My family moved to what became Nature's Gourmet Farm the summer of 1970 - just before I started the 8th grade.

Prior to that my exposure to farm "work" was bush hogging my stepmom's parents farm as well as spending a summer replacing a 5-strand barb wire fence along two forty's or 2,640 feet worth. Back then, all of the post were creosote wood only. Papa was a stickler for the details.

Every post hole was hand dug (more than 220 of them). When setting the new post the top had to be the right height - that often meant taking the post in and out until the top was perfect. A level was used to make sure the post was perfectly straight. Then, you could put a small amount of dirt into the hole - making sure to get some all the way around so you could then "tamp" the dirt with a rod until the dirt was packed tight. Then continue filling & tamping until the hole was filled and the post was solid. Then came stringing the barb wire. You guessed it! Each strand had to be a particular height from the ground and between each strand. Mistakes were corrected.

Builds character - right?

All of our farm was once McKenzie Land. Roy McKenzie owned the part that my dad originally purchased. We called him Uncle Roy because he was married to my step mom's great aunt. Anyway, Uncle Roy had some black jack oak trees that had been cut for pulp wood. After a few years briars had grown up through the tops which prevented his cows from grazing. So, he asked us to pile (by hand) them up and burn them. After several days of blood, sweat, and scars we completed the job. Uncle Roy drove up in his F100 truck. Got out and said "boys it looks good. I'm here to pay you" and handed us a (one) silver dollar each.... I still have mine.

The summer after I had my drivers license Uncle Roy suggested we plant cucumbers and sell them to the pickle plant in Wiggins AND make us some spending money. He offered use of a half acre that I planted in seeds purchased from the plant. The plant told us the most valuable cucumbers were small (less then the size of your thumb). All purchases were "by the pound" and the larger the cucumber the less they paid for them. Oh, for small ones they had to be picked daily! And, delivered daily to the pickup location. While I did pick and sell a lot of cucumbers I'm not sure there was much money to be made. Takeaway is I'm glad Uncle Roy did not offer a full acre!

I took AG classes all four years in High School at Petal. Ninth grade my teacher was Mr. DW Corban- his last year before retiring. I really liked spending time in shop and since AG was 4th period he would load us up in his truck and go help a farmer to do whatever with animals. I still remember at the end of the year how he introduced our new teacher for the next year - wrote his name on the chalkboard Stud for Steed. And, his funny laugh that followed. Mr. Steed stayed one year before moving on to an agriculture job at a local bank. Next was Mr. Jerry McVey- just as "country" as they come!

Back then, the AG teacher lived in a house on campus. Mr. McVey invited me over for supper one evening. While at the supper table he told the story that when he married his wife she was not a very good cook. That is why he got a Bassett Hound - and how he would distract his wife while feeding his supper to the dog. She must have improved because I remember supper being very good.

So, why memory lane? A few evenings ago I was watching a 15 minute video from Joel Salatin titled "Local Food as Parallel Agriculture" and it got me thinking about my early days. Not sure why because his message was about the state of AG today vs. some 45+ years ago.

Do you know who Joel Salatin is? If not, let me briefly introduce him by saying he is the biggest advocate for local food and local farmers ever!!! He has wrote lots of books, given tons of presentations, featured in numerous documentary's starting with Food Inc. back in the day. Joel turned down Michael Pollen who called to have Joel ship him some of his meat for a new book he was writing called Omnivores Delight. Joel turned him down because Michael lived outside of his local area.

Anyway, let me encourage you to take 15 minutes and watch/ listen to his speech. I'm sure you will be inspired. Click here!

At Nature's Gourmet Farm, our intent is to create a community that will evolve 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.

** Product Availability Update **

Chicken - Next harvest date is June 13th with restock the following day. Starting in June our batch sizes will increase to meet demand. Processing will continue for twice per month for the balance of the year.

Eggs - Eggs are in stock. Please note that the sale ended with deliveries May 31st. We appreciate your participation in our egg sale.

Beef - Restocked May 19th. Next restock will be June 23rd. Tallow (rendered) was added 6/02

Pork - Restocked April 28th. Bacon was added Monday, May 8th. We plan to restock pork again late June 2023. Reg. Lard added 5/31

Lamb - Restocked April 28th. Next restock will not be until July timeframe.