Customer: “Hey, do you have any bacon for sale?”
Me: “No sorry, we have sold out of that, but we still have some pork chops.
Customer: “Ok, have a good day.”
Conversations like that happen on a regular basis for small farmers like us, and to be honest, it is a source of frustration. The root problem is many people still look at us like a grocery store instead of a farm store which is a uniquely American problem. To keep small operations like ours going, we need customers who are willing to buy what we have in stock. It’s kind of like going to a produce farmer in November and asking for fresh tomatoes. They probably won’t have that in stock, but they might have collard greens. Trust me, I love bacon as much as the next guy, but there’s only so much you get from a pig. When it’s gone, it’s gone, but we may still have pork chops and sausage. Because of the American supermarket, and its year ‘round plethora of options (like “fresh tomatoes” in December), most people don’t cook and eat seasonally. Small farms like us don’t operate that way, we can’t operate that way, and so we need customers who are willing to buy what we have in stock, regardless of season.
So yes, today we might be out of bacon, but we have plenty of pork chops and ground beef and whole chickens. How many would you like?