Photos by Jamie Plain
If you pull into Brischer Branch Farms, there is a good chance a chicken will be part of the welcoming committee.
The goats will also try to convince you they haven’t eaten in days. Don’t believe them.
Roosters will crow—repeatedly. Blooper, one of the family’s dogs, may show off his sit-and-shake skills in exchange for a treat. Kids can grab a cup of feed, visit the animals, paint a wooden chicken or roast a s’more. Parents can settle into a rocking chair and take in something that’s increasingly hard to find: a little quiet.
For owner Krystal Burton, that’s exactly the point.
“I want everyone to feel like they are right at home here when they visit,” she said. “Truly my hope when you come here is that you get to experience what life is like when it slows down.”
It’s a simple idea. But the little farm along Highway 231 represents something much bigger for Krystal. It’s a childhood dream, a business built by hand and a chance for her sons to watch their mom build something she’s incredibly proud of.
A Farm Girl Dream—Without the Farm
Krystal didn’t grow up surrounded by livestock. She grew up in Thoroughbred East, but she dreamed of country life anyway.
She wanted horses. Chickens. Goats. A dairy cow. Basically, if it belonged on a farm, Krystal wanted one.
When she and her husband, Matt, married, she made those plans known. So, for their third anniversary, Matt bought his wife a cow.
There was just one problem.
Krystal wanted a dairy cow. Molly was a beef cow.
Krystal laughs now about how much she didn’t know. She had envisioned milking her new cow before learning that Molly wasn’t that kind of cow—and that there were a few other important steps involved before any cow starts producing milk.
But Molly became a beloved pet and, more importantly, the beginning of something.
Then came chickens.
Matt was firmly opposed. Krystal describes her husband as decidedly “NOT a bird person.” But after Krystal’s father died from COVID five years ago, Matt knew she needed something that could bring her some joy.
He agreed to six chickens.
Six became 16. Then 30.
Today? There are around 70.
Those chickens eventually began producing enough eggs for Krystal to sell, and what started as The Happy Hen Den became the earliest version of the business she has today. A horse followed. Then goats, ducks and rabbits.
The farm Krystal had imagined as a little girl was slowly appearing around her.
Building Brischer Branch
Even the name of the farm is rooted in family.
Krystal and Matt have two sons, Brakson and Fischer. Krystal took the “Br” from Brakson and combined it with “ischer” from Fischer to create Brischer.
The “Branch” came from a much more practical source: the trees surrounding their property—and the seemingly endless branches the family picks up.
Together, they became Brischer Branch Farms LLC.
Krystal had considered opening a farm stand years earlier, but the costs and requirements made the original plan difficult to pursue. Then this spring, she and Matt finished another project and had a pile of scrap wood left over.
Krystal looked at it and saw her farm stand.
With Matt’s help, she built it.
The process that followed was hardly seamless. There were permits, licenses, zoning requirements and even a temporary shutdown when Krystal discovered she’d completed some of the steps in the wrong order.
But eventually, the doors opened.
Literally—the doors were one of the things she had to add.
Today, the stand offers farm-fresh eggs alongside homemade fruit butters and a growing selection of sourdough goods. The vegetables, strawberries and flowers Krystal hoped to sell haven’t cooperated quite as well this season. Animals repeatedly beat her to the vegetables, and flowers surprisingly weren’t big sellers.
She’s taking it in stride.
“There’s always next year!” she said.
The sourdough, meanwhile, has taken on a life of its own.
A longtime egg customer had encouraged Krystal for years to try making it. Krystal repeatedly declined, convinced sourdough was too intimidating. This year, she finally accepted some starter.
She was hooked.
“I fell in love with being able to make something so beautiful and much healthier without preservatives for my family and friends,” she said.
Now sourdough breads, cookies and other baked goods have become some of the stand’s biggest sellers.
They’ve also taught Krystal just how much work can hide behind a loaf of bread. A sourdough loaf takes two days, and that’s before calculating ingredient costs, packaging, labeling and marketing.
