The second and final day in Houston was most likely my favorite. We went to speak with the folks from Jolie Vue Farm. Let me start out by saying that Glen and Honi Ann Boudreaux are some of the nicest people that I have come across in a long time. They made us feel welcome as well as gave us quite the educational tour of their place.
This family farm is impressive for many reasons. They told us about their idea that came to fruition in 1989 when they acquired the 107 acres outside of Houston. The plan was to let the land revert to its natural state, letting the mix of native grasses taking over the unnaturally planted and maintained plants currently on the property. This ended up being a major success in a few ways, the first of which was their water usage dropped quite significantly. Since the previous grasses were not from the Texas area their water requirements were tremendous. Secondly, they benefited from not having to buy as much corn and grain for their animals. The “traditional” way to raise animals in this area was to feed them a diet of food that had to be trucked in from far away and with the rising price of diesel fuel this feed became more and more expensive. With the addition of native plants, along with creative and responsible pasture rotation they are able to raise five times as many cows on this property as the local agriculture professional thought possible. When thinking about dollars per acre, the “high” end of the scale around other farms in this county is $700-$800, while the Boudreaux’s are pushing $2500.00 or more. Which to say the least surprised the folks in the nearby farming community. This alone makes quite a compelling argument the Jolie Vue must be doing something right.
In addition to the bottom line they also talked to us about some of the specifics of what they do and why. They raise a specific breed of both cow and pig on this farm. They were able to acquire breeding stock from the originally registered Scottish Angus linage from having someone actually travel to Scotland and back. This cow is smaller framed than the traditional cow for this area. They are more even tempered than other breeds. They also have a good breeding temperament, which helps replenish their herd each month. These cows are moved from one lush pasture to another in rotating succession. The idea of “the cow shouldn’t take a second bite” was new to me. It was explained to me that since the top 1/3 of any grass have the largest amount of sugars and proteins, that ideally you would want the cow to only eat this part of the plant. The accomplish this by keeping the cows in any pasture for only a few days and when they have gotten all of the tops of the grasses, they are moved to the next pasture and the previous field is left to recuperate (with a fresh layer of manure) to regrow their nutritious tops for at least a month and a half before being visited again.
They are allowed to stay on the farm eating the freshest of wild grass until they are between 2 and 3 years old. Then they are rounded up into a finishing area, where they are allowed to eat a little more grass and gain some final weight before they are sent off for processing. Even their butchering practices were impressive. They employ quite a different method than the usually. They told us that they are almost Kosher (but without the Shochet). Where the animal is slowly bleed out through the neck in a quite setting, without machines or undue stress. This allows them to treat the animal with more respect and less violence, which may not save any money but it sounds like the right way to do it if you ask me.
The hogs of the farm are managed in quite a similar way. The Berkshire/Duroc hogs are allowed about 1 year on the farm. During that time they are moved from one section of the farms forested land to another. This allows them to feed naturally on acorns and other forest flora as they would in the wild. They are rotated a little slower from one area to the next as they are also a little harder on the land with their rooting habits. They forested areas are allowed several months to recoup before they are allowed to return to the same place. Around harvest time the hogs are gathered up into a smaller pen and finished on a diet of fruits (peaches, figs and pears) from the farm .There are not enough of these fruits to be a viable cash crop, so the feed the hogs the fruit in an effort to naturally add a little weight before processing. As a happy accident, the meat from these animals has an especially desirable taste and they are able to get a premium for their meat.
I was also very interested to learn more about the CSA (community sponsored agriculture) model of distribution and payment that the farm runs on. They have over 150 people that pay $35/year to be registered in their network. Each of these people has the option to sign up for a $200.00 delivery each month. They have about 100 slots to fill, so with the overlap there is almost never any leftover food. Using this system they have the comfort and security of an almost guaranteed sales list at the start of every month. They don’t have to go to a market and worry if they are going to sell their food in enough quantity in time to keep profits coming in. They also sell directly to restaurants, except that their commercial customers buy directly from the farm and the monthly boxes of meat remain separate. Both the folks at Jolie Vue and their customers seem to benefit from this business model. The customers get great tasting, humanly treated, local meats. While the Boudreaux’s, have a regular customer base and don’t have to worry (as much) who they will be selling to next month.
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