Ninja Cow Farm LLC

In about 3 weeks we are going to stop milking at our dairy farm. That is about 2 months earlier than we normally stop for winter time drying off. Our embattled dairy farm manager, who was finally getting back on her feet after all of her health problems the last couple of years, has just discovered a new major health problem. This one is unrelated to the previous ones but is just as serious and requires surgery and recovery.

As a one woman dynamo, when she’s down, we are down. We’ll milk right up to the surgery date and it will be a bit fluid on when that date is depending on when she gets scheduled. I’ll post again when we have a final stop date confirmed but right now we expect within a few weeks she will be out of commission and milking will stop, meaning no more raw milk in the store for the remainder of the year.

So thats the bad news. If you are upset, remember this is a person we are talking about. A good person whom we love. Her health comes first, and if we work her to death (an actual possibility with what is going on) then we’ll never have milk again so safety first.

The good news is, we have six lamb at the processor being picked up today, along with the beef from the latest cow so lots of restocking happening today. We also have more lamb coming over the next couple of months so we should have good lamb availability for at least a few months. I know it is hit and miss on lamb. Our two farmers who raise it for us do it on the side and production is a bit up (sometimes like now) and down (the rest of the year).

These days my time spent working on the website can be measured in minutes per month. I put a lot of time into building an online presence over the years but as we’ve matured as a farm, and our business model has changed, the website just doesn’t get the attention it deserves or needs from me.

With that said, I do need to go in and just clean up things that have changed and I finally got one done. We still get requests to conduct tours of the farm. They have always been popular and something we enjoyed doing. Especially for home schooled kids who “aren’t socialized.” If you are a homeschooler, you know that old story. In fact, a large part of why we have our farm operation the way it exists is we wanted our kids to have the chance to work before Chick-Fil-A would hire them. We wanted them to grow up knowing how to work.

When the kids were little, and farming was all they knew, it was a fabulous place for them to be.

Handling cattle, eating what we grew, and generally being able to run out the door and come home when you were hungry made for a pretty free lifestyle.

Learning to work with animals, to care for them when they were sick isn’t just something that is special at the moment, it also teaches them how to handle critical care. How to react when something needs attention NOW.

Not everything happened on the farm of course. We were involved in the Civil Air Patrol and deployed to several hurricanes and many events. Spork even traveled to England as part of CAP.

But we always came back to home base, the farm. Where we could work, or play all while learning the skills to be an adult. Part of that was always working the store, or giving tours, or herding cattle. But always something.

Heck we even built an airplane and flew it on and off the farm. Well I flew it on and off. Spork is smart enough to fly to and from airports where it is safe.

But in 2022, Carter (aka Spork) graduated from high school, already well into his college classes. He’s a better man at 18 than I am at 50 and we are excited to see him go into the world. Well “see” if maybe an overstatement since we can’t “see” anything through the tears, but we are proud of him and look forward eagerly to his future off the farm.

With that said, I’ve taken tours off of the website since we no longer have a tour guide.

I was waiting till I could grab a picture of Caroline to post this, but you wonderful folks keep applying and I’m not here to grab a picture of her during work hours. So imagine a very smart and capable young lady smiling, standing behind the counter ready to help you find your beef, chicken, milk, etc.

Just in time too. We have a cow going to the processor tomorrow so a whole new load of beef is coming next week. Plus we have three more hogs going to the processor shortly so porky goodness will start trickling in over the next few weeks. Why weeks? Because real wood smoked BBQ takes longer to process than a pork chop. So we pick up over several weeks as items become available. Beef doesn’t have that issue as everything is a cut of meat.

We didn’t make our normal meetup for chicken this week but that is because we are well stocked on chicken and eggs, except for the things our chicken farmer was out of anyway. I’ll make that meet next week when she’s had time to process some new birds.

So come on by the store this week and say hello to Caroline and congratulate her on her new job.

First let me post the actual job ad Jeanette wrote.

Ninja Cow Farm is a small family farm located in Raleigh which sells grass fed and finished beef, pasture raised pork, chicken and lamb. We have been in business for over 7 years on Old Stage Road. Ninja Cow Farm store is looking for a part time sales associate to work at our farm store.  The successful candidate must have exceptional customer service skills, be self-motivated, and a team player. This position would be roughly 9 hours a week (Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1:30-6 pm) with potential for additional hours when needed. Outside of running the register and assisting customers as needed, there is some heavy lifting (up to 25lbs) in order to restock.  The ideal candidate should be knowledgeable or at least willing to learn and understand the benefits of clean eating, cuts of meat, cooking from scratch and consuming raw products.

All interested applicants please direct your resumes to Dan Moore at dan@ninjacowfarm.com

I am a former homeschooling momma where this job was perfect because it allowed me to work a few hours a week plus continue to school my son. The store has wifi so my son was able to do his on line work for not only high school but also his college classes. He learned some public speaking by greeting and helping customers carry their bags, he helped unload beef, chicken and pork so learned about different cuts of animals and he assisted me in picking new products for the shelves. 

