It's been a busy couple of months--it's mud season, and things haven't really slowed down at all. We've a couple of interns that will be living with us this summer, but more about them later.
In the meantime, I wanted to share my response to a potential CSA member, asking about the increase in buy-in price from 2010 to 2011. I think it's important that people realize just how much time and money goes into raising your own food, whether it's meat or plant-based.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Yes, the fee has increased; let me tell you a little bit about it and why.
Last year was the first year we sold our turkeys in a CSA format. The year prior was the first time we'd had turkeys at all, and we expected a pretty sharp learning curve. We started out with ten; only five survived til fall. Last year, our survival rate increased to eight.
Between the first and second years, we had to expand our infrastructure. The first year, a friend had loaned us a couple of small coops, which she took back the second year. That meant that we had to have a larger coop built for the birds--neither myself nor Greg had the time or the skill level to build the frame for a coop that would be sturdy enough to outlast weather and resist predators. All in all, we laid out a few hundred dollars in materials and labor, even though we found a local handman and used mostly recycled materials. It was a necessary cost, but one that was greater than anticipated, and it came entirely out of our own pocket.
This year, there is more infrastructure that will require expansion--namely, portable electric fencing to allow the birds to free-range. This should greatly cut back on feed costs, but it's an up-front investment of (at bare minimum) nearly $500-600 or so. There are also feeders that need replacing, a larger brooding box (the ones we've used for the last two years have been woefully insufficient, even at such a small level), and so on. I don't charge for water, bedding, or my time feeding, watering, fetching supplies, cleaning the coop, checking the birds, or any of the other details that most people don't think about.
The remainder of the cost is reflected in the butchering process. Last year, due to time constraints, I had to take them to Brothers Processing so members would have their turkeys in time for Thanksgiving. As a result, there was an extra fee that all the members had to pay.
However, as I stood there and watched my birds die, I didn't like the distancing effect that it had. The men who were performing the slaughter, scalding, plucking, and eviscerating were good at their jobs and very efficient, but there was no heart to it, no soul. I raised these birds from 2-day-old chicks, hand fed them via syringe during their first several hours with me, took responsibility for their lives--keeping them warm, fed, watered, safe from predation, and so forth--and it felt far too easy to have someone else do the real dirty work.
The first year we'd had turkeys, they had all been home-butchered. It's harder, both physically and emotionally, but I believe that it should be hard. It should be difficult to look a living being in the eye and make the decision to take its life, even in the name of feeding oneself and one's family.
So we stand in a foot of snow, fingers fumbling in the cold, our noses running and breath coming hard. Our shoulders and arms ache from lifting the weight of a 35-lb bird on and off the rack to the table to the cooler. We wait as blood runs out and death throes subside before moving in to quickly strip the cooling carcass of its plumage, trying to get all the little pinfeathers without tearing the skin.
Three birds in a day is hard work. And you know what? No one wants to help. People are too squeamish, or have done enough of it before, and are glad to pay someone else to do that work.
But with more than a couple of birds a day, we simply can't do it all without assistance. However, the way the law is written, I cannot charge a butchering fee when it's done at home. I cannot even sell you a processed turkey. No, what you get is a live bird . . . processed for you as a convenience. This year, I will have to hire help, but I cannot charge extra for it. So what I have done is build the fee into the buy-in price; if people are willing to come help with the process--not even do the actual killing, just help with the plucking and cleaning--we will credit $15 towards next year's bird.
I would like to see people be more active and aware of their food sources, of what it really means to raise an animal, kill it, and eat it. It is literally one of the most sacred, intimate things we can do--turning the body of another life form into the very cells of our being--but I have yet to find a lot of people who are willing to go that far. We encouraged members to come visit the farm last year; only a single person did, and she lives 3 houses down the road.
Honestly, we don't make any money off of this. We're lucky if we break even and maybe have a bird or two to put in the freezer ourselves. Farming takes a lot of hard work and a goodly amount of money, but Greg and I do it because we believe it's important to know where our food comes from. We believe that it brings us closer to the land, to nature, and it makes us value life--all life--to a greater degree. We are more in tune with the turning of the seasons, with the variations of the weather, with the foxes that prowl the edges of the trees looking for an easy meal. In turn, we hope to foster some of that and pass it on to our members.
I realize that this is a much longer email than I'm sure you expected, but the answer to your question is not a simple one. It can be simplified, yes, but as mentioned, we feel strongly about what we do and why we do it. I hope the explanation has helped you understand a bit more about where we are coming from.
