Their own operation has been certified for twelve years, even for the six years that the operation consisted of a 50 x 100 food plot on the north end of Columbus. They ve been in their present location for the last six years. On about three cropped acres, they produce fresh market vegetables, specializing in heirloom varieties of tomatoes . They also grow sweet peppers, hot peppers, potatoes, beans, summer squash and winter squash. They are members of Iowa Seed Savers Exchange, from which many of their seeds came.
Livestock is also a significant component of the operation.
Over the course of the spring and summer they raise 600-800 chickens for meat, using a variety called cornish cross , which takes eight weeks from hatch to butcher. Buckeyes, which were developed in Ohio, New Hampshire Reds and Dominiques , one of the original breeds in the United States. To feed their layers, the Laughlins go through about 800 pounds of feed a month. This is a mix of organic roasted soybeans, oats, rock phosphate, oyster shells, and kelp. Sheep and goats are the final livestock component on the farm.