December 30, 2007

Farm Fresh Weekly

Michael Pollan's new book "In Defense of Food"
Allan Nation, editor of the "Stockman Grass Farmer," recently reviewed Pollan's new book. I found it fascinating and thought you might enjoy it as well:

"Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma has a new book out next month called In Defense of Food. Michael sent me an advance copy and if you are a grassfed enthusiast you’ll really like it. In this book Pollan reveals that much of what we are eating today is really "edible foodlike substances" and not real food. Insidiously, he said many of these fake foods come with health claims that make them appear to be more nutritious than real food. He calls this unholy combination of industrial food and semi-scientific health claims "nutritionism." The end result has been a dramatic rise in obesity and its related health problems such as adult onset diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Pollan says the best way to fight this obesity epidemic is to return to the traditional pre-World War II diet scientists rejected as "unhealthy." Pollan exposes that the post war diets change recommendations were never scientifically tested but were based upon extrapolations of data. For example, the overall health of the American public rose dramatically during World War II and the scientists concluded this was due to the rationing of meat and dairy products. This observation birthed the "low-fat" diet movement and faux foods like margarine and white bread. What they overlooked was that sugar and refined flour were also tightly rationed. The resulting shift of swapping fast digesting carbohydrates for animal fats and low fiber flour actually made people much fatter because they became hungry again much faster than on the traditional diet. The resulting obesity epidemic was worsened by the shift from real sugar to corn syrup as the primary sweetener. Another deadly diet shift has been the heavy use of hydrogenated soybean oil in almost all bakery products to add shelf life and moistness. The addition of corn and soybean based ingredients to almost all manufactured food ingredients and the shift to grain-based confinement beef finishing, pork production and dairying dramatically shifted America to a very high omega-6 fatty acid diet. Pollan said the first step on the road back to healthy eating is to reject all manufactured food products with a health claim. He said a traditional diet based mostly on green plants, and animals that eat green plants (wild fish, grassfed meats and dairy), is the most healthy diet. "If your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize what you are eating as food, don’t eat it," he said."

Stories from the farm
This unusually cold weather brings back memories of when our children were little and loved to play in the ice and snow. Here is Kendra's recollection of one particular event:

"We never really learned how to ice skate as kids, but we always loved wearing Dad's rubber chore boots to go sliding across the lagoon behind the barn. On one occassion we decided to go sliding on the lagoon on a day that wasn't quite cold enough. As we slid across the ice, it cracked, and I fell through the ice into muck and manure (it was only a few feet deep). My boots filled with muck. I pulled them out, traipsed into the garage, switched them out for another pair, and went back out to the lagoon. It was too much fun to abandon the adventure just because of mucky boots! Again, we slid across the ice and again, I fell in. This went on for several times, and finally it was time for Dad to go out and chore in the afternoon. Needless to say, he was none too pleased when he went out to the garage and discovered all of his chore boots full of wet, soggy manure. :)

Healthy food for healthy living.

Daniel King and Kenneth King
JaKo, Inc.
6003 E. Eales Rd
Hutchinson, KS  67501
www.jakoinc.com
620.663.1470

December 22, 2007

Farm Fresh Weekly

**Christmas Edition**

Christmas thoughts
This past week we have been together as a family. David and Kendra are both home and with the ice and snow, we have had a lot of time to spend together. We continue to experience the blessings of God in our lives and the lives of those around us. As our gift to you this year, we have purchased a heifer from Heifer International as a way of passing on healthy living and eating to an impoverished community elsewhere in the world. Building a local food source not only benefits the farmer but also the community around them. Thanks for your support this past year and may you all be blessed as we celebrate Jesus' birth.

Ken, Judy, Kendra, Daniel, David and Duke

Healthy food for healthy living.

Daniel King and Kenneth King
JaKo, Inc.
6003 E. Eales Rd
Hutchinson, KS  67501
www.jakoinc.com
620.663.1470

December 17, 2007

Farm Fresh Weekly

Why we record what you purchase
We keep track of all purchases so that Daniel can be compensated for the products he produces.  However, it also allows us to generate some interesting statistics:

-- For the past 12 months, Cream of the Crop club members (people who purchase more than $1,000 worth of product in the last 12 months) have purchased 52% of all product sold.  Cream of the Crop club members account for only 8% of all customers who purchased product in the past 12 months.

--The average of Cream of the Crop purchases in the past 12 months were $1,922, or less than $37/week.  Thirty-seven dollars per week is a very cheap investment toward good health.

