Vibrant Farms

We had a RECORD awesome summer this year with beach days galore, tons of vitamin D to go around, trust me Im the first one on the beach in the summer, we grew up going to the beach as our “get aways” cheap and easy to bring 4 kids to the beach and let them tire themselves out (I’m sure that’s what my mother thought).

This year was a rough one for those of the 4 legged variety and those of the 2 legged variety that care and tend to the 4 legged.

Ill cut to the chase – I’ve had to raise my prices, seriously killed me inside!! I had to keep reminding myself that one of my principles in which to live by and run my business by is that it has to be SUSTAINABLE – its a big word, but to me that means it has to be financially feasible at least in the foreseeable future, Im all good for putting some upfront “investment” time and money in, but Im not into subsidizing projects out of the goodness of my heart (call it heartless if you want, but it doesn’t serve anyone long term).

So I finally did it, I finally raised my prices and here is why

1) cost of hay went from 8 cents a pound to 16-18 cents a pound

2) Fuel prices are going up – trucking animals to and from the butcher (I keep my fuel prices down because of my unique logistical structure as well as by using an abattoir that is attached to the butcher they are one in the same.) But they are still going up

WARNING: the next one may shock you (see explanation below)

3) Corn prices are going up – lack of corn production in the states

You are probably thinking I’m crazy for suggesting that corn prices are affecting grass fed beef. Well I’m here to tell you they do, and it goes back to economics 101 simple supply and demand. Since there was such little rain (and if you don’t live on a farm you probably didn’t realize REALLY how little we got, maybe your lawn was a little brown – but you didn’t get to see the cows thinning out in the field because the grass just wasn’t growing fast enough, and didn’t have to spend 10,000 on a well because you ran out of water, or spend 6,000 on hay just to supplement you through summer and fall to get to winter – and then buy more hay to get you through winter).

Needless to say there as very little rain and subsequently very little corn and hay (and other crops too, but this is regarding cattle prices, so I’ll just stick to the relevant ones). When there is very little corn, conventional farmers must pay more to feed their cattle, and thus the price of beef goes up. When the “market” is paying more for beef, they are not picky where it comes from, they are paying everyone more, so if my super duper awesome grass fed organic farmers are going to get a good price at the stock yards they will do it, as much as they farm for the better good of human kind, and are committed to it even if they ship it into the assembly line right along side Mr corn muncher number 2349877, they need to ensure their operation makes money and rightly so. So when me – the distributor and marketer of the “good stuff” wants to go to them and tell them I’ll pay you 2.50/lb on the rail (when that was a perfectly good price just 1 year ago), it just doesn’t cut it anymore because the price of conventional beef has gone up to more than that (that’s buying it from the farmer, before any butchering, shipping, packaging or marketing or logistics is taken into consideration). That farmer will tell to hit the road because he can get a better price for it somewhere else and then all of a sudden… poof – there goes all my supply!!

So I’ve raised my prices to ensure I can pay farmers at LEAST what the market is paying, and sometimes a premium if the market is low, the ideas is to keep it stable, and to reward those that are doing the right thing and farming for our health. After all is said and done, paying more for a better product is a pretty simple concept, but it doesn’t always seem that way. I know those of you that are my customers or future customers and who are committed to your health understand this philosophy – thank you for being crusaders for health in your communities, and putting your resources where your mouth is!

I wish you all a healthy and prosperous 2013!!

Cheers

Melissa

FB- The Farmers Daughter

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Why do we farm? Well that’s a loaded question, or it can be.
Candace asked me to write a short blog about why we farm the way we farm – as I sit here now it is a seemingly impossible task to sum ALL of those reasons up into a few paragraphs, but, as always Im going to try…

for many if you would ask them this question the answer would be – “well my dad farmed, and his dad farmed, so I thought I would farm”. For many its an honest way to make a living and a great way to raise a family. I think farm kids grow up knowing that they have access to something special – cant really explain it or put your finger on it, but the saying holds true, you often can take the kid off the farm, but you cant take the farm out of the kid.

