Sweet Potatoes and a Thank You 10/20/17

Hello SMALL Farm Enthusiasts,

THANK YOU!  We cannot say it enough.  We are so grateful for all of you who supported us over the years through all the changes you have been through with us. We started with one cow 15 years ago and now have 50, or so, on the farm with babies and all. Now we continue with slow, steady growth because you keep telling your friends what healing foods are doing for you. The tribe grows as the word gets out.  Presently, we have good help and feel we have room to grow, so talk us up all you want. Milk supply is back, and we are ready for growth.  Also, a year ago we were up against our land base but that has changed as well. With the help from many of you we were able to purchase new land and it is absolutely awesome to see it change. This new land had 5 foot weeds from 3 years of neglect.  The first thing we did was mow it all down and a few weeks later I took Lily up there and as we broke out of the wooded area into the clearing she broke into a big wide smile as she saw for the first time the new grass bursting forth.  Three years of weeds were gone and the whole area was just a beautiful carpet of grass. A complete transformation is taking place and it is really just the beginning. A lot of work this summer in the heat but it was great. I feel like a new man myself with the healing changes from Mercola and others I have been reading. We feel it a privilege to serve you in the production of healthy, healing foods. When we started this whole thing we were not sure people would pay for food produced with a “spare no expense” attitude.  The kelp that we feed free choice to the cows has gone from $22 for 50 lbs to $70.  Some costs have dropped, but in general, producing food this way is extremely expensive. 

Sweet, its tator time! For several years now we have been selling Sammy's locally grown, sweet tators. These are NOT organic
but close. This family is old Florida and Sammy says, “If I grow it, it will be on my table and I do not like eating chemicals”. When we started with Sammy he used natural things as pesticides but I told him I do not like even natural things to take care of pests and any word with "cide" in it is still a killer and I prefer not having these in my food. He said he thinks if he rotates the tator field every year to a new spot on the farm he likely would not have to use it. He tried it and it worked and he has not looked back since. Every year we become better customers of his and are able to influence him a bit more. It is working!  We speak out and the farmer produces what we want just like the guy at the end of Food Inc says. A little chemical fertilizer is still used, but not to excess. Another thing that is not used is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJXCdrL4BPo No budnip is used on our potatoes!! Like last year we will have numbers ones, these are the best without blemishes, like you would get at publix, all the same sizish and nice looking. We will also, like last year, have number 2’s. These are ugly and all over the place on size but the very same tator, really for less money.  $32 dollars for a 40 lb box of the best, $22 for the seconds, $29 a box for 4 boxes at a time and $27 for 10 boxes.

Deadlines for Placing an Order: We want to thank you for adjusting your ordering time tables with us.  Ordering 2 days earlier just HAD to happen to keep us sane between orders in and orders out. More and higher numbers mean more time needed, simple as that. It
is going to make our lives so much easier here. I am personally headed in the direction of production, keeping that my focus. Ben is overseeing order packing and inventory management and doing a great job with it, allowing me to focus on production.  From the beginning I did the outside (production) and Alicia did the inside (order taking and customer service stuff) and we intersected a lot and still do, but now I can focus more on production.  We are hoping with our present intern, Victoria, coming in to help Alicia a bit she (Alicia) will get back to mothering and home schooling more and, woo hooo! maybe some wifing too!   

Going forward, if you pick up your order in Jacksonville, Lake City or our Gainesville to Tampa Bay route the order deadline is now Saturday at midnight!  That means if you hope to pick up an order this Thursday, the 26th, you have one day left to place your order! Our website will send you 2 reminder e-mails, one 5 days before the order deadline and one 2 days before the order deadline so we hope this will help with the transition.  If you would like to place an order after the deadline, we will be happy to do it (if your items are available) for a $7 late fee.

Pastured Poultry Event:  Our good friends who run our GMO free feed coop here near us are putting on a nice gig see below. I
highly recommend this event for ALL, foodies and farmers welcome. Come and learn, this is a good time to meet and ask questions big time. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/f...

This is an awesome book: We ought to sell this but I will leave it to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Milk-Bo...Thanks for supporting a small, family farm and contributing to a more REGENERATIVE future,

Dennis and Alicia