Moral Conundrum -- The "Bartering Eggs For Coffee" WILL HAPPEN!

[Beekissed]

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You must not have been to southern WV or the eastern panhandle, Carugoman!

You have to lean OUT of your car window to see the top of some of these hill farms!

 

[dangerouschicken]

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I didn't meet (or is that meat?) the Scottish butcher. The guy at Buxton was named Dan. Quite handsome and nice, so I suppose it was a fair trade off for a lovely Scottish burr.

I got my dad in a buying mood and he walked away with almost as much as I did! Mmmmmm meat. yemoticon

Harringtons was quite a fine little operation. Small townish, with homey folks. Guy came up to me all bloody and I said, "Should I go into the office?"motioning to the door. And he said, "We don't have an office. Just killing in there." Good reality check! Luckily the birds came back so clean and gorgeous, I was HIGH. The skin on my ducks was a quarter inch thick and they made them look so perfect. I could have never dressed them out that nicely. We were so high on good lookin' meat, we forgot our transportation kennels, and now my vegan brother has to go to the slaughterhouse to pick them up

btw, NICE USERPIC!

Beekissed, I totally see what you are saying. I think the 3 month locavore experiment is exactly that: an experiment. We certainly have no intention of being "hardcore" about it full-time. We just want to see if we can do it for July Aug and Sept. Afterwards, we want to maintain a level of locavore buying habits, because we believe in them, but we also know there are things we love from other places that we aren't willing to give up forever (like olive oil, coffee, & Asian foods as I mentioned before). I suppose our desire is to eat well on a local level, and financially, we aren't be hurt by that. I really don't see local or homegrown food costing more than the processed or imported counterparts. Does everyone really think that?

We don't spend money on just anything, and we have been working towards being mostly debt-free for the past 6 years (almost there!). I think we find a good balance between what we need to buy and what we want to buy, as well as the enjoyment and health benefits we get from the things we purchase. I'm frugal about most stuff, and I think growing your own food is pretty frugal!

We do enjoy these family goals and working towards achieving them. It is fun to be excited about food and flavor, and not just "filling the tank." You know?

 

[Alaska animal lover]

Wow $20 for the coffee plant huh? Bummer on the price, and the humidity issue.
I called a local butcher and asked him about buying local meat. He said you have to buy the whole animal and then have it processed.

I asked him if there were any way I could buy a cow and make arrangements to have it delivered to the meat plant without actually having to look it in the eye.
He said "yeah, we won't ask you to meet it or pet it or bathe it."

So that's an option for us. He also gave me the number to a local meat company that buys and processes livestock from local farms.
One more piece of great news, our area has a dairy again! They are making milk and cheese from local cows.

 

[dangerouschicken]

Hey very cool! Do they have glass bottles? Milk always tastes better from a glass bottle :: sigh ::

We don't have a dairy around here

I would love to have my own milk cow, but that will have to later on, when I can force the kids to milk it for me (hehehe).

Remember, if price is an issue, you can go in with another family and just do a side of beef. No petting or bathing required there, either

That place Buxton has whole water buffalo on the hoof for like, $1300 or something. They are HUGE!

 

[carugoman]

You must not have been to southern WV or the eastern panhandle, Carugoman! You have to lean OUT of your car window to see the top of some of these hill farms!

I grew up just NE of Elkins, WVA. We grew diagonal/ horizontal crops,hehe! What I was referring to was the way the camera was held in the photos in bluebirdfarm's post. It appears that the camera was slanted?​

 

[dangerouschicken]

I keep forgetting to list the site Local Harvest here for those interested in finding local foods/farmers by zipcode:

http://www.localharvest.org/

 

[hcammack]

dangerous chicken I PMed you about something diffrent than this but I am very intrested in growing all my own food my mom is not though we do have at least one meal a day mostly from the garden or coop. I need to do meat chickens this fall or next spring

 

[dacjohns]

So many excellent points being made here. I agree that locavorism doesn't have to be hard core stay within the lines do it my way. Whatever you do however small it may be helps.

Here are a couple of links about growing coffee. The first one is pretty techincial but interesting:
http://www.coffeeresearch.org/coffee/homegrowing.htm

http://www.beverageanswers.com/coffee/coffee-beans-growing.html

carugoman--were you SF?

 

[farm_mom]

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www.eatwild.com and http://realmilk.com are good resources too.

 

[greyfields]

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I'm pretty sure it has been proven!

I grew up on well water. My dentist regularly reminds me if not having gotten flouride at school, I'd be in even worse shape. :\\