Rehoboth Ranch E-Newsletter   

Farmers' Markets This Week

   

Saturday, May 31, 2014

 

Historic McKinney Farmers' Market at Chestnut Square, 8am-12noon.

 

Coppell  Farmers' Market, 8am-12noon, New Location

 

Dallas, TEXAS MEATS. Shed 2, 10am-4pm, Hours Change

 

Pre-Orders  Are Being Accepted for the markets.  To pre-order go to http://[email protected]

 Order Deadline for Saturday markets is NOON FRIDAY.

  Robert with new grand daughter Katie Hutchins

 

 

 

   May 29, 2014

Link to Rehoboth Ranch Web Site and Online Pre-Ordering System
Articles
TEXAS SHOWDOWN
  

 

We will be at all three farmers' market locations this Saturday. Please get your pre-orders submitted via email by noon Friday.  Thank you.
 
 Next week we will be able to do Rehoboth Ranch on-farm pick up of orders on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday for the first time since the tornado hit April 3, 2014.

Where's the BEEF? More beef at all markets this week.

When will you have more LAMB?  Lamb, like beef, has been held back by the dry winter not growing green grass.  Eighteen lambs were processed on Thursday, May 29.  That lamb will be at the markets on Saturday, June 14.

More spring chickens continue to be processed each week.  We will be back to processing at Rehoboth Ranch next week.  We are cutting up more chickens to try and keep up with the demand for boneless/skinless breasts.

More pastured pork is coming back from the processor next week.  We have an excellent selection of pork products including chops, ribs, and all the sausages.
  
If you like the off-beat food news that I include in this e-newsletter regularly, you will also like the articles that I post on Rehoboth Ranch facebook page. 
  
Thank you for your continuing support and encouragement.
  
Robert for Nancy and the whole family at Rehoboth Ranch
Tornado Recovery Report

All of the sorting through debris is officially complete.  Piles are now being moved from around the house and barns (used to be barns).  Burning brush piles has begun and continues.  Most of the chainsawing of downed trees is complete.  In the house, the new metal roof is complete, the water ruined sheet rock is replaced, texturing and painting are complete.  Floor installation starts next week.  We are putting down laminate planks that look exactly like wood, and they click together.  Out side the dairy building is repaired, and the dairy is back in operation selling raw goat milk.  The equipment shed across the road from the house is being framed and waiting on sheet metal to cover it.  The chicken processing facility is completely repaired with a new roof and rafters, wiring repaired, and all equipment restored.  We will start processing chickens here next week.  BIG THANKS to the Hale Family at Windy Meadows Family Farm for storing our inventory of meat in one of their walk-in freezers, and processing our chickens in their facility since the tornado.

THANK YOU to everyone that has helped by praying for us, donating time and money toward the recovery.   We would not be able to do this except for your kindness and generosity.

Here are a few photos to show you what has been accomplished.
new roof on chicken processing facility
Chicken Processing Facility Complete.  Start processing chickens again next week.

cleaning debris from lake
Cleaning debris from the lake. This was a dirty stinking job, I am told by the guys who actually did the work.

dam repairs
 The pipe that went through the dam got twisted by the tornado when the standpipe behind the dam was hit by the 120 mph winds.  The old rusted pipe had to be dug out and a new one installed.  When this job completed, we got over 7 inches of rain in one day, filling the lake back up to the only 8 feet low mark at the end of the pier.


girls' room new paint color


Here is the twins room repaired back through painting.   They got to select the color.  I threatened to get them a parrot on a perch, a palm tree, and a Jimmy Buffet CD.   Looks like the beach to me.


laminate flooring

This is the floor that is going down next week.  It is supposed to click together and float (not have to be glued).  We'll see.
From Organic Consumers Association e-newsletter dated May 1, 2014
We recommend joining and subscribing to the newsletter.

Texas Showdown

On Tuesday (April 29), OCA political director Alexis Baden-Mayer was hauled off in handcuffs when she refused to end the Organic Consumers Association's protest of illegally made changes to the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) policy for approving and removing non-organic materials from organics.

End of story? Not on your life.

The battle to recapture control of the organic and natural food and products system, which has fallen under the control of corporate and government self-interests, is a long-term one. And we intend to see it through.

In the coming weeks, OCA will formally announce the formation of the Organic and Natural Health Trade Association. The new association will be open only to those companies and organizations that adhere to strict, ethical organic and natural health standards.

Greenwashers need not apply.

In the meantime, the battle to overturn the NOP's recent decision is far from over. And we have some heavy hitters on our side.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), both of whom were principal authors of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, have written to USDA Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, to voice their disapproval of the NOP's latest power grab.

Ditto former NOSB chairs Jim Riddle, Jeff Moyer and Barry Flamm, who wrote that the recent changes "unilaterally enacted by the USDA's National Organic Program . . . significantly erode the authority, independence and input of the NOSB."

The NOP may have to arrest a lot more people before this showdown is over. Is that really how the USDA wants to run its organic program?

 

VIDEO OF ARREST


VIDEO SUMMARY OF PROTEST

MORE ON THE PROTEST

WHY ORGANIC STANDARDS ARE WORTH FIGHTING FOR

LETTER TO USDA FROM PAST NOSB CHAIRMEN

Photo Credit: James Ovalle