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Back at the Market

After missing the first half of the 2008 farmer's market season, we are back at it. For those that don't know, Bill (my dad) had an accident back in April. He was thrown from his horse and broke his pelvis in 2 places and fractured his shoulder blade. He was flown by care flight to the hospital and went thru surgery. Under doctor's orders he had to remain in bed or wheel chair for about 12 weeks. Gratefully he is out of the wheel chair, off the walker and back to doing what he loves to do (mainly work!). Having him back on the "payroll" has allowed me time to devote back to the market. So be sure to come see us every saturday at the Mansfield Farmer's Market. Sign up for our newsletter to make sure you are kept current on any new specials we may be offering at the market.

Distiller's Grain Increases E Coli 0157:h7

You may wonder what the significance is of this? Well in our push for environmentally friendly fuel and to lessen our dependence on foreign oil we have come up with Ethanol as an alternative fuel source. Ethanol is made from corn and distiller's grains are what is left over after the processing of the corn into Ethanol. So what to do with all of this by product? Feed it to cattle of course! The problem is that doing this seems to be no better than feeding straight corn and possible even worse. Researchers at Kansas State have found that cattle fed distiller's grain have twice as much E Coli 0157:h7 as cattle fed regular feedlot rations. Now we know that feedlot cattle already have a high occurence of E Coli 0157 h:7. This is pretty disturbing. With the increase of Ethanol production forcast to 2ouble by 2010 there will be a huge amount of distiller's grain that needs to be disposed of and it will be fed to cattle. Feedlots are already moving their base of operations from current locations (panhandle of texas, New Mexico) to places like Nebraska and Kansas to be closer to the source of the distiller's grain. You see distiller's grain doesn't trasport very well, it is heavy, usually wet and hard to handle. Since current distribution channels can not be utilized efficiently to handle this cheap by product, it makes more sense to move the cattle closer to the distiller's grain. Did anyone ever think to just let the cattle eat grass and solve all these problems? We did.

New "Single Delivery Point Program"

We are about to embark on a new delivery program. I have referred to this a a CSA in the past. After more thought I prefer the term "Single Delivery Point Program". Where a true CSA requires a membership our program only requires participation.
We sent out our newsletter announcing the first delivery this week. The request went out for all of our newsletter members who live in the Mansfield Texas area to submit orders via our website and then we will be making a delivery to the local Walmart parking lot where they can pick up their orders. This Mansfield delivery point is scheduled to be delivered to about every 4 weeks. The hope is to add additional delivery points to other communities as we grow our customer base. I hope to have a good report after Saturday on the success of this program. If all goes well we will try expanding it this spring. If you would like to get involved in this, simply sign up for our newsletter then place your order when we announce the next delivery. Hope to see you there!
Blaine Morgan

King Corn

I came across this movie trailer for a new documentary that I thought looked interesting. Seems to be along the same lines as Michael Pollan's best seller "Omnivore's Dilemma" which among other things chronicles the journey that America's corn takes from field to feedlot to plate. Pretty amazing how one commodity can dominate a society so completely. Enjoy the trailer.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

A real buzz word recently has been Community Supported Agriculture or more commonly known as CSA. If you havn't heard, a CSA is a way for local folks to get their meat and or produce directly from the farmer who grows the food. The way it works can vary from one producer to another but we would like to try it with our customers. The general idea is for you to join the CSA (this will be as simple as letting us know you want to be on our email list) and we will send out a newsletter letting everyone know what we have available and when and where we can schedule a meeting spot in your area. If you are in need of product then let us know by email or phone and we can get your order ready. When delivery day rolls around you simply come to the designated meeting spot and pick up your order.
With the good response we have received from the farmer's market attendees, we would like to continue servicing our customers even after the market ends on October 13th. If you are interested in this please let us know. If you create an account in the shopping section of our site then you will have the option of getting our newsletter and we will utilize that to inform our customers of the details when the time comes.