Have you ever pondered the origins of the aluminum can your favorite beverage lives in? I’m reading a fascinating book on the transportation economy and the seemingly endless miles our goods travel from source to consumer. As an example, the author follows the 10,000-mile journey of an aluminum can from the mine to the grocery aisle, and he calls the can a “ghost product” because we have no notion of where they came from, who made them, or how they arrived in our home. I’ll never think of a can the same way. (Side note, please recycle. It shortens the distance traveled dramatically.)

We don’t want our Ferndale turkey to be a ghost product. In fact, we’re proud to show you the who, where, how, and why behind our farm and products, and we hope you’ll join us on Saturday, July 13th from 10:00-4:00 for our annual Co-op Farm Tour day. We’ll have hay rides every 30 minutes, games and activities for the kiddos, and turkey samples in the store.

Our annual farm tour days have become some of my favorite of the whole year, because they represent the core of what makes our type of farming so distinctive. You have a chance to discover how our turkeys are raised and the partners we proudly work with to produce our Ferndale turkey products. In turn, we have the joy of meeting the customers that support what we do. These interactions simply don’t happen in agriculture today, a world of ghost products and long-distance travel from farm to consumer.

We’re proud to be on a different path, and thank you for helping carve it with us. I’ll hope to see you here on the farm on July 13th!