By Jan Hoadley, slowmoneyfarm.com
Thursday, November 8th, 2012 9:00 AM CST
Many of today’s consumers are concerned with food safety and the cost of food. There are reports of contamination and disagreements as to what is safe and what isn’t. Food allergies are a concern for many people as well. Others just want to know their food was raised well. Farming is a mystery to many.
The reasons for concern are many. Farmers markets and organic labeling have been a concern but too often that doesn’t mean what it seems either. What to do? One option is growing it yourself. With experience and land this is an option that lets you have control over where and how food is raised. The other option is hiring someone to do it. While most of us can’t afford even a minimum wage full time farmer there are options! Slow Money Farm brings that to the forefront.
Here you have someone to grow the garden you need. You have fresh food and plenty of it at better prices than many markets. The upfront cost is like a CSA but with some important variations – more options allowing better value for savvy customers.
Custom choices mean just that. Where a standard CSA means a garden, meats and such are grown and split between a certain number of people, ours is different. Here you have options to choose what is in the garden spot and that is what you get. Don’t like pork? No problem – don’t choose that option to include it! Want to try some beef jerky meat, rabbit meat, chicken or other meats? You can do that with a few animals or order 50 meat chickens for a once per week chicken dinner you know where it’s grown. Further you don’t have to get all 50 at once! Want 10 or 20 for the summer and a holiday heritage turkey? We can do that! There will be pecans and walnuts for holiday tastes that are traditional.
The important note of course is unlike a grocery store we have to grow it! This means 2-3 months or more for some produce, up to six months for turkey or pigs and what could be longer for cattle. Additionally it takes a bit of time for fruit and nut trees to begin producing. It’s just common sense food. There is also farming risk, due to weather, disease and many other factors that many people don’t think of.
It’s said that statistically the average farmer feeds 155 people besides himself. With options from 1-3 years or more by arrangement we are looking at more than just growing food.
When you purchase in advance in bulk for food grown for you it means knowing where and how your food was grown. Whether your preference is garden produce, meats or both we can tailor plan a share for you. For chefs, restaurants or others we can accommodate on some things and will tell you straight up if we can’t. The easiest to produce on a regular basis will be pork, lamb, rabbit & poultry. Cattle will be offered as beef when we have room, but beyond our customers we don’t have the room for farming a large number of beef cattle. Some vegetables and others can also be done in larger shares.
Starting now is important to get things in order for a productive season. With custom growing it’s more than merely on demand food…it takes time and planning to bring it together.
Just a few of the possibilities include (heirloom varieties in bold) :
tomatoes
salad greens
peppers – hot & sweet
popcorn
peas
spaghetti squash
ornamental gourds
zucchini
sunflower
spearmint
chocolate mint
apple mint
peppermint
rosemary
lavender
culantro
sage
lemon grass
oregano
edible flowers
blueberries
peaches
pecans
English walnuts
black walnuts
apples
cherries
pear
strawberries
blackberries
raspberries
beef
pork
chicken
lamb
goat
turkey
duck
goose
Check out their facebook page. We look forward to working with ‘Slow Money Farms.’