Ok, now I can tell what is going on.

First, no, Jeanette is not leaving. She’s been doing a ton of work to get and keep the store running for a long time, with little help from me. And she’s to the point of needing to take some time off here or there. That was doable in the past because I had a gaggle of kids running around who could take a shift here or there to give her a break. But my days of having hot and cold running kids available and underfoot is over.

But before college, he is traveling abroad to England as part of IACE.

The Princess is 100% a teenager with a license, activities, a job, and is visiting colleges

And Wildflower has become a volleyball demon, playing nonstop both in and out of town on multiple teams.

Their schedules are worse than mine, and mine is pretty bad. Their days of being in the house and available to take a last minute shift, or even a planned three months in advance shift, are over.

So while we have Jasper and True to take a days in the store, we need another adult who can handle the rest of the job, like receiving stock, handling customer credits, placing orders, etc. So we need someone who can take some light steady hours and then fill in for Jeanette here or there when she needs to be out.

This is an ideal job for someone already interested in our industry, specifically the foodie side of the industry. Someone who is maybe a mom starting to look for something to do outside of the house now that the kids are a bit more stable. Someone who is adept at cooking is a plus because education is a large part of what we do, helping our customers learn to meal prep and prepare cuts they haven’t used before or are trying to learn about.

I’d have my wife, who is suddenly without children at home to school with the last one going to school next month, and who is adept at cooking, and is already trained in the store, apply for the job. But she has informed me that once the kids go back to school, she will be taking a BREAK after 14 years of homeschooling and I can just shut up about her getting a job for a while. So my marriage difficulty is your opportunity. Send me an email if you are interested. dan@ninjacowfarm.com

You’d have to live under a rock to not know about the supply chain issues we are all facing. Diesel prices are crazy, you can’t get tires, and the grocery store has empty shelves….again.

But our supply chain is much shorter and has different kinks.

Pork We are mid switch from our pigs raised here on the farm to our new pork farmer. It took a bit to get things moving and we ran short on pork for a few weeks, especially on our most common items.

Chicken Our chicken farmer usually meets us every week. We get chicken and dairy products on the same delivery. But with fuel prices so high, we don’t get to meet every week now. We only meet if the order is big enough to justify the trip. And she’s behind on growing birds. Again. So a lot of what we order isn’t available when we order it, which makes the “is it worth the drive” game even harder to play. And now there is some bird flu going around and she can’t get chicks. Chicken has been a mess the past few weeks.

Beef I started a new job off the farm and I ended up being late to delivery this month’s cow. Which of course means we ran short on beef because I was a week late getting the cow to the processor. A job? Me? Wait. Wait! I can hear the questions now.

You got a job? Are you still going to farm? Yes I’m still a farmer.
Are you selling the farm?! No I’m not selling the farm. Hence the whole, I’m still a farmer thing.
Why did you have to get a job? Does the farm not make money? What? You thought the farm made money? Heck it never made money. Nobody farming makes money.
If you don’t make money, how do you keep farming? This new job isn’t my only off farm job. I’ve had an off farm job the whole time.
But this is an adult job, real work, nose to the grind stone kind of thing? Oh heck no. No adulting for me. This is definitely a kids job. A big kid, but kid for sure.

I’m flying for hire now. Currently flying a jet (which is cool) and soon to be also flying a King Air (which is cool) and even flying a Cirrus (which is cool). Can you tell flying is cool? Can I tell you about it? My wife is tired of hearing me talk about planes…… No, oh ok. So about that farming….

So back to our beef being late. I got stuck in the Caribbean with a broken airplane and was late getting the cow to the processor. Yes, being stuck in paradise, and getting paid for it, was as bad as it sounds. The only car available to rent was a convertible. No really…. Yeah, my family didn’t believe me either. But I’m back and farming has kicked into gear. This week I drove 35 gallons of diesel out of my truck hauling product around NC and back to the farm.

The stupid beef picture won’t post correctly. Sorry it is so large.

So the store, which was kinda sad last week, is back in full swing. We have most of our products in stock again and more stuff to pick up in the pipeline. I’m sorry for the things that we were out of. It was out of our hands for the most part and we had to just do the best we could. I’m mostly around this month so deliveries should be normal. And we already have our next cow in line to go to the processor so we should stay in beef heading into summer. So all in all, things are back to normal. Or as normal as it gets around here.

For the past several years, our website has progressively gotten slower and slower. I’ve deleted a lot of content, or resized images extensively, or called our hosting provider to be sold yet another upgraded plan which was marginal at best. Despite all that, the entire website crawls. I’ve investigated several times just dumping our provider and getting a new one. But that requires about 2 solid days of being in the office non-stop, just banging my head into the wall till the new hosting works with the old website. As you can guess, I haven’t been able to free up those two days.

With all that in mind, I received an email out of the blue from our hosting provider saying we’d been moved to a new server in house. Now this free move to a new server (I’d already paid for one, it didn’t help) only required about 2 hours of being in the office, lightly tapping myself in the head with a ball peen hammer, so much easier than a full hosting company changeover. But I was skeptical. Then I clicked on our website to see if it worked and….

