News from our Farms

What a beautiful day it was to drive from farm to farm.  The spring has really sprung...

 

Here's the news from our farms to you:

 

* Landis Gourmet Mushrooms: John Herron faced a tragic loss this week in the unexpected death of one of his business partners.  Jim was an important player in helping John construct his mushroom farm, so it is a loss on both a personal and a business level.  Hearing this news earlier this week prompted me to ask John if we could help him in some way.  He said he's got a lot of growing rooms to build and not enough hands to do it.  So if any of you are interested in pitching in one day to help build a growing room, post a comment and let's give back.   For some reason the golden oysters didn't come in, so John gave you either blue or brown instead.  He really loaded up the containers this time!

 

* Wild Turkey Farms: Lee Menius is excited about working with us in the upcoming months and is loving this time of year as the produce starts coming in.  He asked that we all pray for rain and for relief on fuel costs, which affect every aspect of farming.   For those of you who ordered produce, it looks BEAUTIFUL.  There's bok choy (chinese cabbage), spring onions, radishes, arugula, and lettuces.  YUM!

 

* Bird Brain Ranch: Pat Roberts told me how to cook a ostrich fan muscle, which is cooked like a london broil.  Sounds like a great way to feed a crowd!  She also gives a shout out to the Kuras family...said your parents stopped by last week!

 

* Grateful Growers: Natalie Veres is looking forward to our farm visit next week.  We also talked a little about the slaughtering process for her pork.  An animal that is stressed when it is killed can result in tough meat; so Natalie insists that her animals are handled with care once they are delivered to the slaughterhouse.  She requires the slaughterhouse to give her pigs a day to adjust to their new environment before they are killed, to allow them to overcome the travel away from the farm.  Natalie has also taken a strict stance with the handlers at the slaughterhouse so that they treat the animals with respect and not shocking rods.   I'm not yet at a place where I'm ready to visit the slaughterhouse, but it helps me to understand this relationship.  A farmer can put months of special care into raising their animals and have it lost in a moment when an unsympathetic handler mistreats the animal.  So the relationship between farmer and processor is an important factor in the quality of the end product.

 

* Apple Orchard Farm: Art Duckworth greeted me in his bee-keeping suit.  He was in the process of replacing a queen bee that is producing too many males (which consume honey but don't make it) and not enough females (which make the honey).  Art says the honey is about to start flowing, so that's great news.  He's had a run on seedlings, which is an encouraging sign...people want to grow their own plants.  Yeah!