You learn a few sobering things along the way, like how you can occasionally contribute to the death of an extremely cute farm animal. Like the day I found a baby chick, drowned in a water pan (there are waterers that preclude this particular form of demise - yikes). Fortunately, more of them live than die, so you soon remember that you are doing more good than harm. An example is the two baby lambs that we bottle fed after their mom died 3 days after their birth. Without our care, they wouldn't have survived.
Another thing we have learned is that the finances of a farm are challenging. Sometimes after crunching the numbers, I have found that it is possible to make $1.13 an hour raising pigs. Yikes again. Fortunately we are in a farm class that is showing us how to push that number up. For the first time in our relationship, we are diligent record keepers - every receipt gets recorded. And we are starting to think about the niche we can fill in the local food world. How can we ask for a fair price from customers, while at the same time giving them an experience like no other?
In the first post I wrote last September, I mentioned interest in the idea of a community farm. Under this model, customers pay an annual lump sum for products delivered throughout the year (much like a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture). Customers also contribute their time annually, usually in the form of a work day. Patty Wright and Michael Racette from Spring Hill Community Farm in west central Wisconsin are pioneers of this model, and Aaron and I had the chance to sit down with them this past winter to learn more.
The big takeaway from our meeting was that for Patty and Mike, the food they raise has become secondary to the community their farm has created. They raise vegetables, and those vegetables are delivered to the Twin Cities twice a week by customers who drive to the farm annually, chip in a few hours of labor, share a potluck lunch, and fill their trunks with bags of food for fellow city dwellers. The work day is augmented by a few meetings every year with a core group, where Patty and Mike make operating and financial decisions with a handful of members. I am very excited about this model for many reasons. There are times when I need some extra socializing on the farm (how many days has it been since I left the premises?!). And we hear consistently from our family and friends, that they so appreciate sampling the beauty and intrigue of country life.
To that end, we plan to launch a community farm website later this year, with our first year of operation being 2016. In exchange for an annual payment (somewhere in the range of $500 to $1,000), new members will receive some of the best raised animal products in the Upper Midwest: Big Willy's pork, Thanksgiving turkeys, gourmet chicken, pasture raised eggs, and grass fed beef. Members will make one trip a year to our farm in rural Yuba, Wisconsin, spend time with us and our brood, and go home with the satisfaction of knowing exactly how healthy and humanely their food is raised.
In the meantime, we will be selling our products this year only by the item. This is a great way to sample how our food tastes. We are currently offering eggs, and will soon be selling pork and chicken (both broiler and gourmet meat). If all goes as planned, we will have turkey, lamb, and colorful Shetland wool by the end of the year.
The adventure, the fun, and the hard work continues, and we cannot wait to share the delicious results. If you would like more information or have any questions, shoot us a message, we would love to hear from you. For future updates, enter your e-mail address in the upper right hand corner.
Until next time, do whatever it takes to stay cool (mud pits included)!
