Merry Christmas and some Disturbance Too! 12/15/17

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December 15, 2017

Several folks are interested in Jesse Green's mill. Hopefully someone pulls through to keep this local business going. We will see what happens. A local farm has a meat sheep starter herd for sale and, see below, the
milking sheep herd for sale as well. We will be doing a seminar on raising sheep February 24th. If you ever want to have sheep, stay tuned for details in the next letter. Sheep and goats are tricky and we feel like even we could learn a lot more. So, we will host a seminar of farmers who are doing well with them, in Florida.

These folks produced our sheep's milk for the last number of years:

We have the lead ram plus seven ewes for sale. We assume that they
are all pregnant. They have all been exposed to the ram. Based on
previous years results, you can expect from those ewes 7-9 lambs to be
born starting sometime in January. Also, once the lambs are born and you
start selling the milk, you can expect $3000 worth of milk each
season. The ram plus the seven ewes are for sale for $5,000.

The entire flock was inspected by a vet two months ago, but if you would
like another vet inspection, that would add a couple hundred to the
cost. Please let us know either way so we can decide on a plan of
action. If you decide that you want the sheep, you can pick them up the
day you buy them or anytime within a week following the purchase. I
hope this helps.

2018 will be an exciting year here at Full Circle, all the old favorite things will continue the forward march and we hope to add several new products as well. Our goal is to provide foods that heal your body. Since your body makes millions of new cells every minute why not give it the building material to make the very best healthy cells possible?
This is what we strive to do, make food that can assist your body in its renewal and healing. Unlike McDonald's, who seeks to destroy their customers, we try to heal ours. And while doing it we heal the land, "One bite at a time", as Joel Salatin says.

A great way you can reduce your carbon footprint: https://www.ridan.co.uk/

Watch this to see a big difference between "Organic Farming" and
"Sustainable Farming" and how sustainable farming/composting can
regenerate the earth instead of degrading it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4GgHEPA3Yc

Pork Update and some disturbing information ;)

Hi, Ben here. I just took a group of pigs to the butcher this last
week. We are still raising Old Spot hogs out in our lease-land
pine-forest. We move them once every 10 days to a new section. Hogs are
great foragers and scavengers, they will eat roots, grass, leaves, nuts
and whatever they can scrounge up from the forest. By moving them
regularly we move them away from their manure, give them fresh forage,
and give the land a rest period to regrow (at least 6 months between hog
groups). For eons, nature's way to improve soil fertility has been to
alternate between short periods of disturbance (using animals, fire,
flood, etc) followed by long periods of rest during which the plants
regrow and the soil is built up. Both disturbance and rest are necessary
in a cycle. Historically, in the American prairie, periodic heavy
disturbance by vast herds of buffalo,followed by long periods of rest,
built the fertility of the plains. The dung, urine, and total landscape
trampling of the million-head buffalo herds helped old plant material
compost, fertilized the soil, stimulated seed germination, and gradually
built the deep black soils over thousands of years. The buffalo would
not return to an area they had decimated for several months until it had
regrown, and incorporated the nutrient rich manure leftover. That was
natures natural balance of disturbance and rest at work. Now in modern
times we try to mimic the effects of herd migration and disturbance
using our pigs, cows and chickens.

In California there is a huge wild-fire approaching my hometown of
Santa Barbara. This reminds me of the Tea Fire which burnt my families
home in 2008 (when I was still attending Westmont College there in Santa
Barbara). I remember seeing the 40 foot flames across the street
consuming years of dry brush, as we sheltered in the college's
cinder-block gymnasium. Like Santa Barbara, many areas of California are
suffering from too much rest. Much land is protected
from fires or from lumber harvest, which means that dense areas of dry
brush build up over decades, leading to massive fires (disturbance)
when they finally do burn, which is nature trying to bring back
balance. I remember going on hikes after the Tea Fire in the mountains
around Santa Barbara and seeing all the new growth and green shoots
coming out of the ground, and realizing that because all the dry brush
and dead branches where burned it allowed sunlight to reach the ground,
which stimulated the next generation of seeds to germinate. Seeds can
wait for decades for the right disturbance to stimulate them to life.
Wood ash also acts as fertilizer for these young seedlings. We must
learn to work with nature's cycle of disturbance and rest, not impede
them, by "protecting" nature from all disturbance.

As sustainable farmers, we try to be the "right" kind of
disturbance, not too much, not too little. If we have less fire and
buffalo in the modern age, then it is up to sustainable farmers to fill
in the gap.

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We have plenty of pork in stock including many large roasts for
your Christmas get-togethers. I recommend the following, in order of
increasing size.

Pork Loin Roast (Boneless): $9/lb -- av. 3lb roast

https://fullcirclerealfoods.com/store/product/pork-loin-roast-boneless

Fresh Ham Roast: $7/lb -- av 4lb roast

https://fullcirclerealfoods.com/store/product/fresh-ham-roast

Boston Butt Roast: $9/lb -- av. 5 lb roast

https://fullcirclerealfoods.com/store/product/boston-butt-roast

Pork Loin Rack (Bone-in): $8.50/lb -- av. 6.5 lb roast

https://fullcirclerealfoods.com/store/product/loin-rack-bone-in-usda

Picnic Roast: $8/lb -- av. 8 lb roast

https://fullcirclerealfoods.com/store/product/picnic-roast