As you know, Locally Laid is a mission-based little business. If it wasn’t for a bigger goal, we’d never worked our way through all the frozen waterlines, broken eggs and the 99 mini-disasters that awaited each new day this first year.
It’s always been about getting people Real Food, while treating livestock and the planet well in the process.
We’ve shared in previous blogs about our many trials, but what we’ve yet to share is that something else is happening. Something, frankly, a little magical and unexpected.
Farmers have been approaching us for help. They want to convert their completely indoor, cage-free operations to outdoor foraging pasture-raised flocks. Consumers – that’s YOU– are learning that hens who exercise and eat greens produce a healthier egg and happier bird. You’re seeing value there.
Eggs from pasture = healthier eggs
And because consumers have shown they’re willing to pay a little more for humanly raised Real Food, the industry is taking notice. (We are Americans, after all, and our industries follow the money.)
It seems that Locally Laid, through pure naiveté, has been breaking all the rules of commercial-scale egg farming both in the way we raise our eggs and the way we market them. Other farmers are asking us to partner with them to create pasture-raised farms in their area.
We are humbled when people bring our local eggs into their homes.
And that’s when we started to get a tingly feeling. What if a hardscrabble, little egg farm in the Northland, one with hardly any modern equipment or experience, could somehow start to change an industry? (Whoa.) Push it towards not only birds on pasture, but using non-GMO corn. Planting trees with deliveries. And other little things, like insisting that any LOLA t-shirt be printed on American-made garments. This gave us goosebumps, and still does.
Farmer Jason has been traveling, talking to farmers who want to know how to “do pasture” and how to educate consumers. In short, they want the Locally Laid brand in their hometown.
To make that happen, Jason’s been working with everyone from farm hands to company heads to distributors to regulators and retailers – finding new ways to bring Locally Laid pasture-raised eggs to store shelves in states across the U.S.
In the next few weeks, Locally Laid will be announcing partner farms in new areas, along with new retailers carrying our brand. In short, more people will be getting Locally Laid and eating Real Food.
If you’re surprised, I assure you – not half as surprised as we are.
Be your own chicken
We wanted you to hear this exciting news from us. You’ve been with Locally Laid from the beginning, and we think of you all as Friends of LOLA – the people we make Real Food for. Frankly,without you there’s no business. But as things change, things will also stay the same. Locally Laid will continue to be in Wrenshall serving the Duluth region. It’s our plan to build some simple, back-saving & nearly modern facilities while continuing our slow growth to meet our local demand.
And don’t worry – we’re still us. We will continue to bumble our way through this journey to Real Food – and always let you in on the joke.