Restock Dates: Please see our Farm Blog where we post our weekly newsletter for the latest updates

Author: Ben Simmons

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It's Like Christmas!

"It's Like Chirstmas" - that was Laura's comment when picking up her half beef on Monday. Lot's of excitment to have their freezer filled with farm fresh beef. This was our second special harvest for half/whole beef where the processing is completed by Homestead Farm & Packing. By moving the custom processing to Homestead it frees up our plant/staff to focus on retail cuts that are sold by the piece through our store. Mostly, this helps us be able to serve more families. Demand continues to be strong for our half/whole beef. So, if you are interested

Have You Heard This Good News?

So, please tell us about the good news that you are excited about. OK, hopefully I'm not going to jinx this, but the Louisiana State Legislature has unanimously approved the sale of RAW MILK in LA. All that is left to happen is for Govenor Jeff Landry to sign the bill - which is expected to happen. BREAKING NEWS!!! June 21st, 2024 Gov. Landry signed the bill into law to be effective August 1st 2024. The reason raw milk was banned in the first place goes back over 130 years

Regenerative Consumer Value Proposition

One of the thoughts that goes through my mind is, "Why should customers pay more for our products vs. conventionally raised beef?" Is there evidence that our principles of 100% grass-fed & finished, vaccine free (including mRNA), dewormer free, antibiotic free, hormone free, GMO free, raised on regeneratively managed land with abundant soil life, and humane handling - actually produces a more nutrient dense product than conventionally raised? During our SHA, Dr. Williams shared information how conventionally raised food has steadily decreased in nutrient density (value).

Soil Health Academy Reflections

What an honor it was for our farm to have been chosen to host a Soil Health Academy workshop May 21-23, 2024. You can learn more about SHA here. To access a link to SHA's documentary "Destination Regeneration" click here. The final count of attendees was 33. They came from CA, UT, NJ, TX, TN, AL, FL, LA, and MS. Classroom time included learning the actual definition of Regenerative Agriculture which is farming and ranching in synchrony with nature to repair, rebuild, revitalize and restore ecosystem function starting with all life in the soil and moving to all life above the soil.

Food Security @ NGF

When do you give consideration to your Food Security? Maybe at the threat of an impending natural disaster? Or another news headline about bird flu? What about the latest weather warning of a snow or ice storm where folks rush to the stores and buy up all the milk & bread? The fact is, as a nation we are way too dependent on our over-centralized food production system. In some ways it is great at producing quantity - until there is a problem, then it is NOT. Here are a few recent examples: - May 30th Millions of chickens killed in 5-alarm fire at Farina Farms in IL, One of Nation's largest free-range egg facilities - May 30th Iowa Governor signs disaster proclamation order killing 4.2 million chickens - May 30th H5N1 Bird Flu CDC current status 96,565,226 poultry affected - And, the list goes on And, this does not include the massive fires two years ago

Introducing Covenant Heritage Farm

This week I want to use this space to share the Moffetts' introduction of their "NEW" farm "Covenant Heritage Farm" in Perkins, MS. So, sit back and enjoy as McKenzie shares their story and this new journey.

Like A Well Conducted Symphony

As you know, we have four core products (beef, pork, chicken, and eggs) and two additional products (lamb & turkey). Just the production skills and efforts to keep this going requires much coordination and helpers. Then, add in the processing and the team(s) that come in for harvest, our butcher & team for cut/pack, making sausages, etc. is another coordinated team effort. Then, there is the Pack orders day followed by delivery days. What I hope to accomplish with this email is share how all of this comes together that then determines restock dates for our products.

