It was a dark and stormy night.  Thunder rumbled.  So did the man's stomach.  His headlights cut through the wet darkness of 275th Street.  In the distance, a warm light beckoned.  Hands gripping the wheel, the man's mouth watered as the light drew closer and, finally, wheels turned into the gravel drive.  The windows of the small building illuminated his dash through the rain, jacket held over his head.  Stepping inside the dry, warm haven, the man shook off the rain drops and focused on his goal: farm-raised, juicy sirloin steak.  It was midnight: where else could he buy meat like that on a late night like this?  In the freezer, two packages just the right size.  And, yes, a package of bacon cheddar cheese curds for him, and a bar of fresh soap for the wife.  Perfect.  The rain still pounding on the roof, his pencil calculated the total, and he slipped payment into the slot.  Five minutes from start to finish at the Cinnamon Ridge Self-Serve Farm Store on 275th Street, just outside of Donahue, and the man was back in his car driving toward home and his grill, creamy cheese curds staving off the hunger pangs.
“Where’s the beef?” I was asked this question for years by people interested in purchasing meat directly from our dairy farm where we milk 220 Jersey cows with 4 Lely robots and make cheese from their milk. Most of these people wanted to buy a few specific cuts of meat, not a whole or half beef, as is common when buying from the farmer. After seeing a self-serve, honor system flower stand in Chile, I thought I’d try to use that system to market farm-fresh products. While it started with frozen beef and pork, I’ve since added fresh eggs, our award-winning cheese, baked goods, milk soap and cutting boards.  In addition to aged cheddar and Gouda, we also offer fresh cheese curds, original flavor and also seasonal varieties such as bacon, ranch, or garlic and herb.  Not only do people love the flavor of our award-winning beef, but they also appreciate that it’s raised on our farm without additional growth hormones and antibiotics are only used when necessary to treat a sick animal.
The honor system has worked very well for at our store. People come in, select their products, use the provided scratch paper and calculators to figure the price, and put the money in the slot. The store is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s a real testament to the amazing community we live in.  The honor system works because people in our region can be trusted.
Our products are also offered at the Freight House Farmers Market in Davenport, The Depot restaurant in Donahue, Barley and Rye Bistro in Moline and several Quad-City Hy-Vee locations. If you’re interested in learning more about our farm, please visit our website www.tourmyfarm.com. We offer tours of our farm year round.

​As the earth wakes up in April, farmers have a narrow window of time to plant seeds in their fields.  For my father as a young man in the 1920’s, he would greet the spring breezes by tackling the fields with literal horse power.  In the dark, pre-dawn hours, George would hitch geldings Donny and Sal to the plow, drive them to the field, and proceed to till the field several times over.  Though time-consuming, this extra care would level the field to create a smooth seed bed, easier to plant and harder for weeds to later take over the crop.  When the field was finally ready, he would hitch Donny and Sal to a single row planter.  This planter used a check wire to place the seeds the correct distance apart.  A big day would be five acres planted.
 
In the 1940s my father purchased a tractor and two row planter, with which he could do more than double acres in a day than he did with Donny and Sal. By the 1970s, we were using a bigger tractor and 12 row planter which could easily do 100 acres in a day. 
 
This spring I will jump into the fields just as early as Dad did.  Yet in the 4 AM chilly darkness, I will hitch the power of not just two, but 260 horses to a shiny, green 32-row planter.  With this planter I can plant 250 acres a day.  Both Dad’s plow and his single-row planter with a check wire have long been retired.  Thanks to advancements which make no-till or very little tilling feasible, I can skip Dad’s painstaking steps of leveling the field and preparing the soil. Not only does this save precious time, but it also allows me to conserve the soil and reduce fuel usage. Plus, no-till increases the quality of water runoff and leaves a smaller carbon footprint.  The planter I will hitch to my tractor includes technology my dad could probably never have dreamt of!  It monitors seed placement, seed depth, seed population, and more.  It can even vary the population mid-field according to productivity of the soil!  Although I am needed to oversee everything in the cab, once in the field the tractor navigates itself through the field using GPS precision to utilize every possible inch and maximize yields. All this technology helps farmers like me reduce cost and boost productivity, so food prices remain low to you, the US consumer. With all this advancement, I wonder what the next 50 years will bring.
 
When you buy directly from us, you are receiving the benefit of this and other amazing technology that allows us to care for our land and livestock responsibly.  We pass both savings AND quality on to you at our Country Cupboard Store, located right on our farm near Donahue.  We hope you enjoy our great selection of our farm-raised beef, pork, cheese, and eggs!