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Farm Improvements

written by

Ben Simmons

posted on

May 19, 2018

Farm Update –

Today (Saturday) has been devoted to Beth's honey do list. Many home & yard task have been accomplished with several more to come. I'm very thankful for her efforts to update our landscape and home. 

We are always on the lookout for opportunities to learn and improve our operations. Today I want to share a few improvements toward ensuring we only provide a safe product.

After the defeat of SB2060 On-Farm Poultry Bill I called and talked with several farms in states that operate under the 20,000 bird Federal limit. One of the things Indiana required was ServSafe Certification. The ServSafe® program is developed by the National Restaurant Association with the help of foodservice industry experts. Their materials help define food safety best practices and involve specialists from regulatory agencies, academia, and the foodservice industry to create them. ServSafe materials reflect the latest science, research and FDA Food Code. Last Monday Beth completed the 8-hour Manager Course and received her Certification.

This week North Carolina (through NCChoices) offed 25-Free HACCP online training courses. This is a 20-hour course with a $500 value. I responed and received one of the free slots. Thank you NCChoices! 

We are also in the process of making some major improvements to our processing area. We will seperate the kill/scald/pluck steps from the evisceration/wash/inspect/cool down steps. We hope to also replace ice (we use about 5-600 pounds per batch) with a cool room. Additionally, we want to improve the "comfort" for folks who help with this major task!

Customer Feedback- 

Hi Ben.  Still out in Oregon and will be in Colorado for a year starting August.  We really, really miss your grass fed beef!!!! It’s much more available out here but the taste, quality is not like yours.  We are coming home for a few weeks and I contemplated buying another 1/2 cow but we can’t figure out a way to ship/ transport it out to Colorado.  L Parker

Quote Worth Re-Quoting –  “I do not want to be sustainable, why would I want to sustain a degraded resource? I want to be regenerative! That is the only way to leave the farm better then I found it.” Gabe Brown – voted top 25 most influential farmers in 2016.

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

Ben & Beth

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Food deserts are regions where people have limited access to healthful and affordable food. This may be due to having a low income or having to travel farther to find healthful food options. Without access to healthful foods, people living in food deserts may be at higher risk of diet-related conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and micro-nutrient deficiencies. Medical News Today I would offer additional considerations to include: 1. In 2016 a study was made that determined MS imports $8.5 billion dollars worth of food. That was more than a billion greater than farm commodity crops generated in sales that year.