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

Processing Plant Update

written by

Ben Simmons

posted on

October 28, 2021

Good Morning and hello from your farmer,

First, we appreciate the many folks who have contacted us to see if we were okay from Hurricane Ida. We are fine! The farm had minor downed limbs. The only issue really was the flooding of pastures from the heavy rain. Unfortunately, we lost about 130 broilers that were 3-4 weeks old.

We do have many customers in SW Mississippi and in Louisiana that have severe damage. I have had reports of lost of power that may last for two weeks or more. These are the folks we need to keep in our prayers.

If you have been following us the past few months you know we built a red meat processing plant where we plan to age, cut & wrap, make bacon & sausages, and freeze the products that we raise and or sell through our website. We have no intention of processing for the public!

Our plant has been ready since mid-April. In fact, we have processed pigs that were slaughtered by Homestead and then brought to our farm for further processing. This was done as a stop gap until the slaughter trailer was completed.

Several of our long term customers have recently visited the farm and toured our plant. Julie from Madison has bought half beef & whole pigs for almost 10 years now and has been to many of the processing plant to pickup her orders. She said our plant looks AND smells very clean. So much better than any of the other plants.

Rob from Mobile has also bought from us since we started selling chickens in 2013. He was really amazed and very complimentary of what we are doing.

So, what is the latest on the slaughter trailer????

Today, Hugh told me that the inspector has everything he needs to submit his operation to the USDA in Jackson, MS for his "Grant of Inspection". Once submitted, it takes about a week to 10 days to get all the paperwork signed, etc. That means we could be in business as early as September 14th.

Most likely our first harvest will be lamb. We have committed to purchase 10 grassfed lamb from a farmer/friend. Once harvested, it will take us about a week to have them on our website for sale. Obviously, more to follow as we get closer to the date.

Here's a few pictures-

Plant.jpg
Pork.jpg
Fab.jpg
Freezer.jpg

SALE Items:
1) Beef Ribs - Sold Out

2) Pork Shoulder Roast/Boston Butt
- marked down $1.25 from $7.25/lb. to $6.00/lb. Save 17%

3) 3# Whole Chicken - price rollback to $3.90 lb.
We are getting a bit heavy on 3-4# whole chicken inventory and have decided to offer a rollback sale to $3.90 per lb. This will give our customers an extra incentive to maybe test one of the "bragging" recipes submitted by Nature's Gourmet Farm customers. I know many folks are looking for the larger 5+ lb. chickens, but we are cutting most of them into breast, leg quarters, and wings to sell - and still have a hard time keeping up.

As always, we thank you for rewarding our hard work with your trust and support.

More from the blog

Farm Improvements

Farm Improvements – Fresh water is a necessity for raising healthy animals on pasture. Until recently, we used an ICB tote on a small tralier that we would refill from our well. During the summer the frequency greatly increases in order to keep the chickens hydrated. So, I called my buddy at Southern Pipe and ordered pipe, fittings, etc. and then rented a trencher for May 16th to install 2,700 feet of 1.25 inch PVC pipe. Along the line we added 15 Plasson Quick Coupler Valves that we will hook to as we move the animals through our pastures.

My Advise How To Jump Start Small Farms In Mississippi

“Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.” — Henry Kissinger The fight to change food from addictive to nutritive will most likely be harder than the fight regarding tobacco (smoking) in public places that started back in the 1980’s. Note that my comments are NOT a condemnation of anybody who may use tobacco in any way as this can be a sensitive topic. However, it is personal to me as my Dad smoked at least 45 of his 75 years and died of lung cancer.

Small Farm Republic

Pasture Talk With Our Cows– Tuesday morning I was out checking on our cows and took the opportunity to record a short 2-minute story about the time I saved the life of one of the “pet” cows Number 608. Click to watch here. Small Farm Republic- is a book written by John Klar. A former attorney who contracted Lyme disease, John now farms in Vermont. I spent much of last weekend reading his book. He is very pro-small farms and presented a lot of evidence to support his position. On page 77 he makes a comparison to the number of farms and farmers during the Great Depression versus today. During the Great Depression the American population was 100 million. According to USDA charts