The Wind of Change

There has been so much change around here in the past few months that I’ve almost lost track. A departure, an arrival, a new walk in freezer, an updated truck, a trailer, new buckets, waterers, feeders and so much more.

Even with all of these changes- there are more on the horizon. Planning for the coldest nights this winter, the upcoming promise of spring, and the wettest days of summer will bring with it continued change. 

One of these changes includes who is writing this very newsletter. Although not Bennett, I write to you with the same passion and dedication that he has in the past; as we built what you know as Northaven together. I am Eric, Bennett’s stepbrother, and I am continuing the vision we started together with Sue and Kim alongside our newest team member Cameron. 

Cameron comes to us with a wealth of knowledge and nearly a decade of farming experience. He has been here hard at work as our new farm manager, and were excited for the year ahead together. Learn more about our team here

You will continue to hear from Cameron and I both, as we value this newsletter and the impact it has on you, our customers and friends. 

Winter is not typically known as a busy time when it comes to farming- but we have been anything but idle as we navigate what our future looks like here at Northaven. Many of these changes have been bittersweet, but all are continued footsteps on our path to providing you and your family a diversified offering of local, high quality food available in the area. Nothing endures but change, and we are here embracing our new changes with everything we can.

I spend a lot of my time (reads: all of it) around the farm looking at things and thinking “how could we make this better?” Whether thats the way materials and equipment are stored, the way animals are moved or fed, or the way data is captured and managed. Change for the sake of change is exhausting, but change for the but change for the betterment of the overall system is impactful.  

Sometimes change is thrust upon us, and we dont get a say in the matter- but the other side of that coin is change we enact ourselves. Both may be uncomfortable at first but the end result is often better than where we started, a lesson I learn time and time again. The last 6 months have been full of change- both types, but we look ahead and are feeling encouraged that all of these changes amount to a positive outcome for everyone involved in Northaven, especially our customers. '

MAKING IT SIMPLE

The idea of "simple" in a complex world is a tough thing to attempt to talk about- there’s certainly nothing simple about the times we are living in, especially the last 4 years.

Whenever friends or family ask “How’s the farm?” my answer has increasingly been “Producing food is really hard-” Maybe I should refine that to producing food sustainably, regeneratively, and at a small scale- is really hard.” This is not a complaint- this is what we set out to do, and we want to do it well. Being a bit of a realist, I’m not afraid to admit its hard.

It should be hard- if it was easy everyone would do it; something Cameron and I repeat to ourselves as we stand around the latest problem we are working to solve. The fact that its hard, means its worth doing, and that the outcome is something special. We embrace the challenge- its part of why we do what we do. This challenge is our mountain to climb, and the complexity shouldn’t be put on you the customer. Your experience as a customer comes first alongside the quality of the product we offer to you.

BULK BUNDLES

When we first set out offering bulk beef and pork, every order was a custom cut sheet. Although this is the standard for bulk meat sales, this creates a pile of options you as the customer need to choose. If you are not familiar with a butchers cut sheet this can be overwhelming, let alone very time consuming for you to research and fill out, and for us to organize and communicate to the butcher. 100% custom doesn’t scale well and needed to be rethought.

Last year we streamlined this workflow by adding fixed butchering bundles, online pickup scheduling, and an online cut sheet. The fixed bundles solved our “the customer has too many choices” problem, giving you three pre defined choices for how you would like your order butchered. The feedback about this was great, yet it revealed two things that still needed improvement; large pricing variability between orders (and in turn the actual amount of meat in the orders), and a complex web of math to understand “what am I actually getting?”

The fact that we need a buying guide means that its too complicated, who has time to learn how to buy?

Push button- get meat.

This year we are going to improve many of these points with the goal of creating a better customer experience than ever before.

The changes below give you predicability along with flexibility that was not available previously.

More consistency, less confusion is our goal.

ADDITIONAL SIZE

Addition of an 1/8th beef bundle for those without the freezer space or frequency of demand for a 1/4 or more. A great way to try out our beef in a smaller size while still taking advantage of a bulk order discount when compared to retail ordering.

FIXED CONTENTS & WEIGHT

Bundle cuts will be predefined just as before but include specific ranges of cuts provided in each bundle. We will guarantee a fixed boxed weight of meat you actually take home. No more hanging weight confusion, let us handle that.

Our boxed weights are up to 15% more meat in your freezer, and always include soup bones, suet, and organs where others do not.

FIXED PRICING

Bundles will be priced at their respective size with a fixed price allowing you and your family to plan financially. No more waiting until we email you to know how much your meat will actually cost. Additionally we will give you the option for full payment at the time of ordering for a discount, or a deposit with balance due at pickup.

