Month: April 2020

If you follow the news I’m sure you have seen stories of the potential empty grocery store shelves, big ag processing plants closing, factory farms being stuck with livestock they have no outlet for, and corn prices falling.  All of this leads to a great deal of uncertainty in the agricultural world that could spill over into the world of everyday people.  I don’t want this post to be alarming, I don’t write this to say we are on the brink of a national disaster, but a lot of the things coming to the surface today have been brewing for a while.  I’ve had some people ask about our supply chain and if I foresaw any issues coming in the future on our farm so I want to let everybody know where we stand.

To begin, I have already ordered all of our chicks for the year and I feel confident that our hatchey is rock solid and we will not have any issues getting those chicks.  If an issue ever was to arrive there are other hatcheries that could step up but I do not foresee that happening.  All of our GMO free grain is grown and milled on a small, family owned farm in Centerville, TN.  The grain we are buying this year was actually produced last year so supply will not be an issue.  Our grain mill does not operate in the same commodity space as most of the big guys so they are much more stable in these times.  Both of the processors that we use are local, family owned operations; they operate outside of the factory farming space.  They are both very confident there will be no interruptions in their operations.  

One beauty of being a small, independent farm is that I am not contractually obligated to use any of these providers.  If something were to go wrong, and I don’t think it will, I can always pivot to another provider.  Most of these big ag producers don’t have that luxury and they are hurting because of that.  I really do feel bad for those guys who are so beholden to how one large corporation chooses to handle this.

Another beauty is I just laid out, in one paragraph, our whole supply chain.  It really is that simple and has that few points of potential failure.  We have many fewer steps to get food to you.  Our farm doesn’t rely on truck drivers, grocery stores, or massive companies like Tyson and Smithfield having to make decisions for thousands of different scenarios.  We can strictly focus on producing food for you and others in the Memphis area.  As I said above I am certainly not trying to alarm anybody about an impending situation where the grocery store shelves are bare, but I do believe this gives hints as to how something of that nature could happen in the future.  We should take this as our warning to make better choices in the future.  Please let me know if you have any comments or questions.  I love the feedback and would like to do a follow up post about this.

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Over the course of this past weekend, I personally made 24 home deliveries, quite a few of these to people who have not previously purchased from us.  It is always very exciting to make these deliveries, especially when I get to chat with the customer I am delivering to. This covid 19 outbreak has certainly cut down on the number of conversations I am having while delivering but it hasn’t eliminated them and I made an observation while I was out this weekend.  Everybody was at home.

This may seem obvious with a statewide stay at home order, but it is still quite noticeable and different from what my delivery routes were like when all of this began.  It led me to think about the value of being at home. When we are all at home, we’re talking to each other, playing with the kids and the dogs, and (of particular interest to me) cooking together.

In my opinion, there is such a value to cooking together, and eating together.  Cooking can often have us do things we haven’t quite done before, maybe things that push us outside our comfort zone.  Cooking is a great thing to get your kids into as well. It also leads us to eat together, like literally together. When you put effort into preparing a meal, I believe you’re more likely to sit down as a family and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

I know there are a lot of people who can’t wait for life to open back up, and in some ways I am one of those people.  But I also think this is a great chance for us to stay at home, to spend time with the people we love, to try new things together, and hopefully even cook a meal together.  I know we’re all ready for this to be over and for businesses to open back up and people to get back to work. That being said, I hope we can see this time for the blessing that it can present.  And hopefully when all of this is over we keep a few of the positive elements from this experience.

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Spring is here and it’s a very exciting, busy, and usually joyous time on the farm. I know the news is filled with disheartening Coronavirus updates everyday but when you walk onto the farm it just seems to all go away. The chickens still need to be moved and fed, I’m still trying to install a new water system that is making me pull my hair out, now we have pigs on farm and that’s a whole new ball of wax. When I’m working on the farm, that’s my reprieve. So hopefully this Corornavirus update will bring you a little more joy than most you are seeing.

What’s new

As I mentioned above, we have pigs. They’re doing great and the kids have really enjoyed seeing them act like pigs in the woods. They are all healthy and happy and we’re just excited they’re on the farm. We also have baby chicks coming tomorrow, our second batch of the year. I am also about to finalize the plans for an additional batch of chickens to finish in July.

What’s been affected by the virus

Unfortunately the Memphis Farmers Market has decided to delay opening the market for an indeterminate period of time. In the mean time, they are working to come up with other ways to get local farm products to the patrons who frequent the market. While the market is shut down, we are going to be doing weekly free home deliveries to all of Shelby county on Saturdays. Click here for all of the details. We also have a couple chicken shares still available along with some bulk pork packages, the details are here if you’re interested. We will be back in stock with fresh chicken next week so we’re excited to begin serving you again very soon.

Our COMMITMENT to you

We are diligently following the events going on and all recommendations from health officials. We will be wearing gloves and a mask when we make our deliveries and also when we pack orders or otherwise handle product. We have also increased our production to try to make sure we keep product in stock. I have spoken with our feed provider as well as our butchers and everything in our supply chain is still rolling along without a problem so I am confident we will be able to continue providing you with our chicken and soon pork during the duration of this crisis.

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