Website Changes Coming

About two months ago Seven Sons announced they had SOLD Grazecart to POS Nation in Charlotte, NC. Our farm was in the top 5 to signup to use Grazecart back in December 2015. Back then it was very hard to set up... you had to work with the IT guy to program your site. Basically, flying by the seat of your pants. I had learned about Seven Sons and Grazecart during my time on the Board of the Grassfed Exchange Conference where Blaine was also on the Board. Additionally, you may remember that when we decided to add hens to our farm Beth & I visited Seven Sons to check out their operation. But, they (and we) perservered and today Grazecart is very functional and easy to "program" using widgets. So, the sale really saddened me because one of the compelling reasons we chose GC was that it was developed by farmers for farmers who market and sell direct to consumers. A little statistic - last year Grazecart supported about 450 farms. Our farm was in the top 25 largest users of Grazecart coming in around 22 or 23 if I remember correctly. There was no reason(s) given for the sale! The next communication came about a month ago stating POS Nation would transition Grazecart Stripe credit card process to POS Nation Stripe - again, no reason given. Farms were instructed to create an account on the new site and be ready for the migration to happen. All of this we have done. We are prepared, but have not yet been migrated. Then, this week several farms who had been migrated expressed disappointing results and lack of visibility on payments, payouts, reporting, etc. on the POS Nation site. I know when I checked my account status I could not log in. It took 4 email conversations over a 12-hour period AND then a couple of phone calls Friday morning before the issue was resolved. Late Friday afternoon the VP of Grazecart (POS Nation) emailed customers that the migration was put on hold until complaints were resolved. Additionally, this week - DRIP that powers our email marketing function communicated that Google & Yahoo email were cracking down on emails like our newsletters that are not delivered into inboxes. There are many reasons for this, but mostly folks are searching the internet and come across our website. They sign up to "check us out", and after awhile, decide to move on. Most never make a purchase. Some will make only one purchase and probably decide this is not what they are used to and fall away. Instead of using the "Unsubscribe" feature found at the bottom of our newsletter, they "Block" our email delivery. These are the ones that Google & Yahoo are after because these go into Spam folders and not inboxes. I am sure this is a big deal for email providers that cost them big money considering the shear volume of emails sent on a daily basis. That said, next week we will "Deactivate" about 288 DRIP accounts from ever receiving any of our emails. Well, enough of that for now! Remember, we showed pictures of the 23 registered Red Angus cows purchased from a ranch in WY? Well, they have started calving. Two of them this week. Here is a picture of the FIRST one. So glad we can celebrate this birth with our customers. At Nature's Gourmet Farm, our intent is to create a community that evolves around one of the most intrinsically important things of the ages, and that’s the provision of sustenance. That's our passion - to raise healthy food to nourish families and strengthen immune systems. If you are new to our farm then maybe you have been looking for premium ALL NATURAL GOODNESS of beef, pork, chicken, and eggs raised on pasture as God intended - with emphasis on Regenerative Principles and NOT conventionally raised animals (with growth hormones, drugs, chemicals, and antibiotics) - and where animals are treated humanely - then you have come to the right farm. Our delivery schedule and product availability are listed below along with order buttons that will take you to our website where you can browse over 90 product choices and place your order from the convenience of your home. It's that simple! ** Product Availability Update ** NOTE: Restocks are made about 6 PM on the dates indicated below! Chicken - Restocked May 8th. next restock will be May 23rd. . Turkey - Only have ground turkey and turkey wings available. Eggs - Restocked each Wednesday. We are well stocked on eggs - especially large at this time. Beef - Restocked April 19th. Next restock will be May 17th. Pork - Restocked fresh cuts Wednesday, May 8th followed by cured items (bacon) about 12 days later. Lamb - April 17th lamb did not work out. They were only 50 lb live weight or about half the weight needed for slaughter.

Updates & Musings From Farmer Ben

Last week I announced that we continue to have strong demand for our half beef custom orders, and that we have scheduled a harvest date for 6 "custom" beef with Homestead Farm & Packing in Lucedale, MS. Here are the key dates: April 27th 6 beef (12 halves) added to our website for orders. First-come, First-served. Customer pays deposit to reserve order. June 1st Cut-sheet due not later than this date. Best practice is to complete within a week of placing order. Cut sheet can be found at this link - scroll to the bottom of the page https://naturesgourmetfarm.com/custom-bulk-orders. June 3rd I will deliver the cows to the plant.

Do You Need A Half Beef? Must Read

Before I get into the main topic, let me share that our new mama cows are going great. They are settling in and now curious when we come around. For example, last Monday Jared picked up a load of chips for our chick brooder bedding and while unloading they eased up to see what we were doing. Very cool! Next, we want everyone to know that we are mostly FULLY STOCKED on beef, pork, eggs, and chicken. Its been a long time since we were last able to communicate that. Exceptions are filet, flank, and hanger steaks. Who bought all of those filets?

Exciting News From Our Farm

Before I share our exciting news let me update you on beef! You may remember that we communicated our intent to combine April & May custom half orders and process them late March. That way we could increase the amount of inventory we are able to sell through our website. This week our team spent three long days cutting and packing eight beef that was added to our store late Friday afternoon. That represents two beef extra than typical to satisfy the demand we have for our beef. Now, for the exciting news. For some time I have been wanting to add to as well as upgrade our beef herd.

Animal impact On OUR Pastures

The documentary Sacred Cow is known for the phrase "It's NOT the Cow, It's The How!" The meaning is simple. The cow is not responsible for any environmental effects on our land, water, or air. However, the way MAN insists on managing the cow IS RESPONSIBLE. The cow left to her nature and instinct would never confine themselves into a feedlot situration where they would be standing in their waste. Nor would the cow, when left to their nature and instinct, confine themselves to a single pasture on continuous graze. The cow's nature and instinct would be to eat, graze, and move - very similar to the buffalo