Opening Bell

Greetings Conway Locally Grown Community,

The pace of life is picking up at Falling Sky Farm. There’s the new livestock watering system going in – thousands of feet of pipe to be assembled and buried. There are more chickens shipped to the farm each week – that means constant, careful tending of baby chicks, and more and more mobile pens to be pulled across the pasture each day. Tomorrow, Monday the 29th, marks our first chicken butchering day of the year. Cody, the master of efficiency, has been hard at work trying to automate another task along the butchering line in an effort to shave a few more seconds off the time it takes to process each chicken. With a crew of nine employees on the clock, time is money, and we expect to breeze through about 400 chickens in half a day.

The work these days is literally dawn to dusk, and at the end of each day, it can often feel like you hardly made a dent in the list of things that need to be done. All you can do at that point is sigh, grab a cold one, get a good night’s rest, and get up early the next morning ready to work even harder. It takes more than a strong back to farm this way – you’d better have a strong will and a positive attitude to boot. I’ll admit sometimes the work wears me down, physically and mentally, but it only takes a few moments of reflection on what’s at stake here to motivate me again. We’re trying to build a model for how to make an honest and sustainable living from the land. The success of such a model will help protect not only the health of America’s rural landscapes and economies, it will help preserve farming as a desirable way of life.

There is still PLENTY of room available for the May 11 Farm Tour. Get your tickets and let us show you a little of the life of a farmer. Be advised, our farmers cannot be held responsible for any sudden desires to move to the country, raise a garden and/or chickens, or get your hands dirty. Just be sure to wash up before the potluck y’all! Hope to see many new faces on the 11th.

The market is now open. Go to conway.locallygrown.net/market to place your order. The tour tickets are under the CLG events category. Single click the checkout button when you’re finished, and you will receive a confirmation email once your order is placed. Have a wonderful week everyone.

Best regards,
Gabe Levin
Market Director

from Cedar Rock Ridge:

Fresh Salsa for Cinco de Mayo: Only $2.50 this week (normally $4). Reduce, reuse, recycle. I asked you to bring your used glass jars with lids to CLG for recycling, and many did. Thank you! I have removed the labels and sanitized the jars and can now REDUCE THE PRICE of my freshly made MEDIUM salsa. Each jar is about 14 ounces, just less than a pint. Not loaded with preservatives, this salsa should be kept in the fridge and used within 3 weeks. Great with chips, on eggs, or with enchiladas. Enjoy!

Also, check out our exciting perennial plants, most only $2. Have a great gardening week!