To Move on is to Grow
I always say that I love living in the upper Midwest and it’s true.
I love the snow (which it looks like we’re finally getting this week!) and the cold. I love the Fall and the seasons changing... and I also love the summer and the feeling of the ground as it thaws in the spring. I love seasonality. Because a farm operates within the confines of the weather, seasonality is a big factor for how the flow of the farm moves. Right now, we’re planning, budgeting and evaluating for 2024. Last week I talked about what 2023 looked like for us but now we’re focusing on what 2024 looks like. I always feel re-invigorated this time of year as the plan coalesces and takes shape for next year.
You may have noticed a trend over the last month in the newsletters, but we’ve been really forced to evaluate our farm operation over the last year. Life should be dynamic, and farming is really no different… we’re constantly improving, sometimes failing and always changing. We’re realizing that we can’t do everything ourselves, so we need to tailor the farm to suit what we WANT to do and what we’re exceptional at.
Going into 2024 we will be focusing on providing the absolute highest quality pastured meats and animal products.
We think our beef, pork and poultry is the best that you can find and we’re going to really continue to hone in on those aspects. So, what does this mean? It means that we’re beginning to streamline what we will be focusing our energy on in 2024.
-Non-meat items. The biggest change is that we’re cutting out our non-meat items such as bread, cheese, bakery items, coffee, and granolas. If you’re missing any of those offerings then definitely reach out and we can point you in the right direction to still be able to source them. We love our partners for these products but we want to focus maximum energy on our pastured meats!
-Events. We’re also no longer offering kids classes in the summer. This was a tough decision for us because we’ve had so many great interactions with getting kids to experience a farm. The short answer is that we simply don’t have the capacity to farm and run the classes during the summer. We will still be offering monthly farm tours though!
-Fish. We will still be offering our wild-caught fish options, maple syrups and honey.
-Delivery Days. Starting over the next few weeks we will be changing our delivery days to WEDNESDAYS. This is simply an efficiency change… we found that so many orders come in on Monday mornings that it was getting difficult to get everything packed and shipped in time for Tuesday deliveries!
-Cattle. This is a really exciting change for us. We have been moving away from our original breed of cattle (Belted Galloway) over the last 3 years. We had somewhat switched to a stocker operation (meaning we weren’t producing any of our own calves) for the last 2 years but last year decided we needed to get back to producing our own calves. This was driven by the high cost of buying cattle in and also our desire to do something unique with our beef. Well, last year we decided on a new breed and we’re very excited about our initial experiences with it. We’ve begun raising Piedmontese cattle, these all-white cattle are a very unique breed that hails from northern Italy and is known for its incredibly tender meat. Now, we are still in the growing and testing phase with the new breed (it’s not a quick or easy process) and we probably won’t have beef from the new herd until 2025 but we’re at the point where we want to start showing you what we’re doing! This will be the only commercially sized grass-fed and certified Organic Piedmontese herd in the world to our knowledge.
We know we’re making some changes here but we are excited about the opportunities that it will free up for us…