Welcome Hawkins Homestead Farms!

It’s been a while since I first heard of this farm through one of our customers. At the time I wondered why I’d never heard of them and whether their farm practices were in line with our Market values. Now that I know I’m super impressed and excited to welcome them to Market at Dothan!

“Our family specializes in fresh eggs, pastured chicken, and organic seasonal produce you’ll be happy to eat! We are a small urban farm that started out trying to find a way to feed our own family in a healthy and sustainable manner. It’s so important that we know what we’re feeding ourselves, where our food comes from, what it ate, and how it was raised or grown. Our birds are spoiled rotten! The majority spend their time free ranging in our backyard pasture. We let them out early in the day and they are locked up once they go in at night. We do supplement with a Non-GMO feed for our egg layers and a Non-GMO Organic feed for our meat birds which is rationed each day. In addition, they also receive treats in the form of organic herbs and vegetables from our garden with some occasional black oiled sunflower seeds, which they love. We try to find a use for almost everything here, so we compost our scraps and our chicken manure. Doing things this way has enabled us to re-purpose and grow some wonderful goodies in the garden. We are committed to the care and health of our animals and the food we grow. We never use antibiotics, growth hormones, or pesticides. Our produce is grown from Non-GMO Organic seed and a few Non-GMO Organic started plants. We take pride in what we do and are happy to say that what started out as food for our family has blossomed into food for yours.” 

Soil Workshop Review

Last week another grower and myself made a pleasant drive to Opp, Alabama and found ourselves temporarily lost on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere after the GPS delivered us to the wrong place. Fortunately I had a phone number and we weren’t too far from the workshop that Mayim Farms was hosting.

It proved to be a very valuable visit! We learned about soil biology and how to make compost tea that helps both plants and soil thrive.

While Organic/Sustainable growing methods continue to gain popularity, some of the methods used by our Market Growers do not fit in the “box” created by traditional big-agra methods. It goes far beyond substituting a bad chemical for a less bad Omri approved one. The heart of organic farming is the soil because a healthy soil will produce a healthy plant that puts forth good fruit. (Hmmm . . . sounds like the beginning of a Bible Lesson!) For all their “scientific” ways of manipulating soil to produce thousands of pounds of perfect 4 inch or 4 oz. tasteless “whatevers”, the quality our growers produce is off the chart in comparison. We are blessed indeed!

Footnotes

We would love to hear from you! If you have a favorite recipe, want to write a product review, have an idea or request for an article or information, let us know! You can reply to this newsletter or write marketatdothan@gmail.com.

Feel free to share this Market Newsletter with anyone you think might be interested in the superior products we offer.

We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible!