Dear Friends of PTB Farm,

A cacophony of crows -  there must have been a convention going on -- way off in the woods. I could hear them but not see them. Their conversation, though coded, was not private, their voices and caws moving through the woods and finding my ears out in the pasture. We were moving the cattle into a new paddock.

We continued the move, setting up new lines, taking down the old. Moving the mineral tub and the water tank. The cows were excited about the new paddock and I watched them move onto the fresh grass, noting the crows and their conversation but not thinking too much about it.

When I finally did happen to look up, I realized what the avian convention was all about: a hatch. The air just above me was filled with flies. A few dragonflies were darting about and the crows were chattering from the tops of the nearby trees no doubt discussing the flies.

I continued to watch, both the cattle with their downward gaze toward the grass and just above the flies and dragonflies. I wonder if the cattle noticed the cacophony. They seemed oblivious to the crows, the flies, or the dragonflies. They lazily munched at the grass as all the activity happened around them, the daily moves routine and exciting at the same time; like a dog at dinner time.

We finished up the move, the water tank was full, the fences set and the mineral tub full. We continued on with our evening chores and left the whole scene behind. It was an ecosystem in action. A snapshot of the wild world as it confronts and interacts with the managed world. We work to grow the grass and thus the cows, but so much more is happening all around, and it's moments like those that remind me of the vastness; the complexity; and the beauty of whole ecosystem within and around our small farm.

The great Jane Jacobs, an urban planner from the mid-20th Century, wrote about cities and development. She wrote about the "valuable inefficiencies" of great cities, saying she “does not mean that cities are economically valuable in spite of their inefficiency and impracticality but rather because they are inefficient and impractical” (The Economy of Cities). The point Jacobs is making is that the very mechanisms underlying these perceived 'inefficiencies’ are actually the driving force behind the development of cities, I would argue the same goes for farms. The valuable inefficiencies are the driving forces behind our small, beautiful, and complex farm.

If our farm were of the modern, conventional, or more technologically apt sort, we would have all of our pigs crammed into a concrete house; the cattle crammed into a small dirt lot and fed nothing but grain, the vegetables would be grown on a massive scale with plastic above and below and fertility piped in. We would have massive inputs at a high cost and have massive outputs instead of biologically active fertility going back into the system, would instead be toxic waste creating high ecological costs. But in that scenario, we don't hear the crows, we don't notice the flies, we don't observe the beauty -- nor see the complex interactions between all of them. This biodiversity is what makes soil and water systems sustainable. Young farmers like us are driven by the desire to interact with variable and complex systems, and embrace the glorious inefficiencies.

The atrocities of modern factory farms are many and rely so heavily on outsourcing all of the costs. On a small farm, we have our inefficiencies: it’s true the conversion rate of foraged grasses is lower than trucked-in grain for our cattle herd. It will take them a full 24 months to mature on grass, much longer than your feedlot beef. The heritage breed pigs who forage and run around all day, and wallow in the mud, they take longer to grow and have a smaller loin than the industry average. Our vegetables often have insect holes in the leaves, and occasionally a lady bug will hitch a ride to market with us. But we choose the complex, messy, and truly beautiful to the outsourced, toxic, and short-term.

We are so proud that you have chosen our messy, beautiful, and inefficient farm to be apart of your community, and to be a farm that feeds you. We look forward to seeing you soon at the Greensboro Curb Market or the Old Salem Cobblestone Market.  Also, if you’re interested in a farm dinner fundraising event featuring local chefs and incredible food, keep your ears open as we are cooking up something good! (more info soon, I promise!)