Somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 years ago, we joined an organization called the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association in hopes of bettering our expertise at growing delicious poultry outdoors in a rotational model without a bunch of medications, contrary to standard procedure for 99.9% of the chicken consumed in the US at that time.
It has been an interesting decade to see the group mature
As a homeschool mom, I often ponder what’s wrong in today’s systems, and how do I figure out what is most important in raising my own children and nurturing my family.
When I was younger I used to post compelling little soundbites to social media about all sorts of things. Food, mostly. I guess it was because I was excited about all the things
Our family was privileged to attend this year’s American Pastured Poultry Producer’s Association Conference in Dallas. It was three days of wonderful networking and sharpening of farming minds. If you’re a farmer type, we highly recommend attending. If you’re a beginner, it’s an ocean of information to drink in as fast as you can. If you’re a middle-experience farmer, it’s an opportunity to gain the knowledge you need
Farm life is lots of things. Most folks know and reaffirm to us, “Farm life is so busy!” Yep! 100%!
It’s also very cyclical. Certain things happen alongside the seasons, and it really is so interesting to witness the ebb and flow from year to year. Sometimes we change things to better mesh with seasonal changes. And sometimes we find a groove that we really like, and we try to stick… ... Continue reading
It seems the 13-year mark of small business is when all your equipment decides to break down, especially if most of it was already almost a decade old when you started (but of course we didn’t own much “new” stuff. We like our equipment already “broken in,” ha!). We’ve had to do a boat-load of repairs this year. Matt says we can start calling him Jack, as in Jack of… ... Continue reading | 3 Comments
Sometimes our life here at the farm feels like an experiment of epic proportions. I think it’s partly that because we are a family-run farm, things change every day because WE change every day. The kids are growing to be more and more a part of farm happenings. They seem to love every minute of it and are always listening for Matt to come in and say, “Would you like… ... Continue reading | 5 Comments
Farming provides an almost endless supply of hilarious inside jokes and quotable little sayings. It seems we live very much “on the edge” and “by the seat of our pants,” never knowing what challenges the day will bring. One of my favorites you can find on various t-shirts and mugs, and it reads something like this, “I’m sorry for what I said while we were working cows.”
The average city-slicker doesn’t… ... Continue reading | 5 Comments
We often have people ask for guidance on how Matt made his recovery from ulcerative colitis. And I would say that, fairly often, they have received blood testing results that reveal various deficiencies that are likely contributing to their health issues. And so it makes sense that they seek out the supplement forms of whatever nutrients they’re lacking. Or does it? I remember when I worked for a local health food store, I’d… ... Continue reading | 3 Comments
Me again… I like an interesting headline, don’t you? But what I really dislike is headlines that deliberately deceive you. Thankfully for this writer-wannabe, English is ambiguous enough that reading today’s headline really doesn’t tell you exactly what I mean. So you clicked, right? I would totally click. We all know China’s scary food safety history. It’s a pretty dismal record.
So how in the world can I say… ... Continue reading | 4 Comments
As the farm-communications-personnel-person, I get LOTS of emails. One of those I received recently was introducing a business that offers the service of processing raw chicken into value-added, fully-cooked, ready-for-use products. Things like shredded or diced chicken; fried chicken legs or wings; filleted chicken breast; popcorn chicken and chicken nuggets.
OK, so what’s wrong with that?
Well, the business is based in China. And it reveals a very… ... Continue reading | 1 Comment