Our fixed pricing per boxed lb. costs up to 15% less than others offering similar products in the area.

SIMPLIFIED BUNDLES

Looking at what bundles were ordered we found that by and large the Farmers Choice and our Ground Galore/Sausage & Sear bundles were the most popular. Customers looking for larger cuts, roasts, or similar placed a custom order. We are going to eliminate the 'Slow Cooker' and 'Family Roast' options this year.

Custom ordering will still be available for half and whole, and billed at the same fixed boxed weight and pricing of the standardized bundles.

TRANSPARENCY

So whats the catch? -there is no catch, besides the fact that you still have to come pick up your order. (which were going to work on improving next!)

Words matter and we value transparency in a world of soft truths; this shift in our model does include a small increase in our pricing model, yet in a way that will not be jarring to you.

This increase covers the ever rising costs of fuel, hay, grain, and the time it takes to operate a farm at this level of efficiency, at this scale and in this area; while bringing you and your family the food you love. We have meticulously reviewed our sales and livestock data we have kept over the last 2 years, along with diligently researching all of the other options available to you on the local market. We have landed our updated pricing at the median of all of our sales data for each size and style of product we offer. This level of consideration was important to us to not create sticker shock for any of our existing or new customers, while creating more value in the standardization of our model overall.

We don’t ever chase the bottom line, if we wanted to we should have chosen something other than farming! We value customer satisfaction and experience while building a viable business that you can trust.

GOT MILK?

Part of my “Its hard making food” response to the classic “How’s the farm going?” question is another response I often have, and have to remind myself of often. “Things always cost more than you budget, and take more time than you estimate”.
I don’t say this to be making an excuse (I know we have been talking about dairy for months now).

This is actually just a human condition called the “planning fallacy”, which Daniel Kahneman explores in his book “Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow”. This varies to a degree, but we tend to underestimate everything, how long it'll take to get somewhere (thank you Google Maps), how much time we need to complete a task, and more. When building a farm this happens time and time again, even when I think I’m being extra cautious, theres always something else that we dont see coming, or didn’t plan for. (I could write a whole newsletter on this but I’ll spare you the stories).

All of that being said- yes we are still working on standing up our dairy enterprise. There have been some unplanned twists in the road, but we have not given up and assure you we are still hard at work on this aspect of our operation.

Enacting all of the changes I mention above is critical for us to be able to put dairy at the centerpiece of our operations, and the optimization of our beef and pork offerings are going to allow us to focus on the dairy this year.

Cameron comes to us with years of small-scale on-farm dairy experience, and we’re excited to get to work Heres where we’re at:

Construction - Winter/Spring: We are building our milk house, storage, and our parlor in the oldest part of our nearly 185 year old barn. (Which ironically used to be a dairy barn when it was originally built!) This requires removing the existing flooring and beams, and reinforcing this with new construction. This will allow ample headroom below for milking, space for our milk house, and storage above for bottling supplies and more.

Phase I: Remove and replace old floor and beams
Phase II: Build out milk house and parlor
Phase III: Inspection for a New York state license

(Phase III will be the most crucial, as we will be at the mercy of NY state and the timing of many elements must align perfectly for this approval.)

Production - Summer: Our current goal (see note about planning fallacy above) is to start producing dairy for sale by the end of this summer. In the mean time you can help us get this off the ground by buying any of our beef or pork above, and signing up for our dairy interest list.

Our initial production will be small as we grow to fill the demand we find, but knowing what you our customers are looking for helps us plan as best as we can. Visit the link below and sign up today and we will notify you as soon as we are ready. We appreciate your patience, and are excited to continue the work we’ve started here.

Click here to sign up for our dairy interest list!

KEEP IT SIMPLE

As much as we try to distill this wild world of “Farming” into a neat, simple little box- the truth is we cant and won’t ever be able to; yet this is what makes farming what it is. These changes we are making are rooted in improving your experience as our customer, and we look forward to your feedback as we continue down this path together. It wont be perfect, we will probably trip and fall, but rest assured that we will put the quality of your food, and your satisfaction as a customer before any bottom line.

There are many more things we have our sights on for making your experience with us as easy as possible, including a self serve farm store and self serve pickup.

As much as we want to put all of this in place at once, our operation would stall if we tried to- so we are working on incremental improvements to every step of our process.

We love hearing from you, so if theres anything on your mind feel free to give either Cameron or myself a call at 845-982-2101 or drop us an email at hello@northavenpastures.com

We appreciate all of you as our customers, and are looking forward to a 2025 full of continued growth together.

Eric, Cameron, Kim and Sue