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

Beating Inflation

You’ve probably heard a lot in the last year about inflation, and you’ve probably heard that meat prices are seeing some of the largest increases of all. All of these things are generally true, but what you don’t hear as much about is how informed consumers can takes steps to mitigate the effects of inflation in their households.

This week I listened to the latest episode of the Beyond Labels Podcast with Joel Salatin and Dr. Sina McCullough titled How We Fight Food Inflation. They gave some excellent tips that families can use to save money especially in relation to food purchases during these turbulent times.

For this edition of Pasture Posts, let’s focus on one source of high food costs in particular – eating out. It’s estimated that the average family spends about $3,000 per year with restaurants.

To be clear, we like restaurants, and we frequent them probably a little too much due to convenience (or the illusion thereof which we’ll get to in a moment). Our farm serves many restaurants, especially with our eggs, which are distributed through several wonderful distributors in South Carolina. There’s definitely a place and time for restaurant eating, but if you’re like our family, it’s good to get some perspective every once in a while.

The average meal cost at a full-service restaurant is around $15, and of course this can go up dramatically depending on the restaurant and the location. One of our chuck roasts at around 2.5 lbs costs about $25. This can easily feed a family of four and would probably yield some leftovers. But ignoring the leftovers, that comes to $6.25 per plate, and if you allow $2 per plate for the sides you can easily have a plate for under $9.

But while you may accept that the price is always going to be less when preparing meals at home, you might argue that the time involved is far greater. I would have agreed with you pre-pandemic, but over the last two years restaurant service has seemingly crawled to a snail’s pace. For our family, nearly every full-service restaurant we have been to for dinner in the past year has not been able to serve us in less time than it would have taken us to prepare a meal in our kitchen. This has definitely led us to spend more time in the kitchen as a family and from this survey it appears we might not be the only ones.

Have you and your family found yourselves in the kitchen more lately?

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Product Spotlight

Speaking of ways to beat inflation, we’ve got something that will help with that: a HUGE Ground Beef Sale!

We’re launching our deepest discount on Ground Beef ever in order to clear out some freezer space for some new product. Stock up now on 100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef straight from the farm.

We aren’t able to put Ground Beef on sale like this very often, so take advantage of this rare opportunity to save over 20% off the retail price. All our 1-lb ground beef offerings are available for a limited time for $7.89/lb!

For some of our recommended products, check out our Featured Product Page.  You might find something that you didn’t even know we had!

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Farm Day is Upon Us!

To see in-person how we manage our animals, make plans to join us for Farm Day! JUST ONE WEEK AWAY!!!

We will be holding it on Saturday, April 30 from 10am – 2pm. This will be much like the last one we held in October. It was a great success and we hope this one will be the same.

We will be offering hay rides where we will show each group as many of the animals as possible. We love the discussions that break out on these hay rides and it re-assures us that our customers are the most-informed and enlightened people on the planet.

We will have a kids zone set up again for this tour. There will be games, a corn tote to play in, and more!

Vendors will be set up as well so that you can stock up on some locally produced arts, crafts, and other unique products. A food truck and coffee truck will also be on site!

Little Bills Concessions – Food Truck
Sweet Southern Java – Coffee

We are excited for all the vendors we will have! We have lots on new ones this time!!! COME SUPPORT LOCAL!

White Wolf Rubs – seasonings and rubs
Sappy Artist – jewelry, paintings, and macramé
Carmichael Corner Creations – natural bath and spa products
Johnson’s Sweet Shop – homemade cakes, cookies, and more
Fox Creations – unique hand turned wood products
Eunice Calderon – pottery
Holly Penza – hand stitched accessories and woodwork
Smith Farm and Table – homemade bread
Creative Imaginations – bird feeders
Kristen’s Creations – monogram items (monograming on site)
Erin’s Granola – homemade granola
Rocking Rags – handmade dolls and more

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Produce Boxes Available Now!

Our partnership with Wild Hope Farm continues this year as they are working hard to provide you with superior organic produce that can be delivered to your door right along with anything else that we deliver on our van. (Not available for UPS Shipping at this time.)

Produce Box Order Deadlines:

CHARLESTON/COLUMBIA/GSP HOME DELIVERY – SUNDAYS at 9pm

FARM/LOCAL HOME DELIVERY- WEDNESDAY at 9pm

Head over to the product page below to order now.

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Help us spread the word!

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!

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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!

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Order Deadlines and Store Hours

Charleston and Columbia Areas: 12 noon Mondays

UPS Orders: 12 noon Mondays 

GSP: 12 noon on Wednesdays 

Charlotte/Fort Mill/Rock Hill Areas: 12 noon 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

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

Check it out!

Check out this ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review:

“Watson Farms provides a great service offering high quality, naturally raised livestock directly to consumers. All their beef, chicken and pork are delicious. Eggs are great too.”

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

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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

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Pasture Posts is written by Matt Watson.