Welcome to the many new loyalty program members that may be getting our weekly farm newsletter for the first time. Our Square POS (Point-of-Sale) system in the farm store manages the Loyalty program and collects all the email addresses of members. Unfortunately it does not yet automatically communicate with Flodesk, the email software we use for the weekly newsletter. So once in a while I have to export the loyalty members email addresses over to Flodesk so they can be added to the farm newsletter list. I just did that today for the first time since February so apologies for the delay. For those not interested in getting our weekly farm newsletter there is an unsubscribe button at the bottom of each newsletter.
FARM HAPPENINGS
We enjoyed a bit cooler weather this past week but not looking forward to next week's heat wave starting Monday. The dairy herd has a portable shade structure that we can move with them through their daily pasture rotations so they can get some relief from the midday sun. The beef herd is too big to get under a portable shelter so we try to reserve some of the shadier pastures for them to graze during the really hot days. And we have about 10 acres of woods in the center of our Elkhorn farm that we can put them in for a few days each summer. The woods are pretty dense so not a lot of grasses in there but they will help us clear out a lot of the underbrush while staying cool.
And great news for our long-suffering egg customers that have been frustrated with the “sold out” sign in the egg cooler almost every day for the past few months….the egg bundles are back! As is the feast-or-famine nature of farming, all of our new young hens started laying eggs in the past 10 days and more than doubled our egg production during that time. So we are bringing the egg bundles back in the farm store and on our website as well. Buy six dozen or ten dozen and save up to $2 per dozen. We have lots of medium eggs now but the new hens will be graduating to large eggs over the next several weeks.
Anna is heading off next week to spend two weeks traveling to Poland and Croatia with her daughter, so we will not be shipping any meat or chicken bundles after Monday July 13th. All online meat orders that come in before Saturday afternoon at 2:00 pm will be shipped on the 13th. After that some some bundles will still be available for online order but with store pickup only. When she gets back she promises to get busy on shipping the egg bundles!
TRIBUNE ARTICLE ON HIGH BEEF PRICES
Claire Malon, a reporter with the Chicago Tribune, interviewed me several weeks ago to get our thoughts about rising beef prices. Then she sent out a photographer last week to take some pictures of our beef herd. And evidently too many pictures of me moving them. As Anna pointed out she moves the beef way more often than I do so she should be the one featured in the article (I did offer to send her out with the photographer).
At any rate the article does a nice job exploring in detail many of the underlying reasons for rising beef prices and is a worthwhile read even if it does have too many pictures of me. Find a link to the article here, unfortunately it is paywalled but you can sign up for a year's subscription of online Tribune access for only $1.
“MEET THE MAKER” EVENTS COMING UP
Saturday July 11th – Umland Cheese will be at the farm store sampling their different flavors of crunchy cheese snacks. 10 AM - 1 PM.
Sunday July 12th – Michelle, founder of FoxFire Kombucha will be at the store sampling a variety of her tasty brews. 10 AM - 1 PM.
FARM STORE UPDATE
We are excited to have local, soil-grown and never-sprayed BLUEBERRIES back in the farm store this week! These are Michigan blueberries from Joe's Blues, and they will only be available fresh for the next several weeks.
And our weekly featured sale item is Chopped Steak Patties at 15% off. Throw these on the grill for the tastiest burger you've ever experienced. One of our beef processors trims the steaks up nice and pretty and then saves all the steak trimmings for these patties.
Fresh organically-grown produce in the store from our on-site gardens: Red/Green Lettuce, Chard, Celery, Carrots, Zucchini, Fresh Garlic, Dill, Chives, Basil, Mint, Parsley, & Sage. Plus local Microgreens grown by Rob of Kaleido Greens.
And LOTS of fresh local produce from our network of downstate Illinois farms: Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Red Onions, Yellow Onions, Fresh Shallots, Green Peppers, Jalapeños, Cucumbers, Heirloom Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Summer Squash, Red Beets, Green Cabbage, Garlic Scapes, and Sweet Corn!
Other organic produce in the store includes: Avocados, Mandarins, Eureka Lemons, Oranges, and Apples.
Join our Saturday farm tour to see all of our farm animals and practices up close. The tour starts at 1:00 PM, and includes a 75-90 minute hay wagon ride around the farm with stops to visit all the different animals we raise. Reserve your seats on our website or purchase tickets in the farm store.
That's it for this week. Please remember to bring us your paper or plastic shopping bags and egg cartons so we can reuse them!