My dad is a little different though – he may have started out farming because his forefathers all farmed. He continued farming, and transitioned to Organic farming for a WHOLE other purpose. My dad took an iridology (study of the eyes) course and began to see for himself how much our bodies are WAY more than the sum of its parts, and how intricate machines we are and how making one thing happen over here, can trigger a series of events because we are fine tuned machines. He began to see that the direction we were headed with farming just isnt going to make for healthy vivacious kids,   we needed to start doing something differently so in 1987 he became officially certified Organic. A man ahead of his time I would say. He wants to see the kids who have curiosity in their eyes, who have a thirst for knowledge, who have a skip in their step, not the ones who get on sugar highs and sugar lows, who are violent, who have disease at the age of 3, we want to be able to farm in such a way that makes it possible for your kids and THEIR kids and THEIR kids to have access to the same food and the same QUALITY of food your grandparents did many years ago. Its about the micro nutrients, the foundations of health. That is why my dad farms and why he continues to fight for the farm year after year after year.

So now why do I farm? Well to say I “farm” would be an overstatement, to say Im a farmers best friend would be an understatement of the century, I make what farmers love to do possible. Farmers love to farm, they love to create quality food (the ones like my dad who have a bigger vision), and I am just the voice and the action behind ensuring they have a market. I am insanely passionate about the way we farm – seriously you cant get me stopped talking once I start. But why do I do what I do? Well here is why, you’ll have to forgive me for the slightly lofty goals and vision I have. I do what I do because I know that people need what my dad grows, that communities need what my dad grows. If we focus on putting good food into our bodies we can literally heal ourselves with food. We can have vibrant happy communities who work together, we can have vivacious kids who are tenacious and have healthy appetites, we can have less mental illness, we can have more laughter, more play, more balance. Food brings us together, food builds communities, and GOOD food builds our bodies.

Plain and simple – when I have my autistic customers come and tell me their son is doing much better since switching to our meat, or that their grandparents smell our meat cooking and say “that smells like the meat did when I was growing up”, or I didn’t know meat could taste so good and make you FEEL so good to! THAT is why I do what I do, because I know it makes a difference, because I see the healing start to happen.

I am truly blessed to have the lifestyle I have – and yes living on the farm being so connected to the earth and the animals on it, and also to my food is a huge part of it, its the simple pleasures in life that I get to appreciate on a daily basis, its hard work – but its a labour of love, and Im grateful every day that I get to do what I do.  I get to see miracles every day, THATS why I farm.

There seems to be some confusion regarding chicken… and where to get good chicken, and what makes GOOD chicken.

Ok so lets talk Ideals here… Ideally we could have chickens that would be on grass and eat only grass and be happy put on weight and lay great eggs. We would have enough chicken to eat all winter, and we’d have eggs on a daily/ weekly basis right? Ok so there are a few things that make that ideal picture improbably at best. Ive recently taken on the project of raising chickens the way I feel proud to sell them. And I would consider myself an idealist and a perfectionist. Ive learned plenty along the way that I don’t think consumers understand and hopefully I can shed some light on the subject so that we can all be more educated consumers.

1) Our ancestors had chickens and let them roam around, let the eggs hatch and ate the roosters and kept the hens (because laying hens are generally pretty spindly in build and don’t produce a lot of meat and its tough… hence the “soup hen” use of these birds) , our ancestors sometimes got a half grown embryo in their eggs, blood spots and all – because they are always in with roosters and therefore the eggs are fertilized (which many experts suggest is better for you and higher in nutrition).

2) Since we all don’t live on farms anymore and people still want chickens, and its “less fat” than the red meat (which has gotten a bad rap, and rightly so given the way the conventional industry has gone… its not bad fats if you can find a good source… www.vibrantfarms.com)

3) The industries answer to increased demand was to genetically select chickens to produce LARGE breasts on very little feed, and to develop a quota system to ensure supply, and of course “safety”. (the only reason they needed safety measures was because the farms got to big that quality was hard to monitor at that level of production).

