Sunday, March 15, 2009

An invitation to a taste of local farm life!

Now here's an opportunity you don't get very often--a real taste of life on a small, locally owned and operated farm. Please see the invitation below from our beloved Slow Food member and producer of wonderful eggs (and sausage etc.), Julie Walker.

If you saw "Food Inc." at the recent True/False festival, I know you are so appreciative that farmers such as Julie exist to save us from having to purchase eggs from the likes of the producers shown in the film. So let's help her out!

P.S. Delicious lunch included!

Dear Slow Food Katy Trailers (Yuck, Yuck)!

I have decided to start something I'm calling Greystone Farm Chore Days whereby I ask for volunteers from those folks I consider friends of our farm--Slow Food members, customers, vendors of our products, and others--to come out to the farm and help me with some of the bigger projects that would take me forever to complete myself.

These projects are usually difficult, dirty, time-consuming jobs that are the nature of raising local food the small-scale, labor-intensive, animal & environmentally responsible way. They require lots of elbow grease and stick-to-it-iveness. They are a great way for those of you who value the food we raise to learn about the nature of farming this way. You will be rewarded with an education, a day outside working with your body & your mind, and a first-rate meal I will prepare with as many of my own products and other local foods as possible.

I am hosting the first Chore Day next Sunday, 3/22/09, from 11:00 am until we get the task done (probably around 5:00 pm). I will need 8 volunteers to help me clean out nest boxes (120 of them).

We'll start at 11:00 with a walk followed by a lunch of Cassoulet, Roquefort Coleslaw and Mock Tiramisu (the cassoulet & tiramisu are recipes from Jacques Pepin's Fast Food My Way). We can begin the cleanout around 1:00 pm--the hens are mostly done laying by then. We will be removing the nest pads, cleaning and remaking those that need to be, removing the false floors and scraping clean these floors as well as the troughs where the eggs roll out. We will then vacuum out nest boxes & troughs, replace floors and add plastic liners that should make this job less work in the future (one that I can handle myself).

Let me be frank. This will be one of the dirtiest jobs you will ever do. You will need to wear old, crummy work clothes and shoes that will get some chicken manure on them. Your arms will get sore. Do Not Volunteer if you have an allergy to DUST or HARD WORK. Do volunteer if you have lots of elbow grease and want to feel like you've done a gratifying day of physical labor out on the farm paying homage to the hens that work hard to provide wonderful eggs!

Please let me know if you would like to help with this project by Tuesday, 3/17/09. I will send an email confirming the first 8 eager volunteers and let the extras know I'll put them on the waiting list for the next Chore Day I'm planning later this Spring. Thanks for your help!

Sincerely,

Julie Walker

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