| TURKANA FARMS, LLC |
| Green E-Market Bulletin November 7, 2024 |
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| The Risks and the BenefitsHi all, Mark here.It’s odd to feel hung over when you haven’t excessively drunk the night before. But that was absolutely the feeling I woke up with Wednesday morning — stupefied and a bit queasy.As usual, my first reach was for my phone, which had buzzed me awake. “Sad,” “Don’t understand,” “Numb,” were some of the messages from friends and family that came in over the course of the morning. And later in the afternoon, this one: “I haven’t been able to get up today. I’m gonna try to force myself to go to Trader Joe’s and get some sweet potatoes.”A sense of profound loss often comes with a feeling of paralysis. Wednesday morning I would have loved to just pull my covers over my head and snuggle with Eric.But the farm doesn’t allow that. Hungry mouths seek food and water. Critters locked up safely for the night crave the freedom of the pasture when the sun comes up. They baaa or gobble in reproach if I keep them waiting. And when I am bereft, I am grateful for this responsibility, which forces me to get up, get going and ensure that life goes on.Thus, Wednesday morning I was oddly grateful that a part of the fence near the barn separating the turkey yard from the sheep pasture had collapsed the day before. I had jerry-rigged it together hurriedly in the spring, using as fence panels some long sections of an abandoned portable chicken tractor that were not designed to be free-standing, and which I wired at either end to some fence posts. The turkeys have often perched there, and as the birds have gotten heavier through the summer and fall their weight began to stress the panels, ultimately collapsing one. Where it collapsed, the sheep walked over it, and, while the turkeys were out wandering during the day Wednesday, the sheep entered the turkeys’ room and ate whatever grain they could forage in the turkeys’ feeder.I decided the collapsed section needed to be replaced with sturdier material (I salvaged an old pig panel), and that the fencing needed an additional fence post as structural support. The fence is on a shale ridge where Macho Matt installed the initial posts using a gas powered augur, so I was a little uncertain that I’d be able to plant the new fence post by hand. It has been exceptionally dry for the last couple of months, and I expected the ground to be quite hard.I assure you, there is absolutely no better remedy for feeling defeated by a powerful adversary than to confront another strong adversary and prevail. Repeatedly driving a post hole digger into the ground, I made slow progress at first, the dry soil at the top being hard to penetrate and then too powdery below to easily keep together in the teeth of the digger. When I got about 8 inches down I encountered a large rock that I was afraid would turn out to be a shelf of shale. I enlarged the hole, made exploratory digs with a shovel to determine the rock’s precise contours, and pounded the digger as best I could around its periphery. Though repeated plunges with the digger got me no deeper, I began to sense enough wriggling in the rock that I was able to manoeuver under it with a crowbar and slowly leverage it out. Once that four inch thick obstacle was out, I was able to proceed much more quickly to the depth I needed to successfully plant the post.The post-setting had all the elements of more significant long term processes: the initial phase of barely making any progress at all, the long period of feeling that you are pounding your head against a brick wall, the “a-hah” moment when a big obstacle is cleared, and the home stretch when you’re able to achieve your goal. And it was especially satisfying to be able to put the entire force of my muscles into that quest, making the process tangible and blowing off steam at the same time. It seemed an apt metaphor for the long road we are now going to have to slog.After spending the rest of the morning at work, Eric and I each at our desks, during our lunch break we distributed some flyers in strategic locations to promote our turkeys for Thanksgiving. I’ve assumed that the sort of anxious paralysis and preoccupation I have felt for several weeks before the election, which have distracted me from my usual promotional activity, have similarly affected others, accounting for why, three weeks out, I still have un-reserved turkeys. My expectation in distributing the flyers was that rather than wallow in grief, folks would now pivot to the pressing and positive business of getting ready for Thanksgiving.It is, I humbly submit, time to turn that page. In the challenging period the world is about to enter, it may be overwhelming to contemplate how we face the big political disputes and accompanying social strife we know is coming. But it is not nearly so difficult to contemplate how we strengthen ourselves and the institutions we hold dear at the local level of family and community.As the farm has taught me, resilience, the ability to meet new challenges, comes with making sure that the smallest building blocks of your world are in good shape and on solid footing. You keep your fences fixed, your gates operational, your animals inculcated to a routine of stable expectations. Other businesses, families, and communities are no different.The tradition of Thanksgiving is one way we solidify our family and friend networks. We express our mutual love through gathering and sharing a feast. We celebrate the bounty of our agriculture and support our farms, a foundation of our well-being. These are not frivolous things, they are building blocks of a better future. As a first step, let’s turn our attention there, folks. |
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| MAKE THIS THANKSGIVING SPECIAL WITH A HERITAGE BREED TURKEYThis year we are raising Blue Slates and Bourbon Reds, heritage breeds preserved for their exceptional flavor. Far slower growing than broad breasted turkeys, able to develop fat that insures richer flavor. These have been fed on organic grain from Stone House Farm, supplemented by what they find in nature from flying, roaming and grazing by day (not the sedentary lives of supermarket turkeys). The birds will be slaughtered the week before Thanksgiving and available fresh Thanksgiving week at the farm or for NYC pickup Tuesday evening. $12/lb plus $5 off-premises pickup feeName___________________________ e-mail________________ phone______________ Please check here if you would like to receive email offerings in season:______________Number of turkeys desired: ___________ Approx. weight desired ________ (Note: the smallest turkeys will be about 7 lbs, and we will have a very large supply of 8 to 9 lb hens. The toms will be more in the 13-17 lb. range, with the largest dressing out at up to 18 lbs. And there are always a few in the sizes in between )Pick up place: ___at the farm; ___Lower Manhattan___a point along the Taconic Parkway, Please send a deposit of $40 per bird to hold your reservation to Turkana Farms, LLC, 110 Lasher Ave., Germantown, NY, 12526. The balance due will be paid at the time of the pick up. . |
| WHAT’S AVAILABLE THIS WEEKIn the red meat department, frozen lamb:Butterflied legs of lamb $16/lb Rib or Loin chops (packs of 2) $14/lb Small racks of lamb $14/lb Riblets (breast of lamb) $8/lbOther cuts imminently arriving.Eggs – Ask but availability will be spotty after a major predator attack on our older hens, with only a couple still around to lay. The new girls are doing fine, and should start producing in a few weeks, so be patient please.Veggies:Sorrel $2/bag Horseradish: $4/lb Mint $1 a bunch Oasis Turnips, large, $2/lb, small salad size, $2/bunch of six Frisee lettuce, $2/head Jalapeno peppers $.50 cents each Hot chili peppers $.10 cents each Small poblano peppers $.50 each Baby beets $3.00 a bunch, mix of Detroit red, pinstriped Chiogga and golden beets |
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| ©2024 Turkana Farms, LLC | 110 Lasher Avenue, Germantown, NY 12526 |