Meet Abigail Sicker

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Abigail Sicker. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Abigail below.

Abigail, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I think that since I was a kid that I have always been very resilient – almost out of necessity. I was always the kid that was naturally good at everything but never great. I didn’t stand out, I wasn’t the progidy, and no one expected me to be the best in the room. This built a quiet resilience in me. I learned how to work for things and how to push to get to where I wanted to go. I wasn’t able to just coast on talent but instead had to develop grit and persistence – to keep going even when the spotlight wasn’t on me. I feel like this has carried into every part of my life: as a business owner, a farmer, and a mom. I don’t need instant results or external validation to get moving forward. I’ve built success by showing up daily, learning from my mistakes, and putting in the work when no one is watching.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am the co-owner of Hidden Creek farm, a direct-market, pasture based farm in South Jersey where we raise and sell our own meats, alongside other thoughtfully sourced grocery staples. My husband and I run the farm together while raising our four young children (all 5 and under), and building a brand that is rooted in transparency, ethical farming practices & food freedom.

What makes our farm special isn’t just how we raise our animals, but more importantly, it’s the community that we have built in the process. We don’t just sell meat; we educate, we share the messy behind-the-scenes, and we try to reconnect people to where their food really comes from. Right now, we are focused on continuing to grow our beef herd to meet customer demands and keep our community’s freezers full. Aside from the livestock, we are working on expanding our Farm to Face line, which includes small-batch, tallow based skincare made from our own beef fat.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Storytelling has been crucial. People don’t want to just know what you’re selling – they want to know how and why. Being able to share our journey in an honest, relatable way through social media content has allowed us to not just build a customer base but a real community. If you are new to this, start documenting your day to day. Even the messy parts because that is where the magic is. People want to know that they’re not alone in the ‘ugly’ and being relatable is something that I’ve prided myself on.

Adaptability. I’ve learned that you have to be able to make decisions and pivot quickly, learn as you go & Google your way through 90% of it. There is no perfect plan. Learn to make progress in motion and get comfortable figuring it out as you grow. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it has to be done. That is half of the battle.

Resourcefulness. When you’re running a farm, a household, and a business, there’s no playbook. You fix things with zip ties, make dinner out of the things that you can’t sell, and turn last minute ideas into full blown launches. You learn to get scrappy and creative out of necessity.

My advice is not to try to master everything at once. Focus on showing up consistently, staying honest with your audience (and yourself), and keep your mission at the center of it all. The rest will come.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

The biggest challenge that we are currently facing is the financial strain of being a first generation farm with very little starting capital. While my husband and I have backgrounds in agriculture, we didn’t inherit land, equipment or infrastructure – we have a mortgage and have been building everything from scratch. Every barn, every pasture, every piece of equipment has come at a cosst, and most of the investment has come directly out of our own pockets and from reinvesting what little margin we make back into the farm.

What makes it even more challenging is that the demand for what we do is growing faster than we can financially keep up with. We have the market. We have the customer base. But scaling responsibly, without burning out or going into unsustainable debt, is a constant balancing act.

We’re working to overcome this by being extremely intentional with how and where we grow – prioritizing investments that increase efficiency and our animals’ welfare, diversifying our revenue through value added products and events. We are also leaning into our online presence and content creation to grow the brand itself, which helps support the farm in ways that aren’t solely relient on production.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hiddencreekfarmnj.com
• Instagram: @hiddencreekfarmnj
• Facebook: @HCfarmstore
• Youtube: @hiddencreekfarmnj
• Other: TikTok @thatfarmerlady

Image Credits

Dana Zarin Photography