Why We Decided to Start Acorn Bluff

We're two brothers, Seth and Kenan Todd, who run a gourmet Mangalitsa Pork farm in Southeast Iowa called Acorn Bluff Farms.  You're probably wondering why we decided to start Acorn Bluff, an American-made homegoods brand, when we already have our hands full with a farm!

It started out innocently enough. Kenan noticed that as he walked around his house, it was full of plastics and cheap goods that were to the imported to the US. Microplastics are a growing concern for health reasons. Further, cheaply made stuff looks, well, cheap! 

"This should be easy to solve," he thought, "I'll just click around online and find my answer." Little did he know that his searching would largely be fruitless. Eventually, a family friend made some cutting boards for Kenan, and a few were sold through the Acorn Bluff Farms website. The response from Acorn Bluff Farms' customers was unanimous and loud: "we want more goods like this."

We began talking to more and more of our customers and friends, and soon realized that no one had a way to buy American handmade goods. We also realized that everyone's home interior is much uglier today than it was 20 years ago. That was our a-ha moment. While growing our pork business, we began to look at how to source American handmade goods. We were inspired by people like Simon Sarris, who often writes on how we must increase beauty in our daily lives, Christopher Alexander, who helped popularize a way of building that is organic, natural, and beautiful, and Michael Imber, a Texas-based architect who builds classical architecture. 

Once we realized there was a huge desire for American-made goods, we needed to find these goods! We started with Frankie McWhirt, whose handmade American hardwood cutting boards were our original foray into this space. It turns out that Frankie can also make furniture. Well, we'd offer American made, custom designed furniture from Frankie too. 

Soon, we had more ideas- what about French Rolling Pins from an artist in Tennessee? Sign us up! Same for American-made stoneware, from a plant in the Midwest. 

We're launching this store with a grander vision. We believe that every day should be beautiful, and every moment too. This is how we glorify our Creator. We've started with these items, and eventually will feature virtually every item that could be used to make your home beautiful. 

You see, by interacting with stoneware, or a cutting board that will be passed down for generations (what we call a Generational Good), your life improves immeasurably. You may use a cutting board 1k times a year for 50 years. 50,000 uses for $150- not bad. But we're not trained to think that away, instead preferring consumption. Complex systems operate with positive second and third order effects, and choosing what items we put in our homes has that same effect. 

We're just getting started, building a renaissance village in tiny Columbus Junction, Iowa. First there was gourmet pork, and now there is more. Where shall we go from here? We're not sure yet, but we do know it will be exciting. 

And for you, reading this. Look around your home. Is it beautiful? Is it timeless? If it's not, you can quite easily rectify this. Start with American-made goods from Acorn Bluff. 

You can shop today, simply click here.