The Accidental Beekeepers

Oklahoma Living - By Heide Brandes, May 2025

The morning frost bites at Ash Winfield’s fingers as he braves a winter storm to get into his truck. The roads are slick with ice, but the dairy can’t wait. At Swan Brothers Dairy in Claremore, Oklahoma, a 101-year-old operation that’s weathered everything from the Dust Bowl to the digital age, the cows still need milking, ice storm or not.

And at Farm Hippie, Winfield’s year-round indoor farmers market in Collinsville and Pawhuska, the customers still need their fresh, local milk too.

“The milk demand has been so high,” Winfield says.

After this run, he’ll head out to pick up fresh-baked goods from Amish kitchens for what he jokingly calls his “three-day tractor delivery.” It’s all part of the intricate dance that keeps Farm Hippie’s two locations stocked with the finest local products northeastern Oklahoma has to offer.

The story of Farm Hippie begins, improbably enough, at a Ross Dress for Less in Owasso, where Ash first spotted his future wife, Carrie Beth Winfield, a local teacher working a holiday retail job.