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2017 0304

written by

Ben Simmons

posted on

March 2, 2017

This is the LAST weekend to place your order before deliveries NEXT week.

We still have a few pigs looking for a home and are taking orders/ deposits for half beef.

Consider This – Just this week a regular customer called to let me know she was placing her order for half a pig and half a beef. She is a mother of three young boys and each year she invest her tax refund in nutritious and great tasting beef & pork to feed her growing family for the year. She understands the Price + Convenience + Quality model I wrote about a few weeks ago.

Conviction or Belief – I have been wanting to share my thoughts about Conviction verses Belief but I just did not quite have all my thoughts together. Then, in Sunday School we were studying about Joseph and how Potiphar’s wife was tempting Joseph. Then our teacher used the words conviction and belief followed by Test. And that provided the missing piece I was looking for.

So, what am I talking about? Our website has been operating about 1-year now. In that time we have just over 400 folks who have signed up to be a customer. However, only about 50% have placed at least one order. I am sure each person Believes that our industrial food system is responsible (to some extent) for the increase in obesity (MS leads the nation), diabetes, autism, cancer, and etc. I am sure each person believes that the 15-fold increase in the use of glyphosate (1.65 billion pounds in 2014) is destroying our health and environment. And, the list gets longer!

What is the difference between Belief and Conviction? The answer is found in the word Test! People move from belief to conviction when they take action that supports their beliefs. Like Joseph, who had a conviction to do what was right, was able to flee Potiphar’s wife’s temptation – he passed the test of his conviction!

Quotes Worth Re-Quoting –

“The mind that opens to a new idea never returns to its original size.”   ~ Albert Einstein

“Your life does not get better by chance. It gets better by change.” ~Jim Rohn

Sometimes we are forced to change – like a lady that called this week whose husband is recovering from cancer treatment. She has a strong conviction to improve the quality of her family’s food choices… regardless of the price or convenience. She was thankful we are here to give her a local choice.

We are very thankful for our customers – many have been with us from the beginning as we learned, tried, failed, succeeded, changed, grew, etc. Thank you for your encouraging words, support, and sharing our farm with family & friends.

The question that remains is if you have not purchased from us - what will it take to get you to place an order?

Nature’s Gourmet Farm “Goes To Washington” – A few weeks ago I mentioned we were being vetted by National Sustainable Agriculture for a trip to DC to share our farm story with Congressman Palazzo. Well, our farm was selected and I should be going the middle of March. We are honored to be chosen to represent and be a voice for small family farms in Mississippi.

More from the blog

How We Bring Nutrient Density To Our Products

PLEASE NOTE- The market situation with eggs has softened and the $4 surcharge has been cancelled. Additionally, our new pullets have just started laying so we will soon have plenty of eggs. Many thanks for your understanding and support – we have the best customers!!! How We Bring Nutrient Density To Our Beef – Harry, a relatively new customer, picked up his first order at the Hattiesburg location March 1st. He had watched the new Joel Salatin documentary published by Angel Studios and was fascinated. Frankly, I think it is the best documentary of Polyface Farm I have seen as it filled in blanks from before Joel first started farming till now and HOW regenerative farming completely changed a once very degraded farm. Learn more here. Then, Harry visited me March 28th.

Cows & Pigs

Brand New Services– About six weeks ago Dixie Electric Power installed a brand new electric line with poles down my road. They replaced the old copper lines with aluminum and the poles are much better quality and taller. I asked the district manager when was the old copper line installed and he said since electric service was available for us… so, maybe since the mid 1940’s? Then, this week our complete road was blacktopped!!! If you have visited our farm you know it was long overdue. For years it has been patched to the point where the patches had patches. Hahaha

Clean and Cold | Adorable Calves

New Calves On Our Farm– Sometime in April we call our vet and schedule a breeding soundness exam for our bulls. This is before we add our bulls to our cow herd May 1st each year. Our oldest bull, affectionately named “Ole Man” by the guys here, was born on our farm the Spring of 2016.