PILAROC FUTURE: Part 5 of 5

Four little baby births, hundreds of cattle, countless pigs and about 50 sheep have been and are being raised at Pilaroc Farms. We are continuing to grow in livestock numbers and acres.

But Jennie can’t help but think of BIG things like how to make our products even more unique than they already are. How to educate the public on how awesome agriculture is and always will be. And how to get our product to the masses without sacrificing valuable family time.

ANNOUNCEMENT
With that said, we have an announcement. Pilaroc North will be no more. But Pilaroc South is about to become HUGE!

The Herdsman and I didn’t know what the next path was for Pilaroc. Did we want to open a butcher shop somewhere? Did we want to bring on partnership livestock? Did we want to start shipping nationwide? Did we just want to grow in the path we were already going? Whatever we do, we need to be with the kids. We didn't quit our big time jobs to sit in a meat wagon or building all day without them. And then it hit us.

We both like to talk. A lot. And we both absolutely love to talk about agriculture. It is our passion and true calling. And we both feel so many could benefit from learning more about agriculture; how it works, what we do, where your food comes from.

And not only educate about the agriculture side, but about the meat side as well. After all, we are actually in the MEAT business. And we have said this from the beginning – it is our ABSOLUTE RESPONSIBILITY to teach you everything we can about meat. You need to know more. We want you to know more. You will know more.

WHAT’S NEXT
(Freaking tell us already!)
We closed on a piece of family land a couple weeks ago. Pilaroc South, just 25 mins north of downtown Huntsville, will now house all the pigs, sheep and cows, as well as the Board of Directors.

Pilaroc North will be for sale (it's a great house and an AWESOME view, if anyone is interested!).

The farm we purchased once milked many, many cows, but, just like in every Zombie movie ever, where human life doesn’t exist and mother nature takes over, the farm is currently a place for critters and weeds to live.

There is A LOT of work to be done to get it back to a working farm. Miles of fence to be built or repaired, cleaning, building roads, cleaning, rebuilding barns, and more cleaning needs to be done. Did I mention cleaning? We will work harder over the next few years than possibly our lives combined. (And that’s saying something coming from two dairy-farming kids!)

But we have BIG plans for this piece of property. We will begin by having "Store" Hours on Saturdays and Sundays. We are still working on what the best hours are for you to shop and for our family, so we’ll post those soon. We will be selling out of the meat wagon, at first. But the plan is to eventually have a brick and mortar store, that will allow not only allow for the purchase of our meats and other awesome, local products, but for many educational opportunities.

And yes, yes, yes, education.

Once the farm becomes partially what we envision, we will begin offering many unique experiences. This won’t be a petting zoo (after all, we don't want our animals to get your cooties), but a chance to really learn. We’ll cater to infants and octogenarians alike. Any wanna-be farmer. No question is off limits. Farmers have nothing to hide and we want to prove that. Think tours, hands-on learning, camps, etc. A true family atmosphere. And yes, you’ll be able to see pigs, sheep, chickens, cows, ducks, dogs and cats (and maybe a horse if the COO gets his way). Living their life on a farm.

And if you've ever bought bacon or sausages from us, you've probably heard Jennie say that when she grows up, she wants to have her own USDA-inspected further processing-custom kitchen to make her own bacon, sausage link flavors, jerky, salamis, etc. Well, part of the farm store will be dedicated to this. We also hope to eventually get approvals to dry-age subprimal cuts longer, letting you have the chance to taste some unbelievably awesome meat. And eventually have Farm to Table dinners, bringing in awesome chefs we've worked with along the way. SOOO MANY events up our sleeves. Our heads are about to explode!

EXPOSED
And of course, we plan to document all this on social media. Our plan is to OVERSHARE!

We want you to see what it's going to take to get this farm going. Every stinking minute of it. Sun up to sun down.

Our idea is if you're with us from the very, very beginning, you too can take some pride and ownership of what's been done when you come to visit us. So PLEASE be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram. We will post way more on Instagram Stories because it is so easy (get with it, Zuckerberg). We also hope to get some videos up on our Youtube Channel more regularly. What we really need is our own HGTV show…can you imagine - “Farm Makeover”?!! Yikes!

And PLEASE sign up for our newsletter. So many announcements and opportunities will launch there first.

That’s it. That’s the big news. Happy? Excited? Sad? Disappointed? Let us know!

We hope to make our parents and children proud. We hope to make our little town proud. And we hope to make all those in agriculture, that don't have a voice as loud as ours, proud.

Love,
Jennie, the Herdsman and the Board of Directors