, a spicy sausage.

The Campbell girls regularly take their lamb sausages and beef cuts to the Williamsburg Farmer's Market. They also sell to Foti's Restaurant in downtown Culpeper, The Blue Rock Inn in Washington, Va., and a few other restaurants in the Williamsburg and Washington, D.C., areas.

Frank Maragos, owner and chef at Foti's, said he buys whatever he can get his hands on from Campbell, including lamb, beef, eggs and sausages.

"The beef is prime quality, the lamb is absolutely gorgeous and allowed to be in the fields naturally grazed," Maragos said. "The product is far superior than 90 percent of what's out there."

Maragos said Campbell uses nothing but the freshest of top-shelf ingredients and takes intense pride in the raising, butchering, quality and craftsmanship of her products.

Maragos grew up in a family of farmers and said his father taught him the difference between what an animal tastes like when raised naturally and humanely versus one pumped with steroids or only fed with feed.

"Mother Nature makes it good," he said. "I just give it to you."
Maragos plans to serve Campbell's products exclusively as long as she fills his order first.

"One thing that drives my menu and why I became a chef is the local farmers," he said. "It (the meat) tastes like it's supposed to and that's the greatest thing. The support of local farmers should be the utmost importance because they were the building blocks of this community and without your building blocks you lose your structure."

Aside from Maragos, interest in Croftburn Farm continues to grow and Campbell says it's hard to keep up and find a balance.
She only has two employees who help on the farm aside from her family and with growing interest she'll have to ramp up production capability to meet the demand.

She's also trying to market her products differently by customizing cuts of meat with the help of Fauquier's Finest Butcher Shop in Bealeton. The "value-added" products are marketed to the end user by being processed into a specific cut of meat, then sold for consumption, rather than Campbell marketing her animals live through customary sale barns.

Campbell is also trying to establish a new logo with the help of a graphic designer to create a recognizable name for the Campbell products off Croftburn Farm, where all animals are born and raised locally.

The 1,000-acre farm is home to nearly 400 cows, 200 calves, 80 ewes, two rams, chickens and some guard dogs.

Campbell doesn't stress out her animals by taking them to large sale barns. She feeds them what is grown on the farm, grass, hay and finished with some grain.

Since the animals are happy and the food is good, Campbell is working on the marketing aspect and increasing production.
She does it with class, help from her family and a desire to produce quality service for her high-end customers.

And Campbell, a once internationally traveling city girl, is proud to be a woman in agriculture.

While her products are known in Culpeper, her family name is gaining recognition statewide.

"Why is our fillet better than somebody else's-" she asked. "I don't know."

But Campbell says it's all about how the animals are raised, the ingredients she uses and the fact that it doesn't need any extra fluff or flavor.

"With this, I stick a chop in there (the oven) or on the grill. I don't do anything to it," she said. "It's sort of simple cooking."

Liz Mitchell can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 110 or