News, etc. Archives - Page 17 of 73

April 1, 2017

We’ve lowered our prices on beef across the board. Simple as that.

Nothing is actually that simple. Of course there is a story. For the short version, go to our beef page to see the new pricing. Some changes were dramatic. Chuck roast dropped from $12.99 per lb to $8.75 per pound. Hamburger dropped from $9.00 per lb to $7.99 per lb. A few items stayed the same. One actually went up slightly.

There is a lot of change going on with our store this winter and spring. We first expanded our store with a new freezer room. Then we expanded the store itself by nearly doubling the retail space. Then over the past month we’ve been selecting new products and producers for the store.

While all of that has been going on, we had another set of projects. First, we received this in the mail.

My first thought is, “This is it. Now I’m going to prison.” Luckily this time it was only a tax rate change, effective April 1st. It’s not the end of the world since most of our products qualify for the 2.0% farmers tax rate. But it did mean we’d need to review all the tax codes on all the items. More importantly there isn’t a way to change the tax codes ahead of time in Square. That meant that I would need to be sitting ready to update all the codes after close of business on the last day of March, after 6pm but before open of business at 8am April 1st. But we had another issue.

We use Square for our point of sale system (POS). Square is great because it lets you start with almost no overhead. It’s easy to use, easy to learn, and a pretty capable system. But it has one fatal flaw.

Square cannot sell you a fraction of anything. It sells 1 coffee, 2 coffees, 3 coffees. It cannot deal with 1.5 coffees. Makes sense with coffee, not so much with a steak. 1.5 pounds of steak is kryptonite. Also, 1.5 yards of fabric, 1.3 yards of mulch. Pretty much anything but a widget is a problem for Square.

On their support boards, this is a well documented and widely known issue and has been for years. There is no fix other that what we’ve done. We tweak our per pound pricing so $8.00 per pound becomes $0.80 per pound. Then when we sell you 5.6 pounds of something it’s 56 instead of 5.6. So 56 x $0.80 equals the correct price. Confusing right? Us too. It’s completely crazy and we have customers routinely call back to ask why they got charged for 56 pounds of meat. This had to change.

So while everything else has been going on, we’ve been evaluating new POS systems. In the end, the winner was NCR. They have a system similar to Square but it is a real POS with all the appropriate abilities. It also has all the real POS agreements, overheads, etc. Luckily with a new POS going in, we could spend the month of March setting up everything, including the new tax codes without messing with our current system which we were still using. Lucy did a great job of setting up all the items in NCR but while we were setting everything up we decided it was time to review our pricing.

I receive a monthly pricing report from the state that shows pastured pork, lamb, and beef for producers in our state. Over the winter, I’d noted that pricing had been dropping on beef. If we were updating the tax codes, and we were updating the items, and we were uploading our customers into NCR. Well we might as well update our pricing at the same time. In pretty much every case, the price of beef went down. Pork stayed about the same, as did lamb. This is reflective of the commodity price of beef, which has collapsed over the past year or so. We aren’t a commodity producer but we are part of the overall market. For those of you who have been holding off buying some beef, here you go.

We’ll be updating the chalk boards in the store today. Stop by and see the girls. They will be using a new POS system that they’ve been trained on but give them a bit of grace when you come. The first day with a new system is always exciting. Don’t worry, I’m here all day to help them along.

March 31, 2017August 17, 2017

How we choose what to carry in the store

I’ve mentioned that with the store expansion, we are looking at new products for the store. Lots of new products. It may surprise you to find out that there has been quite some conversation about what to carry. It’s not as simple as all of the previous 11 farmers we’ve carried before.

In the past, I’ve reached out to farmers directly. They were always small family farms. Someone who was doing what we do, but with a different product than we carry. For instance, our poultry farmer, Brittany Ridge Farm (Hi Kevin and Christy!) supplies our chicken, turkey, pheasant, rabbit and eggs. At the time we partnered with them, we had our own chickens and eggs but with the quality of their product I was able to get out of the chicken business and let the experts do it. Yes, Lucy has chickens again and we have eggs from our farm. But you don’t see me bent over a processing table cutting up chickens once a week, and I tell Christy every time I see her how much I appreciate all her and Kevin’s hard work. We have 11 stories like that. A farmer doing a great job, who we develop a personal relationship with. We go to the farm or meet half way and pick up their products once a week, twice a month, once a month, etc.

