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Locally Produced Food – a Terrific and Tasty Investment

AME guest blogger Rory Groves lives with his wife and five children on a farm in southern Minnesota where they grow food, raise livestock, and host educational workshops on traditional skills. He is the author of the forthcoming book Durable Trades: Family-Centered Economies That Have Stood the Test of Time (Front Porch Republic).

By Rory Groves
As we are all presently discovering, there are inherent risks built into the industrialized food system with its just-in-time delivery. In the last 150 years we have migrated away from growing our own food to relying on distant production facilities and long supply chains. This arrangement is highly efficient and profitable when times are good. But it leaves little room for disruption: redundancies are expensive, and therefore avoided.

There is a big disconnect between the way food has been historically produced and the way it is currently consumed. We are used to buying food the week (or minute) we plan to eat it. But food doesn’t just happen; it takes many months to make the trip from seed to table. When someone orders a lamb share from us, it takes 9 months to grow to maturity, with plenty of care along the way. If the seeds are not planted in April, there will be no harvest in August.

Nothing is more stable than a winter’s supply of food in the basement. And that’s how most humans lived for all of recorded history. Our forebearers had larders, root cellars, smoke houses, and attics where they stored vegetables and meat for the winter. Many of us remember grandparents who stored shelves of canned produce from their gardens. They had lived through disruptions and understood the importance of dedicating a small fraction of their house to stored food.

The most critical step in building our own supply chains is finding suppliers. Unfortunately, few Americans ever meet the farmers who feed them. Today’s farmers are buried behind layers of distribution, warehousing, and transportation.

Michael Pollan (Omnivore’s Dilemma) suggests that we “shake the hand that feeds you.” Despite the fact that less than 2% of Americans feed the other 98%, there are still plenty of small-scale local farmers who would be glad to have your business. Get to know them. Search for local farms on Instagram and Facebook and start commenting and asking questions. Develop a relationship before you need to eat.

Keep in mind there are many small family farms (like ours) who would be happy to hatch an extra dozen chicks or raise another hog for your enjoyment. Look for opportunities to be part of the process, to have a hand in raising your own food.

Of course the most resilient food supply is the one you grow yourself. Gardening is fun but it’s not just a hobby. Humans were actually created to be gardeners—it’s in our DNA. It’s not too late to start a garden this year, even if only a few container pots on an apartment balcony (that’s how I started). Add to your gardening a little bit each year. Then add chickens (but not in the apartment).

CLICK HERE to read the entire article on The Grovestead website

Filed Under: Blog, Front Page Posts

Home-business + Home-schooling

Guest contributor – Shari McMinn

The landscape of family living shifted significantly this spring when every school in our nation physically closed due to Covid19, with associated social distancing and ‘stay at home’ government orders. Public and private PK-12 schools, even colleges, transitioned students to learn at home, mostly on computers. Suddenly, working parents also came home to work remotely when possible, and began to supervise their children’s education on a daily basis — probably with some inconvenience and frustration. Overnight, families were together every day, all day, all week, and still are. Life was turned upside down, inside out! Ouch!

 Read More

Filed Under: Blog, Front Page Posts

The Perfect Time

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves (Philippians 2:3 ESV).

In his letter to the church members at Philippi, the Apostle Paul reminded them to look to the interests of others as well as their own, adding that they should count the interests of others “more significant.”

The word of God is timeless and applicable to everything in life, including business.

Entrepreneurs will be well served to put feet to this bit of wisdom right now as most folks are probably enduring more poor and selfish behavior than usual given the present social conditions. Let us as Christian business owners conduct business humbly as Paul instructs us.

Application

 Within your business, look ahead and not side-to-side to see who’s not doing enough. In terms of “getting it done” a 50/50 partnership will inevitably fall short. On the other hand the job will get done if everyone puts their hands to it without concern over whose job it is.

Make it a habit to consider the interests of your customers and clients more significant than your own — call them with updates, pick up and deliver, thank them, send a gift when the transaction is finished. We find that customers appreciate a thank you and a $5 gift card. 

