Slowing Down to See What's Possible

The northern lights surprised us with a pink glow over the farm this week.

We caught our last batch of chickens this week, all 6,000 of them.

Our crew of 16 (half adults, half kids) spent a couple hours loading birds that have been thriving on their daily pasture these past many weeks to be driven to the processor. The northern lights even showed up, a pink sky over Arkansas, which none of us had ever seen before. The kind of night that reminds you what a privilege this life is.

That last catch always signals a shift on the farm. The relentless physical work winds down. We move from the "get it done" mentality that drives the growing season to something different, planning, reflecting, dreaming about next year.

And I’ve got to tell you, I love this part.

After months of just keeping the wheels turning, I get renewed energy when we start asking: What can we do better? What should we expand? How can we make this operation even stronger?

Back in June, I was wondering if I'd lost my mind. Twelve thousand chickens, new heifers, incoming sheep, hay to cut. The daylight wouldn't quit and neither would we. Now the days are short, the work has slowed down, and here I am planning how to do even more next year. It must be the nature of working with living things, you see potential everywhere. That heifer that struggled? Next year we'll know better. That pasture that flooded? We'll manage it smarter. Farmers are wired to see what could be.

Which is why Andrea and I are headed back to Montana this week for our EL group meeting. Same room where we connected with farmers from across the country last year. Same honest conversations about what's working and what's not. Same reminder that none of us are doing this alone.

Because honestly, we can't afford to be. We've lost half our cattle ranchers and 90 percent of hog farmers since 1980. Most farmers are barely hanging on. After the hard years we've had, the fact that we're planning for growth feels like its own kind of miracle.

What if more farmers had the stability to dream like this? We need those farmers. All of them. And the only way we keep them is by building food systems that actually work for farmers, not just corporations.

That's what you make possible. Every subscription, every order, it's giving us the breathing room to plan thoughtfully instead of just surviving.

Your farmer,
Cody

P.S. Know a farmer whose business is struggling? Reach out. We'll share the resources that helped us through the hard years.