07/24/2026
🌿 Yesterday, GOTURSIX traveled 250 miles to South Side Farms in Cape Girardeau as part of the Missouri Rural Food Access Partnership.
🤔 Ever have one of those moments where you realize something has been right in front of you all along?
For us, that was Azolla.
We’d seen it floating on ponds and still water. We just never knew its name or, more importantly, what it could do.
Also known as mosquito fern, fairy moss, or water fern, Azolla is a tiny floating fern packed with protein that can be grown as a sustainable supplemental feed for chickens and ducks. 🐔
GOTURSIX has a growing mixed flock, and just like our mission with people, we’re always looking for innovative ways to help them thrive. Finding nutritious, affordable feed for our feathered egg producers is one way we honor our fiduciary responsibility to our donors. 🥚
🫙 The team at South Side Farms did more than teach us about Azolla. They gave us a mason jar full of it because, under the right conditions, it can double in size every few days. Imagine what one little jar could become in a month.
🚐 That little jar made the 250-mile trip back to Hartville, took a quick detour to the Current River, and by bedtime was already floating in its new home at GOTURSIX.
💚 A huge thank you to Maurice, Jake, Jacob, James, and Mar’Tavion for welcoming us, answering every question, and so freely sharing what you’ve learned. That’s how stronger food systems are built—not by keeping good ideas to ourselves, but by giving them away.
🌱 We can’t wait to see this little jar multiply. If all goes well, it won’t just feed our flock. It’ll become something we can share with producers throughout Missouri’s Ozarks.
📣 Are you a chicken farmer, homesteader, or homeschooling family in Wright, Douglas, Texas, Webster, or Laclede County?
If this little jar grows the way we hope, it won’t be long before we have enough Azolla to share. We’d love to see it multiplying across the Ozarks—one tote, one flock, and one family at a time. If you’d like to start your own culture, let us know in the comments or send us a message.
✨ Sometimes the most valuable thing you bring home isn’t something you bought. It’s something someone cared enough to teach you.
