Blog - Nature's Gourmet Farm

About This Time Each Year

About this time each year our warm season grasses have been grazed down and our cool season grasses have not matured enough to start grazing. Early October marks the end of the growing season for warm season varieties like Bahia Grass. However, because Bahia grass is an excellent stockpiled grass we can extend our grazing season typically into early November. It really depends on how much rain we start getting in November. As you know, our Spring and Summer were very wet. It was so wet that much of the work we wanted (needed) to do in our pastures was delayed.

How Things Are Going At The Farm

One of the first things folks typically ask is "How Are Things At The Farm"? To be honest, things are going really good! An interesting statistic is folks opening our newsletters. Up until about 4 weeks ago we averaged about 550 opens or 26-28% of the folks who receive the newsletter. Since then the number has continuously increased. Last week 776 folks opened our newsletter or 39% of receipts. That is a 41% increase and puts us way ahead of the average open rate of other farms.

Short & Sweet

Well maybe not sweet but at least short! That is how my newsletter will be today. Between daily chores, planting cool season pastures, harvesting, cutting up and packing chicken, two trips to the processor in Lucedale, and 8+ hours packing orders for today I find myself tired and short on thoughts to share. I do want to give a big shout out to our Gulf Coast customers! We will be rolling out with 80 orders Saturday morning bringing nutrient dense food to help nourish your families... all "true" pasture raised beef, pork, chicken, and eggs.

Preparing A Cow Salad Bar

It's hard to believe that tomorrow (Sunday) is the last day of October. Where has this year gone? October 16th was our last delivery for October. That left me with two weeks "mostly" open to plant our winter pastures. And, we have been hard at it. On the new ground we spread the seed on top of the ground and then bush hogged - bush hogging is also our means of weed control!

Looking Forward To Thanksgiving & Christmas Family Meals

Have you been thinking about what meat to prepare for your Thanksgiving & Christmas Family Meal? Many of our customers have! And have contacted us to see what is available. Well, the bad news is we did not get our infrastructure done in time to start turkeys. There was just so many other priorities like chicken brooder & tractors and not having our red meat slaughter available that would have freed up travel time back and forth to the processor. And, what I am hearing is the price of pastured turkeys this year is $10 lb. and up! WOW... But, the GOOD NEWS is we do have non-traditional options

Why You SHOULD Choose NON-GMO!

I attended my first Grassfed Exchange Conference in Bismark, ND in 2013. One of the many excellent speakers there was Dr. Don Huber, Botany and Plant Pathology. Professor Emeritus at Purdue University. His topic was about the dangers of GLYPHOSTATE! Which is the active ingredient (poison) in Roundup Chemical. According to the NON-GMO Project website, a GMO, or genetically modified organism, is

Are You Interested In "MICROGREENS"?

Our oldest son Eric is interested in growing Microgreens and would like feedback from Nature's Gourmet Farm customers to get a fell for interest for them. Here is information from a flyer Eric put together. Packaging will most likely be a clamshell type container. What are Microgreens? Microgreens are the highly nutritious seedlings of edible full-sized plants, typically 7-14 days old Microgreens are NOT sprouts—sprouts are slightly younger and eaten with the root. Microgreens are harvested from the base of the stem.

Well Life On The Farm Is Kinda--BUSY!

In 1974 John Denver released a song titled "Thank God I'm A Country Boy". Do you remember the lyrics? Here is a sampling- Well life on the farm is kinda laid back Ain't much an old country boy like me can't hack It's early to rise, early in the sack I thank God I'm a country boy I was singing this song solo (you know, so low nobody can hear me) earlier this week while doing chores.

Important Considerations Follow-Up

We really appreciate all the very positive feedback from so many of our customers regarding credit card fees as well as price increases. Here is a sampling: "On reading your last email, it seemed worth remembering that your entire customer base consists of people who are willing to pay more in order to make sure that all concerned are well cared for. "All concerned" includes the cows, chickens, etc., as well as yourself, your wife, your children, anyone you employ, and your dog (whom I've met, by the way).

Important Considerations Coming

Transparency! Defined by Webster as free from pretense or deceit. I like it to being open, honest, and truthful. That's what today's newsletter is about. So, here goes. As a seller, we do not like price increases. Simply put, I am not farming to make a lot of money. But, you have to make money to stay in business. Our costs have increased and will probably continue to increase.

Regenerative Ag Advantages

Recently while at Three Rivers Farm & Garden in Richton (I was there picking up some building supplies) there was a farmer there buying poison for army worms. During his conversation with Lee, he mentioned that the army worms were so bad they were eating his bahia grass up. That is really saying something because they typically go after better grasses like sudan and crabgrass - which we have a lot of on our farm. After the farmer had left, Lee asked me if I had any issues with army worms on my farm and I said No - have not see any sign of them. He replied back, "You will, everyone has them real bad this year." Well, I still have not had any of them show up on my farm. Part of the reason is

Processing Plant Update

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

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

Nature's Gourmet Farm