Ridgemeade Farm

Our Practices

- Regenerative Agriculture
- Holistic Management
- Permaculture Design
- Biomimicry & BioDynamics
- Key Line Design
- Natural Farming
- Carbon Sequestration
- Soil and Ecology Restoration
- Historic Land Preservation & Stewardship

Our Foods

- Pasture Raised
- Nutrient-Dense
- Flavor-Rich
- Ethically Raised & Cultivated
- “Better-Than-Organic”
- Customer Certified
- Pesticide Free
- Herbicide Free
- Fungicide Free
- Soy Free
- Antibiotic & Steroid Free
- Non-GMO
- No Added Hormones

Our Promise

We began Ridgemeade Farm as a homestead - a way of providing our growing family with superior, nutrient-dense foods and food security, even amidst the turbulence of fickle economies and social transformations.

When you choose Ridgemeade, you are making the same choice we make every day for our family: nutrient-dense, ethically raised, local food instead of low-quality, cheap, industrial convenience products, imported from thousands of miles away and saturated with innumerable residual toxins.

We raise our foods as if our family’s health, longevity, and happiness depended upon it - because it does. Join the Ridgemeade Family today.

Click on any photo below to learn more about specific farm activities.

WHY Ridgemeade?

We are YOUR local farm.
We are 100% Transparent.
We are 100% Pasture-Raised and Non-GMO.

WHAT does Ridgemead Farm do? We produce unparalleled, seasonal foods which far exceed certified “Organic” standards in both flavor and nutrient density. All of our produce is “Customer Certified” through our Open-Farm-Gate policy - Come and visit and enjoy the bucolic perfection of our historic croft.

HOW does Ridgemeade Farm work? We are a regenerative farm harmonizing animals, plants, and natural ecosystems. Our plants and pastures are never sprayed and are fertilized exclusively with natural compost and compost teas made on-farm. Our animals live happy, stress-free lives expressing their nature - foraging in the woods, enjoying fresh pasture all day, every day, and basking in our shady orchards.

WHERE is the farm? We are located at 6345 Heidler Road in Fairview, PA.

WHEN? Ridgemeade Farm was started in 1849 by Clayton Heidler as a dairy farm. Robert C. McElroy recreated the farm in the 1940s based upon his friend and colleague Rudolph Steiner’s guidance - focusing on BioDynamic, registered black angus production. Our family is now rebuilding the farm into a 100% dynamically sustainable, human-scale, regenerative operation with plans to operate year-round, producing pasture-raised meats, flowers, herbs, vegetables, fruits, maple syrup, honey, and farm spirits as well as hosting a variety of on-farm events and festivals.

We’ve surrounded ourselves with system-bucking industry leaders and mentors including Richard Perkins, Joel Salatin, Jim Gerrish, Jean-Martin Fortier, Justin Rhodes, and others, who continue to provide an increasingly clear understanding of the industrial food economy, its history, motives, and deadly costs to individuals, communities, our ecology, and the world at large. The answer to the vast majority of Man’s problems, we truly believe, is quite simple: Human-Scale Regenerative Agriculture.

WHO is behind Ridgemeade Farm? Blake and Danielle (Downey) Ragghianti and their growing family. Danielle comes from a long line of Sterretts and Sturgeons, some of the founding pioneers of Sterrettania and Fairview, Pennsylvania - the two communities Ridgemeade Farm straddles. Blake has farming roots on both sides of his ancestry in Ireland and Italy but until 2020, had only hobby experience. While he brings to the table an extremely diverse background including classical music composition, professional yacht management, and specialty spirits distilling, Danielle brings her own unique set of experience including more than a decade of professional ballet experience. Blake and Danielle have studied Permaculture Design at Oregon State University, Flower Farming at Floret Farm, EcoSocial Design at GAIA University, No-Dig Market Gardening with Jean-Martin Fortier, and Regenerative Farming at Ridgedale Permaculture and Polyface Farms. Blake and Danielle operate and manage Ridgemeade with the help of their extended family, volunteers, apprentices, and seasonal farm-hands. They continue to maintain close ties with the descendants of Robert C. McElroy who lovingly stewarded this historic farm for more than eighty years. We are honored to pick up the torch and carry it forward into a new era of Regenerative design.