Hillstone Farms in Wellsboro is operated by Todd Webster and his wife Jessica, along with Todd’s brother Garrett. The brothers oversee daily operations at the farm and Jessica heads up the farm’s retail location in downtown Wellsboro, which has flourished in the quaint downtown. Along with their successful retail and commercial business, Hillstone recently began supplying beef to the local school district through the PA Beef Council’s PA Beef to PA Schools program (PBPS).
A graduate of Penn State’s animal science program, Todd spent the first few years of his career working in meat inspection and animal health in Vermont. “That was in the early 00’s when the farm to table movement was just starting to take off,” says Todd. “It was a good way to get my feet wet in the industry.” Eventually Todd moved back to Pennsylvania and started farming with his dad Tim. His brother Garett also earned a degree in agriculture from Penn State and joined the farm in 2017. Sadly, Tim was killed in a farm related accident in 2022. The brothers have continued to farm together and take the operation in new directions in their community that include a downtown retail space and partnership with their local school through the PBPS program.
Hillstone Farms started small, selling beef halves and quarters. Eventually, the business expanded to local farmer’s markets. “We spent about ten years going to two farmers markets a week,” Todd says. Over the course of those ten years, the business continued to grow. Local consumers began frequenting the farm’s warehouse to purchase cuts of beef. The growth prompted the Hillstone family to purchase a commercial building in town and open the retail storefront. “It’s been important to us to keep the downtown main street appeal,” says Todd. “Having more businesses enhances everyone else’s business. I think that’s so important to keeping the economy vibrant in a rural area.”
Community connections initially led Hillstone to the PA Beef to PA Schools initiative. “Katrina Dowd is in charge of the nutrition program at the high school,” says Todd. “She happens to good friends with my sister and my wife, so she reached out and asked us about the program.” Now in their third month, Hillstone has been supplying fifty pounds of beef per month to the high school. “It works out well because my wife is a science teache r at the high school, so she’s able to take the deliveries with her,” says Todd.
Todd is also involved with the school community as a junior high and high school wrestling coach. “The day the school served smash burgers one of the students came in after lunch and said, ‘those burgers were so good, was that your meat?’ So that was nice to hear,” Todd shares.
The Websters enjoy making connections between students and agriculture whenever they can. Todd says, “The high school FFA teacher often brings kids out to the farm to practice judging. Jessica was able to sit in on an ag career day panel and talk about the farm and the retail store.” Through the PA Beef to PA School programs the Websters hope to be involved in more ag education programming
For Todd, it’s all about making the connection that there are people here in your local community providing nutritious food for the area. “We want to show the students that there is local ag, and it can be a thriving and profitable business. A lot of that comes in finding ways to connect producers and consumers. Plus, it’s always nice to get feedback from the community—that’s the part that’s been really rewarding.”
To learn more about PBPS contact Nichole Hockenberry, PA Beef Council Executive Director at nhockenberry@pabeef.org or 1-888-4BEEFPA.
The Pennsylvania Beef Council is a producer-controlled and funded organization, which administers the Beef Checkoff Program in Pennsylvania. The Beef Checkoff Program assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. Checkoff revenues may be used for promotion, education and research programs to improve the marketing climate for beef.
