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Cooking a Pasture-raised Turkey

We have turkeys again this year. Here are some recommendations for how to cook them. Just remember that pasture-raised turkeys tend to cook faster. So don’t over cook them.

Shannon Hayes of Sap Bush Farm has raised pastured turkeys well. She recommends – “Roast these birds at 325 degrees for 8 minutes per pound unstuffed, 12 minutes per pound if stuffed. Yes! They cook a lot faster than conventional birds!” She offers phone support throughout November for how to cook them. Here is her page of recommendations – https://www.sapbushfarmstore.com/s/stories/pastured-turkey-cooking-tips

Heather, from Mommypotamus.com, likes to use a brine for her turkeys. Her recipe is here. She soaks the turkey in a salt water solution for 12-24 hours and then roasts it. One of my customers used this method one year and said that her family thought that it was the best turkey dinner they had ever had.

I like to cook turkey in a bag breast side down. I follow the directions and times on the box the bag came in. I think that this gives a very moist meat.

Any of these 3 methods should work. Just don’t cook it to death, and you will be fine.  And don’t forget the carcass soup for a day or two after Thanksgiving.  My children really like this soup and ask for it year round!

Happy turkey cooking!

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Local Publicity

The Local Show with Tom Soccocio Jr and George Powers interviewed me recently. We had a nice conversation about CSAs, items we grow, and some of our farm history. The Local Show interviews about 10 local businesses each week, and it airs on Saturdays and Sundays on iHeart Radio. Here are links to the audio or video version of our interview.

Audio Version – start at 41 min.
Video Version

Onondaga Grown suggested our farm to The Local Show. Onondaga Grown sponsors On Farm Fest every September, a day that you can visit Onondaga County farms. They also have a website for local food businesses in Onondaga County. You think of a food niche and it is probably listed on this site. We are under local meats.

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2025 Turkeys

We are raising turkeys again this year. These birds are being raised outdoors, moved to fresh grass regularly, and supplemented with locally grown organic grains from Gianforte Farm. If you would like to order one of our turkeys, please use this order form. More details can be found on that page.

Thank you for choosing local food for your Thanksgiving dinner this year!

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Which Hat Was That?

You know me as the face and voice of the farm. But I am also a story time lead, a mom and wife, Grammie, a volunteer at church, a home educator. In a recent email with a customer, she hoped I had a good week. I commented that things were sort of busy and I had to keep track of which hat I was wearing.

She replied by sketching this picture out.

The book is The Story of Ferdinand by Leaf Munro. The chicken says, “I think she put on the library hat again!” Such a clever pic! 🙂

So I went to https://www.craiyon.com/en, an AI generating art site, and typed – woman with hat sitting on a stump reading “the story of Ferdinand” to a cow, sheep, and chicken. This was the resulting AI generated pic. Such a lovely pastoral scene.

Chicken to the others – “I think she put on the library hat again!”

A fun diversion in the midst of some busy-ness!

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Cheeseburger Potato Salad

Do you remember the Big Mac television jingle – 2 all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun? I used that as my guide to make cheeseburger potato salad. Potatoes, ground beef, grated cheese, mayonnaise for the base and then lettuce, pickles, onions, tomatoes, catsup and mustard added at the table depending how you like your salad. We have been enjoying this salad this year.

Cheeseburger Potato Salad

Print Recipe
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 large potato per person, in chunks
  • 1 oz cheese per person, grated
  • 2 oz ground beef per person, cooked
  • 1 healthy spoonful mayonnaise or salad dressing per person
  • 1 small tomato per person, chopped
  • 2 pickle slices per person, chopped
  • 1/8 onion per person, chopped
  • Lettuce, cut up like you would for a lettuce salad
  • Mustard or Catsup, opt.

Method
 

  1. In stovetop pan barely cover potatoes with water, put lid on pot, bring to boil, turn to low, cook for 5 minutes or until potatoes are just done. Drain and cool.
  2. Cook ground beef.
  3. Mix potatoes, ground beef, grated cheese, and mayonnaise or salad dressing. This is the base.
  4. Add the other items at the table. Each person can add what they like and mix it on their plate.

Notes

If you know the salad will get eaten and there won’t be leftovers, you can mix all the ingredients at serving time. Tomatoes, pickles, and onions can make leftovers of potato salad taste weird so I leave them out if I think I have made too large a base.
Other salad dressings can replace the mayonnaise, like Thousand Island, Ranch, or Oil and Vinegar. 
We like cheddar cheese, but any cheese will work.
Other meats will work – ground pork, sausage, chorizo, leftover meat chopped small, ground chicken or turkey. 
A slice of bacon, cooked and broken up, or bacon bits would add a good flavor.
Pickle relish can be substituted for the pickles.
Pasta or rice could be substituted for the potatoes. The starch could also be left out and the rest of the items just eaten with lettuce and salad greens.
Lots of variations for this recipe.
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Scotch Broth

This is a comfort food, a good warm soup made from barley, meaty shank soup bone, carrots and broth.

