A Year to Review

To recap a whole year into one short blog feels like a lot of pressure.  I am bound to miss some of the best moments of the year, while ignoring some of the hard challenges tackled.  At the same time, life on the farm can feel incredibly similar one day to the next when living outside of the moments. But I do understand my worst attempt will be better than nothing, so here it goes.

The Farm

1. Pastured Chicken Investments. We invested heavily into our pasture-raised chicken program.  Developing a new approach to our brooder and finishing on the pastures. Our cement block building was repaired extensively to turn into a brooder. Automatic waters and feeders were installed to help aid in the daily manual chores of caring for the birds through their most vulnerable moments.  We also purchased two extra-large mobile hoop houses, fully equipped with automatic water and feed, to move our birds every single day throughout the pasture.  We grew rye and finished our birds on the beautiful lush greens.  Our chicken program at the farm is something we are all really proud of, not only because of the improvements to better the lives of the birds, but those of the farmer too.  And, with the careful combination of fresh feed ingredients ground at the farm, we are raising some of the best tasting poultry ever.
2. Built a thoughtful team. We know the farm can only thrive with some really smart, caring and hard working hands.  This year our focus was to find the best fit of people to help care for the animals every single day.  The team now is full of guys with hearts of gold, that deeply care for the animals.  One of which just welcomed a baby of his own right before Christmas - we congratulate him and glory to God for this blessing.
3. Closed-Herd Breeding. To strengthen our genetics, and further protect the quality of the pork we raise, we closed the herd.  Which means the sows (mamma pigs) and boars (male pigs) come from this farm alone.  We have been preserving the genetics of our own sow herd for well over 50 years, and now are preserving the genetics of our own boars.  We control the quality of the pigs raised even further now, and have already noticed the benefits to this breeding technique.
4. Introduced Lambs. 125 pregnant ewes made their way to our farm this year.  What an incredible sight to see!  Learning about this new to us species of animal has been incredibly enlightening.  Once they began having baby lambs, we monitor them around the clock.  My husband Nick takes on the late shift, heading down to the flock every 3-4 hours.  He’s aided a few during birth, and likes to make sure the baby lambs are able to secure their first drops of colostrum.  With lambing, came a couple babies that needed extra care.  Two lambs made their way into our kitchen for a couple weeks, where the kids and I bottle-fed them around the clock, and helped build their muscles up enough to stand on their own. This Christmas will forever be known as, ‘the year of the baby sheep’, as they joined us for our family parties, and pictures by the tree.

The Business

1. Warehouse expansion.  To better service our farmers market customers, and build on to our current market schedules - we leased new warehouse space in Chicago. This allowed our team to expand without the added travel time and pressure on our Michigan team.  We hired another full-time employee Isaiah to manage the space, and attended 2 brand new markets - Schaumburg and Wheaton. Isaiah brings a ton of experience with him at the markets, as he worked alongside Lou Ann for several years, starting as a young kid washing coolers.  Isaiah’s always felt like a part of our family, and it’s been so nice to work alongside him full-time. This also means we are able to attend two indoor farmers markets during the winter months - you can find us at the Logan Square indoor market every Saturday, or the Green City indoor market every other Saturday.
2. Home Shipping. We dragged our feet about starting a home shipping program.  Some of the reasons being adequate warehouse space, infrastructure, and added pressures to our current distributions.  We never want to skimp on the quality of our customer service, so we needed to make sure we were at a good point for growth and change.  Adapting to the readily available service of shipping was always in our plans, but finding the right time was even more important.  This year we quietly introduced our home shipping program, opening it up without any promotion or advertisements.  We were able to personally call every single customer for the first few months, in order to receive valuable feedback about the process. Finding the right packaging, cold storage, and shipping solutions took us some time, but we are working like a well-oiled machine now.  We have been pinning all of the locations, and have left only a couple handfuls of States that need to be sent some of our meats.  
3. New Products. We introduced grass-fed and grass-finished lamb this year, and were pleasantly surprised by the consistent demand for it.  We also added different great lakes fish pates, dog treats, smoked pork butts, party-style chicken wings, whole ducks, and smoked bone-in loins.  
4. New Connections. We continue to build and grow within the local food industry, by developing new connections with different small stores, restaurants, buyers clubs, and institutions.  Some of the newest on our list of connections include restaurants with Michelin stars - top notch meats compliment the best chefs! We’ve grown our wholesale program this year, and are happy to know the local food industry is still thriving.  Despite this growth, we also said sad goodbyes to some of our connections that had to close their doors.  It is a tough business especially for our local restauranteurs - so keep supporting small business operations, your support really matters!
5. Semi-Retirement? Nate and Lou Ann are owners of Jake’s Country Meats, and my parents.  They created this meat business while farming in 1998.  The two of them began farming together in 1976, with Nate being the 6th generation farmer of his family.  They’ve been working hard, very hard, their entire life.  And have no plans of real retirement, in true farmer-style.  However, they do know and want to shift their work to better suit their stage of life.  We were able to lessen up Lou Ann’s work-load at the farmers markets this year, to allow more time for her at home and in the office.  Nate never stops thinking of new ventures and is our visionary; he has devoted more of his time to developing a new plan for our grass-fed beef program with my brother, and puts in time volunteering for our County’s historical society.  Call it semi-retirement if you will, but it’s more like a change of work-pace for them. We carry a lot of gratitude for the farm and the meat business being able to grow and shift to the many needs of many people.

   Thanks so much for being a part of our 2024 farm story.  You are the number one reason why many of the things mentioned happened, and why it even matters.  We are looking forward to more changes and growth in 2025, and more ways to better serve and feed you.  

   With all of our thanks,

   Renee and the entire Jake’s Country Meats Family