Chicama Run Family Farm

Yes I am! Totally addicted! I told Joe I'm dreaming of running through strawberry fields naked - that's how bad it is.....of course I have my new red crocs on so I don't step on anything.... yes I am a true red neck at this point in my life.

These were picked by the kids Sunday the 24th. We think they are the "ever-bearing" variety which is smaller (super sweet) but they produce all year. These aren't the type that "pick your own" places use because they are smaller and most people want HUGE berries. But dang these are yummy!

Sorry - we don't have enough right now to share - wish I did. Maybe next year?

Boy did we have fun this past weekend! I think we are still recovering, but it was a lot of fun.

We have no idea how many people came through this time - but over 70 DOZEN eggs were gathered by kids and adults alike!

I think I have my voice back after talking so much to everyone, but it was worth it. Every year we do this and it's always great to see so many people come out to visit and to talk about and see what we do.

I love books.... Amazon.com is my addiction and the UPS guy knows it! So I ordered the books I needed/wanted for the kids and their Ambleside Online year which we will hopefully be starting soon as I need to get everything in order (which requires the books which will be here Monday)

Now of course - a lot of the books are available online for free thanks to them being out of copyright.... but I NEED to hold a book in my hand. I would love to have a way for the kids to take their books with them like on a PDA or a laptop (we'll get there - they both are saving up for one) but for now I want the shiny books.

I can't wait to read some of these books - they look so cool!!! But we'll be taking it slow (which is why I need the books) and I think I'm going to have the kids do more reading aloud to me - maybe even have Jacob read to Alexis and Alexis read to Jacob (but we'll see how they do).

The first book I want to start is "Grammarland" which is available free online in a PDF format - and I even have that on my computer - but with the pictures it has in the book I really just wanted to see it.

Then I still need to get a few more books - like one of Saints that Yesterday's Classics has (what an awesome company BTW.... and their books are available at Amazon)....

But then - I think my favorite books are the Burgess Animal Books. What a GREAT way to learn about animals.... the other day Alexis and I were listening to the Burgess Book of Animals and we learned about the "evil" brown rat/Norway rat. Alexis was horrified to learn that these are the types of rats we have around here and then angry that some people brought these things over on ships :)

So off to learn more....... and wallow in some books......

I have been thinking about this the past couple of days.... ok .... people were asking me why I request a $15 minimum on credit cards and realized that most people (including myself before I had a business) did not realize the amount small businesses CAN be charged just for the convenience of accepting credit cards.

Now - this isn't a complaint panel.... I just want people to understand some of the costs in general with running a business - because I found it fascinating once I was taught.

So we'll use eggs as an example which I sell for $4.00 per dozen.

Now - I pay sales tax on the $4.00 - 2.5% so $0.10 goes to Virginia and Loudoun County
3% goes to the farmer's market association as a fee so we can help pay for advertising etc so $0.12
Then if someone charges (we'll say with Mastercard, Visa or Discover) I am charged 3.25% + .35 PER TRANSACTION - so that's another $0.43 (and if you use American Express it's up to 3.75% + 0.35 making it $0.49)

I'm not going to including egg cartons, cost of washing, running the commercial fridge etc. as that can get up higher - I'm just focusing on the additional FEES just to sell 1 dozen eggs.

So $0.65 is just wrapped up in fees for selling 1 dozen eggs at the farmer's market if someone charges it bringing the amount I bring home $3.35 per dozen (again not including chicken feed or anything else additional - but I'll tell you it's less than $3 per dozen easily - and I don't charge Joe for working here... I'm expensive enough to keep as a wife!)

Now if we sell 100 dozen (this past weekend was 128!!!) those fees can add up quickly!

Of course every business and every merchant account (the thing that allows us to accept credit cards) is different. But we are living in a plastic world plain and simple. People - including myself - don't carry cash nearly as often as they used to. Personally I can't even go "get cash" from an ATM because I have no idea what my 'pin number' is and really don't care to know because I am terrible about balancing my own checkbook.

So I hope this helps some people understand WHY the cost of things can change as our output for stuff changes all the time.

Finally with all this rain we get a break! So today I get to butcher the remaining 8 chickens that we have ready to go. Yes - we lost a lot. But I anticipate this being the last "loosing" group because Joe finished my chicken tractor and so far 0 losses.

So with me doing this - Joe has gotten most of the gardens ready and is starting to plant some stuff today. Even tomatoes! He grew a variety which will give us tomatoes mid-June which is super exciting for us as we don't have a green house to grow tomatoes but we (and everyone else I think) want tomatoes EARLY!!

Off to work :)