Before he took the plunge and decided he was going to become an organic farmer, Greg would often talk about farming in “someday” sort of terms.
Midway through his PhD program, he eventually realized that life’s just too short to NOT be doing the thing you love and he decided to make the switch and become a farmer.
We’re now in the middle of our fourth season here at Stonecrop and I can tell you that without a doubt, this work fills us up more than anything else. You walk around the farm and you can see the dedication pouring out into every crevice of this farm – from the reconstructed barn, through the pastures and all the way back to the pigs. We love this farm and we love this work.
But here’s the thing we’re dreading to tell you. Ever since we started this farm, we’ve continued listening to our hearts. It’s almost never led us astray. And over the last year, our hearts have been telling us that it’s time to make a change on the farm.
We’ve wrestled with the decision for a while, since this is something that has become such a big part of our business. And more than that, it’s something that we’re known for in the community. But we know it’s true… we don’t want to raise broilers (chickens for meat) next year.
We have lots of good reasons for making this decision, one of them being that our fields are not ideal for rotationally grazing these types of birds (our land is very hilly!) and the daily labor of moving the birds, as well as processing these chickens, is too strenuous for our bodies for the long-term. But even if we could overcome all of this, it still wouldn’t be right for us.
This means that while we’re going to finish out this season strong and keep bringing fresh chickens to market through the middle of October, next year, we can’t be your organic chicken farmers anymore.
The upside to all this is that because we’re saying no to broiler chickens, we can say yes to other things that we love. This means that we’re raising more pigs and expanding our laying flock next year! And we’re going to keep on rolling with our ginger and Thanksgiving Turkeys, too.
We know that you might be feeling a little sad about all of this (we are too!). But, we’re excited about continuing to make this farm into something special and making decisions that are sustainable for us for the long-term. And that means following our hearts, even when its bringing us into unchartered territory.
Your Farmers,
Jenney and Greg