So let’s talk a second about the upcoming holiday schedule. Usually there is a lot of schedule changing that goes on around the holidays for us. But this year, with Christmas on a Sunday, well, there just aren’t that many pawns to move. So delivery days will remain as scheduled with the one exception that we will Not have a Sunday Same-Day Delivery route on Christmas. Other than that, plan on us being able to keep you fed all the way until the ball drops and into a healthy ’17.
What’s In the Harvest Box Next Week?
Friends of the Farm Members Savings This Week: $831
Speaking of a healthy 2017, now through the end of January we are sweetening up our Friend Referral program to give you more money for spreading the good word. We usually give members a $10 credit as a thank you for bringing family and amigos on board. As an added thanks we have doubled the referral credit that you can now get. So stop talking to Ted at the water-cooler about baseball stats from 1998 and get him fired up about the food that he puts in his pie hole.
Along these lines, here is an interesting statistic (for me at least) about the power of word of mouth advertising. Did you know that if you do not like something then you tell 12 people. Conversely, if you like something, you only tell 4 folks. Maybe our society thrives on negativity?? I sure hope not. But statistics don’t lie; we have to be right 3 times as many times as we are wrong. So let’s spread the word of positivity and tasty food this season and help our fellow neighbors on this rock eat better.
Next up this week is I have to tell you about an exciting change that we are in the process of right now. We are doing final clean up on the farm land that we have had since 2008 and moving north to the future vision of what this farm will be for our community. After 16 years of farming, I have to tell you that I can sum up the vision for the next 16 years in two words, symbiotic partnerships. Let me explain.
As I have expressed to you in the past, the idea that our farm needs to be everything to everyone is in our history book. We do not have the resources or ability to try and raise the cows, grow the produce, collect the eggs, and bake the bread. It’s too much. And honestly, something gets forgotten about or a corner is cut somewhere. Growers cannot be and do it all. Hungry mouths need diversity and growers need help.
So let me tell you a bit of how this farm will be structured before I run out of space. We have been buying cows and pigs from my friend, Steve Moore, for many years now. He manages 85 acres of land in the South Valley of ABQ. Over the years and walking through the fields, we have talked about a farming model that integrates produce with animals. The ultimate goal is to take care of the soil that takes care of us.
There is no way to sugarcoat it, farming in its nature is mining the soil. We plant seeds, grow plants, and harvest minerals from the soil in the form of food. Farming, as a mathematical equation, mines these minerals from the soil and they have to be replaced or the system will collapse. Organic or not.
The best farming systems that I have ever seen are not intensive but rather extensive. Meaning that the more land that we can have, the more space we can have to allow fields to “rest” after we harvest a crop off of it. And that is what this new farm and partnership will look like. Rotations of animals, cover crops, and cash crops all sharing the land. We will feed you in a way that no other farm in this region is doing.
Crops are grown and harvested. Animals come in next to eat all crop residues. Grasses are then planted to help feed the animals on fields that were just melons (for example). Both the animals and the veggies from birth to their ultimate harvest will call the farm home. About as close to a closed system that you can come. This kind of system can only happen with sufficient acreage. We just did not have this opportunity on our previous farm with its land limitations.
We are very happy to be working with Steve in this new integrated rotational farming model and I will definitely keep you up on how things look. We will have an Open Farm (kinda like an Open House) this Spring!
Farmer Monte