Happiness, health, home

ST. JOSEPH — A family’s effort to produce their own food more naturally has branched out into a business that sells a range of products to benefit people inside and out. Triple H Acres, founded and run by the Heinen family, brings meat, poultry, honey, syrup, skincare products, dried products and more to area customers while promoting a sustainable and healthy lifestyle.

“Being able to produce these things just gives me joy,” Robin Heinen said. “It’s a good, healthy product, and it’s a lot of work, … but it tastes so good.”

Robin and her husband, Dave, moved onto their land near St. Joseph about 17 years ago.

“We just wanted some land to raise food for our family so we knew what was in our food,” Robin said.

At the time, the Heinens had a 2-year-old and another child on the way, so a place in the country also provided them with an environment where children could learn, play and grow.

Grass-fed beef and a couple of egg-laying chickens arrived on the farm shortly after they moved in. A few years later, the family had more beef than they knew what to do with, so they started marketing and selling it under Triple H Acres. The three Hs in the name stand for the three Heinen children — Holly, Adam and Sam — but they also signify the values in the farm’s tagline: happiness, health and home.

To keep their beef grass-fed, the Heinens have about 30 acres of pasture on their 35-acre land so they can graze their cattle on fresh grass every day for more tender beef. During the winter, the cattle are fed hay from a 25-acre parcel the Heinens rent; the hay includes clover, alfalfa, bird’s-foot trefoil and several types of grasses.

Beef tallow products naturally followed from beef production. After getting the tallow as a byproduct of the meat, Robin started making lip balm.

“It was the best lip balm ever,” she said. “That went well, and then the next thing I started making was whipped tallow, body butters and stuff like that. What I found with that is it always seemed to be a little greasy. … It’ll absorb in eventually, but you still have that little bit of a greasy feeling. Then, I started formulating and came up with a recipe, so I now have a lotion that’s not greasy.”

Robin regularly adds new tallow products to what she offers. She currently has soap, deodorant, lotion, dish soap bars and, most recently, liquid dish soap.

Triple H Acres added pork to their operation about five years ago, with meat chickens following soon afterward. The chickens and pigs are both raised on a no-corn, no-soy diet, instead getting feed recipes that have organic barley, peas and oats; the Heinens raise some of the grains on their own.

Not only does the Heinen family have the reassurance of knowing they are raising and eating healthier meat, but they also find that it has a better flavor.

“If we go somewhere else and have a hamburger, it seems like it doesn’t have any taste compared to the grass-fed beef,” Robin said. “The pork has very good flavor. There’s obviously fat in all meat; you need fat in order for it to grow and be tender. … When you cook grass-fed beef and no-corn or no-soy products, the fat disappears, and you don’t have a pan full of grease — unless you are cooking bacon.”

Robin freeze-dries fruits, vegetables and herbs, both purchased and farm-grown; most of the herbs, garlic and garlic scapes are from the farm. She also sells freeze-dried candy, which is popular with customers.

Around the same time the pigs joined the farm, the Heinens acquired honeybees and were mentored by Paul Theis of Beau’s Bee Yards. The bees used to overwinter in Texas, but over the last couple of years, the Heinens kept the hives on site, covering them with Styrofoam and tar paper and putting up haybales as windbreaks; they had nine hives last year, and this year, they have five. They collect and sell the honey, including creamed honey and some flavored varieties.

By Robin’s estimation, about 125 maple trees grow on their land, and the Heinens tap about 75 of them. Thanks to a reverse osmosis system, the Heinens can extract about half of the water from the maple sap before it goes into the wood-fired boiler to cook off the rest.

“(Reverse osmosis) literally cuts your cooking time into less than half,” Robin said. “It’s so worth it. … We have a hydrometer we put in the water (as it cooks), and it’ll tell you what your sugar content is.”

The syrup is also sold with flavors such as chocolate and blueberry, and Robin started making maple sugar with the sap, which can replace regular sugar.

Triple H Acres sells directly to customers, most of whom are local, and the products can also be found at the farmers markets in St. Joseph and St. Cloud. They are also for sale at Forever Young 2 and Good Earth Co-op in St. Cloud.

Looking ahead, Robin is hoping to add laundry detergent and shampoo bars to Triple H Acres’ products. With freeze-dried items, she wants to make pellets that can be added to water to give it flavor. Robin also makes tea blends and plans to grow more stevia, which she finds to be less bitter when grown at home.

Robin wants to expand the educational side of Triple H Acres as well, promoting sustainability and ensuring people are aware of how their food and products are sourced and processed.

“Body care products (are) loaded with chemicals,” Robin said. … “I try to educate people on what’s in (products) and why other options are healthier.”

One of the best parts of Triple H Acres for Robin, though, is that it has allowed her to raise her children and teach them about the natural life. They are active in Benton County 4-H, where they show pigs, goats and chickens and take on a variety of projects that reflect the life they have grown up living.

“They’ve learned so much just by being here and taking part in the daily work,” she said. “It’s been one of my greatest joys watching them grow up with that kind of experience. They grew up with chore lists instead of screens, learning responsibility before they even realized it. These years shaped not just our family but the values behind everything we produce today.”