Text and photo courtesy of Jerry and Liz Eaton, The Eaton Farm, Madison, IN

Farmers are no strangers to uncertainty.  We strive to moderate the chaos; raging against entropy, gravity, and market forces.  We level the high spots and fill the voids to make everything uniform, and more certain.  Some days all our work still amounts yelling down into an old well.  We know that we will have weather.  Hot days, wet spells, cold snaps, dry stretches, frosts, hail, and storms can all be managed, but it is uncertain.  Making a life and a business in this sort of ever-shifting landscape is difficult and misunderstood in our increasingly binary world.  Uncertainty is now knocking on the door of rural and urban alike, and no one seems sure how to answer it, though some find comfort in paper sundries.

This year we are managing uncertainty with a new broiler house.  While the new greenhouse structure will allow for rotated pasture on nice sunny days, it will provide more security from predators, more dry bedding for cold, wet springs, room for feed storage, ample ventilation, natural sunlight, fans and shade during heat extremes and protection during frosty nights.  We’ve been racing to finish it in time for chicks amid all the other things vying for our attention. 

For two years, tomato uncertainty has been addressed by raising all our tomatoes inside hoop houses (unheated greenhouses), with their roots growing in the soil (not hydroponically).  We have been happy with the resulting yields, and the reduction in blights, rot, and cracking. 

Last year we attempted to tighten our calving season, and the result was fewer calves. Keeping cows all winter for no calves is certainly a disaster. So we added a bull for a much longer time frame, and widened our season.  While a wider, less predictable calving  window is stressful, calves are the kind of chaos we like to have abundantly. We were pleasantly surprised recently by the addition for four new calves. 

So here on the farm, we’re managing our uncertainty, and hoping for Plenty.  We also hope to deliver our Plenty (whether it is meat, vegetables or newsletters) in quality, on time, and regular intervals.  In order to help our customers manage uncertainty, we’ve put together some meat bundles that may appeal to those who find peace of mind in a well-stocked freezer, or quality at a discount. Check out our online farm store for more details.

Here’s to more certainty!

Our best,
Jerry, Liz, Silas, Ira, and Abe