Trins: Today's todo list says...

...hustle walnuts? What's that?

Oh yeah, we collect thousands of walnuts into the back of the truck,

And we dump them into a hopper from where they will eventually show up in people's kitchens all over the country.

Kinda like these chickens, except our walnuts are completely natural.

Like this beef, which came from a local farmer and will show up in a local kitchen.  The three oldest learned from our butcher how to do this the old fashioned way.  It doesn't get any fresher than this.  One may think that processing in an "approved" facility would be better, but... the problem with large factory operations is that the meat will come into contact with manure and it is given a chlorine bath.  That's in addition to undesirable hormones and medications that are commonly given to the animal along with a diet mostly of corn which increases the animal's amount of saturated fats and does not contain the same level of vitamins and minerals that a grass fed animal offers (the corn is also usually GMO, which is less nutritious than non-GMO corn, has traces of glysophate [Roundup weed killer] and or "Bt" - a toxin which kills some insects and which some studies show impairs the health of the animal).

We also went to the farm show.  There were probably a thousand vendors selling things from nutritional supplements to massively expensive tractor attachments.  Most things that directly relate to farming were about "improving performance," but they make you dependent upon their products and successful traditional farmers we've met argue that they make you poorer.  We agree. We know of an "approved" dairy that maintains "high performance" Jerseys which have been conditioned to require grain and medication. His milking parlor is a concrete and stainless steel shrine to the goddess of regulation and pasturization.  He confided in me that he can't make money and will likely be out of business in a few years. We know of two others that raise their cows on grass and rotational grazing without medications.  They are profitable and their businesses continue to grow.