Releasing my inner farm girl

When I heard from my friend Linda that a good friends of hers that has a small pastured chicken ranch called Soul Food Farm, lost a big chunk of their farm (and income) due to an arson fire last week... I was upset. I told her if they needed my help that I was on vacation this week, and I'd do what I could. So Linda asked if I'd help her do egg deliveries for them today. Their egg laying hens and houses were intact, so that business still needed to be managed while they try and rebuild the other barns and tend to the 600 chicks per week they take in.

Linda picked me up at 8:15 today so we could get to the Vacaville farm by 9 and take off with a mini van full of fresh eggs (and I mean fresh, some were laid nearly in my hand!)... they were being delivered to 5 local Bay area businesses. When we arrived at the farm, I met Alexis, the very sweet, dedicated, and worried owner. The fire was really devastating to her and her family, and I could see it in her face. She was so thankful that we were helping, and just taking care of the deliveries for the day helped her tremendously. She was able to take care of her new chicks and other farm business instead of driving around all day delivering eggs.

Since things are off-track right now, the eggs weren't quite ready to load... so Linda and I jumped in and helped get them ready. We were labeling egg cartons, placing the sell by date stamps on the sides, running them through the egg washer, placing in cartons and loading in crates marked for each business. We had over 100 doz. eggs to deliver! While Alexis prepared the last 20 dozen (by hand washing in her kitchen!), Linda and I grabbed buckets and visited the hen houses to see about collecting more eggs. We loaded 2 buckets apiece. It was pretty cool. I only got pecked twice (Linda avoided reaching in, she's a little smarter than me). We spent about an hour and a half at the farm working.... then we loaded the van and were off!

Our first stop was Cafe Rouge. Easy peasy, if you don't count the only casualty of the day which was a dropped 6 pack of eggs oops. Next up was Magnani Poultry in Berkeley. Pretty easy, again. Then, we made a quick run up to Chez Panisse to drop off some dishes for Alexis. Next on our list was the great restaurant, Camino.

Then we hit the Bay Bridge for our last two stops. First up was the super amazing Bi-Rite market and creamery. What wonderful, caring people and what a fantastic local community market. They sell the greatest products! We treated ourselves to some ice cream. Linda had salted caramel and balsamic strawberry, and I had toasted coconut and coffee toffee. Mmmm! Moving on, we hit the streets of San Francisco bound for our last stop, Prather Ranch Meat Co. We unloaded the bulk of our eggs here, including 6 doz. Alexis had donated to Mission St. for a benefit.

We wrapped up our day here, and enjoyed lunch at one of my favorite places... Taylor's Refresher.

It was really refreshing to see the local support for Soul Food Farm, and how much people cared about Alexis and her farm. They're doing all kinds of fundraisers, raffles, etc... to chip in to help them rebuild.

Today was one of the best days I've had in some time. I felt very good about giving up my last vacation day to get filthy dirty, sweaty (and we all know how I feel about sweating lol), and worn out. Alexis and her family and her awesome farm deserve the best, and I hope they can pull through this setback. With everyone's help, I think they can.

For more information on Soul Food Farm and how you can donate to help rebuild, go to their site and read the blog...

I have a renewed appreciation for the small scale community farmers. Those out there with pastured animals raised humanely and cleanly work SO HARD to get what they have... wow. I will never ask again why eggs from a place like Soul Food are "so expensive" compared to factory farmed eggs again. I KNOW why, now. I was there. It's a ton of hard work done by just a couple of people and it's done by hand. Please, support them, support the businesses that buy their products, and support any small, quality farms.

I also want to give thanks to my own parents, who live on a small ranch and raise the meat I eat. My Dad has worked his butt off doing underground construction most of his life, and then he runs his ranch alongside that. He raises pigs, lamb, and beef. I have a freezer full of humane and free range meat thanks to him. He just dropped off a dozen fresh eggs from his hens for me yesterday... THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!