Growing our local food system

In the Wild Edge household, we regularly eat the freshest of fresh food, one of the perks of managing a farm.  We spent a couple days recently butchering cockerels as part of forming our next flock of laying hens.  Our younger son Jake started dreaming of chicken burritos as he plucked, and by dinnertime he had created a scrumptious meal simply by shredding and flavoring the extra chicken from our home cooked chicken broth.  There was nothing fancy about it.  It was delicious because it was fresh – and because it was cooked by a 14-year-old!

We have a bin in our back room with carrots from our last harvest in December.  They are no longer crisp, and the beautiful ones were selected out over a month ago, so it’s mostly the ones that have been damaged that remain.  But cut that part off, and 98% of those carrots are still sweet and delicious.

We’re eating from the whole farm.  And that not only tastes good, but feels good, too.

As farmers and eaters, we get jazzed by the efforts of other local farmers and local eaters to create a local food system that brings this type of good tasting, quality food to everyone.  Your purchases of our pastured Tamworth hogs who spend their entire life on the farm are part of that.  When you buy meat from us, we can keep raising hogs, which means a continuation of pastured meat in the community which can in turn inspire others to source their food more locally. 

By choosing to move away from the conventional system of industrially raised food that is shipped in, you help local businesses to keep people employed and pass on the skill sets involved in raising and processing food.  Sunrise Meats, for example, is one of a dramatically diminishing number of butcher shops that smokes their meat with true wood smoke, processes wild game for local hunters, and practices the art of processing meat and fish in a non-industrial, neighborhood shop. 

When we all choose to source our food with this type of community well-being in mind, we can and do make a difference, now and into the future, which is something we’re willing to hang our hats on.

As we enter this new year together, the opportunities are ripe.  Our hogs are thriving.  We have 6 ready for harvest in March, followed by a progressive line up into fall and winter.  

Thank you for being part of our burgeoning local food system.  You can click here to place an order.  

Karen and Jim