Pens to Pasture ~ Grateful Growers

When friends and family began raving about and forwarding to me the weekly CSA newsletters and farm updates sent from their farmers, I paid attention. I also laughed (and even teared up) at these genuine writings intimately describing all it takes to grow our food. It didn't take long to realize that these stories must be shared with a wider audience. So...welcome to Pens to Pasture: Fodder from the Field where each week we feature one farm and the stories they share with their customers through CSA newsletters, blog stories and e-mail updates. We celebrate the agricultural life, the hard work of farmers and the grace and openness with which they share it all through writing. Dig in, enjoy and be sure to share the writings of your farmers by sending an e-mail here.


Grateful Growers
Natalie and Cassie
Eastern Lincoln County, North Carolina
www.ggfarm.com


The slogan on Natalie and Cassie's website is Real Food, Real Farmers, and that tagline sums them up pretty well. Not only do they run a successful small hog farm, mobile (delicious) food cart and brick and mortar restaurant (both called the Harvest Moon Grille), these women are racking up the awards. With a focus on sustainably raised Tamworth hogs, processed for farmers' market and restaurants, Grateful Growers developed an early name for themselves. Their reputation is well deserved, but not just for the food they create, but for the community too. These women are "passionate about creating a sense of community" around food, and do an outstanding job of education and educating customers and creating a true sense of community around their food and the local food movement. They are persistent and devoted too! Earlier this year their bright orange mobile food truck was stolen, and with great gusto they plugged on, purchased a new truck (the blue moon), and created even more opportunities to sell their delicious foods.

Much of the weekly newsletter announces the location of the mobile Harvest Moon Grille, farmers' market offerings and latest news from the full-on restaurant. But what I savor most is the What's up on the Farm? section toward the end. These brief sections provide a clear, concise snapshot of life on the farm and the trials and tribulations of raising animals and working with nature. Enjoy these passages from a recent and past Grateful Growers e-newsletter, and thank them for putting pen to paper to share their stories. Visit the Grateful Growers website for more stories, to see the list of incredible awards they keep winning and learn more about their vision of food and community.

December 2, 2011

What's up on the Farm?
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Did you miss me (or at least, the newsletter)?  It's been a wild couple of weeks.  We had a great time at the restaurant serving an amazing Thanksgiving dinner (if you missed it this year, be sure to make it next time - great food and you get to enjoy visiting with your family and not having to wash dishes!).  I'll admit it was nice to be home from markets last Saturday, but I can assure you it was not all leisure.  We had a firewood splitting party and the gang who joined me also helped with the always spontaneous "fence mending" and accompanying pig relocation projects.  We had a great time creating a mighty pile of wood and afterward, enjoyed an amazing dinner that Julia brought with her.  Big thanks to Dr. Bob, Amy and Julia for their wonderful company and hard work!

Our neighbors are stringing Christmas lights.  We are stringing heatlamps.  Again, it's time to break out the hundreds of feet of extension cord and the little orbs of warmth for our litters of new piglets.  There are four huts full of them, cuties that they are, all snuggled together under in the straw beneath the glowing lamp.  Just when we catch a break on the electric bill because the freezers aren't working so hard, we get to spend up because of the heatlamps.  Small price to pay, though.  The extra warmth can make the difference between life and death on a real cold night for a very young piglet (who has no body fat to keep him/her warm).  Beyond helping with the odds for survival, pigs who have the supplemental warmth also tend to grow out more efficiently.  Like so many other things, we'll tolerate the web of cords (and the bills) for our little ones.

See you here at the Moon and the Markets!
Natalie, Cassie + Jeremy

 June 2011

What's up on the Farm?
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The sheep have settled in to their new home at our place nicely. We brought home 4 young ewes (females), which we will keep for breeding. They are almost 3 months old and are incredibly cute. We named them Marilyn, Madelyn (for my mom and her twin, whose birthday it was on the day we got the sheep), Esther (for Cassie’s mom), and Annie (for Charles + Lamar’s daughter, who was among the first customers at our cart and introduced us to her very cool parents). We also brought home 3 rams (boys with their “package” intact) that we’ve named Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. They are about a year old and will hang out at our place for several more weeks to bulk up before they are featured at the restaurant.

 Because sheep aren't as destructive as pigs, we have put the ewes in our side yard, fenced off by an "electric net".  We wanted them close by to keep an eye on them, and because we are farm nerds, we sit on the deck and watch them instead of TV.  They are also taking care of the grass, so we don't have to mow.   We put the boys out back near the henhouse and they have been devouring the patches of clover back in what we formerly called "the poultry pasture".  With the very cool electric nets, we will move the sheep all over the property to simultaneously nourish them and maintain the grass.

Sunday evening we had a bad storm here, resulting in a bunch of busted up trees and lost power. We were so fortunate that no buildings or the house were damaged. We were also blessed that our neighbor Del and our friend Bess came to our place that evening and checked in on things, since we were up at Charles’ having a lovely evening. They were relieved to find that all the animals were okay and not running all over the neighborhood. A large limb fell on the power line feeding our barn meter, meaning we had no power to our well or to the walk-in freezer.  They called the power company who had somebody out to fix it quickly, so the animals had water and we didn't lose any meat. The tops of several huge trees were broken out, so much of the week has been devoted to cleaning up.  The top of a giant oak fell onto Del's tractor (parked at my place), but caused only cosmetic damage.  I carefully cut the limbs away from it, drove it out from under the mess, then used the tractor to pull the limb away from the tree to cut it up.  As a kind of poetic justice, the wood is now in a pile at Del's, awaiting use for this winter's heating. So, this week can be summed up into "chainsaws + sheep".  Lots more of both to be happening for weeks to come.   

Off to the garden to weed and harvest onions. We hope to see you at the markets and/or the restaurant this weekend!

Natalie, Cassie + Jeremy