Petit Jean Farm

Weekly Farm Newsletter

July 13, 2009

Dear Folks,

It’s summer, the season of hot sun, swimming, and cooking outside on the grill!  Have you grilled anything delicious lately?  Check out our selection of available meat and pick up some steaks, chops, or burgers.  When you get them home and sizzling over the fire, you’ll be glad you did. 

This weekend was Bountiful Arkansas Day at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute just down the road.  The entire day was a wonderful celebration of food found here in our state.  In the evening, authors Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon spoke about their experiment eating on the 100 mile diet.  People start eating locally for a variety of reasons.  Many high end chefs know that local, seasonal food is at its peak of flavor and nutrition.  Others become interested out of concern for the fossil fuels consumed in shipping foods great distances. 

This excessive fossil fuel use initially motivated Smith and MacKinnon to embark on their experiment of eating only foods from within a 100 mile radius, but they learned a lot more along the way.  They discovered the freshness and disease resistance of local fruits and vegetables, as well as their improved tastiness and nutritional quality.  They learned that meat raised on small local family farms comes from well treated animals that were raised with care.  “It’s frightening and unsafe out there in the industrial food system,” they said.  But local food is the antidote.  By eating locally you have the opportunity to know your farmers, as many people know their mechanic or hairdresser.  Shouldn’t you be as concerned about what you are feeding yourself as you are about what happens to your car?  One of the biggest lessons that Smith and MacKinnon learned from their year of strict local eating is that we all have the power to change our own local community and environment.  Amen.  Go have some local sausage.

You can place your order by phone (501-727-5659) or by e’mail (ed@gatewayfarm-ar.com) anytime before Thursday at noon, or online through your preferred locally grown.net website.

Visit www.petitjeanfarm.com/farminventory.html to see our current list of available items.  We look forward to seeing you at the market!

Sizzle something local,

Your Petit Jean Farmers

Petit Jean Farm

1039 Winrock Drive

Morrilton, AR 72110

501-727-5659

www.petitjeanfarm.com