The website works like it is supposed to, quick and responsive. Of course NOW the hosting provider, when queried, said the old server had problems so they needed to move everyone to a new one. Argh! Of course it had problems! I’d been telling them that for years.

So apologies for the lack of speed on our website. Apparently it is all better now. Enjoy the speed. Maybe I can actually post some content now that I don’t have to watch paint dry on every click.

March 10, 2022. Our person scheduled to work today is sick, and everyone else is already committed to other things, so we are going to close today. Our normal schedule will resume (with different, not sick personnel) tomorrow 11 March and again on Saturday 12 March we’ll be open as normal so it is just today. Sorry for the inconvenience.

We have babies on the ground! And with that comes milk, milking, milk testing, preparation, storage and finally TRANSPORT. (In case you don’t know, transport is when it actually shows up here at the store.)

We know for certain that we will have raw goats milk on 2 March and we may even have some cows milk on that date as well. For certain we’ll have both cow and goat milk on 9 March.

Now to try and answer the questions I think people will have.

Can I reserve some milk for me?

No. We do not reserve raw milk. It is first come, first serve. We do not, and we have never had, enough milk for everyone. We’ve held milk in the past for people, who then didn’t show up. So if you are frustrated at why we won’t hold milk, blame your peers.

Do I need to join the herd share to buy milk?

If you are planning on drinking it, yes. Also if you are planning on getting yoghurt, butter, etc. All of those items require you to be a part of the herd share. If you are only purchasing the milk for your pet, then you do not have to join to herd share. However, we charge $2 more per gallon for non-herdshare purchases so if you plan to buy all season, it is cheaper to join.

What does the herdshare cost to join?

We charge the cost of a gallon of milk to join. At that point your name goes on the list for this season and you are free to purchase.

What does a gallon of milk cost?

I don’t know. Pricing has been insane lately on everything and our dairy farm manager is still getting her costs together. I’m sorry, I wish we had a better idea but pricing has been crazy. Last year it was $12 for a gallon, $14 if you were not part of the herdshare. I expect it will go up once we get pricing but that is a moving target, as I said. We’ll have pricing in the store by the time we have milk.

Is there a limit to how much milk I can buy?

Yes, especially in the beginning. Everyone wants to get milk and there is only so much to go around. Jeanette will be limiting milk purchase in the store until our supply and demand stabilizes. Once that happens we will probably get a little more flexibility in what you can purchase at once. One thing to know is if you are wanting to freeze milk, let Jeanette know so she can put you on a first call list for when we get to Saturday and still have some milk. It does happen occasionally.

Are you going to dry off again this winter?

I don’t know that either. The plan wasn’t to dry off this winter. But you know what they say about plans and contact with the enemy. This year, I’m hoping we can be on reduced milking instead of being completely dried off, but we’ll have to see how the year goes.

About 3-5 times per week, I receive this email.

Do you carry raw:

goats
cow
chicken
buzzard
snail milk?

…..I heard from a friend of a friend who’s cousin’s niece’s brother said that you have it and I wanted to know if I could:

stop by in 5 minutes
pre order 16 gallons
just go in the store even though you are closed
bring my dog by to drink it right there in the store.

I answer everyone pretty much the same. I link to the post I posted back in October where I announced that we were drying off the animals and tell them to check back in February.

I’m not smart enough to keep the raw milk status on the top of the web page, mainly because I don’t have a lot of time at the computer anymore, and when I am at the computer I’m wasting time doing pointless things like paying taxes, paying bills, doing the accounting, etc. You know, goofing off. I just don’t get to the website enough to post updates and do my normal erratic writing. But I spend so much time answering these emails that it finally occurred to me that maybe I should move this topic up the priority list. So, here is the status on raw milk.

All the critters are as wide a battleships, ready to deliver new cuteness to the farm. We expect them to start dropping in the next few weeks. Once babies start hitting the ground, we’ll have the craziness of getting moms and babies sorted and nursing properly. Then the craziness of convincing animals that had gotten used to sleeping in that now we are going back to milking at 5am. Then we have to get the milk tested. Then coordinate a pickup date for the first weekly pickup. THEN we will have milk back in the store.

Until all those things happen, we do NOT have any raw milk. Or raw milk butter. Or yogurt. Or anything else that is raw milk based. The first few weeks of milking will be just milk, but we’ll start working our way into other products as time progresses.

I will post here when we have a date for first pickup. Sometimes the situation is fluid, so my post may be, “And we’re back!” because we just didn’t have time to plan that effectively. Sometimes animals make things smooth, sometimes it is an adventure. I will do my best to get notice out as soon as I have it available. So stay tuned.

Not saying we are going to repeat the above, but it isn’t like we are known fo handling a bit of snow with aplomb. With that said, we are shutting down today (Friday) and tomorrow. Have fun making snow angels and drinking hot chocolate. I know we will.
See you Wednesday when we reopen.