--Speaking of good health, suppose a family has medical and pharmaceutical bills of $10,000 per year. If that family took 20% of their expenses and invested it in healthy eating, they would spend $2,000 per year on quality food. Incidentally, if that family purchased product from us, they would qualify for Cream of the Crop status, earning them valuable notices, special offers, and a generally good feeling about the effort they are making to maintain good health. We have one customer who has basically lived on just our milk since July.  She feels much better, doesn't get sick, and has lost 20 pounds and many more inches.  She is a believer in healthy eating.   If you wish to talk to her contact me and I will give you her phone number.

Watch winter editions of Farm Fresh Weekly for more interesting information about eating healty, the benefits of buying locally, and other topics we're passionate about.

Eggs
Daniel's young chickens have started laying eggs.  This year, we have decided to not sort the eggs according to size. This means that there will be both large and medium eggs in the cartons.  This will greatly simplify life for the people who clean and carton eggs for us. 

Feel free to look at the eggs before you purchase them so you know what you're getting.  The benefit of getting the medium eggs is that the yolks are darker yellow and more nutrient-rich.  Generally, the yolks are the same size with different sizes of eggs, it is the amount of white that changes.

Ice storm
We had lots of ice and snow this past week but the joyous part is the 5 inches of moisture that came with it. That puts the pasture in great shape for the winter. The cattle and chickens didn't seem to mind the ice, and we only lost power for short periods of time for which we were grateful.

Stories from the farm
Saturday morning after the six-inch snow storm, we went out and plowed snow off of a section of pasture for the chickens before turning them out to graze. It was really interesting to watch them react to the snow. The chickens would run all around on the plowed pasture, but were very suspicious of the deeper snow. Those chickens that did venture out into the great white unknown had a very difficult time returning to "safety." We had a very enjoyable time watching them experience snow for the first time.

Healthy food for healthy living.

Daniel King and Kenneth King
JaKo, Inc.
6003 E. Eales Rd
Hutchinson, KS  67501
www.jakoinc.com
620.663.1470

December 09, 2007

Farm Fresh Weekly

Freedom at last
We stopped milking this past Wednesday.  I had been milking in the afternoon during the warmest part of the day, so I always had to be home then.  Now I am free to do other things.

Kendra runs half marathon
Kendra ran a half marathon in Dallas this morning.  She has been running for a few years now and gets her joys in getting out and training.  I think this her third half marathon now. 

Children's Musical at church
Daniel has been busy this past week working on the set, lighting, and sound for the children's Christmas musical at church.  He has done a great job according to David who is involved with similar things at college.

David home for Christmas vacation
David drove home from Goshen, IN on Saturday.  He had cloudy weather all the way with some freezing drizzle from Kansas City on.  He made it home safely for which we are very thankful.

Stories from the farm
This week I was cleaning out a freezer and came across a container of ice cream from the last of the batch when we were cleaning out the ice cream freezer.  It was pretty runny when we froze it so the texture was not the nicest.  I took a couple of bites then popped the rest out into Duke's dog dish.  He laid there for a long time just licking his ice cream like you would a popsicle.  He seemed to enjoy it very much.

Healthy food for healthy living.

Daniel King and Kenneth King
JaKo, Inc.
6003 E. Eales Rd
Hutchinson, KS  67501
www.jakoinc.com
620.663.1470

December 03, 2007

Farm Fresh Weekly

Long weekend delayed sending Farm Fresh Weekly
We got home late Sunday evening from our conference in Jackson, MS after an interesting flight.  As we left Dallas there was a loud bang from the aircraft.  Nobody knew what it was but about 5 minutes later the captain told us that an engine had quit and we were going back to Dallas.  It was an interesting feeling to land with emergency equipment at every taxiway along the runway.  Anyway, all's well that ends well and we are safe at home.

Last of the fresh milk
We will stop milking sometime this week and will have fresh milk available as long as it lasts.

Buying club deliveries
We will be delivering to our buying clubs in the Wichita area this Wednesday and again in two weeks.

Mississippi conference
When we were at our conference this weekend we talked to lots of people.  We found that many people there were very envious of our customer base and the way we sell products.  The general response we get is that selling products on the honor system will not work and that you can't trust people.  My response to them was "Why do you expect your customer to trust you then".    Thanks for making our life fun.  You guys mean lots to us.

Stories from the farm
Last Friday we talked to Daniel who stayed home to chore.  He ask if I was sure that I didn't want to stop milking that day since the weather was so nasty.  I told him that he was in charge and could do what ever he wanted to.  Trust is a wonderful thing.  To have complete faith in my God and family makes life very good.

Healthy food for healthy living.

Daniel King and Kenneth King
JaKo, Inc.
6003 E. Eales Rd
Hutchinson, KS  67501
www.jakoinc.com
620.663.1470

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