“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”
Unless you’re my mother, who starts dreaming of warm, sunny locations as soon as the temps drop below 60. Don’t get me wrong, she sure does enjoy Christmas, she just wishes we could have Christmas in Florida every year!
Looking back, it’s been a very productive and full year of rapid growth for Freedom Valley Farm.
This year was full of many firsts for us, including our first farm tour and Farm Day which took place on a gorgeous Saturday in June. We welcomed hundreds of happy folks who came out to Freedom Valley to learn a little bit more about how we farm to heal the land and to enjoy an up close look at how we humanely and ethically raise our animals with care and respect.
Interested in taking a farm tour yourself? Keep an eye out for our farm events happening in 2019, as we are striving to add more fun and value to you, our family of supporters and friends.
This year we have raised and processed far more chickens and turkeys than we ever imagined we would! I mean, just 4 or 5 years ago we were only processing the 30 or 40 chickens and the few turkeys needed to provide for our family’s yearly consumption. What a huge jump to now be raising and processing batches of hundreds of birds multiple times throughout the year! In fact, for 2019, we are hoping to be able to pass along some of this knowledge by hosting some chicken processing classes here at the farm. One of our valued mentors in Georgia has experienced much demand for this on his farm, so please let us know if this is of interest to you!
The next exciting point of growth for the farm happened in November, as we opened our on-farm store. We are now able to provide our customers the convenience of purchasing individual cuts of beef, chicken and pork, as well as goods from other local farms and artisans, like wild flower honey and body butter made from the tallow of grass fed beef. Our grand opening was on November 3rd and was an amazingly successful day that had my social butterfly of a mother smiling from ear to ear as she greeted many old and new friends alike. Now, each week, we have the opportunity to do it again as we open the store to the community. It is a perfect solution for folks to get clean farm fresh meats to their table, especially when buying a half a hog or a quarter of a cow is not a good fit for them. You can check out our upcoming store hours here.
Our last big accomplishment for the year is our brand new website. This bad boy literally just launched last week, but we are so excited for the possibilities it brings to the table. Not only does it have a sleek new design, but you can also browse all of our store products, and even place an order online and have it ready and waiting for you to pick up the next time we are open, (or read on for another convienant option that’s launching soon).
Want to take a peek at our online store? See for yourself here.
What does 2019 hold for Freedom Valley’s family farm? Well, we are excitedly planning more opportunities for you to come out and see the farm. We love being able to connect people with the land and the food they are eating from that land. We are also excited to launch our buying clubs, where online orders will be delivered to our customer’s local neighborhood. Sound interesting? You can learn more about that here.We are also exploring the idea of being at local farmers markets as well. Oh boy, I’m already getting excited thinking of all the things to come in the new year!
Well, our year sure has been eventful and full, what about yours? We sure do look forward to serving you in the coming year. We hope that you are looking forward to 2019 as much as we are! We also pray you have a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas with your loved ones, and that you will be able to take time for what really matter this Christmas season.
To you and yours, a very Merry Christmas from all the Hamby’s at Freedom Valley Farm!