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On Saturday we visited a farm called Grateful Growers Farm.
They raise pigs, turkeys, ducks and chickens, and grow shitake mushrooms. The chickens and ducks are free range and the pigs have enough room to forage and wallow in the mud. If you ever consider the conditions in which our food species are raised (and you should), you will, perhaps, consider seeking out a source of humanely farmed meat. This website lists local farms in many areas of the country with contact information and what types of products they provide.
The proprietor of Grateful Growers was very informative as she took us on a tour of the farm. She discussed the reason that free range chickens are so much more expensive (and that she still actually loses money on chickens) and that even the big time, non-organic chicken farms only make a profit of cents per chicken. They make a lot of money by producing A LOT of chickens.
Naturally, their chickens aren't as happy as these.
And if you want to see some happy animals, take a look at these pigs! 


Ooo, that mud feels good!
The shitakes mushrooms are grown on oak logs. Spores are inserted into holes drilled into the logs and they are placed in shady areas that are not useful for growing other types of food.
Gratuitous cute puppy photo:
And finally, which is the biggest turkey?? You decide.

We had another fun visit with our friends in NC, Ed, Wendy and Nora. It really is like visiting family when we all get together. Nora is about midway in age between Megan and Nicholas, and all 3 kids get along great together. Our kids disappear with Nora on our arrival, emerging only for meals.



Nora has a great playhouse built by Ed, and during this visit, the kids were running a bed and breakfast. The King and Queen (of what was not made clear) were in residence and I was privileged to observe the preparation of their breakfast. 


Looks pretty good, eh?
On Saturday, we attended the Know Your Farms farm tour. We visited 3 of the nearly 2 dozen farms included on the tour. We had a great time, the weather held off, with only a short rain shower at the last farm, and a great time was had by all. See my next posts for descriptions of the individual farms.
...and many more :)