Good Morning and hello from your farmer,

A few weeks ago our farm newsletter was titled "What Is Too Big"?

The basic theme is my belief that food security and farmer profitability, service, etc. is found in many, many small family-size farms than in a few mega farms.

For the farmer and consumer, the cost of production is also less. To explain, let me use meat chickens as an example.

White Oak Pastures for years have said they lose money on chickens. They have an on-farm USDA processing plant that harvests about 1,000 meat chickens per day. Chicken Breast sells for $18.99 lb. That is $7.74 lb. higher than our price. And, WOP claims they are not making money selling meat chickens. In the past week they sent out an email stating they have discontinued their poultry operation and will outsource chicken to another grower in Michigan.

A second example, in the last 10 days I was contacted by a very large direct market farm (8-figure sales income) in the upper mid-west. They were looking for a farm to supply them up to 100,000 meat chickens per year. In the past, all of their meat chickens were outsourced to a few other farms. They do not raise any meat chickens on their farm. Currently they have massive supply chain issues. I declined as this does not fit our core values which is direct to consumer in our local area, We believe it is important to know your customer and for them to know their farmer.

Combined, I'm guessing the annual sales for these two large farms are in the range of $40-$45 million. Now, instead of two farms, what if this volume was split into 50 or so smaller direct-market farms. Then, when a farm has a supply issue, the volume could be absorbed by several of the other farms - whereas, in the case of the two large farms, there currently is not any other supply option that can absorb their volume. Thus, their pastured poultry customers will not be served.

Do you know Wendell Berry? Wendell Erdman Berry (now 89 years old) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer closely identified with rural Kentucky, Berry developed many of his agrarian themes in the early essays of "The Gift of Good Land" and "The Unsettling of America."

In 1974, Wendell debated then Secretary of Ag Butz who is known for telling farmers to "Get Big or Get Out!" Wendall's point was how devastating this would be to small farmers and our rural communities. And, Wendell was correct.

In 2016, a documentary was released titled: LOOK & SEE: A Portrait of Wendell Berry. This is a documentary film of the world as lensed through the works of farmer, writer and activist Wendell Berry. It is a very encouraging film that I highly recommend.

The MOST Asked Question from our customers - You are out of a lot of items that I want to buy. When will you restock?

Unlike most farms, we communicate the restock date by beef, pork, chicken, etc. every Saturday in our newsletter (see below). Additionally, our newsletter is posted to our website under Farm Blog and there is a banner at the top of our homepage directing folks to our farm blog to get the latest restock details.

Restocks are typically posted about 6 PM on restock day. In our current "Product Availability Update" below I have tweaked the format to hopefully make details clearer. Our objective is to make it easy to do business with our farm.

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 August 16th. Next restock August 30th. Processing will continue for twice per month for the balance of the year

Turkey - We have a few on pasture now and received a batch of 25 poults July 29th. They are doing great. Restock TBD

Eggs - Restocked each Wednesday

Beef - Restocked July 20th. Next restock will be about August 25th

Pork - Restocked fresh cuts August 16th and will restock cured cuts about August 25th

Lamb - Restocked July 24th. We expect to have a few lamb in September and about 12 in November