08/25/2015
By now I’m sure most of you realize that we moved away from the Suffolk/Hampton Roads area. We are now located in Union, WV about a 6 hour drive from Suffolk. We realize that there are many of you who still want our products and we want to try to continue to supply you with our products if we can. It has been a hectic summer full of many trips back and forth moving animals and possessions and when I wasn’t doing that, I was putting up fence and trying to get operational here in West Virginia. While there is still a lot to do and I doubt I’ll ever be finished with improvements, we are finally up and running here. The animals are doing great and seem very content in their new surroundings. The humans are also settled in now as Douglas Koenig and his family are now here also and getting into the routine of life in our small farming community of Union.
The next time we thought we might make it into the area was around Labor Day weekend however that date is not unchangeable and I can be flexible. My concern with coming over any major holiday is that so many folks will be gone or vacationing and usually in past markets, holiday markets like that one are not necessarily all that good for those of us who sell this sort of food products. We also were considering doing the farmers market on the trip down but that isn’t really definite either. So lets toss around a few ideas..send me your feedback and if folks would like to do that, I’m OK with it. If we can get enough orders to head your way and a general consensus of what time frame works, we will make it work.
I’d also like some idea of who wants to order and what you want. We are pretty well stocked in pork and still have quite a good supply of beef. I’m not 100% sure of exactly what cuts we have for beef as we are still conducting an inventory…but we’ll respond and let you know as we get into it. On pork..we have some new sausage flavors…a sage and a garlic bratwurst and usual cuts. Our bacon will now be uncured…as our new processor, T & E meats of Harrisonburg, VA, cannot smoke under the USDA inspection requirements. So, it will be a little different but it’s STILL delicious Red Wattle bacon!
We do have lots of eggs and I can bring some if you wish. The only thing I cannot bring back to Virginia is chicken due to the laws that prohibit us from bringing it across state lines due to the lack of federal inspection. That is a pretty big hurdle and there really isn’t anywhere realistic to have chicken processed under the watchful eye of the USDA so that has really limited our options. We also don't have any chicken on hand...just started a batch of broiler chicks last week...so we'll be out of stock for a while yet.
Just to make a point...while I cannot legally bring chicken to VA, I cannot stop someone from visiting us and taking some home with them to wherever their home may be. ;-)
Thanks as always for your support.
Sharon Sluss