4) Chickens DO HAVE A GIZZARD, they are meant to break down grains – however now we have Genetically Modified Grains – I would venture to say that grains of our ancestors –were not a problem consumed in small quantities combined with grass such as the chickens did. Chickens also need a certain level of protein. Laying birds need a different mix of feed because we are now not letting them sit on them, we are taking their eggs we want to prevent the brooding that happens when they don’t get enough barley in their diet.

5) Taking Soy out of the diet requires another supplement of protein, while some of it can be found in grasses, this will depend on the type of grass and the time of year as well as what your soil nutrients are like – since consumers like a “consistent” product there needs to be supplementation. If you replace soy with fishmeal – this can not be certified organic by third party certifying bodies. Rightly so because they have no way of sourcing where it comes from and the environment in which it lived, organic lives on the principles of traceability. So supplementing fish meal into their diet – you would not be able to sell them as organic birds anymore. I’m not saying having organic certification is of utmost importance, but lack of education out there in the world – Organic currently is a label that consumers look for.

We have opted for a feed ration that reduces the soy as much as possible, we use an Organic Soy (and cross our fingers its not contaminated… I’m cynical that way and think it pretty much is all contaminated, thank you Monsanto for that!). We have taken out corn and use hard wheat and barley and oats mixture for their energy portion. We have had a rat and weasel problem lately and are still working on getting them out to pasture, we intend to sprout during the winter to increase their micro nutrient intake. We are using only a small percentage of the white rock breed (the breed that is most genetically selected for bigger breasts), and a larger proportion of a heritage heavy red bird that puts on weight well.

The other aspect of it is that since we are now doing this to make money… if we were going to hatch all our birds from our hens and sell them, the amount of time it would take would not make it worth it – or consumers couldn’t afford it. I’m already charging 4.50/lb for whole chickens. Our layers are still not big enough to start laying yet, however we may experiment with those eggs and see what we can do. However I already know they don’t put on a lot of weight fast, so therefore they would consumer more feed… and yes we can put them on pasture and they will gain more weight, but we need to also put a price on the pasture land – otherwise its not sustainable and the farmers cant pay their mortgages. I hope this has shed some light on the whole chicken debacle. Keep asking questions!!! Keep educating yourself!

Found this little Diddy in an Audio version and transcribed it – I hope you enjoy it, it reminded me of simple lifestyle and the simple pleasures.

So God made a Farmer…

And on the 8^th day god looked down on his planned paradise and said I need a caretaker. So God made a farmer.

God said I need somebody willing to get up before dawn to milk cows, work all day in the field, milk cows again, eat supper go to town, stay past midnight at a meeting with the school board… so God made a farmer

I need somebody with arms strong enough to wrestle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchildren, somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait till his wife is done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to “be sure and come back soon”. And mean it… so God made a farmer

God said I need somebody to sit up all night with a newborn colt, and watch it die, dry his eyes and say “maybe next year”. I need somebody who can shave an axe handle from a persimmons sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, make a harness out of hay wire, feed sacks and shoe scraps, who in planting time and harvest season will finish his 40 hour week by Tuesday noon and then paining from “tractor back” put in another 72 hours… so God made a farmer.

God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbors place… so God made a farmer.

God said I need somebody strong enough to clear trees, heave bales , yet gentle enough to yean lambs and wean pigs and then tend to pink comb pullets, will stop his mower for an hour just to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark, it had to be somebody who would plow deep and straight and not cut corners, somebody to seed, weed, feed and breed, then rake and disc and plow and plant and tide the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self feeder and finish a hard weeks work with a 5 mile drive to church. Somebody who’d bale family together with a soft strong bond of sharing and who’d laugh and then sigh and reply with smiling eyes when his son says that he wants to spend his life doing what dad does … so God made a farmer.

