A Year in Review: Savoring - and redefining - Success on Our Family Pork Farm

Dear Farm Community 🚜🌟,

As we bid farewell to another incredible year, we're excited to take a stroll down memory lane and reflect on the milestones, triumphs, and heartwarming moments that made 2023 truly special at Alluvial Farms.

🌾 Growing Together, Sow by Sow 🌾

From the first hints of spring to the golden hues of autumn, our farm has flourished with the love and care poured into every inch of the soil. We're proud to share some highlights that have shaped our journey:

1. Cycle of life on the farm: Witnessed the birth of hundreds of baby pigs under our care, and humanely harvested 130 hogs, also here - in our new composting facility, with our USDA inspected butcher, the Island Grown Farmers Cooperative. Distributed over 15,000# of Animal Welfare Approved Berkshire pork. 

2. On Farm Experiences: 120 people attended our three farm-to-table dinners, 150 students from Nooksack Valley High School came to the farm on a soil science field trip, and over 400 people visited during September's Whatcom County Farm tour. 

3. First grape harvest: Hand picked over 3/4 of a ton of Jupiter grapes from our one acre planting. Looking forward to increased yields in years to come, but these were so delicious!

4. Equipment upgrade: We sold our two yurts, our old tractor and our old skid steer and were able to upgrade our tractor and skid steer to newer, more functional models. 

5. Joined 5x Your Farm Sales; Farmer Mindset and Marketing coaching program. This was an amazing investment in the brains of your farmers, and in our ability to serve our community and our clients. Just as important, if not more so, than upgrading our equipment. 

6. Launched Pet Treat enterprise: to up-cycle pork liver. We were outpacing our human audience's interest in pork liver and needed another way to add value to this super food. Thanks to the support of the USDA's Value Added Producer Grant program, we had some support to get this new way to serve our community off the ground and into the wild. 

7. Re-branded skin care as "Oinkment": We are still out producing pork fat over what our human audience can consume. It has been a tough sell telling people to put lard on their skin for these past two years, but it's our family's skin care, it's a passion project and if it's not going away, we might as well have a little fun with it. 
8. Supporting our son Ramone as he grows and changes in his last year of middle school. We are taking a two week road trip over Ramone's winter break from middle school to mountain bike our way down to Tucson. Ramone's understanding and pride in the farm are a great touchpoint for him to grow from and it was fun to see him welcoming guests at this year's Whatcom County Farm Tour. 

As we wrap up this year in gratitude, we want to express our heartfelt thanks for being an essential part of our farm family. Your support and enthusiasm fuel our commitment to providing you with the finest, ethically-raised pork, pet treats, and skin care. 

Wishing you a joyous holiday season and looking forward to creating more beautiful memories in the coming year.

With gratitude and oinks,