Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, Common sense tells you that if you want strong bones and teeth, made of calcium and phosphorous among other minerals, than eating foods high in those minerals will give you the desired result. But, it is not what you eat that counts but what you assimilate. It is not what you eat but what you are able to digest or use properly. It MAY be, not about taking extra calcium pills but using the calcium you already eat. And that takes healthy fats. Also, the natural forms of calcium we eat often contain the fats we need.

Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, I lately heard someone make the comment, "all I can think about is food". I knew how this person felt as I was once consumed with what I could or shouldn't eat. I was constantly hungry and obsessed with what I was eating, how much and when. At times it felt as though I could (and would) eat everything in site: cereal, then crackers, then a bagel with cream cheese, a big salad, then a bag of candy, then more cereal and at the end of the day I would take a mental note of all I had consumed and feel like a big loser just before going to bed. In the morning, more likely than not, it would start all over again. I was on the high carb roller coaster and did not know how to get off.

Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, Greetings from the green fields! Green fields again after a very muddy winter. Last week our lovely cows once again returned to grazing green grass and green grass only. We, their servants, become liberated from our daily chore of bringing their hay to them. Now it’s their turn to harvest our fields and bring the milk to us! I found the above on another farm's letter and can relate.

Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, Very Important Event In Jacksonville: http://files.constantcontact.com/296e8a01401/2013ea4e-c9ba-4d34-8040-30364cfa309b.pdf Generosity abounds toward us here at FCF. Someone has given Ben a truck and many of you donated to Ben's truck fund, totaling $500, approximately. We are very thankful for such generosity! While the new truck is not what he had it is something that will work fine until he gets back on his feet a bit, so we are grateful. Once he gets another truck the old one can be used around the farm. Old trucks are handy to pull egg mobiles etc. You can never have too many of them. Ben even got 2 checks from out of state people that heard about us through the Justin Rhoad's Farm Tour show. That was quite a welcome surprise.

Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, We are excited to announce that there will be a VAXXED Screening event in Gainesville on Sunday, March 26th. The #1 priority for the VAXXED team is to record vaccine-injury stories. If you know anyone who would like to share their story, please have them contact Afton Brown at aftonmb@gmail.com or 386-365-7549 as soon as possible to get on the schedule. They would also love to hear from any families who have completely unvaccinated children who haven't needed medications, don't have health issues, etc. We will be sharing our own story of how we have had 6 healthy children without the help of any vaccines. No, we are NOT some crazy people asking for an end to ALL vaccines, we are sane, healthy, deep thinking folks asking for an end to the cruelty of mercury and GMO’s and other deadly substances being injected into our kids.

Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, Alicia and I have been married for 16 years, today. Now that we have experienced the ups and downs of many years of trying to become "one" we realize what a feat it actually is. A lifelong challenge and a constant balancing act, as well as a communication skills builder, marriage will help you grow and become a better person if you commit to it. We have a ways to go before we have a perfect marriage but we are committed and we, as well as our children, our community and society will be all the better for it. Not to mention, neither one of us would be farming if we did not have each other. So, we are both thankful for the years we have built together, the 6 children we are raising and for the opportunity to serve others through regenerative farming. They say that 2 is better than one and that has been true for us!

Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, I have not been significantly sick in almost 30 years. I thought that this was a worthy accomplishment considering the rise of the pharmaceutical industry. It also goes against the grain of those who think they have no control over their health and live as though, "disease and sickness can strike at any moment". This frame of thought is just not the truth and can be reversed once the responsibility is placed in the hands of its rightful owner, Y.O.U.. In the words of Louis Pasteur himself, "The microbe is nothing. The terrain is everything."

Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, Lily, our oldest child just turned 15. Yes, on Feb 1st 2002, she was born at home with the help of a midwife, but it happens, they grow up. And they grow up pretty nice, it seems. Lily owns 100% of the goats on our farm here, she owns the guard dogs that guard them and she owns the milk stall and shelters that move with them and the whole kit and caboodle. It’s all hers, she makes 99% of the decisions and does 98% of the work of the goats. (She has to have sisters fill in now, while she goes on the Tampa delivery route every other Thursday, but before that she did 100% of the work.) (of course some of this is exaggerated bragging too) She has learned to do hard things, for example, she wants to keep all the goats but that would not be a profitable operation, she sells some to make it happen. Right now she has some on Craig's List and I know one or 2 she would REALLY like to see go to a good home if anyone needs a good goat or 2. Oh yes, she has been selling goats on Craig's List for years.

Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, We have ruffled some feathers with different packaging on our beef products so we feel an explanation is in order. After the butcher we used for many years here, went out of business 2 years ago, we finally settled on using L and W Deer Processing in Madison for our precious beef. The challenge lies in the fact that they process deer as a specialty and we need to go elsewhere during the months of October to January, when hunting season begins and ends. Thus, we go where we would rather not go, but have to because we cannot get in at L and W and thus the different packaging. Our future goal is to have our own slaughter facility right here on the farm or very nearby. We have been doing a lot of research on that in the last year or two but we would also need $$ to get even a minimalistic set up going. Any donations or low interest loans are something we could talk about. So just to be clear, the beef in the new packaging is the very same "Jimmy" beef, the “other” burger on our site that is cheaper is from other producers that we know and trust and less money. Now I want to tell you a bit more of our ongoing beef story here.

Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, The Big news here at FCF is that our faithful delivery team, HD and Michelle, will no longer be delivering our products to you. This came about suddenly but thankfully we have extremely good help here, right now, so not anything we cannot handle. HD has a hernia which needs medical attention and he has been putting it off because it will take quite some time to rehab him after the surgery. Now, after 6 years of consistently and dependably bringing you your order they have decided that the best thing is for them to drop the delivery and let someone else do it. We will handle this from within until a permanent solution comes along but if anyone is interested in more info on this please let us know immediately. HD and Michelle have done extremely well, with few mistakes; in fact the few times we have filled in we made more mistakes than they did. This job is for the highly organized person who does not easily get ruffled under pressure, a road warrior that has good customer service. E-mail us if interested.

Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts! We have survived 9 weeks of no rain and the rains are coming again, thankfully. With our almost 3% organic matter soils, we do not dry up and blow away like some, but we did burn thru our stockpile faster than usual and are feeding more hay than I like. Luckily we have a guy making chemical free, quality hay only 9 miles from the farm. We did get our winter rye planted when the first rain came a few weeks ago and it is coming on strong now. The peas in summer do fix some nitrogen in the soil that makes the rye grow better. So we will soon be grazing this amazing green again and the color will return in the milk. Quantity of milk will return, too, but for now we remain pretty limited in fresh cream.

Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts! Our dear friend and neighbor, Ms. Lemonade, had a bumper crop of Meyer lemons, a cross between Eureka or Lisbon lemons and a mandarin orange, that are less acidic and naturally sweeter than other lemons. These are by far, the best lemons we’ve ever had. Her property has had no chemicals on it since she bought in 2010. She really “babies” her soil, dousing a huge array of minerals, and her production reflects that. Buy in bulk to juice and freeze. You can also juice and freeze in ice cube trays and when frozen, store in a freezer bag, to use for any recipe calling for lemon juice, e.g., Caesar salad. Or indulge for the holidays and make lemon curd.