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Newsletter 2016 1120

written by

Ben Simmons

posted on

December 4, 2016

Madison:

Order by Sunday, December 11, 2016

Pickup Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Hattiesburg & Hattiesburg Hwy 98 West

Order by Monday, December 12, 2016

Pickup Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Biloxi & Gulfport

Order by Monday December 12, 2016

Pickup Thursday, December 15, 2016

We believe in transparency, as there’s no better education about what it
is we do, how we do it and why, than an honest and straightforward conversation
about any aspect of our farm!

Farm Updates

It has been a very busy week at the farm. Last weekend we sorted out & weaned this years calves. We also sorted out six cows that do not fit our program very well and sold at the local sale barn. Plus, we sorted out six cows that will be processed into ground beef and available for the December pickup schedule.

As you know, we are in a severe drought that covers East TX, LA, MS, AL, Northwestern GA, SC, NC, Tennessee, and Arkansas. We felt it is better to proactively cull the herd now then to be forced into a much more difficult situation later. Please join us in prayer that we might have some relief soon.

Additionally, we made our deliveries to Hattiesburg and the Gulf Coast on Wednesday & Thursday. We really like this because we get to meet our customers and hear from you. Thank you for your many kind words and encouragement (and hugs).

Tomorrow I will pickup and deliver custom pork orders to customers from Madison to Hattiesburg and the Gulf Coast. We sold 8 of 12 pigs and will take the remaining four to make 25# Variety Shares. These have been very popular with customers.

Did I mention that the 25# Ground Beef and 25# Pork Variety Share will be on sale for December Pickup. Check it our here!

Celebrating Thanksgiving in America

At Nature's Gourmet Farm we have much to be thankful for. It has been an
amazing year full of God's blessings.

To capture that theme I wanted to share an article written by Mr. David Barton,
founder of Wallbuilders, where he provides research about the first
Thanksgiving as well as the numerous presidential proclamations issued
until 1933 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt began celebrating
Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of each November, and in 1941, Congress
permanently established that day as the national Thanksgiving holiday. Let me
encourage you to read the complete history here:

More from the blog

Farm Visitors

Since we started selling via our online store in 2016, the number of visitors to our farm increased. Then, building the on-farm USDA poultry plant in 2019 spurred a lot of interest from folks who were interested in raising pastured poultry and were looking for a way around the MS Department of Ag regulation limiting the number of chickens per farm to only 1,000 per year. Most of the folks visiting were potential customers looking for naturally raised meats to feed their families.

Farmer Musings!

Beth & I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving - and turkey if you purchased one our our pastured turkeys. For our family the turkey did not disappoint. I spatchcocked (removed the backbone) so the turkey would lay flat. Beth then brined it for a day before smoking. It turned out tasty and juicy. Before our Thanksgiving meal each of us shared something we were thankful for. Beth's sister Debra shared the following:

A Day Processing Ground Beef!

Overall rain this week on our farm was about ONE inch! Not a lot in the big scheme of things, but very appreciated. It was enough to make a difference for our winter grass as you can see from this picture. In some areas of other pastures it appears that the seedlings died after germinating back in October. An observation that the heavy dews was not enough to keep them alive.