Here’s the weekly roundup from Watson Farms and your direct connection to your farmer. We hope you all have a wonderful Fourth and take the time to be thankful that we are able to enjoy so many freedoms. Enjoy the latest edition of Pasture Posts!
Organic weed control
At Watson Farms we use several different methods for weed control, none of which employ herbicides or chemicals.
First, we don’t define weeds the same way that many farmers might. We only consider a plant a weed when cattle show a complete refusal to eat it. When in a mob setting like our herd is, we find that cattle will actually eat many plants that others would consider weeds. And it’s not like they don’t have anything else to eat either. The fact is that they develop different tendencies when they are grazed in larger, tighter groups. And the end result is fewer undesirable species in our pastures.
Also, by grazing in a tighter group our animals impact the pasture with heavier hoof traffic which helps to trample weeds. Our herd always tramples about one third of the forage in any given paddock. Our goal is to allow them to eat one third, trample one third, and leave one third standing from which the plant can regrow quickly. We call this the rule of thirds, and trampling is a critical component which helps to control weeds.
Lastly, when needed, we use a tractor and rotary mower to clip pastures oftentimes right after we give the herd a chance to harvest anything of value. We will many times come in right after a graze to mow low any weeds that remain. This gives a level playing field to all the species in the pasture, of which grass can most easily come back from a short cutting to outpace the weed species that have more ground to make up to reach their genetic tendency. Check out the picture below to see the grass regrowth after we remove some of the weed pressure.
The whole point of all this is of course to point out that you can be assured that when you invest in our meats and eggs that you are truly getting a product that you can have confidence in.
Transparency is something that local farms will always be able to surpass any national grocery chain or venture-funded startup on. These startups have lots of cash and they spend much of it making sure that they are staying in front of consumers. But one thing they often cannot offer is the invitation to those consumers to come visit the farm because most of the time there is not a farm, but rather a network of contract producers that may or may not be located in the U.S.
Wise consumers see past the slick websites and barrage of expensive advertising and will consistently opt for food produced in transparency on a farm they can visit. We hope that you allow us to be that farm for your family!
Reusing Packaging
In the last few months we have switched to a plastic egg carton from a paper-based carton. One of the main reasons for this is because of the durability of a plastic carton. In fact, they are so durable that we are able to take back clean cartons from customers and re-use them. So even though plastic may not be from a renewable source like the pulp cartons, they can be re-used many times which we feel outweighs the benefits of the pulp cartons.
So feel free to return these plastic cartons to us! For home delivery customers this usually means setting the used cartons out on your porch on delivery days so that our driver can swap them with your new order. For farm pickup folks, just bring them by when you come to pick up your next order.
This also goes for any of our boxes, although they can get beat up a bit in the journey to your door.
We look forward to partnering with you in being better stewards!
Successful First Week for the Store!
Thanks to all those who came out to our store in its first week of being open. We look forward to seeing more of you and meeting your needs for pastured proteins and more in this new way!
Farm pickups are now done during store hours. See below for pickup procedures.
FARM PICKUP SUBSCRIPTION BOX CUSTOMERS: You may find that some of the pickup instructions in your auto-generated renewal emails conflict with our new hours and policies. Please disregard these outdated instructions and replace them with the following:
You must wait until you receive an email saying that your order is ready for pickup before you come to pickup your order. Please allow 1 business day for us to assemble your order. Farm pickups are done during store hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 10am to 6pm; Saturday: 10am to 2pm; Closed Sunday and Wednesday. When you arrive, you can either stay in your vehicle and someone will come out to assist you, or you may come inside the store building while we retrieve your order. You may call 803-581-8926 with questions.
Product Spotlight
Don’t have time to make bone broth? We have it back in stock! Choose from chicken or beef!
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Super Steak Bundle (UPS)$299.00 -
Small Steak Bundle$139.69 -
Large Steak Bundle$272.68
Referral Program
If you enjoy our products please consider passing the word along to your neighbors, friends and family! We don’t spend a lot of money of advertising but rather depend on customers like yourself to advertise for us if they are amazed by our products and customer service.
All you have to do is refer someone to us and when they place an order for the first time they will get a link to a form where they can say who referred them. You and the new customer will receive a $15 credit! So make sure they tell us your name. Hit the button for more info!
Order Deadlines
Charleston: 12 noon Mondays
GSP: 12 noon on Wednesdays
Charlotte/Rock Hill: 12 noon Fridays
Farm Pickup: Please allow 1 business day for us to assemble your order. Farm Pickups will now be done during our store hours:
- Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 10am to 6pm
- Saturday: 10am to 2pm
- Closed Sunday and Wednesday
Did you know that we have a webpage that displays all the reviews we have received?
Check it out!
Check out this ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review:
“What a great product and great people. We had been kicking around the idea of buying local, better quality meat for a long time. I’m so glad we decided to make the move. Watson Farms does a tremendous job throughout the whole process. They always answer all our questions, provide great updates on orders and deliveries and the quality of the product is superb. We even took our girls (4 and 2) on the farm tour and we all enjoyed it. It’s so great knowing where our meat comes from and the time and attention they put into their whole operation. We have been a customer for about 2 years and will be continuing to order our meat from Watson Farms. We just got our 1/4 beef today and can’t wait to dig in!!”
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.