Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, Bologna is back, the good stuff without all the preservatives and other yucky stuff they put in processed meat. The only ingredients are: 100% grass fed beef, Rapadura sugar, water, Redmond Salt, Black Pepper, Cloves, Coriander, Mace. Let me tell you the story of how it all began.

Howdy fellow foodies, We have been on the trail to producing A-2 milk for over 10 years now. In the last year, 60% of our milk business was A-2 milk. We are pleased that our well informed customers want this but some of our folks have also expressed concern about us going 100% A-2 and no longer selling non A-2 milk. In one customer's own words, “we are stretching to pay $12 a gallon for milk but are willing to do so because your milk is the best nutrient dense milk we can find, but we don’t think we can stretch anymore to pay $14 a gallon”. So this got me thinking, how many folks are out there, that want grass fed raw milk, but have a hard time with price?

Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, I saw the below in another farm's letter and chose to run it exactly as it was written: Plentiful rain and the warm sunshine is growing a lot of grass. The volume of feed on the farm is just past its annual peak. The deer hide their fawns in the tall grass so when we are out there moving the cattle we’re surprised at who all has occupancy of the fields. The red winged blackbirds, like many other birds, nest in the grass or on thistle stems. Because of the productivity of the fields in our managed grazing, the abundance of the habitat is there and wildlife thrives. Our farm is a huge filter for the rainfall. The run off coming off our farm, in the rare times that water does run off, is clear. We are not muddying any streams and there is no glyphosate, no chemicals polluting the Chesapeake Bay or its tributaries from our farm. Imagine a landscape like this if we could convince our neighbors to husband their fields responsibly. The clean air. The clean water. The happy animals. The healthy people.

FCF News Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, I am reading a 10 year old book by Dr Mercola called Take Control of Your Health and I recommend it. Page 85 has a paragraph I will quote here, “The ideal ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fats is 1:1. Today though, our ratio averages 20:1 to 50:1. That spells serious danger for you. This out of balance ratio is one of the most serious health issues plaguing contemporary society: excess omega 6 fats can lead to heart disease, cancer, depression, Alzheimer’s, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, colitis, Reynaud’s and a host of other illness”.

The food we produce here is cheap, compared to the food you will get at any store. Yes, it's true. Lets take milk for example, say you pay half our price in the store but when you walk out carrying that gallon of "milk" what you really have is 1/10th of some of the important nutrients. For instance, CLA’s are almost nonexistent in store milk but ours is 20 times more, plus. But our price is not 20 times higher, just 2 or 3 times. If milk was sold for nutrients we would get rich quick! So what is CLA? It stands for Conjugated Linoleic Acids and these are fats that are anti-cancer, help you stay lean, and several other health benefits. Sounds sort of important to me but ask Grandma Google to see if she agrees or check out: http://www.eatwild.com/healthbenefits.htm . Anyway, 100 years ago in this country when milk was produced more like we do here, 1 in 200 people got cancer, now its 1 in 2, any connection? I think yes.

Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts, We have had many interesting comments from our last few newsletters. For some it is mind boggling that you can eat fat (the right fats) and not get fat. Yes it was hard for us at first too,

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!