New Jersey Boy and the Chickens

Today the blog turns over to NJBoy and last weeks rumble down I-40 on an errand for wife, (he tried to get out of it, I swear):

I was riding down route 40 today going about 70 mph. In front of me was a flat bed tractor trailer with what looked like giant egg crates, many of them cracked and broken.  As I got closer I could see that the crates were actually plastic cages stuffed full of chickens.

It appeared that they could not move and the “breaks” were actually wings sticking out.  The crates were stacked about six across, about 10 high and as long as the trailer, about 50 feet. I imagined how terrifying the wind and noise was for the birds as they rocketed down the interstate.  I assumed this was their first and certainly their last ride.

I have nothing against the person who raised the chickens, nor the driver of the truck, nor the folks at their destination. It is in the increasing of efficiency, the economy of scale, that improve productivity and “improve” our standard of living. I am certain that all those involved work their butts off every day.  

One way or another, the two of us just starting our food business have to compete.  We are happy to compete on the quality of our products and our ability to give exceptional customer service.  We get our butts kicked on the cost side, no way around it.  We hope to grow big enough to get our costs down so we can make a living.  (Just like everyone else.)

My wife is a vegetarian, which pretty much makes me a vegetarian.  I like BBQ in just about any form (yes, even BBQ tofu).  But now, today, after seeing those chickens, I want to make a deal with you:

Sometime during 2011 let us all buy one organic, free range, cage free, pyramid treated and blessed chicken, one that was raised and killed by the same hand.  Let’s each have one less chicken stuffed in a cage going 70 mph down route 40 to the slaughter house.

Anyone who knows me knows I have many favorite saying, but I only have one favorite fortune cookie.  It was left for me in my cubical at my first real job.  A SMALL DEED IS BETTER THAN A BIG INTENTION.  Let’s go hunt up some local, small farm raised chicken and have a BBQ.

Bye Bye 2010! We'll Miss Ya!

Again with the Christmas Carols. This time breaking into the early Saturday morning alarm clock radio. It's the last Saturday before Christmas and we have a few hours to prepare for an outdoor Holiday Bazaar where we'll hawk our Pizza Kits along with other weary but festive entrepreneurs. 

Artists, all of us. Artisan food, candles, decorations. Hand made gifts of wool from sheep, felted hats, jewelry. Cheese from their goats, meat and eggs fresh from the farm, homemade chocolates, jams and sauces. A multitude of local goods, gathered together for the very last day of our Farmers Markets for 2010. 

But back to the early morning preparations. The sun is up, but just barely, rising into a cloudy morning and leaving the pink and red of the horizon behind. NJBoy and I work like a well tuned clock, each marching through our tasks in mostly silence (it's too early to talk), gathering the nuts and berries of our festival performance. We're packing an amazing amount of supplies into our little Subaru Beast, a task we've repeated many times before. And packing the Beast is the one task that I never cross the line on. Meaning that it's a job for an engineer, not an artist. Every square inch is packed in a very meaningful order. Nothing can be altered and it's best to keep my distance. This day we've added a new product, our Gluten Free Pizza Kit, so we're bringing extra cases and another table. The Beast is behaving badly, defiant, not wanting to carry more. Things begin to slide out, not unlike a monster from a closet.  Did I mention it was the week before Christmas? Snow flurries and frozen fingers. 

NJBoy is fighting with the supplies and the Beast. I'm hiding out in the kitchen mixing Pizza doughs and filling tubs of water. We're both pretty much surrounded by well ordered chaos.

It's less than perfect, but I know in a few hours this battle will be behind us, we'll be all set up at the Festival and making lots of friends by giving out delicious hot Pizza cooked on the grill. It's always rough getting to the Farmers Markets. It takes several hours of work. There is a lot to gather and we can count on forgetting something every time, only adding to the frustration. But today I'm a little short on patience as it's cold and early and I want to be sleeping. So when NJBoy crabs in my presence one too may times, I snap back. "You know, you are just going to have to get used to this! You are just going to have to learn how to have fun with this!" And his response? "FUN?! You want me to have FUN AT FESTIVALS?!" 

And with this we both start laughing, breaking the tension of this cold winter morning. 

Benefit of the Markets: Booty! 

On this last day we got a 9' fresh cut Christmas tree!