I know I’m gonna sound old here, but who draws up the school calendar these days??? Jack and Molly started 8th and 5th grade yesterday. Everyone, including J & M,
are super excited about the new school year. So I look at the calendar and here is what I find. Not only do they start on a Wednesday, giving them a 3 day week, but it was an early release day! This brutal week is followed by a whole FULL week of school. But not to worry, all that stress is relieved by a 3 DAY WEEKEND. I’m not saying I had to walk to school up hill both ways or anything, but holy crap….
I mentioned last newsletter that we were going to focus more of our promotional efforts through Facebook. Thank you very much to those that clicked the “LIKE” button below. As a reward we have launched our first ever Social Campaign. There is a $5 coupon available only to our Facebook Fans. Click the button and get yours now!
One other thing you missed if you are not tuned in to our Facebook page is the introduction of Pearl the Ferocious
Parks, the newest member of our family. She is is a Great Pyrenees and is training to guard our flock of chickens, ducks, sheep and pigs. Check her out next time you stop by the Chop Shop. But be careful, she might lick you to death!
We have lots of new stuff going on both on the farm and at the markets. This week we have fresh duck, duck breasts, and duck quarters from Salmon Creek Ranch. We also now have Ground Veal and Veal Bones from Rosotti Ranch in Petaluma. These veal are raised on their mamas and on pasture. Finally, you can eat veal again and not have nightmares about how they are raised! We have our own Fresh Rabbit as well. and a have a few of our coveted Cowboy Steaks, but get to the markets early as they go fast. One other thing we are trying out is pastured NON-Organic Eggs. I meet a young man recently that I am quite certain will work for me one day, and then leave to create his own farming empire. 15 year old Cody Strode came to me before the fair and wanted to pre-sell me his meat chickens that didn’t make it to the county fair. Cody was very professional and keenly aware of all the things to discuss when negotiating a deal. We agreed on a price and the birds were great.
A few days ago Cody contacted me because he got burned on a deal by one of my competitors and was looking for a solution. Someone committed to buying his eggs, and so Cody went out and doubled the size of his flock to almost 200 hens. His customer backed out and now he is getting 120 eggs a day and has no where to move them. The problem for me is that he feeds conventional feed, not organic. One of the comments I get at the markets from some customers is that they wold love to buy our eggs but can’t afford them. So, were are going to carry a limited supply of Cody’s eggs and sell them for $5.50 a dozen. He is in the process of running the numbers to switch to organic feed, but in the meantime I thought we would offer pasture raised eggs at a reduced price. I strongly believe that eggs from chickens raised outside on pasture and fed conventional feed are still better than organic eggs from chickens stuffed in a barn! Look for them sometime over the weekend.