Michelle and Michelle are the owners of Wholly Cow Market. Michelle's health battles started when she was just nine years old after a serious rupture to the spleen from a horse accident. Her spleen was repaired and she went on her way to continue to live a normal nine-year-old's life. However, her mother could tell Michelle's health was never the same. Soon after the accident, she came down with Mono.
As a teenager, she had to quit Cross Country due to Pneumonia. She was always battling something. Random things such as blood poisoning from a hang-nail when she was a Junior in High School almost led to hospitalization. As a young adult she was diagnosed with Epstein-Barr after a long battle of fighting with doctors and specialists that there was something more than just her being an exhausted, busy, young mother and business-woman. A splinter in her foot turned into a serious case of cellulitis hospitalizing her for five days. Her health continued to decline and she started a long and lonely journey to find the truth behind her continuous battle of sicknesses.
Matt and Michelle had moved into an older farm house and had been living there for five years with their two littles at the time Sam, age 3 and their daughter Lauren at five months old. It had been a wet Winter and Sam and Lauren were showing signs of continuous respiratory problems. They were both hospitalized for RSV. Michelle started digging deeper into their living environment. She was a stay at home mother and they were not exposed to many other kids or people. Matt was healthy. He worked outside most of the time and didn't seem to have any health battles.
All the signs were pointing to mold. After professionally testing for it, sure enough, the house had high levels throughout the kitchen and basement where Michelle and the kids spent most of their time together. Long story short, they gutted their entire house down to the studs, had it professionally renovated and treated for mold. They disposed of most of their personal belongings that were porous and moved back in eleven months later.
Fast forward to today in 2024 and Michelle is finally starting to feel healthy once again.
It took 15 years of battling Mold Illness and Chronic Inflammation Syndrome, she found sources that helped detox and heal.
Turning to a Functional Medicine care provider unveiled underlying issues from her body fighting biofilm attacking her cells. They found her extreme fatigue and continuous flu like symptoms were a result of her body fighting to rid itself of mold. It wasn't until she went thru a long,intensive detox using Cell Core suggested by Health care provider and author of MAST Cells United, Amber Walker, PT, DPT, CFMP, CNPT.
Michelle was diagnosed with POTS syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos, and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. Interestingly enough, Epstein Barr is also related, which is something her body has continued to fight against. She started making changes to her diet. This included consuming higher quantities of high quality salt mined up in the Utah Mines from Redmond Life: Real Salt. This has helped her symptoms of POTS to stay at bay. She also started asking their butcher of their cattle to hang their meat as fewer days as possible to prevent dry aging. Dry aging causes red meat to be higher in histamines which is a person's worst enemy battling MCAS. Dry aging is extremely popular amongst beef lover's, due to its ability to add more flavor and tenderness to the meat.
Matt and Michelle have found ways to not rely on the dry aging process for tenderness and flavor. Instead, they have put together an all-natural, Grass-Fed & Finished, born & raised on our farm, cow herd. Their genetics come from Pharo Cattle Company, focused on tenderness and marbling for grass-fed beef.
As a result, Wholly Cow offers beef that is typically lower in histamines than beef that is dry-aged for days in a locker.
This is just one reason why Wholly Cow Market is so passionate about providing high quality, healthy, grass-fed and finished beef.
