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Archive for the 'Globalization' Category
We know you are enjoying the early fall weather with cooler temperatures and recent gentle rains. The trees here at the farm are just beginning to show a little color and soon will be dressed in a colorful blaze of glory. Summer crops are gone but the cool season crops are doing great.
Recent news reports were that the grocery store chain BI-LO was purchased by Food Lion. What the news reports we heard did not say is that Food Lion is owned by a Belgian food company named Delhaize Group. The truth is Delhaize Group bought the principle interest in BI-LO and plans to integrate the 214 stores into the Food Lion 1300 store food chain here in the US.
The point is that many of the retail store chains are owned by entities in another country. When we buy products from them a large portion of the money goes out of our country. Add to that what might be called the Walmartization of our retail economy where virtually everything is imported and much more money is going to another country and we have an economic scenario that is, in our opinion, eventually unsustainable.
That is why we believe buying local products from locally owned businesses helps ensure a vibrant economy. And you are doing just that when you buy from farmers markets and local farmers. Purchasing local organic and pasture based food ensures the highest value available. The rapid growth of farmers markets is positive but the movement to local needs to extend to all types of products we need and use.
The only attraction of mass produced and imported goods is price. But what is the real price we are paying? The necessary practices to mass produce food creates environmental and health issues. A cheap imported item may last only a year or two and need to be replaced when a quality product may last five or ten years or more.
We can’t realistically expect quality on the cheap. Local companies are better poised to respond to quality demands in order to move their products. And the price may not really be higher when all the benefits are considered.
From our gardens we have turnip and mustard greens, Siberian kale, red Russian kale, toscano kale, arugula, red and green romaine lettuce, Swiss chard, turnip roots, and rutabaga. We still have some butternut squash, cayenne peppers, sweet peppers, and eggplant.
We have shiitake mushrooms in fresh, dehydrated, and powdered.
In our grass fed Jersey beef we have all cuts except sirloin and skirt steak.
There is a good supply of pasture raised chicken as whole chickens, split breast, boneless/skinless breast, whole legs, wings, backs, and necks. We have whole legs on sale at buy three packs and get one free. We also have some large whole chickens you might want to purchase for your upcoming Thanksgiving celebrations instead of turkey.
All meats are still on sale at 10% off the regular price. ( does not apply to special sale on whole chicken legs)
The new chickens are laying well and the eggs are already getting bigger. There are still several dozen medium size and we have them on sale at $.50 off the regular price. Eggs are available whenever we are open for business.
Due to seasonal changes in market traffic and cooler weather we are announcing changes in market hours. Beginning next week we will be open on Wednesday through Friday from 10:00 until 4:00; Saturday 8:00 until 4:00; Sunday 10:00 until 4:00.
Just a reminder that we have pictures of the farm on flickr. www.flickr.com/photos/petersonrealfood
As always we appreciate your business and hope to see you at
Greetings,
Spring is well under way and many crops are already in the ground. Soon, we hope to be offering a bounty of naturally grown, pesticide free vegetables. Wouldn’t a ‘real’ homegrown heirloom tomato sandwich be great?
All of our animals seem to be happy and enjoying this nice season. The cows are completely contented with the abundance of grass. And it looks like there will be a good crop of hay this year. The chickens are busy taking sun baths and supplementing their feed with tender green forage. The pigs actually have some mud holes to root and wallow in!
With the world-wide increase in fuel and food prices, all of us are feeling the pinch and some are really suffering. But the thing is there are simple solutions to some of these problems. However, it is not in the government or industry leader’s interest to pursue them. So we will just have to take the initiative. We have some ideas we want to share with you as we go along.
We are between seasons with most of our vegetables so there is not much from the garden this week. We will have plenty of delicious limited-spray strawberries from down close to Julian, NC. From our little greenhouse, we have heirloom tomato plants and several varieties of herb plants.
Our freezers are well stocked with Pasture Finished Jersey Beef and Homegrown Pork. By the way, our Jersey beef is the best quality beef available unless you want to buy Kobe beef at around $100 per pound.
Many of you have been asking about Pastured Chicken and we will have them this week. Since all the inputs to bring them to market have increased sharply, prices will be about 20% above last year. If you have tried them you know the quality. One customer said she just couldn’t eat store chicken anymore, even those labeled organic, because ours are so much better. Our production process is difficult but the end product is ‘el Grande’.
The high cost of fuel affects all of us and adds to the cost of our products. But there is something we can all do to help. If you use cooking oil (especially if you own a restaurant or know someone who does) every bit of it should be saved and recycled into biodiesel. Neighbors, family, or friends could put their used home cooking oil together and accumulate enough to make it worthwhile to transport. Biodiesel is considerably less expensive than petro diesel. If everyone would do this we could make a huge dent in our dependence on foreign oil and the huge corporate oil companies. If you have questions, want more information, or have used cooking oil, please contact our good friend Karl Fry at Gortman Biofuels, Winston Salem, ph. 336.253.9680.
We will be at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market Fri. 9:00 until 3:00 and Sat. 8:00 until 4:00. Our booth is #73 in Farmer’s area #2. We hope to see you this week!
Blessings,
Joe
Greetings,
Spring is well under way and many crops are already in the ground. Soon, we hope to be offering a bounty of naturally grown, pesticide free vegetables. Wouldn’t a ‘real’ homegrown heirloom tomato sandwich be great?
All of our animals seem to be happy and enjoying this nice season. The cows are completely contented with the abundance of grass. And it looks like there will be a good crop of hay this year. The chickens are busy taking sun baths and supplementing their feed with tender green forage. The pigs actually have some mud holes to root and wallow in!
With the world-wide increase in fuel and food prices, all of us are feeling the pinch and some are really suffering. But the thing is there are simple solutions to some of these problems. However, it is not in the government or industry leader’s interest to pursue them. So we will just have to take the initiative. We have some ideas we want to share with you as we go along.
We are between seasons with most of our vegetables so there is not much from the garden this week. We will have plenty of delicious limited-spray strawberries from down close to Julian, NC. From our little greenhouse, we have heirloom tomato plants and several varieties of herb plants.
Our freezers are well stocked with Pasture Finished Jersey Beef and Homegrown Pork. By the way, our Jersey beef is the best quality beef available unless you want to buy Kobe beef at around $100 per pound.
Many of you have been asking about Pastured Chicken and we will have them this week. Since all the inputs to bring them to market have increased sharply, prices will be about 20% above last year. If you have tried them you know the quality. One customer said she just couldn’t eat store chicken anymore, even those labeled organic, because ours are so much better. Our production process is difficult but the end product is ‘el Grande’.
The high cost of fuel affects all of us and adds to the cost of our products. But there is something we can all do to help. If you use cooking oil (especially if you own a restaurant or know someone who does) every bit of it should be saved and recycled into biodiesel. Neighbors, family, or friends could put their used home cooking oil together and accumulate enough to make it worthwhile to transport. Biodiesel is considerably less expensive than petro diesel. If everyone would do this we could make a huge dent in our dependence on foreign oil and the huge corporate oil companies. If you have questions, want more information, or have used cooking oil, please contact our good friend Karl Fry at Gortman Biofuels, Winston Salem, ph. 336.253.9680.
We will be at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market Fri. 9:00 until 3:00 and Sat. 8:00 until 4:00. Our booth is #73 in Farmer’s area #2. We hope to see you this week!
Blessings,
Joe
We were in one of our home grown American stores the other day and everything I saw was made in some other country. The grocery and health food stores are about the same way. About half the worlds produce is grown in China. Many things that are packaged in the US. are produced offshore. There is a company in Asheboro, NC. whose only business is to ‘repack’ tomatoes. A proposed ‘country of origin’ labeling law has been vigorously opposed and delayed by the retail industry for several years. They don’t want you to know where some things (especially food, animal or human) come from.We have been fed the line that ‘globalization’ is inevitable. Two more tactics are used to condition us to go along with it without too much discomfort – 1. That it’s a good thing, and 2. a substitute fear that we will be left behind if we resist it. So, when businesses close up and move to some other country we just quietly tighten our belts a little and complain when local governments raise our taxes to make up for the lost revenue. When there is a recall, after recall, after recall, of contaminated products we just hope the big boys will look after us. (another mental conditioning) In fact, I think some people are in a state of denial that their cheap food supply could be in jeopardy!At some point we have to wake up and realize that only we are in control of what we consume. Why should we continue to send this country’s wealth to some other country? Who convinced us that we should let another country, which may not like us or might even hate us, produce our food? How did we come to the state where we can hardly buy anything produced locally or even in our own country? In our opinion, the powers that be have ‘done a number on us’ and it is up to us to make a change by demanding locally produced food and other products that we consume.
Here’s a little heads-up. Some of you know that NCSU is doing research on our Jersey beef. They will be at the Piedmont Triad Market on Aug. 25 doing a taste test. So plan to be there and give them your input!
Although there have been a few light showers of rain lately, it continues to be a very dry season. We have been cutting down trees so the cattle can get something green to eat. Pastures have improved a bit but it won’t last with the prediction of hot dry conditions for the foreseeable future. Let’s hope it rains soon so we can get the late season greens going!
Blessings,
Joe and Jean Peterson