Wednesday evening the girls and I headed over to NIACC for the Midwest Environmental Education Conference . We’d been asked to come and set up a display about our farm as part of their “Appetizers and Advertisers” program.
I wish we could have offered samples of our meat, but we are just plain out of everything except for a couple of t-bone steaks. Sorry, Public, but I’m not sharing my last two t-bones with you.
There were not a huge number of people there, and most were not from the north central Iowa area, so I don’t expect much to come of it in the way of new customers. But at least I got a display made that I can use again in the future.
The whole evening was made worthwhile for me just because our table was next to Phyllis and Paul Willis of Niman Ranch. Paul was the first hog producer to sign on with Niman Ranch back in 1995, thus beginning Niman Ranch Pork Company. These are celebrities in the sustainable ag world. And how flattered was I when Phyllis already “knew” us because she’s been reading this blog! And how excited was Matt when I told him she had invited us to come and see their farm! We will take you up on that Phyllis, hope you were serious!
In the end I came away with my enthusiasm restored a bit. A good thing. Lord knows it’s waned a bit lately.
Your kids are getting a heck-of-an-education by living on the farm. Look at that photo, those are two well adjusted and self assured young people. Awesome! I love your display. Do you market your beef online? There’s a family farm a couple miles from here that does a great business in organic Angus Beef. I’ll see if I can find their website. Their beef is “booked” in advance, you have to preorder in advance before the beef goes to slaughter. And as far as not being from the area, I bet someone would do a road trip to get some fresh beef.
P.S. Do you advertise in your local paper? That’s where this family found most of their regular customers.
This is such an inspiring blog. I can’t wait to investigate all the interesting sounding links on your sidebar. And read your other posts, of course. Thank you.
Sorry we missed you too, but it sounds like you had a good night. We got the samples for the siding and they have a color that matches the paint color we currently have (very exciting for us). Also we’d like to place an order for some beef and chicken, and I wanted to find out how you were marketing your vegetables. Besides the mystery vegetable and some tomatos the garden didn’t do much. Not really suprising since we didn’t pay any attention to it after we planted it.