Important Dates:
July 1, 2025: Next subscriber giveaway drawing.
July 8, 2025: Volunteer day to set up for CFA day! 8:30 am -10:30 am. We can use a hand getting set up. Tasks could be to set up hand washing stations, hang a sheet for projector, update a chalk sign, string trim, cut some branches up the driveway, put out tables and chairs, etc. We may have some of these items complete, but this is a short list of what we will be doing ahead of the event. If you have to choose between volunteering or the CFA day, skip volunteer day! Let us know if you want a bouquet for your time and we can get it ready ahead of you coming to help. Otherwise, feel free to just show up.
July 9th 2025: Community Farm Alliance (CFA) is coming to Loving Farm to talk with us about agrotourism, one of our favorite topics. Registration is open and participation is free of charge. The program will include a brief tour of our farm, followed by a presentation by Kati Bowman from KCARD to talk about ways to increase the success of agrotourism on Kentucky farms. Nicole Gwishiri will also be here representing American Farmland Trust and will also be speaking. We are looking forward to hearing what they have to share with us! Feel free to share the links to this event from your socials or forward this email. There will be food to eat and flowers to arrange too! It is open to anyone with an interest in this topic free of charge. Make sure to register here as spots are limited.
Although we still feel so new in our farming journey, agrotourism/agritourism is an area we are very motivated to develop further on this land that we steward. Since our time living in Newport, we have enjoyed opening our home to folks for an overnight stay or a fun get together. Having this space in Ewing expands the opportunities for hosting beyond a place to sleep or have a few drinks with friends. Now we can both recreate and educate as we take in and appreciate all that nature has to offer us.
Thinking back, some of my greatest memories growing up formed around visiting a farm or nature preserve or farmstand. There is something special about buying some fresh produce from a roadside farm store or a farmers market. My favorite part was when they would take the produce and put it in a paper bag to take away in (plastic bags just aren’t the same). Don’t ask me why that stuck in my head.
In a time when we as a society are continually more and more removed from agriculture and how things we consume are produced, I believe it is so important to check in once in a while with our local farms whenever possible to remind ourselves how things end up in our flower vases or on our plates or even in our soap dishes. I’ll never forget the wonder on so many kids faces at Sunrock Farm years ago, where I worked for a season as a farm tour guide, when they would see how flour is made from ground wheat or what cotton looks like on a plant or how milk comes from a goat. Although we don’t grow a lot of food here at Loving Farm, it is still important to see how different flowers grow and what they look like before they end up in an arrangement on your kitchen table. They do not just magically appear in a plastic sleeve in the grocery store.
Quite the contrary actually, as those grocery store flowers usually travel thousands of miles from out of the country, covered in who-knows-what to keep them looking fresh. For that reason I don’t really like touching them and for sure won’t be putting my nose in them. Don’t be fooled by the low prices either. Grocers routinely price flowers low and take a loss on them intentionally as a way to get customers in the door for other items. Buy local. Please ask if you need a local flower contact. We know a lot of folks, and those growers know other growers. We will work to help you find good blooms.
Don’t just visit one farm either. Go to every farm you can. Several years ago we made it a point to visit a few farms from our local market in Fleming County. It was so amazing to see how different each one was, except for the fact that they were all magnificent. We got to see the farm where we buy our beef from, Masters Acres, and met their herd. Rose Ann took us on a ride through their pastures that we will never forget! The cows kicked up their hooves and gave chase behind us in the side-by-side (a farm vehicle that feels like a being in an open top jeep) thinking they were moving to a new field. The beef they sell is raised on their their farm which might sound so obvious to some of you, but it might be new to learn how rare that is (was that a pun?). A quick internet search told me that at least 70% of beef is not sold that way. Sure, it might ultimately come from a place called a “farm” but it might not the type place I think you have in your mind. That meat happens to change several hands before it ends up in the store and has done many miles of traveling in the process. We like it local. Local AF, if you will.
That week we also saw Blooming Valley Flower Farm, A and J Produce, in addition to a couple of others. All just spectacular in their own ways. Our neighbors, Ellessare Farms care for bees and sell honey at the market also. I love walking around outside at our place here imagining how some of the pollinators on the flowers could have traveled from their house to ours, less than a mile away as the bee flies. Small farms are true gifts to the world. As they say at American Farmland Trust, “No farms, no food”. Next time you spend 20, 50 or 100 dollars at the big box grocery store where such a small percentage of that money supports a farmer, imagine how that money could be handed directly to them and what that might mean to them. Selling something for five dollars is so awesome. A twenty dollar sale for us is thrilling. Buy direct when possible, then find a place like ETC Produce in Cincinnati who have paid us fair prices to for our products they have sold in their stores.
Support your local economy. It can be a challenging change in habits initially but when you get in the groove you will find other ways to support your neighbors and small communities. Heck, I am drinking coffee from MJ’s right now, beans roasted within two hours or so of us by a woman we met at a pop up we did at a Flock event!
I think one of the misconceptions is that buying things this way is cost-prohibitive. Don’t fall for it. The beef we buy is as affordable as meat from the store. It might even be less expensive than certified organic meat which I dare say might not be as good of quality as the local meat from Charlie and Rose Ann. Regardless, it is more appealing to my palate for sure. You might have something you make or can do that is as valuable as dollars to one of these farmers or producers. Not sure if you saw our post about trading time for flowers. We will trade you a bouquet for 30 minutes of weeding. I feel like I am rambling a bit but it has really expanded my mind to see how we can afford to live so luxuriously (to us anyhow) with so little actual money. Showing up is the first step. Hope to see you here on July 9th.
PS: Max and Oscar wanted to tell you how their week was too. I think it had something to do with a mouse or something in the duct work this week.
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Oscar: 8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888856ty`
Loving Farm 