Here’s the weekly roundup from Watson Farms and your direct connection to your farmer. Enjoy the latest edition of Pasture Posts!

The onslaught of misdirection in the egg industry continues with Kroger’s latest iteration of a confinement egg factory.  

Their newest confinement egg complex makes an attempt to mimic the chicken’s natural environment by providing a forest-edge effect with tree-like structures, “natural enrichment,” and a “playground.”  The truth is, of course, that the birds only have access to this “enriched” environment during certain times during a 24 hour period.  You can see this by viewing their webcams during the early morning hours when the hens are shut in the nest box section of the barn. 

Farms should be a vibrant community of people working together towards a common goal of producing food or fiber responsibly with the consumer’s best interest in mind.

And, of course, this stationary confinement barn doesn’t have one blade of grass visible.  They cover for this by claiming that chickens are forest birds and get nervous when they are in open pasture.  While there is some truth to this, the fact is that steps can and should be taken to ensure the chickens’ safety while foraging.  Steps that we take in this regard are 24/7 guard dogs and our mobile pasture coop that the chickens can run back to at any time.  

Take a look at the video and photos from this week which show our laying hens right after we moved them from their winter housing into their mobile pasture coops for the growing season. 

If grocery corporations really wanted to tell the truth about the confinement factories that supply them, they could say that a truly mobile pasture system is too labor intensive and would decrease their eggs sales below their corporate target due to increased prices.  

Agribusiness corporations like Kroger’s partner, Kipster, have goals to reduce the number of people on farms which reduces labor costs.  One of the beauties of regenerative farming is that it puts more people back on farms to participate in the production of wholesome foods. We think more people on farms is a great thing.  Farms should be a vibrant community of people working together towards a common goal of producing food or fiber responsibly with the consumer’s best interest in mind.  Too many farms on the other hand are automated to the point where the fewest people possible are needed and the focus is on faster, fatter, bigger, cheaper instead of the consumer. 

While this attempt at better eggs misses the mark in my opinion, it does improve upon more conventional methods by avoiding cages with the use of community nest boxes among a few other things.  Take a look at more of their claims here.  

Our friend, Joel Salatin, has an interesting blog post about this subject as well that you can check out here.

Thanks for reading this edition of Pasture Posts, and we commend you for caring about the food you eat and for being the most informed consumers out there!

---

Pork Stock Up Event Continues for 1 More Week!

Offer Limitations

• No other coupons may be used in conjunction with this offer.
• Offer valid through March 27 while supplies last

---

Spring Farm Day

We are excited to announce that our Spring Farm Day will be held on Saturday, April 29 from 10am to 2pm!

We will have vendors, hay rides and more!

Be sure to save the date and follow along for more details in the coming weeks.

---

Join Our Team!

We have a great opportunity for someone looking for a part time position in an office setting! We call this position our Part Time Office and Customer Relations Assistant.

This person would be mainly responsible for invoicing and customer service among other things. Check out the job description over on the website, and if you know of a talented individual that might be a good fit, send them our way!

---

Order Deadlines and Store Hours

Here’s a friendly reminder to get your orders in by the deadline. We have changed our workflow some to help reduce errors, so we have to begin the process of staging orders for the next day’s delivery very soon after the deadlines below. Help us serve you better by ensuring your order is placed in time!

Charleston Area: 12 noon Mondays

UPS Orders: 12 noon Mondays

Columbia Area deliveries now occur on Wednesdays.
Deadline for the Columbia Area: 12 noon on Tuesdays

GSP: 12 noon on Wednesdays

Charlotte/Fort Mill/Rock Hill Areas: 12 noon on Fridays

Farm Pickup: Please wait until you receive an email stating that your order is ready to be picked up (usually 1 business day from when you place your order). Farm pickup is done during store hours:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 10am to 6pm
Saturday: 10am to 2pm
Closed Sunday and Wednesday

---

Tell a Friend!

It’s now easier than ever to Give $15 and Get $15 through our Referral Program. We don’t spend a lot of money of advertising, but rather we focus on producing products that people love and are willing to tell others about. So we depend on word of mouth to find new customers and ultimately to heal more land.

So in an effort to streamline this process we have made it easier to tell others (via email, Facebook, or Twitter) about Watson Farms. And it’s all automated on the backend, so you don’t have to rely on us to issue the store credits manually. Just head over to our Referrals Page and start sharing!

---

We re-use packaging!

We’ve seen a good response to our efforts in re-using packaging! Thanks and keep it up.  

You can help us reduce our carbon footprint by returning your CLEAN egg cartons and meat boxes. 

The main reason that we switched to plastic egg cartons a while back was because they are so much more durable than paper which could only be used once.  They also protect the eggs much better!

So if you have some egg cartons or boxes to return, you can just place them on your porch on your home delivery day.  Farm pickup customers can, of course, drop them off when you come to pick up your new order.  

***We can only re-use OUR cartons or boxes. Please re-use or recycle other boxes or egg cartons elsewhere.***

We redact your personal information found on your meat boxes when we re-use them, but feel free to redact to redact it yourself without damaging the box if you would like.  

Thanks for helping us re-use our packaging!

---

Did you know that we have a webpage that displays all the reviews we have received?  

Check it out!

Check out this ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review:

“Ordered a pasture Box and was very impressed with the variety of meats/cuts. We were getting Butcher Box which we really enjoyed but really liked the idea of supporting a local farm but also it is clear the Watson Farms takes exceptional care of the animals and their customers. The delivery was on time and clearly communicated.”

We would greatly appreciate it if you would be kind enough to leave us a review.  It helps first-time customers purchase with confidence.

---

Thanks again for being partners in this endeavor of local, pasture-raised proteins that has truly transformed our farm.  We look forward to continuing this transition while serving you long into the future.

Sincerely,
The Watsons

---

Pasture Posts is written by Matt Watson.