But at some point, you can only do so much. I can’t continue to add products and go pick them up from the individual farms every week. I’d need a full time truck driver just going up and down the road. That adds cost of time and money, both in short supply on a farm. So we started looking for farmers and producers who had products we could deliver, or get delivered UPS, or who work through a distributor, or who have employees who live near us, or a customer already in Raleigh where we can meet them to pick up our order. I hoped we’d find 4-5. So far we are sitting at around 40! Not all will survive taste testing and final selection but right now it’s looking awesome for what is to come.

As we have discovered and evaluated different products, it’s called into question just what is our goal? What is our criteria? What is our, God I hate to say it, our mission statement? What kind of store are we going to be? Is it farmer direct only? Are we a farmer’s market? Is it eco, hippie, natural only? After much discussing, some arguments both heated and most simply debated, we’ve arrived at this conclusion.

The store is first and foremost, a reflection of our family. What that means is, if you find it in the store, you find it in our pantry. Period. As I’ve said many times before, my number 1 customer sleeps beside me every night.

So what does that mean to our selection process? It means that almost everything will be natural. It will almost always be from North Carolina, or at least from the South if not. It means if we can help out a small operator, we will do it over purchasing from a larger, more established operator, even if it costs more. It means if we know the people and like them, vs ordering out of a catalog, we are more likely to carry their product. It means if the label is risque or vulgar, we won’t carry it. It means if the label is funny, especially darkly funny, it will have a good chance of making it to the shelf. It means if it’s something we buy routinely, we’ll stock it in the store. Mustard? Pickles? Salsa? Hot sauce? Yep, we buy all of those all the time. It means that we may stock something that you can find at Lowes Foods or Whole Foods. Are we trying to compete with them? Nope. We’re trying to make it convenient, first to SWMBO, but also to you our customer. When you buy a pork chop from us and we hand you a recipe to go along with it, the ingredients are in the store to make that recipe. That means no additional stops on the way home.

But most importantly to all of the above. If we really like the product. We really like the people. We really like the story. We will break all of the rules above in order to carry it. I’m on the hunt for olive oil right now. I don’t think I’ll find a local, NC based, olive oil farmer with distribution to Raleigh. But we use olive oil literally by the gallon in our kitchen. When I find one I like, it’s going in the store. Will that fit in with our “theme?” That has been the source of the debate. Our theme, nay, our mission statement is:

We are foodies, parents, and farmers. We cook 2.75 meals per day on average, 365 days per year. We want the best food we can get that is wholesome, flavorful, local, and practical. Usually in that order but not always. It may not be the cheapest, it may not be the greenest, but given all variables, it is the best we can do. If you are in our store, then you are standing in our home and in our pantry. Enjoy.

Why that sounds like it should be crafted into a poster. Hmm, give me a minute. Ninja Cow Farm store mission statement

March 29, 2017

Boy do we have awesome goodies coming to the store!

First and foremost. I’ve gained 7 pounds! Oh the things I do for you folks. Here it is nearly bikini weather and I’m chubbier than ever. But don’t feel badly for me, it has been a hoot. SWMBO and I have been to Asheville, Raleigh, Goldsboro, and points in between visiting and sampling different products, talking to farmers and producers, eating and sampling, seeing production methods, and did I mention sampling products?

Got to be NC festival 2017 — The Got to be NC festival in Raleigh was a great chance to meet local producers

I don’t know how many road miles we’ve put in but I know we aren’t even close to being done. Our diets have been out the window and the scale shows it. But I’m super excited about some of the products we have already selected and the ones to come. The hardest part so far has been choosing between this OR that. No sense stocking two equally good products. I’d love to say we are doing well in that department but so far all we’ve done is kick the can down the road and say we’ll decide with a taste off. Ugh, more pounds added.

I can’t tell you what we’ve selected yet, but everything is from NC. Everything is made by a small family or small family company. Everything has a story that will inspire you and make you happy. SWMBO is the keeper of The List. I’m not allowed to touch it. Some of the categories I can remember off the top of my head are:

Pickles, sauces, hot sauces, crackers, drinks (different kinds), salsas breads, and I can’t remember the rest. I think it’s like 40 vendors at this point and still growing. We have culled considerably more than the 40 or so vendors we have now. Ingredients are the number one way we get rid of people. Corn syrup? Pretty much gone. MSG? Are you kidding? Something I cannot pronounce? Better talk fast. I’d say we’ve culled well over 100.

Of what we’ve picked, some of the products are good. They are local, good story, small family, and a great compliment to the products we already sell. Think of mustard. I can only get so jazzed about mustard. But mustard on my beef or pork? Now we are talking.

Some of the products are stunning. I’m not sure I remember the story, or the people we met. All I know is we have to have more of their stuff, like NOW. I’m not sure what they go with, and I don’t care. It’s so good we are going to carry it anyway. Some names you will recognize, some you’ll never have heard off.

So with all these goodies coming, we’ve been spending time as well talking about shelving and storage.

It’s not rocket surgery, but it is an area we are relatively new to. Neither SWMBO or I have much in the way of a retail background. It of course seems easy, till you actually do it with no adult supervision.

Please don't make me adult today — How I feel most days

So we are going around, taking pictures of people’s display shelving. Do you know how weird it is to walk around and take pictures of the shelves in the store? Then we have to come back to try and figure out our own version of shelving, which of course changes depending on what items we choose to carry, which is still changing. And to make it even more confusing, our shelving will be bodged together from things we find and build. But don’t let is sound like I’m complaining, it’s actually been a lot of fun.

There will be LOTS more to come on what we have coming. We are trying to get things put together by around mid-April. In between now and then we’ll be announcing new products, showing up upgrades to the store and generally running around like crazy. So stay tuned, it should be fun.

March 24, 2017March 24, 2017

Special needs here on the farm

People ask if we do tours here at the farm. Why yes, yes we do. We see about 2000 people a year through here. Some are individuals, some are families, and some are groups such as school groups or mommy groups. However last Friday we hosted a group unlike any we’d done before.

I received an email from a lady who said she had “adults with Autism” and they wanted to take a tour. I wasn’t really sure what that meant. Autism has a broad range of people, from people I couldn’t tell had Autism to people who are non-verbal. But they’d looked at the website and knew what kind of tour we gave, so if they thought it was appropriate for their folks, it was fine with me. Plus one of our best friends has a son with Autism so it’s not like we don’t have any experience with it or a soft place for groups like this.

Girl with autism on the farm — My #1 asker of questions

Friday was cool and beautiful so the weather cooperated. Everyone showed right on time. I met the group as they all piled out and got ready for the tour. The folks were extremely nice and happy to be on our little tour. As usual with any group, there was a bit of herding cats getting everyone going in the same direction but once we got going it was fine. We visited the bees, walked out to the yard where we do all of our work, saw the pigs, and came back to feed apples to the milk cows. All the while answering questions. Especially from the young lady pictured above. She really enjoyed being able to ask, “Farmer Dan?” during my ramblings. I’d stop mid-sentence, and say, “Yes?” Sometimes she’d have a question, sometimes not. When she did ask a question it was always, “What does the animal say?”. This was when we saw a new animal on the tour. Moo, oink, cluck, stuff like that. It was very cute. It was also hard to remember what I was saying sometimes but that’s not a problem. I’m used to not knowing what I’m saying so I have a lot of experience.

I’d say that I showed patience with the questions because it was routine that she’d interrupt. Like every few minutes. But the patience that the people accompanying the autistic adults showed was humbling. They not only handled everything with aplomb, they truly seemed to have a good time doing it. You could tell they loved their work and really cared for their charges. I felt kinda grumpy and hard to get along with in comparison.

After feeding the cows, which was fun and a bit of an adventure, we went back to the store where everyone met Lucy and had a chance to see our wares. Then because it was so nice, they all hung out in front of the barn and enjoyed the swings and the weather.

That’s where our featured picture was taken, post tour. This young man had just minutes before been brave enough to feed a cow. This was a big deal because by that point was drooling everywhere which understandably freaked him out. He’d been wearing dark sunglasses to go with his dark outfit and he had been fairly stone faced. However when I pulled out my phone to take a quick snap, he broke into the most beautiful smile and made a point to smile for the camera.

I’m married to crazy picture lady. I don’t take the pictures. But this simple smile and seeing his joy as he swung on the simple swings that my kids made one day when it was slow in the store made my day. The rest of the event was cool but this picture just summed it up. So much so that it’s taken me all week just to put this into writing.

I asked the name of the group before they left, and I’m sure I’m butchering it because I can’t remember names. I think it was the Autism Society of NC. I don’t know anything about them other than what I saw that day, but what I saw was pretty special.

March 22, 2017

Oh why do I do these things to myself

I get all kinds of invites to participate in various things. Classes, meetings, charity things, whatever. I generally delete these emails before I’m tempted. You see, I’m a home body. I like to be here, doing my thing. I also have lots to do, so even if I want to go to some shindig, I probably don’t have time. And then there is church. And the kids, and projects that were scheduled to be completed in June of 2013. And, and, and it keeps on going.

So a while back I had an invite to submit our information for a Farm to Fork picnic pairing thingy. It came out the first time and I deleted it. I don’t have time for that. Plus I tried to get the Mrs. to go with me one year. She said no, we were too busy, which was true.

Then a few weeks later, a second invite came through. I had a spare five minutes (always dangerous) so I submitted our information to see what would happen. The next thing I heard about it was an email, addressed both to me and to the Chef at the Counting House in Durham. “You two have been joined at the hip in this endeavor. Here are the rules. Good luck.”

Gulp.

So we are supposed to feed 500 people, at Fearrington Village no less. Home to the famous Belted Galloways. You know, these guys.

Or, um. These guys.

Our now somewhat famous logo

You know that crazy uncle who comes to Thanksgiving that everyone secretly hopes won’t come this year. The one who makes inappropriate jokes and embarrasses everyone but himself. Uncle Buck

Yeah, I think I might be coming to dinner.

Oh well, it’s only for a few hours and the worst that happens is they throw me out. As I recall, that crazy uncle always has a rather large time so at least I have that going for me.

Here is the list of who is who in this shindig.

Announcing This Year’s Participating Farms,

Restaurants and Artisans

Please join us June 2-4 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Farm to Fork!

Today we are pleased to announce our farmer-chef pairings as well as participating food artisans and beverage producers.

ACME with CASTLEMAINE FARM

ALLEY TWENTY SIX with PARKER FARM AND VINEYARD

AMERICAN MELTDOWN with ELODIE FARMS

BONA FIDE SANDWICH CO. with NOURISHING ACRES

BULL CITY BURGER AND BREWERY with FOUR LEAF FARM

COUNTING HOUSE with NINJA COW FARM

CROSSROADS CHAPEL HILL AT THE CAROLINA INN with PERRY-WINKLE FARM

EAST DURHAM PIE COMPANY with LYON FARMS

FEARRINGTON HOUSE with PRODIGAL FARM

GARLAND with SWEET PEAS URBAN GARDEN & GRANITE SPRINGS FARM

GLASSHALFULL with EAST BRANCH GINGER

GRAVY with TERRASTAY FARM

HARVEST 18 with WALKING FISH COOPERATIVE

IRREGARDLESS CAFE with WELL FED COMMUNITY GARDEN

JUJU & JUJUBE with LIL’ FARM

KIMBAP CAFE with IN GOOD HEART FARM

KITCHEN with GRATEFUL ACRES

LA PLACE LOUISIANA COOKERY with TAYLOR FISH FARM

LITTLER with MAPLE SPRING GARDENS

MANDOLIN with SOUTHWIND PRODUCE

OAKLEAF with ELYSIAN FIELDS FARM

PATRIA FOOD with LILY DEN FARM

PICNIC with GREEN BUTTON FARM

PIEDMONT with COON ROCK FARM

PIZZERIA FAULISI with FUNNY GIRL FARM

PIZZERIA MERCATO with PEREGRINE FARM

POMPIERI PIZZA with EASTERN CAROLINA ORGANICS

PROVENANCE with FIRSTHAND FOODS

REVERENCE FARMS CAFE with REVERENCE FARMS

SCRATCH BAKING with RAN-LEW DAIRY

THE EDDY PUB with ROCKY RUN FARM

TRIBECA TAVERN with DOWN 2 EARTH FARMS

THE ROOT CELLAR with CHAPEL HILL CREAMERY

THE TRAVELED FARMER with FICKLE CREEK FARM

Artisans Include:

Big Spoon Roasters, Boxcarr Handmade Cheese, Carolina Farmhouse Dairy, Escazu Artisan Chocolates, Fiddlehead Farm, Goat Lady Dairy, Honeygirl Meadery, Just Bee Apiary, Loaf, Lady Edison, Left Bank Butchery, Piemonte Farm, Strong Arm Baking Co.

Beverages:

Aromatic Roasters, Bean Traders, Bond Brothers Beer Company, Bull City Burger and Brewery, Carrboro Coffee Roasters, Durham Distillery, Fair Game Beverage Co., Fullsteam Brewery, Haw River Wine Man, James Creek Ciderhouse, Mystery Brewing Co., Piedmont Wine Imports, Steel String Brewery, TOPO Organic Spirits, Trophy Brewing Co., Wine Authorities

The Farm to Fork Picnic is the culmination of a full weekend of events, including a family-friendly Sustainable Supper on Friday June 2 with special guest, culinary historian Michael Twitty, and a sold-out Five Chefs in Five Courses dinner on

Saturday June 3. Details on these events is below.

Tickets are selling fast! You can purchase yours at www.farmtoforknc.com

Feel free to buy a ticket and come and harass your poor farmer.

March 18, 2017

At this point, maybe I have seen it all.

Pig dressed up as a cop. Police pig

Nothing tangible on this one. I saw this picture and just had to share it. A baby pig, dressed up as a K9 unit with the police. Maybe they are hunting for illegal truffles? Who knows.

We are open today till 5pm, rain or shine. We have a lot of tours this afternoon but the store is wide open and the girls are manning the store so stop by and get some goodies for your lonely freezer and happy belly.

March 17, 2017March 16, 2017

Nutrition is hard

But it doesn’t have to be hard. We are open from 2-6pm today and we have all kinds of goodness on hand. Lucy is working the store and would love to help you eat better.

March 16, 2017March 16, 2017

Our load of fresh beef came in early!

We were scheduled for tomorrow for our cow to be ready. That was kinda bad due to a tour I have on the calendar for an autistic group in the early afternoon. Plus I need to be onsite for an internet install for GranSWMBO at her house. I mean, I probably don’t NEED to be there. But she did just watch all three of our kids while SWMBO and I went to a food show in Asheville where we looked at all kinds of awesome new stuff that will be coming to the store. (Number 1 favorite was hickory syrup, smoked, and aged in whiskey barrels. WOW was it good! But more about that later when we start receiving stuff in.)

What that meant for Friday was that our load of fresh beef wouldn’t have gotten in the store till about 5pm on Friday, pretty much missing everyone on Friday. But wonder of wonders, our friends at Chaudhry’s knocked it out and our beef is ready today! I’ll be heading over there this afternoon, after picking up a fresh load of pork at the processor, and chicken and dairy when I meet our chicken farmer this morning, then driving back to the farm, unloading, loading back up, and heading west towards Siler City.

Since I’m heading to Siler City, may as well stop by our friends at Celebrity Goat Dairy and pick up our fresh goat cheese, fudge, gelato, etc. Thursdays are my driving days, in case you can’t tell.

It’s a good thing Lucy (and you wonderful customers) made some room in the freezers. We’ll have to bungee cord them closed tonight they’ll be so stuffed.

For those of you who never seem to get ribeyes, I think we may be caught up a bit on pre-orders so plan on stopping by Friday 2pm-6pm and grabbing a pack. They are impossible to get since our regulars always pre-order them. Tomorrow could be your lucky day.

March 16, 2017

Twitter is back

So my auto poster thingy quit working last fall. It’s the software that automagically takes my WordPress blog post and pushes it out to Facebook, Twitter, whatever. When it broke, it was for no reason I could discern.

Not to worry, I just turned it off, and installed a new plugin. A bit of work and Facebook was back up and running. Twitter? Well, it had about 5 pages of instructions. I’ll do that tomorrow.

And only six months later, tomorrow finally arrives. I’d completely forgotten about Twitter not working. I went onto our Twitter page and the last post was October 2016. Oops! Sometimes being a farmer nerd is hard. So this is a welcome back to the Twitterverse. It’s also a test so I can see if I’m done nerding for today so I can go farm instead.

March 11, 2017

Snow is coming and we have milk

I don’t know what kind of snow we are going to have.

Usually when it snows in North Carolina, it is something akin to this:

However, the largest snow I can recall came in March in the 80s so who knows what it will do. If we don’t get the above, maybe it will be more like this.

Enough snow to disturb the parents is usually welcome amongst the short people here at the farm.

Regardless, we have lots of milk on hand and plenty of other goodies for some warm meals on the next few cold days. We’ll be open from now till 5pm today with the kids working and taking care of you when you show up. Stop by and get ready for the wintry weather!