What would I – a little small town entrepreneurial, farm girl, with a degree in social science and business, a passion for life, land and a great love for people say if the world were listening?

If the world were listening … and by world I mean middle income North America, I would say that we live in a time where YOU are the one that will make the difference in your life.

I would say that Walmart food is just not going to cut it, its not going to give you the basic nutritional make up to ensure you can fight off environmental pathogens, allow you to give people hugs and not worry about catching a cold or the flu.

I would say that we no longer live in a world where you can trust that your local butcher has the best product and if you buy there you don’t think have to question the quality.

I would say the days are over where buying things from the store… any store will not guarantee you much –except for a trip to the store next door… the pharmacy, and THAT also wont guarantee you much except for temporary pain relief and liver and kidney failure.

I would say that your doctor is not someone who is going to give you all the secrets to health, he sees thousands of patients because his interest is his bottom line, and he therefore is not watching your body and checking in as necessary.

I would also say that optimal health is not a place you get to, and that continuous awareness of ones body is essential due to the intricacies of health, how emotional state, stress, environment, believe systems, etc can affect our health

I would say that the idea of trusting big business is a bad idea. That they do not necessarily know what’s best for us, they know what’s best for their bottom line, follow the money

I would say what our grandparents knew broccoli and carrots to be is not what broccoli and carrots are today. They have 50% less micro-nutrients than they did just 20 years ago.

I would say that not having to go to the doctor or to the hospital does NOT suggest you are well.

I would also say that popping a whole bunch of “natural” pills or drinking shakes of mono nutrient composition will not be a sustainable solution to health, that we need to look at the land, and the water, and our relationships to those things – our food and where it comes from is the only sustainable solution – we cant ignore it for much longer

I would say that if one really considered what entered ones body…that they wouldn’t inflict that sort of abuse on even a stranger

I would say obesity epidemic is not related to an over consumption of fat, but that sugar is the culprit, I would say that random school shootings are not so random and that we have a society that is stressed out, anxious, running from pain and imbalanced due to the food they are eating…

I would say the time is now, that we start to question what we are eating, that we start to ask the questions, that we start building relationships again, to our food, and to our neighbors and to those that GROW our food, because when there is relationship, one is invested, and one has the freedom to ask the questions necessary and be a participatory part in the production of ones food… the food that will not only give you energy,  but it will heal you, it will allow you to have stable brain function, it will create community (something that is so obviously missing in a world of hyper connectivity and yet so much disconnection on a human level)

That’s what a small town, farmers daughter, who grew up believing the world was on her side, and operated in the world like optimal health was our right…. This is what I would say to the world…. If they were listening

well… we did it!
My sister and I pulled off a dinner for 18 people, we had the wine provided by south brook winery (organic and biodynamic winery!! and KICK a$$ wine to boot!) The menu can be found at our Facebook page its pretty freakin awesome!!  All of it Organic, living food, Local and fresh!

Some highlights – we checked out my dad as he was finishing up milking, just to see the lovely ladies that would be providing their services for our homemade ice cream treat at the end of the night.

It was an authentic farm family dinner experience (well kinda – generally we don’t consume wine at every meal… gosh that would be fun wouldn’t it!!), So everyone pitched in to set the table, count out forks and spoons and plates and bowls and chairs!

There was such a wonderful group of people, combining people of all various backgrounds and geographies together because they all love the food they eat and the farmers they come from (heheh we love them back!)

Honestly I can’t tell you TOOO much or you won’t come to the next one – if nothing else the star of the show was the food (and not because I did a particularly good job… if I do say so myself, but because when you start with good ingredients well naturally excellent food will follow!!)

I do hope you come to the next one, not sure if it’ll be cocktail hour with the farmers daughter, or if it’ll be random cool homemade stuff you never thought you could make at home, or if it’ll be fermenting and how its GREAT for you! I can’t wait till the summer ones… definitely going to have to do a garden party/ campfire party!

Bring your friends, come hang out!

Cheers

The farmers daughter(s)