Yes, it’s spring. Apple trees are blooming; cows are grazing the cover crops on our organic corn and soybean fields. The farm is in lock-down. Mt. Folly Enterprise employees are working remotely, and we are doing our very best to keep them on the payroll. It’s the year of the global pandemic. Though we don’t see the future clearly, we suspect the way we grow, distribute and market food has changed in some big way.
Before the corona virus outbreak, Mt. Folly was supplying produce, meat, and grains to our new Wildcat Willy’s Distillery, bakery and farm-to-table restaurant in Winchester, Kentucky, 8 miles away.
Our national customers, under stay at home orders, started requesting more foods on the Laura’s Mercantile website, so we went to work milling more Hickory King Corn, Bloody Butcher Corn, Turkey Red wheat, for bread flour, cornbread, and grits.
Laura locked the farm down, ensuring no outsiders would upset things. She spends hours each day watching and verifying.
COO Ben set up a health security program. He checks in with all employees every morning, takes health and temperature reports, and issues and enforces quarantine orders to anyone who has traveled outside the contiguous counties. We are taking coronavirus and food safety very seriously.