Building a New Foundation

We’re so thankful this year to be adding new ground to Firefly Fields, Inc. Our work on this new piece of land all starts with the soil! From the soil comes nutrient value that yields products from the farm loaded with all sorts of goodness.

As we head in to Thanksgiving week, Virginia and I certainly have a lot to be thankful for. Our families, friends, adventures we’ve had and ones that lie ahead…these are just a few and all have been so important to us. However, one that jumps out to me this year is a new piece of ground that Virginia and I acquired this fall. At just a hair over 40 tillable acres, and located just down the road from the home farm, this ground represents an exciting new era for us. This will be a place of our own to work and grow and really connect with the land in a way that we haven’t been able to before. While both us have worked professionally in ag-related fields with farmers and producers across the country, this is the first opportunity that we’ve had to get our own hands dirty with our own soil, and our own crops. With the generous guidance and support from Archie and Mattie, we are super excited to get started this winter developing a plan to transition this beautiful piece of Michigan farmland into a beautiful piece of ORGANIC Michigan farmland! So naturally, throughout this transition process, we will be sharing a little bit here on the BLOG.

First things first- with the 2018 soybean crop harvested, this past weekend we kicked things off with some soil sampling. One thing that has been clear in watching Archie and Mattie, and listening to how Jennings Family Farm has been able to be so successful over the past decades, is that managing soils is where things start and end. Soils are the foundation of a farm. If you manage them well, the crops do well. But if you neglect them or abuse them, well, bad things happen. Erosion, poor yields, weeds, ponding…these might as well be considered curse words to a farmer. However, what separates the way Jennings Family Farm approaches managing soils from others is the end goal. The target is not just bushels (quantity), and its not just a special certification (label) on the product. The end goal is to bring a nutrient dense product to market that is beneficial and meaningful and HEALTHY!

The nutrient value of your food doesn’t depend on a label, it depends on the way soils are managed and the farm it comes from. Purchasing foods direct from Jennings Family Farm ensures the highest quality and value.

While crop yields have continued to increase for many farms, the nutritional density of the crops being grown has declined over time (see the table below). This is not only confined to crops for direct consumption either. The trend also carries forward to forage and feed quality that impact that quality of meat that we consume. All of these nutritional impacts connect back to the soil which supports and feeds these crops and animals.

A prime example comes from a recent nutritional analysis done by an independent lab on the Jennings Family Farm organic beef.  The test was to evaluate the fatty-acids, specifically the omega fatty acids (Omega-3, Omega-6, etc.) that are linked to a number of health benefits such as supporting heart and mental health, impacting energy levels and metabolism, and fighting inflammation. These fatty-acids need to be within optimum ratios in our diet in order to receive some of these benefits. The maximum suggested ratio of Omega-6 : Omega-3 is around 4:1. In our modern-day diets, this has ballooned to somewhere between 10:1 and 50:1! This is clearly out of balance and has been suggested as a contributing factor to the increased occurrences of things such as diabetes and chronic diseases in our society. Since animal-based foods (meat, fish, eggs, etc.) are an important source of these essential fatty-acids, our goal was to see where the Jennings Family Farm fell on the spectrum and how this compared to a similarly labeled organic product that one could purchase from a well-respected organic grocery store chain.  The results showed that beef from Jennings Family Farm came in at with a ratio of nearly 3:1 compared to the store-bought product which had a ratio of 7:1. Clearly not all products are created equal in terms of their nutritional value and we feel these results speak to the foundation of Jennings Family Farm, the soils which support our crops and animals, and the value of the products that we are able to produce.

Maintaining a diet at or below the maximum target ration (4:1) has several health benefits including supporting heart and mental health, impacting energy levels and metabolism, and fighting inflammation

So, as we move towards a new year, Virginia and I are thankful for this new opportunity we have ahead of us, and excited to start building a solid foundation of healthy soil for our future crops. We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and don’t forget to keep an eye out this week as we will be releasing some holiday deals for Black Friday through Cyber Monday at our SHOP!