We are a small working farm located in Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania. We have grown and sold hay and feed to horse and cattle farms for over 40 years.
05/01/2025
Tonight, I need to share an unpopular truth:
Consumers vote with their dollars. But their vote doesn’t extend to business decisions.
It takes a LOT of blood, sweat, and tears to run any small business, but especially a farm. And it takes a lot of money, too. This is the cold, hard truth.
A local (higher end) butcher shop turned restaurant announced today they’re closing their retail operations and going digital with mail order and delivery. There is outrage. The keyboard warriors are yell-typing into the social media void about what a terrible decision this is and how they’re taking their business elsewhere!
Here’s the thing: it takes an immense amount of time, energy, man power, management, and money to sink into a retail store. That’s why I only have hours on most Saturdays and by appointment - because that’s not an investment I’m willing to make. Any profits we make in our beef business go directly back into the farm. That’s why we work off farm jobs - because the business and the farm don’t make enough income to support salaries for us at this time for a variety of reasons.
If the retail business really, actually made financial sense and allowed for a quality of life the owners appreciated, I’d be willing to bet that they wouldn’t be changing their business model.
I had a conversation with Lee’s dad, Barry, this afternoon, albeit brief. He said what I do know - calf prices jumped from about $500 last year to about $1500 at auction last week - a 300% increase. What would happen if our beef prices went up 300%, too?! Public outrage and social media % #*+ storm!
All of that to say, keep in mind that your farmers and small business owners are people, too, and sometimes we make decisions that you may not understand - because consumers vote with their dollars but at the end of the day, we’re the ones wading through the stack of bills and making the tough choices.
We’ll be over here putting in the hard work and long hours, and raising the next generation to do the same. We’ll keep doing the best we can with what we’ve got!
🥩❤️
