Maggie Keith is a fourth-generation steward of Foxhollow Farm, a 1300-acre biodynamic farm in Crestwood, Kentucky, dedicated to raising and distributing 100% grassfed beef directly to consumers. A passionate advocate for regenerative agriculture and regional food supply chains, she develops innovative business models that promote good farming and strengthen connections to nutrient-rich, locally sourced food. Maggie co-created The Farmer and The Foodie to share her farming knowledge and celebrate the joy, friendship, and food that unite us all. She also serves as chairwoman of The Berry Center Board, championing small farmers, land stewardship, and resilient regional economies. Maggie lives on Foxhollow Farm with her husband and three children.
Company: Foxhollow Farm
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company
Maggie Keith: I’m a fourth-generation steward of Foxhollow Farm, a 1,300-acre biodynamic operation in Crestwood, Kentucky. For nearly 20 years, I’ve worked to rebuild degraded land into a farm that holds Level 5 Regenified, Demeter Biodynamic, and American Grassfed Association certification simultaneously, a combination almost no farm in the country can claim. We raise 100% grass-fed, grass-finished beef and ship it directly to customers through a regional subscription model, connecting people to a single closed-loop farm where every animal is raised, finished, and known by name. I also co-hosted six seasons of the PBS series The Farmer and The Foodie, and I chair the board of the Berry Center, continuing the food systems work tied to Wendell Berry’s legacy.
What were the most significant challenges you faced during the scaling process, and how did you overcome them?
Maggie Keith: Foxhollow operates as a farm, an educational hub, a community gathering space, and a direct-to-consumer food brand at the same time, and keeping that identity coherent as the business grew has been one of my harder problems to solve. Our premium price point also limits how quickly we can reach mainstream consumers, especially during periods of economic pressure. I’ve addressed this by staying disciplined about specificity in everything I say about the farm, grounding the story in concrete practices like rotational grazing and soil health rather than broad wellness language, and building our direct-to-consumer subscription model as my primary growth engine instead of chasing scale through wholesale or retail expansion.
How did you ensure that your company culture remained intact as your business expanded?
Maggie Keith: I built Foxhollow as a farm community from the start, with multiple farmers, partner growers, and collaborators stewarding the same land rather than running things as a single owner-operator. That structure has kept our culture consistent as we’ve grown, because new people joining the operation step into an existing system of shared values around land stewardship. I’ve also stayed personally involved in day-to-day decisions on the land, which keeps our culture rooted in practice.
What strategies did you employ to maintain quality and customer satisfaction while scaling rapidly?
Maggie Keith: My model works because we stay a single, closed-loop farm. Every animal is raised and finished on the same land, which removes the variability that comes from sourcing cattle across multiple operations or importing animals fed differently than they’re marketed. I’ve held the line on specific, verifiable practices such as grass-fed and grass-finished beef, rotational grazing, and biodynamic land management, and that discipline is what lets me stand behind every claim we make as we grow.
Can you share a specific turning point that was crucial for your business’s successful scaling?
Maggie Keith: The turning point came in 2017, when I launched Foxhollow Delivery and we started shipping beef regionally instead of relying on pickup and farmers market sales. That shift is what actually let us scale.
Around the same time, I made the call to stop doing farmers markets altogether. It felt like a huge risk at the time, walking away from a model that had worked for years, but it was the right move. I redirected that time and energy into shipping, distribution, and finding customers directly, and that’s where the real growth happened. Setting up a booth every Saturday kept us small. Building a delivery system let us reach people we never could have reached standing behind a table.
How did you manage the financial aspects of scaling, particularly in securing funding and maintaining cash flow?
Maggie Keith: Sponsorships have played a real role in our events, and that extra cash flow has been a meaningful part of how we’ve managed the financial side of scaling. We host people on the farm for farm-to-table experiences because we genuinely love welcoming them here, and that revenue also helps offset the agricultural risk built into raising a physical product. Beef carries far more cost and unpredictability than a pure experience or service does, so building out additional offerings like events and consulting has given us a cash flow cushion that beef sales alone couldn’t provide.
