Blog - Nature's Gourmet Farm

Update: Raw Milk | Wintering Our Chickens

Raw Milk – So, work has been done that will help our efforts be successful when trying to influence politicians to support Food Freedom, i.e. where small farms can raise and sell into commerce and consumers have the freedom to choose who they buy from. Last week I had an hour conversation with the Director of the TX based Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance. They were helpful in Louisiana changing their laws to support raw milk. It was very clear that it requires knowing the current law(s) and what the end game needs to be. And, sometimes change comes by winning a battle at a time to accomplish the final solution.

Beef & Egg Pricing Updates

Beef Pricing – I wanted to take a moment to highlight my research on what the beef market is doing and what 2025 pricing could look like. First, Live Cattle Futures have been trading in a very tight horizontal range for at least the past two months with the upper limit in the $191.50 per pound area. December 31st price broke out ABOVE the prior top, came down and retested the breakout level, and then by January 3rd hit a new high just over $196 per pound live weight.

NEW Ocean Springs Pickup Location | Bacon, Bacon, Bacon

"NEW" Ocean Springs Pickup Location – During our December delivery a representative of the property owner stopped to say we could no longer use their location to meet customers. I queried our December customers and received several suggestions. The recommendation we decided on was the Park & Ride lot located in the SW intersection of I-10 and Hwy 609 (Washington Ave.). This is next door to Denny's. Here is a link to the updated details including a map showing where to meet us beginning January 4th. In many ways this location is much better than the Ace parking lot. I know for us it will be nice not to have the traffic on Hwy 90 especially when there are events scheduled in downtown OS.

It's A Wonderful Life

It's A Wonderful Life – many families have the tradition of watching "It's A Wonderful Life" staring Jimmy Stewart & Donna Reed by author Philip Van Doren Stern from his 1938 Christmas Tale originally titled "The Greatest Gift." RKO Radio pictures purchased his property who later sold it to Liberty Films. Frank Capra, as producer & director, developed the property for a movie and retitled "It's A Wonderful Life" with its debut in 1946. According to a Paul Harvey - The Rest Of The Story, the movie did not become popular until the 1970's because

Emotional Week = Short Newsletter

Difficult Week – About six weeks ago Beth’s mom Jackie found out her cancer had returned. Her condition worsened very fast and she passed away early Tuesday morning. Beth had been staying with her most of the last two weeks. Her funeral was Friday morning. Working with our team we were able to process chicken Tuesday & Wednesday mornings and post inventory. We also processed 8 pigs the afternoon of those two days and posted the fresh pork items. I want to express how much we appreciate our team who stepped up and did extra to support our farm and lessen the burden on Beth.

My Customer Response

Food deserts are regions where people have limited access to healthful and affordable food. This may be due to having a low income or having to travel farther to find healthful food options. Without access to healthful foods, people living in food deserts may be at higher risk of diet-related conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and micro-nutrient deficiencies. Medical News Today I would offer additional considerations to include: 1. In 2016 a study was made that determined MS imports $8.5 billion dollars worth of food. That was more than a billion greater than farm commodity crops generated in sales that year.

A Reason For Hope

A Reason For Hope - This newsletter has been hard to put together – so many different yet related inputs it has been difficult to keep the focus corralled and the length within reason. So, I will simply use a few excerpts from a recent podcast with Dr. Mark Hyman on TCN. The FACTS are clear – Centralized, Cheap, Commodity, Processed, and etc. food (as it is called – not what Webster calls food) is a complete FAILURE. FAILURE is across all races, includes male & females, and income levels. However, lower income levels are affected at a higher level and the Southeast US is also higher. FAILURE is not only in physical health with the increase in chronic diseases, but also mental health

Two Exciting Farm Updates

Contents: 1. Fifty-Six (56) New WY Yearlings 2. Silvopasture 3. Job Opening At Nature’s Gourmet Farm 4. Product Availability Update

Free RAW Milk | Election Impact on Food Health

Free RAW Milk- Last week I started a conversation around RAW milk and showed test results where raw milk is very similar to a human mother’s milk and contrasted it to current pasteurized milk that has none of the active ingredients found in human milk. I then asked folks two questions: 1. Is raw milk something you would be interested in for your family? 2. Would you like to receive communications about what we are doing and how you can help effect change?

Faithful Customers | FREE Raw Milk

Contents: 1. Faithful Customers 2. Free The Milk 3. Product Availability Update Faithful Customers- September we completed eight years selling our product via our website and making deliveries. From 2010 till 2016 we only sold whole or half beef & pork and chicken. Thursday a customer placed their order. The order number was 20,000 (that is twenty thousand). WOW! Now, that does not mean we have actually filled 20,000 orders because when someone deletes, cancels or leaves an open cart the number is not reused. But, those are exceptions as most of those 20,000 orders are filled. Additionally, this weekend will be our largest volume delivery ever

Yummy Recipe | On-Sale Item

Contents: 1. Yummy 15-Bean Soup 2. Overlooked Product 3. Turkeys Have Arrived!!! Yummy 15-Bean Soup- This week Beth took a few leftover ham hocks from packing and the bone from one of our smoked hams and used them to make the BEST 15-Bean Soup I have had. (Click the picture to go to HamBeens website)

Farm Updates | Plus More

I’d like to request some of the unprocessed lard ~10lbs. Also, if possible, I’d like a whole Boston butt vs a section of the muscle. Thank you so much for all you are doing! This is such a wonderful local food resource. You have been vital to me and my family recovering our health! April E. We also know April through our Azure Standard drop off. She and many more of our customers are also customers of Azure and meet their truck once per month. If you are not familiar with this company you can check them out here.