Springtime on the Farm Series at C’est Naturelle Farm!

Springtime on the Farm Series at C’est Naturelle Farm!

We have held two Springtime events so far on the farm.  Come rain or shine, every seat has been filled!  We love seeing folks come out to the farm.  From the smiles and compliments over the fresh food samples, to the giggles over the silly chickens and happy cows, the C’est Naturelle Farm family invites you out to enjoy it with us.  The interest in the Full-diet plan sure keeps Vernie hopping !  The myriad of questions can only mean that people are ready for change!  Come learn all about it, let us know your thoughts and questions.  We’d love to talk to you about it!

Saturday, April 28th 11am-1pm ~ Love to see you there!  RSVP

Farm Event: April 14th, 2012

Why do I have a fee on my account?

Dear farm member who owns a part of a cow on our lovely farm:

Thank you for your recent inquiry about bottle charges.

We have kept records each and every delivery day for who has returned bottles.  Our policy is: Return the same amount of bottles you picked up full with milk the week before.  You picked up 2 last week?  Return 2 this week.  We at the farm like simple math.

We don’t require you to make extra trips to get there before our delivery guy.  We just calculate returned bottles from two weeks prior delivery document.

What? How does that work?

Answer: when you pick up fresh milk, leave same amount of empty bottles from previous week’s delivery. They sit there for a week until Jon comes back to deliver fresh milk.  He picks up those lonely bottles, which as that point have been away from the farm for two weeks and miss us. He lines up those bottles, records the names and quantities and sends that info right from the drop site in an email to our office.  We have a long list of these emails.

It is has been a very busy summer, so it has just been now that we are tackling these records.  At this point, the fees you see listed are from bottles not returned from the first half of the summer.  We DO, however, check each time before we charge the fee whether a customer has been on vacation that week.  If so, we don’t charge for the missing bottle as we understand you weren’t there to return it.

Why such a big deal? We need bottles returned each week to be able to fill milk orders for the coming week.  We are at a point now that because we could not calculate bottles returns all summer and people became relaxed about returning, we are scrambling at the beginning of each week to have enough bottles for our deliveries.

So if you see a charge, there was a week where you did not return bottles.  There is no way we can check bottles delivered weeks later as being accounted for that particular week it should have brought back (so we could fill it up and send it back out again when we needed it.)  However, upon your word  we will refund fees if you have indeed at some point sent all your bottles back to the farm.  And in the future, always return the same amount of bottles you picked up the week before when you pick up your fresh milk.

Thank you for your efforts to help us continue on our road to sustainability.  We are a small operation, run on the power of vision and volunteers and it takes our farm members support and efforts to make it all work!

Sincerely,

Your Farm Team, C’est Naturelle Farms

And for your entertainment: A Video on how to mark your bottles for return

The “right” time

One of the benefits of working with people who farm is showing up at the farmhouse at the “right” time.  One the “right times” was last night, when Farmer William was about to slice into a huge bacon slab while their gigantic cast iron pan was heating on the stove next to him.  I was there just to pick up my 10 year old son who had helped with evening chores, but the lure of fresh bacon was too much for me.  As we chatted about the garden and cows and milk and chickens, I invited myself to stay so I could taste some of that deliciousness in front of me. (There was a time in my life when I would have recoiled at the thought of standing in front of so much raw meat. but here I was salivating!  You see, now I knew how important and nourishing real food can and should be, and I also knew how good it can taste!)

Not only did I get a piece of warm, fresh cooked bacon in my mouth, I was sent home with a sample of it so I could share with my husband.   Which is sizzling on the stove as I write this post.   Which inspired me to share on the farm blog.  Because it would be selfish of me to keep this experience of deliciousness all to myself.   That deep smokey flavor derived from : smoking!  Imagine that?  I saw the damp hickory and apple wood smoke spiraling up and around the meat only a few days ago.  Nothing else but smoke?  No extras?  Nope!  I even get to add my own salt, good salt at that.

I saw this pig, I spoke to this pig, my son helped feed this pig.  I knew what conditions in which this animal was raised.   A few years ago, had I met the ‘now’ me, I would have thought myself on the nutty side for even valuing and expressing gratitude for such things.  But I do!  And I guess I am nutty!