Farm to Freezer: What Independence Looks Like

Up in Washington state, I had the privilege of working with one family who built something very special. Farm to Freezer (also known as Portage View Farm) made the homestead so welcoming siblings are moving back in. And why not? Great food for everyone, meaningful chores, and plenty of cousins for the kids created a magnetic family compound.

This family spans three generations — a mother and daughter-in-law working side by side, husbands and fathers who are primarily welders and boat builders, but also chicken tractor and processing table welders, and grandkids into 4H and all possible farm activities.

Craftsmanship and expertise go beyond the metal work and into the garden layout, fruit tree health, food preservation. The old saying “the way you do anything is the way you do everything,” shows itself as the processing operation was also first class.

These folks are a living example of why Featherman exists: to help land holders achieve the highest quality of life from the land.

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Aligned on Values

Farm to Freezer represents the kind of community we’re proud to support—one that values hands-on experience, family-first learning, and the freedom to grow your own food. Using a full Featherman setup—including the plucker, manual dunker, scalder, kill cones, and small kill stand—they’ve made on-farm poultry processing efficient, clean, and repeatable. Whether it’s for their own freezer or for their neighbors, they process with precision and care.

“One of my favorite moments came when three of them decided to race on a 30-second evisceration challenge. I counted down, and darned if wasn’t a three-way tie at exactly 33 seconds! That’s not coincidence. That’s flow, efficiency, and experience resulting in three perfect performances.”
– David Schafer

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Why It Matters

Featherman was never just about building better equipment. It was about building a better way forward—for farmers, for families, for communities who still believe in doing things with their own two hands.

When I first started this company, it wasn’t to compete with the big guys or to chase some flashy trend. It was to help people reclaim control over their food, their land, and their livelihood.

What Farm to Freezer is doing… that’s exactly the kind of story that keeps me going. They’re raising kids and grandkids to work together, to grow their own food, and to take pride in the process. That’s more than just poultry processing to me. That’s using our tools to build resilient community far into the future. Now that’s a legacy Featherman can be proud of.

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