From war to peace the Fold of Liberty Farms has it all.
Purchased by the Stout family after the father, Vernon Stout, sold his online training company back in 2021, Fold of Liberty Farms is currently home to a war museum, paid cow cuddles and more.
With little to no farming experience, other than having a dairy farming grandfather, Stout set out to build a regenerative agriculture farm on 50 acres of land.
This is done by using a variety of different plants and animals to regenerate the surrounding environment.
According to Stout, the learning process is not too bad but also “kind of painful sometimes."
"I mean you make mistakes,” Stoud said.
One such mistake took place over the summer when Stout discovered that you "can’t flood irrigate trees.”
After planting a total of 600 trees over the summer, spread between five different kinds of trees, only about 15 of them survived.
Stout refuses to give up and plans to keep planting trees until they have enough.
His son Caleb has been helping him on the farm since they purchased it in 2021, and even with all the trials and errors says he enjoys it.
“It might be weird, but my favorite part is just doing the hard work,” Caleb Stout said.
The name of the farm came from the desire to teach people who visit the farm about freedom.
And along with all the normal workings of a farm, Fold of Liberty Farms has a little extra something.
“We think teaching people about freedom, patriotism and honoring veterans is all part of freedom and liberty. So we have a museum here, that’s a military museum to teach people about freedom,” Vernon Stout said.
The museum is located inside a barn on the property and features a collection of items from wars that took place during the 20th century.
Vehicles from World War I and II, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, and the Cold War can be found inside the barn, most of which have been restored to running conditions.
Stout has driven his restored vehicles with some easier to drive than others.
“The Proud American is hard to see out of because it’s an armored vehicle,” Vernon Stout said.
Not only does the farm offer tours of the war museum, Fold of Liberty Farms also offers Cow Cuddles.
Participants can purchase a ticket online for $15 to come cuddle the cows living on the farm.
The Stouts own a variety of cows including French Dairy cows, quite a few Scottish Highlands and some Angus cows.
Participants are given a metal brush to give the cows the best scratches and are warned that the cows will sometimes aggressively demand more attention.
“They like to get jealous of each other and will try to push each other out of the way,” Vernon Stout explained to participants waiting to enter the field of cows. “They are like large dogs, so 1,200 pound dogs.”
Tickets are purchased for 30-minute increments and include all the cuddles you could possibly need.
“This is the best day of my life,” Brinlee Leinweber, a BYU student, shouted as she hugged a fluffy Highland cow.
These Cow Cuddles, along with selling eggs and beef, are currently the farm's main source of revenue.
However in the future, Vernon Stout hopes to host receptions on the property, after construction on their new pond is finished.
The pond will not only add to the beauty of the farm's landscape but will allow the farm to become even more self-sustaining.
“The pond we’re building will reduce our water consumption by about 90%,” Vernon Stout explained.
And once the pond is done and grass is added, Vernon Stout said they hope to start hosting receptions starting next spring.
Having a farm is no easy task but when asked what his favorite part of the process has been he looked around and replied, “This, right here. It’s so peaceful.”
