Photo by J.D. Cavrich/Mandisa Horn holds a finished Five Artisan Cheese Pizza cooked in the wood oven.

BEDFORD — Mandisa and Jeff Horn chucked their professional careers in sales and insurance for full-time work on the farm that has been in his family for four generations. They soon started selling their bounty, and not long after that, customers wanted to know how to prepare it.

“I realized we needed to show people what to do,” Mandisa said.

Nearly five years ago, the couple opened their Horn O Plenty farm-to-table restaurant here that uses locally sourced and organically grown meat, dairy and produce.

“People want to know where their food comes from,” Jeff said. “They want to know where their money is going, who and what they are supporting.”

Most of the restaurant’s food comes from their own Horn Farm, three miles up the road. What they don’t raise themselves, they buy from other farmers they know personally. Even for those items that can’t be grown in the area, such as coffee and many fruits, they try to get to know the growers and even hosted a coffee bean grower from Honduras once.

“We’re hands-on with our food,” Jeff said. “We want to see how farmers treat their animals, their produce.”

He raises red Devon, a grass-fed beef, and Katahdin Hair sheep for their mild meat flavor. He gets his pork from a local pig farmer and his fresh trout from a Somerset County hatchery that likewise engages in sustainable farming to ensure longevity.

The Horns raise “free-roaming” chicken and geese for their eggs.

The couple stretches their vegetable growing season thanks to a high tunnel, or greenhouse-like structure, and they grow everything from “asparagus to zucchini” Jeff said. Most of the varieties are considered heritage and all are certified organic.

The Horns stay up-to-date on growing trends; for example, Jeff said he does a lot of “companion cropping,” such as growing basil next to tomatoes.

“The basil keeps bugs off the tomatoes, and you can really taste the basil in the tomato,” he said.

Mandisa cans those tomatoes in a sauce every summer after fire-roasting them. They’re a main ingredient in the most popular item on the ever-changing menu: Wood-Fired Zing Pizza.

“The Zing Pizza is out of this world,” she said. “It’s our biggest seller. A table (of patrons) came over from Greensburg (60 miles away) the other night just for the pizza.”

It comes with pepperoni, salami, thick-cut bacon, buttercream cheese, fire-roasted onions and Horn O Plenty’s signature pepper relish. The 5 artisan cheese pizza is almost as popular with its locally made artisan cheeses, the relish and onions. Another pizza comes with seasonal vegetables and a white sauce cream that uses their homemade yogurt.

Except for pizzas, the menu changes almost daily.

“A farmer could call us with veal, and we’ll go get it,” Mandisa said. “You’ve got to get it while it’s there. Occasionally, a man from Baltimore comes through with live crabs that we’ll get and make po boys.”

Prices vary widely, depending what’s on the menu. For lunch, the artisan grilled cheese sandwich is $7, while the fresh springwater trout is $14. For dinner, the halupki might be $20 and a lamb or beef dish could be $32.

“It just depends on what we’re doing,” Mandisa said.

Because the menu changes so often, it’s not printed; it is kept on Nook Reading Tablets. A recent customer, Rachel Mincks of Bedford, said that she likes to scroll through the “healing menu” even though she doesn’t have digestive issues such as a gluten allergy or Crohn’s disease. She said she loves that Horn O Plenty only serves whole, or unprocessed, foods; it also makes its own condiments such as mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup and dressings.

Mincks and her friend, Jim Miller of Johnstown, meet here for lunch at least once a week, she said while enjoying an appetizer of the Horn’s pickled red beets.

“It’s the only place around here to get natural, healthy food, and the atmosphere is great,” Miller said.

“You walk in the door, and it smells awesome,” Mincks added.

Horn O Plenty bakes its own bread and dough, and the first thing you see is the wood-fired oven in the kitchen, which is open for customers to see.

Mandisa said that she and Jeff originally just considered having a bakery. But one day, she drove by the 18th century William Todd Tavern building on Wolfsburg Road, just a block off Route 30 west of town. (Yes, it was once owned by an ancestor of Mary Todd Lincoln).

“I could see people eating here,” she said of the vacant building. “I drew up a plan and got a lender.”

Mandisa and family members did a lot of the construction work, and she personally designed and helped construct the centerpiece oven, along with the rest of the new kitchen.

Jeff was busy rebuilding the farm, but he also harvested wood there and milled it for a woodworker to make tables and booths for the restaurant. Some tables are from repurposed wood with legs made from old barn wood, and the seats include old school chairs.

A fireplace warms the main dining room that is not part of the original building; you can see the old log and mortar lines of the original building that houses a smaller dining room, warmed by a woodburning stove that rests on the original stone hearth.

The couple believes in their sustainability philosophy so much that Mandisa plans to develop a three-year apprenticeship program so others can learn their whole-food, sustainable approach to growing and preparing fresh food.

“We hit the ground running and we haven’t really stopped,” said Jeff.

Mirror Staff Writer Cherie Hicks is at 949-7030.

——-

Behind the Plates

Horn O Plenty

220 Wolfsburg Road, Bedford

(814) 623-0522

Online: MyHornOPlenty.com

Hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday brunch.

Atmosphere: Casual

Price range: Varies widely, depending on the menu that changes almost daily, typically $7 to $15 for lunch and $15 to $32 for dinner.