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It's Like Christmas!

written by

Ben Simmons

posted on

June 29, 2024

Good Morning From Your Farmer,

"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 in buying some for your family, I have added inventory to our store. We will take orders for first come first served. Price is the same at $5.25 lb. based on the hanging weight. A harvest date has been scheduled with Homestead for July 30th. Cut/Pack will be around August 15th. And, pickup would be August 19th.

You can place your order from this link. Be sure to read the Ordering Tips and download the cut sheet located near the bottom of the page. Please give me a call if you have any questions. Your paid deposit of $500/half is all that is needed to secure your order.

You may remember me introducing Covenant Heritage Farm located in Perkins, MS that uses our beef tallow to make wonderful skin care products. Well, this week Samuel contacted me to say their website is up and running and all the T's are crossed and I's dotted for them to receive orders and ship product. Check out their website and place your order from this link.

A couple of weeks ago I shared a podcast and discussion with Dr. Stephan van Vliet regarding the research his team has been doing looking at phytonutrients and omega 6:3 ratios in grass fed vs. grain fed beef. Here is the results posted:

  • Omega 6 to Omega 3 Ratio (6:3)- a lower 6:3 ratio is considered highly beneficial. ***Grassfed to Finished Beef has a ratio of under 2:1 Omega 6 to Omega 3 compared to a ratio of 11:1 to over 50:1 in feedlot beef.


Another very important point Dr. van Vliet concludes is not overgrazing and increasing plant diversity are the two most important factors in raising nutrient-dense product. In layman terms he is telling farmers to graze 50% and leave 50% of the forage in your pasture then move your cows forward. Also, do not have a monoculture pasture. Pastures are not meant to look like manicured lawns or golf courses.

This week I want to share results on NGF pasture raised eggs vs. commercial grown eggs.

This Spring Resaca Sun Feed where we buy our Non-GMO feed asked me to send samples of our eggs to a lab for testing. The research included three farms with pasture raised eggs but on different NON-GMO feed (corn & soy, corn & soy free, and corn free). There was also commercially raised eggs from a CAFO included as well. All of the farms are located in the SE United States.

Lab results for Omega 6:3 ratio from our eggs (corn & soy NON-GMO feed) pasture raised hens to be 7.6:1. While lab results for Omega 6:3 ratio from eggs raised conventionally in a CAFO was a whopping 31.2:1. That is more than 4 times higher than corn & soy based eggs from hens raised on pasture.

Results show how much healthier our eggs are for human consumption. Not to mention the positive impact on our soil, ecology, and the hens themselves.

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Once Resaca Sun Feed publishes their report I will provide you a link to read the complete report.

At any rate, we are very pleased to have been included in this research and appreciate the forward thinking of our feed supplier to provide this valuable information for our customers.

** Product Availability Update **

NOTE: Restocks are made about 6 PM on the dates indicated below!

Chicken -Restocked June 26th. Next Restock is July 10th
.
Turkey - Sold Out! New poults arrived, but will be months before ready. Demand popped and I dropped the ball on this one.

Eggs - Restocked each Wednesday. We are well stocked on eggs - especially large at this time.

Beef - Restocked June 20th. Next restock will be July 18th. Half Beef added to store July30th harvest

Pork - Restock June 12th. Ground Pork & Patty Sausage restocked June 14th.

Lamb - April 17th lamb did not work out. They were only 50 lb live weight or about half the weight needed for slaughter.

More from the blog

What If Pigs Could Talk

Well, at Nature's Gourmet Farm our pigs may not speak English, but their body language sure says a lot. Notice our pigs! See how content they are napping - they would say how nice the morning is and glad to enjoy the shade in our natural environment. The soft dirt is so relaxing. We have heard that some pigs live in cramped and confined spaces on hard concrete. Why would any farmer treat their pigs like that?

Farm Happenings!

Celebrity Visitor – Tuesday afternoon I had the opportunity to meet one of the nicest guys here on our farm. CJ called me about ten days earlier to ask if he could come and see our farm. Seems his family owns a farm near Bassfield, MS and they were needing to make some changes. As you know, I’m eager to help anyone who would like to farm as Mississippi certainly needs more folks raising food to feed our communities – and since he was interested in Regenerative Pasture Raised animals that was even better.

Clean Sheets

Family Bible– This is about a personal story I would like to share this Easter (Jesus’ Resurrection). My dad’s oldest sister is 102 years old and not as sharp as she once was even though she has the most content personality of anyone I’ve ever known in her limited condition. Recently her middle son, my 1st cousin, asked me if I would be interested in two Simmons Family Bibles – well of course, I replied. The oldest Bible goes back four generations and includes names, dates, etc. for birthdays, marriages, deaths. And the penmanship is amazing! The second Family Bible is two generations old and belonged to my dad’s parents.