In years previous, the coming of fall—and then winter—meant that people were charged with the task of harvesting and storing most of their own food. Thus, they ate very seasonally, and locally, as I talked about in the previous blog.
Since many of us live in cities, or towns in which we don’t have access to enough land to grow our own food, we have the opportunity to engage in the other part of the cycle. We can ‘harvest’ our own food in a way by buying from a local farmer that we know personally, and we can certainly store our own food. That’s where buying in bulk comes in. By being able to store your own food, and in large quantities, you can participate in a cycle much like that of pre-grocery store days.
Not only can we return to a more traditional way of dealing with our foods, but we can enable very simple way of producing that food. On the farming end, having customers who are willing to buy fresh products throughout the spring, summer, and early fall months, and store their own meats during the late fall and winter, means that we can pasture raise our poultry and pork.
This means that there isn’t a problem with manure build up, since it’s already spread throughout the fields, and our shelters can be as minimal as hoop houses, since we don’t have to worry about keeping animals out of the elements through the winter months. Storage for large quantities of frozen meats doesn’t present too large a challenge either, since you as customers would store enough meat for yourselves to eat through the colder months, when pasture raising isn’t possible locally.
Not only is bulk ordering in preparation for the colder months helpful for local farmers, but it is also good for the customers. As a member of a family who has always been relatively traditional in their food practices, I can tell you that it feels wonderful to be able to open my freezer and see the pork chops from the farm on the other side of town, and the ground beef from a ranch in the hills to the east of my neighborhood. It gives me a sense of not only self-sufficiency, but also a feeling of being a part of a bigger picture. By buying locally, and stock piling for the winter, I am completing the third link in the very short chain of local food.
At Copicut, we are lucky enough to be able to produce and store our own meats. But a huge part of the cycle of our farm is the sale of bulk orders in the fall to those who would like to participate in the short local food chain we have the honor of producing for. If you’re interested in some of the bulk options that we offer, feel free to look at the link below!
Happy Fall!
Bulk Orders
Just as in years past, we are offering two options for bulk ordering chicken, and one for pork. If you are interested, please take a moment to look over them, and reserve your order, to be picked up at you local market in the next couple of months!
https://www.copicutfarms.com/collections/bulk-orders
please feel free to call or email Elizabeth with any questions you might have!
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Emma Parish
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