Scotch Broth

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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 lb meaty shank soup bones, beef shanks or short ribs
  • 8 cups water
  • 1-1/2 tsp salt (opt)
  • 3 1/2 cups chopped vegetables – could include carrots, turnips, celery, onions, or whatever you have
  • 1/4-1/3 cup medium pearl barley – use more for thicker soup, less for thinner soup

Method
 

  1. In a large soup kettle, combine beefy bones, water, and salt. Cover and simmer for 2-1/2 hours or until the meat comes easily off the bones.
  2. Remove bones and meat. Remove meat from bones; dice and return to broth.
  3. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 1 hour or until vegetables and barley are tender.

Notes

Use 3 1/2 cups of whatever vegetables you have. Onions, celery, carrots, and turnips would be traditional.
For a thinner soup, use less barley. For a thicker soup, use more.
Salt and pepper can be added at the table.
Recipe doubles well.
Based on this original recipe from Taste of Home
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Split Pea Soup

This is based off the Goya Green Split Pea Bag recipe.

Green Split Pea Soup

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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pkg dry green split peas, 1 lb.
  • 1 cup smoked ham, cut up
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2-4 medium carrots, diced
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • 6 cups water and/or ham broth

Method
 

  1. Sort and rinse peas.
  2. In a 6 to 8 quart pot, combine all the ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until peas and vegetables are quite tender. Add more hot water if needed.
  3. Serve with cornbread.

Notes

More vegetables can be added.
Recipe halves or doubles well.
Make your own ham broth ahead of time by covering ham bone, extra fat and gelatin with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, simmer for at least 3 hours. Strain broth and save meat. Discard bone or bone parts. Use 3 cups of broth as part of the liquid for this soup.
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Cheese Spoon Bread

Basic spoon bread with chili alternative

Cheese Spoon Bread

Print Recipe
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Basic cheesy spoon bread
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 can whole kernel corn, drained (8.75 oz.)
  • 1 can cream-style corn (8.25 oz.)
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 1 cup Mexican cheese blend, shredded Any shredded cheese will work
  • 1/2 cup cornmeal
  • 2 tbsp butter, melted
  • 1/2 tsp salt opt.
Optional chili variation – add this for chili flavor
  • 1 can chopped green chilies, drained (4 oz.)
  • 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Method
 

  1. In large bowl, beat eggs.
  2. Add the remaining ingredients. Mix well.
  3. Pour into greased 9 in square baking dish. Bake at 350 F for 35-40 minutes or until knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Serve warm.

Notes

Recipe is fine without the chilies.
Recipe doubles well. Put in 13×9 in pan.
Original recipe comes from America’s Best Church Supper Recipes – Chili-Cheese Spoon Bread.
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Prepping Garden Beds for Growing Season

Red Russian kale (the darker green plant) was planted in this bed. As it grew, it wasn’t well-tended, so the weeds grew along with it. Now it is the end of the growing season. What should we do with this bed? How can we reduce the weed pressure for next year?

First, we can go through and pull the seed heads. OR we can just mow it all down with the lawn mower.

Then we might take thick tarps and cover the bed. This will kill back lots of what has been growing in this bed. It may sit like this until we are ready to plant the bed in the spring.

Once the weeds are cut back, we can plant a cover crop. This is some grass or grain that will grow in the bed. It will add organic matter to the soil, help hold water, and provide nutrients to the bed. Here is a large bed that we planted with oats and peas.

The oats are the grass-like plants and the peas are the legume-like plants. This cover crop grows well in the fall. In the winter it will die back and we can rake it away to plant the bed in the spring.

Finally in the spring we will add compost and minerals, and the bed will be ready to plant.

If you want more information, Maine Potato Lady has a good description about cover cropping and Fedco Seeds has a good description of various cover crops.

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Rendering Tallow

NOTE – See notes at the bottom – This is hot grease. It can burn. It can clog your sink. Neither is good. I know from experience!

I recently rendered tallow – beef suet – again. I took the fat, chunked it up to fit through my meat grinder and ground it so that it looked like hamburger.

Then I put this in the crockpot. I turned the crockpot to high heat for 40 minutes just to get the fat melting. I stirred it about every 20 minutes to get the melting fat mixed with the unmelted fat.

Once it was all melted, I turned the crockpot to low and positioned the lid off-center so that any water would evaporate. I let it cook for 5-6 hours, stirring it about every hour. At first there were cracklings on the top and bottom. Once the solids were all on the bottom, then I turned the heat off.

I let it cool a little bit and then carefully poured the fat off.

These are the beef cracklings that were left over – think deep fried ground beef, edible, but not the greatest thing in the world.

At this point I could have put it jars if I wanted to use it just in cooking. However I wanted it for a salve, so I let it cool and re-rendered it. I mixed it in a pot on the stove with 1-2 quarts of water and 1 tbsp of salt. I let this simmer for about 1 hour and then cooled it all in the frig.

I did this twice scraping off the salt and debris from the bottom each time and getting rid of the water after the fat had cooled and become solid. I cut the final circle into quarters to make it easier to use. I am storing these in the refrigerator.

NOTES: This is a very hot fat. BE CAREFUL!

Everything ends up with a layer of fat – the crockpot, the bowl, the spoons, the counter. To save the sink and pipes, wipe all the items off with a paper towel while the fat is still warm, and throw the paper towels away. Otherwise you could (will) end up with a clogged drain from the congealed fat. Use hot soapy water to clean whatever has fat on it.

Again, this is very hot. You could burn yourself. BE CAREFUL!