Choices

Choices, choices, choices!!!  Isn't it wonderful that we live in a country where choices abound?  We have the choice to attend or not  attend any church we want.  We make choices about who our friends will be.  We also make choices regarding our purchases.  Whether to buy your favorite style of clothes, your favorite make of car, your favorite type of house, your favorite food and on and on.  By those choices, we determine what is important to us. We are convinced people spend their money on what is important to them.

For our family, our diet is extremely important to us.  We believe your diet has a direct impact on your health.  We have experienced several situations where we know this to be true.  Our youngest has eczema.  We recently discovered she has a lot of food allergies.  Once we removed those allergens from her diet, it was amazing to see how well her skin improved.  For her entire 5 years , we have battled this condition, but within 2 weeks of changing her diet, we saw this amazing transformation.  Another one of our children has 5 years of perfect attendance in school.  Another went to the doctor recently, her last sick visit was in 2005.  We guess the old saying you are what you eat does ring true.  If you put nutritious food into your body, then it will perform better. The best way to explain is like is that, our bodies were designed to protect its  self from foreign bodies that will harm it.  This is done by our immune system and in the case of our daughter her system was overly stressed by her food allergies.  Once we removed the allergens, her body could calm down and begin to heal.  Our current industrialized food system is full of toxic chemicals, genetically modified foods, highly processed and nutritiously empty products that keep our bodies immune system stressed and out of balance.  This sets up conditions allowing our bodies to be susceptible to colds, flu, infections, cancer, etc. that in many cases could be stopped by a healthy immune system.  This immune system is directly affected by what we eat.  You can't run a high performance jet engine, like your  body, on low grade crude oil!

People often complain eating healthy is expensive.  Yes, we guess it can be.  Again, it is a choice you have to make.  We view it as an investment in our bodies and one well worth the amount we spend.   Compare the  amount  you can spend on healthy eating  versus a doctor visit and prescription drugs.  The $20 and $50 co-pays begin to add up quickly (not to mention the toxins and side effects from the medicines).  We personally would rather spend it on food.  You may have to make sacrifices in other areas such as eating out a lot or renting a video.  Again, it is a choice.

We have a broad customer base from stay at home moms to two income wealthy professional families.   Some have more income than others.    But, they are united in their philosophy of eating fresh, local and nutritious food that improves  their overall quality of life.  There is a difference once you become accustomed to "real" food.  It is hard to accept imitations.

It really is ok with us if you choose not to purchase our products or from another local farm.  That is your right as a consumer.  The frustration we, and most farmers who sale directly, have is when someone makes a comment about the prices of their products being too expensive.  Again, people spend their money on what is important to them.  That same person is there holding  $4 cup of coffee or a 20 ounce soda. One farmer's market this summer we had a mother comment that the $3.25 dozen fresh large eggs was too expensive for her.  I looked at the drinks she and her two children were holding and the three together totaled around $14.  She could have purchased a dozen eggs and sausage, enough to feed them for 4 or 5 days for less than the cost of the drinks they were holding. Another time someone asked the price of eggs.  They made the comment they could buy the chicken for that price.  We don't think so.  What most people don't understand is that we have $2.75 in fixed cost (chicken, feed, egg carton, etc.) per dozen.  This leaves 50 cent for the cost of the chicken house, water system, taxes, repairs and maybe 2 or 3 cent profit.  You see because we are small,  we can tell you the entire cost we have in each of the products we produce.  We certainly are not getting rich.  In fact, if you were to see our tax returns for the five years we have been doing this,  you'd see we have yet to make a profit. Why we keep doing this you ask, well that is a topic of another column.  We believe it's only reasonable that anybody gets paid a fair price for their products.  We also feel part of our farming responsibility is education for the consumer.  We realize we are on our "soap box, "  but this is an area we  are passionate about.  We want you to know the actual costs  and quality involved  in the products you are purchasing.  Then, you can make an informed decision on what is really important to you.  We respect your choice, and we ask that you respect our choice to set our prices to cover our costs.  It is like the old Fram oil filter commercial "pay now or pay later".  You can help support local agricultural that provides safe, free from chemicals and nutritionally dense food that helps to improve your quality of life, and that of your community, or later pay the doctors and pharmaceutical companies.  The choice is truly yours!