Harvest at home vs Shipping

Oh hey an actual farm blog!

That was really initially the plan all along, but it turns out our lives are interesting and there’s lots to say before we actually get to anything farm related. Also for as long as we’re stuck in Ontario with all this speculative stuff going on, it’s hard to write about day to day things. So here we are in a planning affair! Some hypotheticals! Some farm stuff!

Which obviously means, me being me, we’re going to start with talking about delicious delicious creatures. So, here’s a warning that there will be discussion of meat and animal harvest. I doubt it will be graphic but I also know the subject makes some people uncomfortable and I want to put it out there that I’m going to be talking about it.

I have spent a fair bit of time researching basically everything because I really enjoy having as much information on hand as I can.

I recently learned that Nova Scotia has what is called a “farmgate exemption” what this means is that if you’re selling your meats to the end user (the person buying will be cooking and eating it) then you can sell it directly off your farm. If I end up in a larger scape, say there’s a market that wants to sell my meats or a restaurant who wants to serve them. Those animals needs to be shipped to an inspected abattoir, this way the chain of food safety can be observed as per federal and provincial regulations.

I am obviously fond of scrawling notes and keeping track of things, I never quite counted on how much I was potentially going to have to stretch this skill. There’s tag data to track creatures breedings and their vetting and care, somehow that’s all going to have to be amalgamated so I can track who I’m pairing with whom for further breeding. Added to that now is also the consideration of farmgate sales versus larger shipping. For that I don’t particularly have an answer at the moment, and that will likely take further market research. I did learn that I can (in Canada) ship the meat I’ve harvested as long as it is headed to the end user. In a way this is a lovely sentiment that means I can sell/gift lovely creatures to people I love all over the country.

So while this is a super cool discovery, let me talk briefly about why it is important to me.

It’s unlikely I’ll ever be able to afford the multiple certifications required by the “human farm board” the “sustainable farm board” and many other bodies that have popped up so we have nice things to say about farms. It can be 800-1000$ a day for inspection, your annual licensing fees are at least that, plus paying for document inspections. I can’t in good conscience steer that kind of monetary volume away from the farm itself. So I will do what I’m doing here, talk about my animals, show their feed, their lives, it will be documented and hopefully people like what they see and choose us. In the spirit of this it means a lot to me that I can harvest animals at home. I will have raised them and fed them, I will know them, and with that I can dispatch them with mercy, at home in an environment they know without added stress.

For now this is the most intelligent way I can think to approach it. Will I also have to ship some animals? More than likely, especially the poultry which can be heck to pluck and package. If there’s a restaurant or butcher box or something that wishes to pair with us, we will have to ship since the product is going to resale.

I like the idea of being able to keep an animal home, in a space it knows, in peace and no stress. Personally, I believe privately harvesting an animal at home is about the kindest thing you can do for an animal raised to provide meat. I also believe it adhears well to multiple moralistic and religious schools of thought as to how an animal should be treated when it is intended to be food.

I have a lot of thoughts and feelings around the treatment and raising of food animals and I don’t know where to go into more detail at the moment.

I’m going to leave this blog short because I don’t know if anyone is as interested in this kind of information as I am or would like me to say more or discuss it, so feel free to contact us on the website, find us on Instagram or facebook @Autistic on the range.