Let your people know when you catch them doing something right. We got to do that a few days ago when one of our guys came in to work early in order to have a job finished when the customer arrived as the store opened.  

Takeaways 

  1. Evaluate your own attitude and actions.
  2. If you need to confess (admit you were wrong), ask forgiveness and repent (change), then do it now.
  3. Repeat.

This is the perfect time to lead! Carry on.

Filed Under: Blog, Front Page Posts Tagged With: Entrepreneurship

Little Guatemala

by Erica Ramazinni

If you caught a glimpse of a young boy sleeping in a car on the side of a busy road in Guatemala City so he could wake up to the dangerous task of building large silos to provide a little income for his family’s food, you probably would not even think of calling it an ideal family economy. 

Well, years have passed, and now that boy from the car is a man who would tell you that God is sovereign over all and was at work even there in the silo mills. He learned to work hard and persevere in ways that many never do, and even though it was difficult, a special value was placed on caring for family. 

 Read More

Filed Under: Blog, Front Page Posts Tagged With: family economy

Got Customers?

Want more customers or clients? Take good care of the ones you already have!

If your experience is anything like mine, you are currently receiving a flood of emails, phone calls, and texts from so called “marketing experts.” They are offering all sorts of “solutions” for generating more customers for your business — improving your web presence, getting the top listing on Google, pushing your website out to various neighborhoods from the marketing expert’s site, etc. These strategies are certainly effective if properly executed. That said, here’s my favorite source for new customers: take great care of the ones you already have!

 Read More

Filed Under: Blog, Front Page Posts

Adapt and Innovate

The Coronavirus and society’s reaction to it has changed everything in the business world. The question is, “Will things return to “normal” when the pandemic passes?”

I think so, except it will be a different normal. An even larger number of customers will prefer businesses coming to them (to their home or home/office) instead of the other way around. For my family’s computer and device repair business that means a couple of big changes:

 Read More

Filed Under: Blog, Front Page Posts

Working ON vs IN Your Business

I think the word “Coronavirus” has been spoken more than any other in recent weeks. We entrepreneurs know all too well how our businesses are being affected by it. Business is probably down across the board. That’s a given.

I like to ask questions of my audience, so here’s mine for this week, “What are you doing to work ON your business?”

 Read More

Filed Under: Blog, Front Page Posts

Working Relationships

Growing a successful family business — as with a family homeschool — is all about improving interaction among the members involved. It is also about intentional quantity and quality time dedicated to teaching skills and imparting a diligent work ethic every day. A family business is a natural outgrowth of the family homeschool as children mature and step into work roles under the guidance of their parents.

 Read More

Filed Under: Blog, Front Page Posts

A Vision for the Family Economy

For many families the goal is to integrate their economies into their daily lives. They have seen that the things they once took for granted- jobs, steady paychecks, lifelong employment- are not the sure things they once believed to be true. They have decided to seek freedom through the establishment of the family business.

Learn More

 

Apprenticeship and Mentorship is the method of learning that many of America’s founding fathers used, and it’s working again today.

Filed Under: Front Page Posts

A Vision For Future Generations

Many parents are discovering that the modern government educational system and our modern society in general are woefully inadequate to prepare their sons and daughters for their future endeavors as described by the word of God. This discovery is leading many back to the age-old, tried-and-true method of an apprentice working alongside a master in preparation for life.

Learn More

Filed Under: Front Page Posts

Blog

Locally Produced Food – a Terrific and Tasty Investment

July 7, 2020

AME guest blogger Rory Groves lives with his wife and five children on a farm in southern Minnesota where they grow food, raise livestock, and host educational workshops on traditional skills. He is the author of the forthcoming book Durable Trades: Family-Centered Economies That Have Stood the Test of Time (Front Porch Republic). By Rory GrovesAs we […]

Home-business + Home-schooling

June 18, 2020

Guest contributor – Shari McMinn The landscape of family living shifted significantly this spring when every school in our nation physically closed due to Covid19, with associated social distancing and ‘stay at home’ government orders. Public and private PK-12 schools, even colleges, transitioned students to learn at home, mostly on computers. Suddenly, working parents also […]

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