Autumn is sliding into winter. The leaves are making their way to the ground as the trees prepare to go to sleep until Spring. The fog rolls off the waterfall in the chilly mornings as the first light makes it’s way slower and slower into the day. Frost kisses the last lush green grasses that the cows eagerly munch up, their coats becoming fuzzier by the day. The days are grey and cold, making those rarer sunny days so much more precious. The earth is in a constant state of change and so are we. In that light, some of you noticed that I snuck into my last blog post that I’m moving my farm. Yes, it’s true. Back in the summer time I wrote a blog post about an old farmer who stopped by my farm and we had a wonderful conversation. What I didn’t mention is that at some point in the conversation he offered for me to farm on his farm. The conversation went something like this. After a few hours of talking and sharing some ideas we had for farming such as events and Jersey milk ice cream he asked, “Are you going to do those sorts of things here?”

Let me start by saying, I wish I didn’t have to raise them. I know my products are an investment and I wish I could continue to provide them at the current price. Actually I wish I could lower the prices to make them more accessible to more people. But the truth is, I just can’t afford to. I’m hoping to grow food for my community until I’m no longer physically able and at these prices I will be out of business long before then. I could cut corners and reduce costs in doing so, but I am not willing to do that to my animals or to you. Rhode Island. What a great state, right? I absolutely love it here. It also happens to be the state with the most expensive farmland in the country and it really lacks infrastructure when it comes to livestock farming. When I recently visited a few farmer’s markets in New Hampshire I learned that those farms are literally paying half for grain what I’m paying here and also have multiple options for slaughterhouses within an hour of their farm. They can purchase a whole farm for a few hundred thousand dollars. Their prices are the same as mine. As many of you probably know I drive three hours each way to bring my animals to humane slaughter in Vermont. That’s six hours of driving to bring the animals up, and six hours of driving to go back to pick up the meat. Not only is that an incredible amount of my time, but it’s a huge gas expense, and a lot of wear and tear on the vehicles and my trailer. Although there is an option much closer to home, I am not willing to cut corners with my animals.