Movies You Should Watch

2 Documentaries you should watch immediately are these:

www.foodincmovie.com

www.freshthemovie.com

On Pasture Solutions

Being a portable operation we have to make everything we need…well, portable. Here is a short glimpse into how we keep food and water on pasture.

best,

-nate

Chicken Move

Here is a quick glimpse into how we move the chickens around the pasture!

It’s one of my favorite things to watch as they run into the next salad bar, they’re so excited! We move the flock every 2-4 days. I keep a watch on the area they are in to see when they’ve consumed all they are going to consume. Somedays they let me know if I waited a little too long by hopping the fence to get into the fresh food…stinkers.

hope you enjoyed it!

-nate

Beginnings

I don’t really feel qualified calling myself a farmer. I don’t own a farm, nor do I do this full time. I’m more of a “gentleman farmer”. Since I was about 18, a dream of mine has been to own and live on a large tract of land. My spirit always feels whole and at peace outdoors in large open spaces. It’s only been this past year that I wanted to turn that dream land into a working farm. As my passion grew this year to raise/grow food for myself and others my frustration and impatience grew with thoughts of “how can I do this without land”. As I began to read Joel Salatin’s book, “You Can Farm” I realized, “hey, I could actually start “the farm” without actually having a farm”. By leasing some acreage, I could start raising animals (right now chickens), grow gardens, and start experimenting, somewhat risk free, with this dream life I have. So…that’s what we’re doing, and we love it.

I’m not really sure of the next step but for now we are going to make the most of what we have and produce the best quality food for ourselves and you.

Thanks for being along for the ride as a reader, and for some of you, a customer. It’s a strong feeling I have that we’ve only just begun.

best,

-nate

We did it!

Well, we did it! We completed our first run of raising and processing broilers (chickens for meat) on farm!! We did two rounds of 50 and processed them a month apart. It’s hard to put into words all that I felt about the experiences. We look forward to the Spring and have already begun plans to crank operations back up in April. Here are a few pics of the processing days:

My daughter Ella helped catch the birds

 

My girls kept the crew fed and hydrated

This was our setting (you can see our stuff through the trees) MUCH better than a factory HUH?!

The chickens final ride

I’ll spare ya the actual pics of processing, not everyone wants to see that ya know?! They were great days filled with family, friends, and community. I look forward to next year!

 

best,

-nate

 

 

 

Healing #2

The top picture is what the pasture looked when we started grazing it with the layers at the start of September. It was unplanned, but we grazed leading into and during prime grass growing season here in Charlotte. It’s now the beginning of November, we are halfway through grazing the pasture and the bottom picture is result….amazing! This is all new to me and it seriously makes my jaw drop to see it first hand!

It makes me wonder how our agrarian society strayed away from this? Imagine with me if you will, I had some cattle. I grazed the herd through this pasture where they’d eat up the grass, add fertilizer (poop/pee) to the soil, and off they go to another pasture. I then brought the chickens through behind them. They scratch around opening up the soil, moving the cow fertilizer around, adding their own fertilizer to the soil, and off they’d go continuing to follow the herd. Do this enough times and what I’m left with is AMAZING pasture to grow on! Plant something into that and WOW! Not only do you have great soil for some crops but you’re getting eggs/meat from your chickens, and meat/milk from your herd. If more farmers did this we’d have a whole different food system on our hands!

Unfortunately, most farmers who have succumb to the industrial way, don’t want to graze animals anymore. They want fast…quantity. They plant seeds, growth happens, they spray it, they harvest. They’ll then spray an herbicide, kill whatever vegetation and soil life is left, wait a few days, and then plant the next crop. They do this over and over again on the same fields NEVER giving them a rest to rebuild the life of the soil. Their whole operation is crutched up on a chemical reliance. Does that sound sustainable to you??

Our food system as we know it in America is in danger of crumbling. PLEASE get out and support local farmers who are growing and raising food in a way that is sustainable!! They deserve the support and you deserve what they have to offer!!

best,

-nate

Let’s Clear it up-Eggs

I’m going to do my best to keep this to the point!

Eggs. Cage free, free range, vegetarian fed, etc. Whoa! I just want eggs! Buying “good” eggs can be overwhelming and confusing. Here are some explanations of what you’re supporting when you purchase your eggs.

NO LABEL (usually the store brand)

Basically, these eggs are your typical $1.99/dozen eggs. The industry calls these “battery caged”…doesn’t that term just warm your heart? A few pics:

Disturbing isn’t it? Notice in the last picture the birds don’t have beaks. They debeak the birds because they literally go crazy and become cannibalistic in the tiny cages. You can look at the picture and realize how horrific this type of living situation is. Any animal raised in these conditions WILL NOT produce anything of nutritional value. Because of how unhealthy these living conditions are, the birds have to be given antibiotics in order to keep them from being infested with disease so they can still lay. It goes without saying, this is by far the worst possible way to produce eggs, wouldn’t you agree?

CAGE FREE/FREE ROAMING

A term that gives the illusion of birds frolicking around without a care in the world. Unfortunately this is not true. Here are a few pictures of what a cage free / free roaming environment looks like:

In all actuality, this environment isn’t very different than the first set of pictures. They just let these little birdies out of the cages. That’s great and all but they are still forced to live in HORRIBLE living conditions. They have little to no natural light, are mostly debeaked, have no access to outdoors (confinement), and are still given antibiotics.

FREE RANGE

This one is tricky. It gives the implication of green rolling hills with happy chickens. On a rare occasion, this may be true advertisement if you saw it at a farmers market, but not at your run of the mill chain grocery store. SO, let me tell you that the green rolling hills is not the case. The birds are allowed to roam in their house with 30,000 other birds and given access to the outdoors, but that does not mean they take it. Free range also doesn’t mean anti-biotic or hormone free either. A step in the right direction? Sure, but in no way does it mean what they imply.

ORGANIC

Again, a tricky one. If you are buying from a chain grocery organic is not all they want you to think it is. They are fed an all organic feed, no hormones or anti-biotics, and are given access to outside. HOWEVER, they still live together in the tens of thousands and their access to outdoors may be a dirt/gravel yard. In no way are these birds treated humanely!

All of the eggs you’ll buy from a big chain grocery will be from “factory farms”. They have zero regard for the happiness of the chicken and allowing it to express it’s “chicken-ness”! You truly cannot trust what you buy just by what it says on the label. It’s about the bottom line for these people…quanity not quality!

Where should you get eggs you ask?? Local farmers markets! For some of you, all you care about is that the chicken is treated humanely. Others may care there is no anti-biotics or hormones used and the rest want BEYOND organic conditions! You want to MAKE SURE that the life of the birds are outside and on grass! All you need to do is ask the farmer and 9 times out of 10, they’ll be completely honest with you. And of course, if you want my opinion on what types you should be purchasing…just ask!

Also, here is what happy chickens look like!!

best,

-nate