Shoes, towels and televisions are products. I hate the term product for food. Once anything becomes available for purchase, be it trees (wood), cucumbers (produce), grass (sod), cows (beef) or water (still water)… it becomes a product. The things that come from a farm or homestead, at least to me, aren't products. They are the closest thing your customers can get to walking out into their own backyards and getting something themselves.
Eggs at the store are products with the word product often listed on the packaging. Most home-raised eggs come from chickens that are treated like pets. We start our day feeding them, letting them out of their roomy coops into their big grassy yards with areas for shade. We look them over, talk to them and watch them for a while before moving on to other chores. Our chickens sometimes have names. We gather eggs each night when we put them up and carefully wash them off with a soft cloth before putting the eggs in the refrigerator. Eggs that are products come from giant buildings filled with thousands of chickens in tiny, cramped spaces with just enough room for a chicken to reach its beak into a food and water tray. The term free-range refers to animals having access to the outdoors. There is no requirement that the outdoor space is big enough to actually range. There are also no requirements that the animal is able to be outside all day.
Home-raised eggs are also fresh, really fresh. Most grocery store eggs are 30 to 60 days old by the time you purchase them. Farms (CAFO or not) have 30 days to get the eggs packaged then they have to be sold within 30 days from that point.
Another common difference between most store-bought eggs and farm eggs is the yolk color. Dark orange yolks are the result of chickens having access to food high in carotenes which are found in everything from grass to vegetables. While most chickens have diets supplemented with bagged feed (especially in the winter), they will eat plants, vegetables and bugs if they have access to them. We think our eggs taste better than the ones from the store and so do our friends, family and customers. They are different because of our chicken’s diet, but taste is an opinion so that one will have to remain in the realm of theory.
Eggs aren’t the only farm food that defy the term product. Vegetables and fruit grown without chemicals are a labor of love. Spraying pesticides, insecticides and herbicides is easy. Dangerous, but easy. Pulling weeds is hard. Watching your squash plants die in a day because of squash beetles is frustrating. Tossing a handful of worm-ridden tomatoes to the chickens every day is a bummer. Losing a third of your potatoes to blight is devastating. However, not to sound like a broken record here, having fresh, chemical free food is delicious and healthy.
Bottom line, get local, chemical free food if you can. Grow it, trade for it, buy it. Not sure your local farmer’s market vendors are growing without chemicals? Getting certified organic is financially out of reach for many growers, but that doesn’t mean your food is doused in chemicals. Unless the market checks for you, you’ll simply have to ask the vendor. We find most that use them respond by saying, “you can’t grow without chemicals.” We all know you can, it’s just harder. So, move on to the next table.
There is plenty of real food out there, let’s leave the products for the grocery stores.
P.S. This blog comes from the heart. Writing, drawing, painting, photography, composing... are all creative expressions so unique to being human. They take years to develop and bravery to share. And yet, they too have also commonly become products. Please support local artists and if you enjoy this blog, please subscribe!
Audrey L Elder
Fourteen Acre Wood