Jason schmidt - Owner and operator
Jason Schmidt is the owner of Grazing Plains Farm, LLC. where he strives to make small farming work by using sustainable agricultural practices. Jason’s diverse educational background and Mennonite heritage shape the way that he lives his life and manages his operation. After earning his A.A. at Hesston College, Jason served with MCC’s SALT program where he shadowed an Anglican priest in South Africa who helped rural South Africans become more self-sustainable. He returned to Kansas where he completed his undergraduate degree in Global Peace and Justice at Bethel College, Newton, Kansas. Joining Mennonite Voluntary Service, he worked for two years with community gardens and organic vegetable co-ops in Colorado. After completing his master’s degree in Plant and Environmental Sciences from Clemson University, Jason returned to his family farm, where he now lives with his wife and two children.
miriam goertzen-regier - cheesemaker
Miriam grew up loving the south central Kansas prairie on her family's farm east of Newton. After graduating from Bethel College in North Newton, she spent four years volunteering in Evansville, IN, Tucson, AZ, and Bosnia, experiences through which she gained a deeper appreciation for the possible connections among soil, place, community, and health. Her deep curiosity about food and the science behind it first led her to develop a line of small cookies for a local grocery store; she now engages that curiosity through cheesemaking for Grazing Plains. Besides making cheese, Miriam farms alongside family and explores what practices can improve the health and resilience of the land she stewards. Miriam's favorite cheese is generally whatever she's eating, but she has a soft spot for Grazing Plains' fromage blanc, well-aged hard Italian cheeses, and Rogue River Blue. When not making, eating, or dreaming of cheese, she can be found hanging out with her husband Ryan, participating in the life of her church, gardening, reading, biking, and contra dancing.
Jason a. Miller - consultant and handyman
Jason Miller grew up on and around dairy and crop farms as a descendant of Amish and Mennonite builders, farmers, and homemakers. In that tradition, he enjoys creatively building and fixing anything from toys to tractors, from workbenches to wagons, and from fences to the 1908 Schmidt family barn. After attending Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana, Jason volunteered on the Hopi reservation in the northeast Arizona desert. In 2001, he moved to Kansas after falling in love with a fifth-generation Krehbiel from Moundridge, and other than a year spent volunteering in Germany, has lived in Kansas ever since. Jason is married to Melanie Krehbiel, a high school teacher at Moundridge. He is also the director of Mennonite Abuse Prevention, a small Kansas nonprofit that supports survivors of sexual abuse in Anabaptist contexts. Jason studied permaculture design and is a Kansas Master Gardener. He has planted hundreds of trees and shrubs around the farm (some of which have survived) and dreams of leaving a collection of oak trees for future generations of Schmidt farmers.