One of our friends (thank you, Erika!) recommended an excellent book for us to read, and we both zoomed right through it:
“What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health” by David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé.
It gave me, Barbara, a much greater understanding of why it is so important to graze our cows on our pasture rather than feed them like they are in a feedlot. Of course, Paul already knew much of what was in the book, but then he is the farmer, and I’m still catching up. Here is the description of the book as given by the library:
David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé take us far beyond the well-worn adage to deliver a new truth: the roots of good health start on farms. What Your Food Ate marshals evidence from recent and forgotten science to illustrate how the health of the soil ripples through to that of crops, livestock, and ultimately us. The long-running partnerships through which crops and soil life nourish one another suffuse plant and animal foods in the human diet with an array of compounds and nutrients our bodies need to protect us from pathogens and chronic ailments. Unfortunately, conventional agricultural practices unravel these vital partnerships and thereby undercut our well-being. Can farmers and ranchers produce enough nutrient-dense food to feed us all? Can we have quality and quantity? With their trademark thoroughness and knack for integrating information across numerous scientific fields, Montgomery and Biklé chart the way forward. Navigating discoveries and epiphanies about the world beneath our feet, they reveal why regenerative farming practices hold the key to healing sick soil and untapped potential for improving human health.
The upshot of all this is that you are what your beef eats, and when you buy beef from us, you are getting a much higher quality of meat, nutrition, and omega-3s than in the grocery store. We are selling shares of a cow; one share is approximately 100 pounds (it won’t be exact) and costs $700. Yes, this is a bit higher than last year, but we spent the same amount on three cows this year that we spent on four cows last year. We are not getting rich off of this. We want to give our customers, that would be you, a chance to have really high quality beef to go with our really high quality wine!
If you are interested, give us a call or text or email. We are requiring a $100 deposit this year. We had a few people back out last year at the last minute which put us in a bit of a spot. We would prefer for that not to happen again this year.
