🌱 Sprouting through the drought + Pork Blowout continues! (Beef bundles running low)

Hey Friends,

If you’ve been stepping outside lately, you know we are deep into weathering a tough dry spell here in Chester. Around a farm, weather dictates just about everything we do, and lately, we’ve been watching the skies with a lot of anticipation.

Thankfully, the rain we received back on Thursday, May 7th gave us just the window we needed. We were able to get out into the fields and plant about 35 acres of our warm-season grass and legume mix—a combination of pearl millet and sunn hemp. If you remember from last year, this specific mix did incredibly well for us, providing deep-rooted, nutrient-dense forage for our livestock when the summer heat sets in.

The great news? It has officially sprouted! Seeing those green shoots coming up out of the soil is a huge relief, and it’s off to a great start. Now, we just keep hoping and praying for more rain to keep that momentum going.

Here is what’s happening around the farm web store this week:

⚠️ Limited Supply: Whole Animal Beef Bundles

Because we are facing a limited supply on certain cuts, we currently have a limited number of our whole animal beef bundles available. If you are looking to restock your freezer with 100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef, you’ll want to grab these quickly.

We have a limited inventory remaining for:

• Beef Family Bundle
• 1/8 Beef Bundle
• 1/4 Beef Bundle
• Half Beef Bundle

Once these sell out, we will be waiting on our next anticipated major restock in early June.

🐖 Product Spotlight: Making Room for the June Restock!

To be completely transparent with you, our freezers are packed tight right now, and as we just mentioned, we have a massive restock of our 100% grass-fed beef coming in early June. To make sure we have the empty shelf space ready for all those incoming beef cuts, we need to move some of our premium pastured pork fast.

Because of that logistical puzzle, our Pastured Pork Blowout Event is rolling right along. We are holding the price of our Quarter Pig Bundle down to just $225, and we’ve also included our Pork and Poultry Prime Pack on sale for just $155 to help clear out those freezers.

Our pigs are raised out on healthy, vibrant pastures where they live a great life, translating into incredibly clean, nutrient-dense meat. If you have been waiting for the right time to fill your freezer with wholesome pork that is raised the right way, this is your moment. Buying in bulk like this is the absolute best way to save money while supporting our family farm.

What’s included in the Quarter Pig?

You get a fantastic variety of chops, roasts, sausage, and more, all packaged and ready for your freezer.

• Regular Price: $275
• Blowout Price: $225

🛒 Click here to grab your Quarter Pig for just $225!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful moms who are often the ones doing the daily work of sourcing healthy food for your families. We are truly honored to be the farm you trust to help nourish your loved ones. We hope you have a beautiful day filled with much-deserved rest and celebration.

10 Differences Between Grocery Store Pork and Watson Farms Pastured Pork! 🐖

Welcome to this week’s edition of Pasture Posts!

Tomorrow will be the weekly “moving day” for the two groups of pigs we have in the paddocks right behind the Farm Store. It’s a busy morning for our team. We head out with two tractors: one equipped with a loader to move the heavy self-feeder and the drinker, and another pulling the Grain-o-vator. If you’ve never seen one, it’s basically a tractor-powered feed truck that we use to refill the feeders with our non-GMO feed once they’re settled in the new paddock.

Here I am filling a feeder back in July 2019. 

The pigs are always excited when they see the crew; they know fresh pasture is coming! Once we do a final check on the perimeter fence to make sure everything is just right, we open the gates. They run through into the new grass. 

That paddock has had about 4 weeks rest since the last time pigs were on it, which is the “secret sauce” to our operation. That rest time allows the grass to recover and the soil life to thrive—it’s the core of how we regenerate this ground that was once starved for fertility.

The Great Pork Comparison

We believe all pigs should be raised like that. Unfortunately, that is not how 98-99% of U.S. pigs live today. While we work with a small network of trusted partner producers for the farrowing (birthing) side of things, they adhere to the exact same regenerative standards we do.

Here is the stark contrast between how we do things and the industrial “norm”:

Rain, Roots, and a Pork Blowout!

What a weekend it has been! We want to start off by saying a massive “Thank You” to everyone who came out for the Ag+Art Tour. If you were here, you know the morning started off a bit chilly with some early rain that had us wondering if we’d be giving tours at all!

But the rain let up, the sun peeked through, and we ended up with a fantastic turnout. It was truly encouraging to see so many people interested in seeing exactly where their food comes from. We did a record number of tours and met folks who traveled from as far as Beaufort and Greenville just to spend the day with us here in Lowrys.

Sausage Drawing Winner 

During the tour, we held a drawing for 10 pounds of our Mild Sausage. We had 36 entries, and we are excited to announce that Keith A. from Rock Hill is our winner! Keith, we will be contacting you soon so you can get that sausage cooking.

Why Pastured Pork Matters

During the tours yesterday, many of you were surprised to learn a sobering statistic: over 97% of pork in the United States is raised on concrete in total confinement. Most pigs never see a blade of grass, feel the sun on their backs, or get the chance to do what they were created to do: root.

Pigs are natural foragers. On our farm, they live in what we call a “savanna” environment—paddocks with plenty of shade and a buffet of volunteer forages like ryegrass and lambs-quarter. This lifestyle doesn’t just make for a happier pig; it results in a vastly different nutritional profile and flavor for the consumer.

If you want to see exactly how our pigs live, check out one of our all-time most popular videos below. It’s a simple walk-through of a paddock where you can see them enjoying the green grass and sunshine:

THE PASTURED PORK BLOWOUT EVENT

May 3 – May 31 (While Supplies Last)

To celebrate the season and get our nutrient-dense pork into more freezers, we are officially launching our Pastured Pork Blowout! These deals are live starting today and will run through the end of the month.

Please note that these bundle discounts are on top of the already built-in savings you get when buying in bulk.

Featured Bundle Deals: