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Your Help Is Needed - Time Sensitive

written by

Ben Simmons

posted on

February 1, 2018

Farm Update – It has been an interesting week. As you know, I communicated last week that the Senate Ag Committee voted unanimously for SB2060 that would require the MS Department of AG to change their regulations to be the same as the Federal Law vs. more restrictive. This means a farm could process up to 20,000 chickens per year and sell into retail business. 

Since then. strong opposition from Cindy Hyde Smith, poultry lobbyist, etc. have surfaced. I spoke with Senator Hudson Friday afternoon and he said opposition is pressuring the Senate Public Health Committee to "KILL" the bill. Let me encourage you to read my letter to all MS Senators & Representatives    CLICK HERE

The next hurdle is to pass the Public Health Committee. The committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon. I am asking for you to please contact the committee chairman and let your voice be heard in support of SB2060. This will not only help small farmers but will give Mississippians "choice" in their food purchases. Contact Public Health and Welfare Dean Kirby, Chairman dkirby@senate.ms.gov and Brice Wiggins, Vice-Chairman bwiggins@senate.ms.gov 

Valentine's Day - is just around the corner. Now is a good time to get your steak orders placed to ensure availability (we pickup more from the processor Friday). February delivery dates are less than 2-weeks away - and are the week prior to February 14th. Check our these premium steak selections:

Filet

PorterHouse

Rib-Eye, Boneless

New York Strip

Rib-Eye, Bone-In

T-Bone

Sirloin

Customer Feedback- 

Just received my first purchase and am very pleased with everything thank you for having a great product. B Hamilton.

Quote Worth Re-Quoting –  "A farm includes the passion of the farmer's heart, the interest of the farm's customers, the biological activity in the soil, the pleasantness of the air about the farm--it's everything touching, emanating from, and supplying that piece of landscape. A farm is virtually a living organism. The tragedy of our time is that cultural philosophies and market realities are squeezing life's vitality out of most farms. And that is why the average farmer is now 60 years old. Serfdom just doesn't attract the best and brightest." --Joel Salatin

As always, thank you for supporting our regenerative, local farm.

Ben & Beth

More from the blog

Farm Visitors

Since we started selling via our online store in 2016, the number of visitors to our farm increased. Then, building the on-farm USDA poultry plant in 2019 spurred a lot of interest from folks who were interested in raising pastured poultry and were looking for a way around the MS Department of Ag regulation limiting the number of chickens per farm to only 1,000 per year. Most of the folks visiting were potential customers looking for naturally raised meats to feed their families.

Farmer Musings!

Beth & I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving - and turkey if you purchased one our our pastured turkeys. For our family the turkey did not disappoint. I spatchcocked (removed the backbone) so the turkey would lay flat. Beth then brined it for a day before smoking. It turned out tasty and juicy. Before our Thanksgiving meal each of us shared something we were thankful for. Beth's sister Debra shared the following:

A Day Processing Ground Beef!

Overall rain this week on our farm was about ONE inch! Not a lot in the big scheme of things, but very appreciated. It was enough to make a difference for our winter grass as you can see from this picture. In some areas of other pastures it appears that the seedlings died after germinating back in October. An observation that the heavy dews was not enough to keep them alive.