Food Grown the Way You Wish All Food was Raised

In continuing to reveal our ambitious goal of starting a farm stand business this year, I’d like to tell you how we’ll be special. But before I can tell you how we’re different, I need to tell you how most farms are the same, and dispell a big myth.

What we want to do, is going to fill a nitch. This is not going to replace Walmart and Brookshires. This is going to offer the people of east Texas an alternative for purchasing food. It’s important to us that we work hard to educate our consumers on where their food comes from. And it’s important that we grow ours where the consumer can see how it is grown.

First some myth busting. Many people believe: “The family farm is gone; grocery store food comes from factory farms. Farms are owned by big corporations that don’t care about the consumer.”

According to the USDA’s 2015 agriculture census, 97% of America’s 2.1 million farms are family owned. This fact seems to shock most people, and we’ve noticed that many people call it an out-right lie. We believe the reason most people do not believe that so many of America’s farms are family owned, is that the average consumer is confused what “family owned” really means. It would seem, that phrase conjurs up an image of Mr. and Mrs. Farmer Brown. People imagine a family of mom, dad, and a few kids — with a handful of handmilked cows, some chickens pecking in the yard, and a little garden space. Mr. and Mrs. Brown’s farm sounds beautiful, but unfortunately that’s not where our food is grown. Remember S.E. Johnson (Johnson’s baby soap, Pledge, etc) is a family company. The family owned farm is not dead — it’s just larger!

Now we realize big family farms (with big contracts to sell tomatoes, pumpkins,and more to Walmart) aren’t going anywhere. We are going to be honest about that… And if you have questions or concerns about how that works, we’d love to explore the answers together. Remember, we want to help educate our consumers.

So, how will we be different? Remember Mr. and Mrs. Farmer Brown? That’s us! It is our goal to provide food that is grown exactly like that “imaginary” farm. We want to provide food grown the way you wish all food was raised!

How will this work? It is our goal to provide fresh, local, in-season produce to our costumers in east Texas. What we have in store will varey with the season. (Don’t look for tomatoes in store in February. Or broccoli in August.) But what we have will be home grown, and fresh picked within the past day, or week. We’ll have jelly in stock based on what fruit is in season, fresh baked cookies and breads, and more.

If this sounds like the kind of place you would like to buy food for your family follow along on our journey!

 

Grampa’s Farm

Brandon and I are working hard to define our vision together, in this new year. We are excited for 2019, and for the big things we have planned. By far our most ambitious goal is to launch our own farm stand selling fresh produce — grown the way you wish all food could be raised — and selling it direct to our consumers in the Tyler, TX area. With this goal in mind I’d like to invite you to come with me on a trip down memory lane.

Imagine…

The early summer sun is just breaking through the window as you roll over and rub your eyes. It takes a second for the fog to clear, before you remember you spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa. You scoot out of bead and head to the kitchen.

Grampa looks up from the news paper he is reading at the table and takes a sip of black coffee. “Good morning, sunshine,” grandma croaks in her morning voice. Grandma is scrambling eggs you gathered fresh from the hens the night before. Sausage patties sizzle in a skillet and biscuits are baking.

After breakfast Grampa grabs a galvanized bucket from by the back door and you follow him out to the garden. Bumble bees nose around in the big squash blossoms. And honey bees bob in and out of tomato blooms. The bees sound lazy, compared to all the birds enjoying the cool morning. You help Grampa carefully pick tomatoes, squash, zucchini, okra, egg plant, bell peppers, jalapenos… Two buckets are full already! Next you grab an old bushel basket and begin filling it with purple Hull peas. Soon the basket is full too.

You’ll get to help shell peas later but for now you’re free to swing on the tire swing or go exploring, looking for any dew berries still hanging on the vines along the fence rows. The sun is really heating up now so you head inside to see about a drink.

Grandma has lemonade waiting for you. But better than that is a huge, ice cold, watermelon. She cuts it in half and hands you a spoon. You carry your half to the front porch, so you can sit and swing your legs while spitting watermelon seeds. The juice dribbles down your chin and onto your shirt.

At lunch, you enjoy a ham and cheese sandwich with some of the tomatoes you picked that morning. Fresh cantalope is the perfect side dish on such a hot day!

After lunch, Grampa grabs his hat and water thermos. He’s heading to the hay field. You and Grandma go out to the carport to shell peas for supper.

Once the peas are shelled, you help put some in the freezer and then start a big pot of them for supper. With peppers, onions left from the spring garden, and chunks of ham the peas smell wonderful!

Grandma says it’s time to go check on Grampa so you grab some Dr. Pepper from the fridge, and some cookies out of the cookie jar and head out to the truck. In the hay field, Grampa is thankful for a break in the shade. The cicadas sing from the top of the oak tree and the heat waves shimmer all around. Once your drink and chocolate chip cookies are gone you head out into the sun again.

Back at the house, it’s time to take care of the animals. You go out with Grampa to feed chickens and collect eggs. Then you fill the water trough for the goats, and calves. It will be supper time for you too, soon.

And the sun goes down on a contented kid without a care in the world.

 

Wow. If you enjoyed summer days on the farm as a child I’m sure you can smell that hay field now. If you only wish you could have that experience; you’re in luck. While we can’t wake you up each morning with the pleasant sound of sizzling sausage patties, we can offer you food just like Grampa grew… Food grown the way you wish all food could be grown.

Come back later this week to see our vision for a farm stand that can take you back to Grampa’s Farm.