Add caring for dozens of animals, running a household, yard work, homework and shuttling two boys to sports practices, and “farm stand” suddenly sounds like a rather inadequate description of Krystal’s workload.
Welcome to the Loving Pen
Krystal didn’t want families to simply grab a loaf of bread and leave.
Her love of animals inspired the Loving Pen, a small petting area where children can get close to the animals she dreamed about owning when she was their age.
There are rabbits, ducks, chickens and goats—including Caramel, S’mores, Brownie and Marshmallow, named by Fischer. Then there’s Lucky, the buck whose mother rejected him shortly after birth. Matt happened to find the newborn in time, earning Lucky a very appropriate name.
The Loving Pen opened during one of the hottest stretches of the year, so attendance hasn’t yet been what Krystal imagined. Instead of abandoning the idea, she adjusted. Feed cups are now available at the stand, allowing visitors to feed the goats even when the pen isn’t formally open.
Families have embraced it.
For Krystal, watching even a handful of children light up while holding a rabbit or feeding a goat is enough to remind her why she wanted to create the space.
She especially loves that the farm’s small size can be an advantage.
There aren’t crowds of people or dozens of attractions competing for children’s attention. Families have told her the quiet setup works particularly well for younger children and children who can become overwhelmed in busier environments.
“It’s peaceful and not overwhelming,” Krystal said. “I wanted to create a space exactly like that.”
Someday, she’d love to add a llama, miniature horse, Highland cow and sheep. A mobile petting zoo is another dream she’s exploring.
For now, she’s content to grow carefully—and realistically.
Built by Their Family
The boys have their own places in the business.
Brakson is his mom’s unofficial marketing department, regularly telling people about the farm and trying to drum up bread orders. Fischer enjoys getting into the kitchen and helping with baking.
Brakson, Krystal jokes, specializes more in taste testing.
Matt works full time as a welding inspector in Mt. Vernon, Indiana, but helps maintain fencing and tackles work around the farm on weekends. When he gets home in the mornings, he lets out the chickens while Krystal starts baking and gets the boys ready for school.
Both Krystal and Matt are veterans, and the lessons they took from military service shape the way they’re raising their sons.
“If you are going to do something, don’t just do it to get it done,” Krystal said.
They expect their boys to give their best effort, take responsibility for their actions and treat others with respect. That military connection is also why Brischer Branch Farms offers a 10% discount to active-duty military members, veterans, military spouses and military parents.
It’s a significant gesture for a tiny business where every dollar matters, but Krystal sees it as a way to honor the sacrifices military families make.
And if someone dishonestly claims the discount?
Krystal chooses grace.
“You can’t control their actions, but you can control your own,” she said.
Her Own Definition of Success
Perhaps the most meaningful thing growing at Brischer Branch Farms isn’t found in a garden bed or chicken coop.
It’s something Krystal has found in herself.
She has an associate degree and welding certification and has worked different jobs over the years, but the demands of motherhood and Matt’s work schedule meant she never established the kind of traditional career she saw many of her friends build.
She is quick to say she has always taken tremendous pride in being a present mom. Still, there was a part of her that wanted her boys to see her accomplish something professionally, too.
Now they do.
“The most rewarding part of seeing this dream become a reality is seeing my kids be so proud of me and of what my husband and I have built,” she said.
Her sons see customers buying bread their mom made. They see people pulling into the driveway because of something she created. They see their parents building pens, installing fences and figuring things out when plans don’t work the first time.
And Krystal has realized success doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s.
It can look like flour on the counter and chickens in the driveway.
It can sound like a rooster crowing for what feels like the hundredth time while kids giggle at hungry goats.
It can be a farm stand built from leftover wood, a business named for two boys and a rocking chair where another family gets to sit still for a while.
“To build something from the ground up with your own two hands, no matter the size or how long it takes, is pure success,” Krystal said. “Especially when it’s something that has always been a dream.”
Brischer Branch Farms may be little.
For the Burton family, what they’ve built there is anything but.
Visit Brischer Branch Farms, located at 8959 US 231 in Utica.