Better Salt and Price Increase 9/21/18

Hello Small Farm Enthusiasts,

Costs are rising on the farm and I want to explain why we will have to raise our prices a bit, the first of the year. Very few things cost less now than 10 years ago, I can think of a few but not many. Most costs are rising across the board, Ron Paul calls inflation the "hidden tax”. That is a real and serious threat to profit. Everyone knows agriculture is not something you get rich in but we small family farms do have to make profit to continue. I want to explain a few of the rising costs and a basic heart philosophy/principle we live by.  Our goal here is not really just food production, we want to produce the most nutrient dense foods possible for the purpose of healing our bodies. Healing food for prevention of disease and nutrient density for the production of an amazingly, healthy next generation is our heart and soul here at Full Circle Farm. So, to that end we spare no expense in our production methods. The best example I can think of is feeding kelp to the cows here.  When we started 15 years ago it was $22 per 50 lb bag, now it is $60 plus. I have even paid as much as $78 a bag. While that is 4 times the price we are not charging 4 times for our milk. We still feed as much as the cows want but with the free choice minerals we have found we feed less. Much less, fortunately, but we still buy a lot of it. It is important to the overall health of our cows, and only healthy cows produce healthy meat and milk. The average life span of a cow on a commercial dairy is 4 years, our average is close to 3 times that. Our cows live very healthy and long lives. This is not only because we feed kelp free choice but also rotational grazing which has taken our organic matter in our soils here from 0.5 % to 3% and this alone increases our nutrients in our grasses BIG time. And thus reduces our kelp input. So the kelp is the best example of rising costs we must pass on and we hope you all understand. 99% of grocery store food is produced using least cost methods.  We try hard to do the opposite. We do not try to compete with grocery store prices and we do not even try to compete with other farms selling direct.  We charge what we need, to continue to produce these foods, and also make a living wage.  

Wholesale beef season. Tis the season for awesome wholesale beef.  We have some we produced right here and some from our Tallahassee Partner. Stock up now as we do not have room to store enough, to sell all winter like last year. We will definitely run out of beef.  It is time to buy a freezer and stock up now.  Last year we rented off farm cold storage and it ate up our profit. This year we are not doing that so we will run out of beef in a few months. So if you want our beef you will have to store it yourself. We hope by next year we will have more walk in space built, but for this year we are asking that you store it.

A Wonderful Healthy Dessert: Date Night Chevre, made from goat milk...you do not like goat milk you say….ahhh, but you have not tried this creation, yet. This is a healthy desert made out of the best of the best ingredients that has flavor that will knock your socks off. It is REALLY amazing! If you do not like chevre or goat milk think of it as dates and maple syrup, oh so yummy, but not too sweet to call it a "high carb".  This is a wonderful healthy, high protein desert. Oh boy just try it, give it to your honey for dessert on your next night out.. This is a great low carb, high fat and good level of protein food. To see all the ingredients go here.  We are also have a savory flavored chevre, called: Herb Your Enthusiasm: Tuscan Herb Crushed Garlic Cracked Pepper Chevre.  It is good also but my favorite is "Date Night".

Other New Products:  Duck: Our ducks were free range on pasture with access to our pond that contained duck weed, a plant that grows on top of water.  They ate plenty of bugs, grass seeds, grass and duck weed and were also supplemented with a non-GMO certified feed.  They range in weight from 3-4lbs and are $7/lb.  Order here. Stewing Hens, are old hens/egg layers that have reduced in their egg laying production. They make the best stews, soups and broth or stock because of their added nutrients from living a long, natural  life, in the sunshine. To read a full description, go here.  And, last but not lease, a new cheese, Herbal Jack Cheese.  All raw and organic, see it here. 

Better Salt: For many years now we have used Sea 90 Sea Salt. See the links below to get some of it for your house or farm. Look at the mineral levels in this salt compared to the others, especially the Himalayan which has almost nothing in it!!https://bajagoldseasalt.com/ And see the details in the 2 PDF files. Here is a good video about the Sea 90: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRJ-CxlZuME

Poison Under the Sink: I found the below on the EWG web site and I could not agree more especially with the last line. Contact me at thisisdennis@windstream.net to get info about getting these poisons out of your home. As a former emergency medical technician I implore you to get these out of your house and stop all possibility of harm to you and others. AND our environment!

In 2010, American poison control centers fielded more than 116,000 calls about household cleaner accidents involving children under age five (Bronstein 2011). U.S. emergency room records show that in 2006 alone, 10,318 children under age five required some form of medical treatment as a result of poisoning with household cleaners, and 744 of them had symptoms that were life-threatening or resulted in significant disability (McKenzie 2010).Bleach was the most common cause of poisoning or injury (McKenzie 2010). Spray bottles of cleaners were the most common means of exposure, involved in 40 percent of the accidents (McKenzie 2010). Although rates of household cleaner-related injuries to children from regular bottles or original containers and kitchenware have decreased in recent decades, spray bottle injury rates remain high (McKenzie 2010). Many common spray cleaners have brightly colored packaging that fascinates inquisitive young children. Parents sometimes neglect to twist the cleaners’ spray nozzles into an “off” position or children reopen closed nozzles.These injuries are tragic – and unnecessary. There are safer cleaning products on the market that do not risk lasting damage to small explorers.

Thanks for supporting a small, family farm and contributing to a more REGENERATIVE future,
Dennis and Alicia