Sticker Shock

I had to go to the grocery store this past weekend, and I am
still in sticker shock.

While I often feel a bit guilty when I have to
charge more for my chickens and eggs, I did notice that my eggs aren't as expensive as I thought though. The price of "Organic Certified" eggs was $6 a dozen, and I am sure you know that when the government took over the certification process in the 90's, the label quickly became only as meaningful as the big ag lobbyists would allow. Some of the materials and practices that folks were avoiding suddenly became OK. Don't get me started on the "national security Issue" that has made glyphosate protected from injury law suits. Perhaps that means Bayer/Monsanto doesn't have to pay up on that lawsuit that was the biggest settlement of all time. Too bad no one is protecting the butterflies and honeybees - not to mention your now, or soon to be leaking gut. And that kind of thing spreads throughout the foodchain. We have always been blessed with hundreds of toads and tree frogs, singing me to sleep at night, laying their eggs in water troughs, being carried around by little kids. This year, we have two. Both males. That may be ok in a music video, but not much use in the ecosystem.

Meanwhile, back at the grocery store, the price of whole roasting
chickens was less than I can buy my, admittedly somewhat obscure
and special, chicks at a day old (although even feed store chickens are getting expensive, I hear). I know about how much Non-GMO feed they will need to consume as they cross the pasture while also eating bugs, weeds and grass. I also know how much that feed costs. Not to mention the care and attention I need to give them, which also has a time/price factor. Allowing for economies of scale, I simply cannot figure out how those store birds are raised, sold up through a distribution chain (and marked up each time) then sold to people at that retail price. Somebody is losing money on the deal, and it ain't big ag. Reckon the farmers in Northern Virginia that took the great deals that the big corporations offered, only to have to go bankrupt and sell their family farms to those same big corporations have figured it out by now.

I appreciate that you trust me to grow the best food I know how, and that you understand "good food ain't cheap and cheap food ain't good.

I hope to have some veggies in the farm stand as soon as it comes on. Our stringless green beans look to be making a good crop even after the late start. Probably summer squash and snack tomatoes before long. Not the best year since the invasion of the veggie snatchers (Betty the goat and her Merry Band of Marauders set us way back). An Amish friend has offered to take up some slack if we end up needing it, so let me know if there is anything you are looking for and maybe we can help in that way.

I don't want to go to the big stores any more than I have to, and I wish the same for you. Simple, local foods, fresh and honest. The essence of all the fancy food in the white linen restaurants that I worked in as a young fellow was just that. Perhaps folks feel a nostalgic need to touch their peasant roots. Or perhaps it is an instinctual feel that healthy food just tastes better. I dunno.

But I better go carry some extra water out to the animals and check the garden.

Thanks for Listening,