Restock Dates: Please see our Farm Blog where we post our weekly newsletter for the latest updates

Three BIG Summer Holidays Coming Up! Are You Ready?

written by

Ben Simmons

posted on

June 13, 2021

So, Are you ready for the Three BIG Summer Holidays coming up? They are Memorial Day, Father's Day, and Fourth of July.

They are among the biggest grilling days of the year. And, your farmer has worked hard to restock beef & pork this week to meet your needs.

Please check out the restock details in the Product Update section below.

Beth and I regularly talk about how different we spend money today vs. when we first married in 1981. This week the conversation started from her trip to deliver eggs Monday and how empty the new car lots are! Then, our close friends mentioned they sold their home in less than 23 hours following a bidding war between several buyers.

No doubt there are a lot of clever marketing schemes out there to spend your hard earned money on. And, storage buildings everywhere to store all that "stuff" we once thought we could not do without.

A customer once asked me "What was the most influential book you have read?" Well, that is easy. After God's Holy Bible, the next book I would choose is "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". Dr. Ed Koken stated, "Rich Dad Poor Dad is not about getting rich quickly. It is about taking responsibility for your financial affairs and improving wealth by mastering money. Read it if you want to awaken your financial genius."

This book completely changed the way I think about money as well as use money.

A you know, there is a lot of talk about raising food prices. I actually spent some time looking into how the U.S. food expenditures compares to other countries. What I learned is the U.S. is among a very few countries that spend less than 5% of disposable income on food. In 2018 the rate was 4.8%. Here is a visual:

FoodExp_Fig3_1.jpg

Interesting, is the trend for food consumed at home vs. eaten away from home. In 2018 consumers spent more of their disposable income on food eaten away from home (54%) vs. eaten at home (46%).

FoodExp_Fig1.jpg

Over the past 25 years, the poorest 20% of households in the US spent between 28.8% and 42.6% on food, compared with 6.5% to 9.2% spent by the wealthiest 20% of households.

Obviously, this is a very complicated issue with no single solution. One thing I do know is that many of the poorest 20% of households are involved in farming activities and food processing plants as laborers. Companies are learning that to keep plants running will require higher wages (maybe a living wage).

As always, we thank you for rewarding our hard work with your trust and support.

More from the blog

Taste Test

Greetings Ben and Beth, I'm really looking forward to my next order pick up. I'm trying to improve my cholesterol numbers, thus eating more chicken, and ran out of your chicken products. I ended up buying some industrially produced chicken, and man was that a mistake! It smelled terrible raw, also while it was being sauteed, and also later when I reheated it to put into an otherwise healthy salad. I have enough of this subpar stuff to last until I pick my order, but I don't think I can ever buy this CAFO stuff again.

Beef Update & A New Product

Beef Update – Typically this time of year folks are hesitant to buy bulk beef for their freezer due to hurricane risk. That is why we have delayed our next custom half & whole beef processing until September. If you are interested, our next harvest will be September 2nd with pickup on September 22nd. If you want to be included then please email me your name, email, and cell number to be added to our wait list - and be the first folks contacted and guaranteed to receive an order. Beef prices continue to increase and hit a new All-Time high this week fueled by strong demand and limited supply. For example, based on what a 700 pound steer sold for at the Hattiesburg Stockyard Monday, I could make more than feeding him till he weighs 1100 pounds and sell as packaged beef - but our mission is to provide nutrient-dense, clean food to our customers. Effective immediately custom beef half and whole prices will increase $0.50 to $6.25 per pound based on the hanging weight. Retail cuts will increase for September deliveries as well.

Real Health Is NOT A Pill. It's A Practice!

Two Great Must Read Articles – Typically I don't make a big deal about articles we have read, but these two are so good that I felt they needed to be shared. The first is by Joel Salatin titled "Food Think" that is part of his The Lunatic Farmer blog. You can read the full article at this link. The second article is one Beth forwarded to me from the Health Viewpoints section of Epoch Times titled "Americans Spend Trillions on Health Care but Remain Unwell - Here's Why" Dr. Yang, FAPA, a board certified psychiatrist, begins by stating the difference between treating disease and building true health lies in a proactive and preventative lifestyle. Note - Beth and I would agree with other folks who commented that his article is spot on and very important for folks to read and understand. You can read at this link.