In the meantime, I wanted to share my response to a potential CSA member, asking about the increase in buy-in price from 2010 to 2011. I think it's important that people realize just how much time and money goes into raising your own food, whether it's meat or plant-based.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Yes, the fee has increased; let me tell you a little bit about it and why.
Last year was the first year we sold our turkeys in a CSA format. The year prior was the first time we'd had turkeys at all, and we expected a pretty sharp learning curve. We started out with ten; only five survived til fall. Last year, our survival rate increased to eight.
Between the first and second years, we had to expand our infrastructure. The first year, a friend had loaned us a couple of small coops, which she took back the second year. That meant that we had to have a larger coop built for the birds--neither myself nor Greg had the time or the skill level to build the frame for a coop that would be sturdy enough to outlast weather and resist predators. All in all, we laid out a few hundred dollars in materials and labor, even though we found a local handman and used mostly recycled materials. It was a necessary cost, but one that was greater than anticipated, and it came entirely out of our own pocket.
This year, there is more infrastructure that will require expansion--namely, portable electric fencing to allow the birds to free-range. This should greatly cut back on feed costs, but it's an up-front investment of (at bare minimum) nearly $500-600 or so. There are also feeders that need replacing, a larger brooding box (the ones we've used for the last two years have been woefully insufficient, even at such a small level), and so on. I don't charge for water, bedding, or my time feeding, watering, fetching supplies, cleaning the coop, checking the birds, or any of the other details that most people don't think about.
The remainder of the cost is reflected in the butchering process. Last year, due to time constraints, I had to take them to Brothers Processing so members would have their turkeys in time for Thanksgiving. As a result, there was an extra fee that all the members had to pay.
However, as I stood there and watched my birds die, I didn't like the distancing effect that it had. The men who were performing the slaughter, scalding, plucking, and eviscerating were good at their jobs and very efficient, but there was no heart to it, no soul. I raised these birds from 2-day-old chicks, hand fed them via syringe during their first several hours with me, took responsibility for their lives--keeping them warm, fed, watered, safe from predation, and so forth--and it felt far too easy to have someone else do the real dirty work.
The first year we'd had turkeys, they had all been home-butchered. It's harder, both physically and emotionally, but I believe that it should be hard. It should be difficult to look a living being in the eye and make the decision to take its life, even in the name of feeding oneself and one's family.
So we stand in a foot of snow, fingers fumbling in the cold, our noses running and breath coming hard. Our shoulders and arms ache from lifting the weight of a 35-lb bird on and off the rack to the table to the cooler. We wait as blood runs out and death throes subside before moving in to quickly strip the cooling carcass of its plumage, trying to get all the little pinfeathers without tearing the skin.
Three birds in a day is hard work. And you know what? No one wants to help. People are too squeamish, or have done enough of it before, and are glad to pay someone else to do that work.
But with more than a couple of birds a day, we simply can't do it all without assistance. However, the way the law is written, I cannot charge a butchering fee when it's done at home. I cannot even sell you a processed turkey. No, what you get is a live bird . . . processed for you as a convenience. This year, I will have to hire help, but I cannot charge extra for it. So what I have done is build the fee into the buy-in price; if people are willing to come help with the process--not even do the actual killing, just help with the plucking and cleaning--we will credit $15 towards next year's bird.
I would like to see people be more active and aware of their food sources, of what it really means to raise an animal, kill it, and eat it. It is literally one of the most sacred, intimate things we can do--turning the body of another life form into the very cells of our being--but I have yet to find a lot of people who are willing to go that far. We encouraged members to come visit the farm last year; only a single person did, and she lives 3 houses down the road.
Honestly, we don't make any money off of this. We're lucky if we break even and maybe have a bird or two to put in the freezer ourselves. Farming takes a lot of hard work and a goodly amount of money, but Greg and I do it because we believe it's important to know where our food comes from. We believe that it brings us closer to the land, to nature, and it makes us value life--all life--to a greater degree. We are more in tune with the turning of the seasons, with the variations of the weather, with the foxes that prowl the edges of the trees looking for an easy meal. In turn, we hope to foster some of that and pass it on to our members.
I realize that this is a much longer email than I'm sure you expected, but the answer to your question is not a simple one. It can be simplified, yes, but as mentioned, we feel strongly about what we do and why we do it. I hope the explanation has helped you understand a bit more about where we are coming from.
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