Local, Natural, Non-GMO
Christmas is a special time for many people. The Farmer has very pleasant memories of going to Grandma’s house for Christmas. Besides playing with the cousins, The Farmer loved Grandma’s nut tray, cracking shells and enjoying tastes that he did not get at home.
As an adult, The Farmer wanted to shape Christmas to his own liking, and since The Farmer’s Wife was willing, a unique format for our meals has developed.
Many of the pole beans we grow can be eaten as a dried bean. This means that you don’t harvest the bean when it is young and green. You let it grow full size.
As the beans mature, the seeds inside the pod get much larger. The pod drys out in the wind and sun, leaving the bean’s seeds as the part of the plant that is eaten.
Recently we talked about how to thaw and cook a whole chicken. So the chicken is cooked. It can be eaten as is. The meat can be used in casseroles or stir-fries. Or it can be used in soups.
Our 2 favorite chicken soups are Chicken Corn Soup and Hearty Vegetable Chicken Soup. Enjoy!
Our second son is currently working on his Ph.D. in mathematics. But his humble roots include being a pig farmer. He loved his pigs like some kids love their dogs. He would play with them and ride on them.
Back in those days, we had sows that we would breed to raise a litter of piglets.
Now we buy our piglets in from farms which raise their pigs outdoors. Know why is this important? Continue reading “Sty Guy”
Have you ever thought about trying to grow something in a garden? Garlic would be fairly easy to start with.
Why garlic?
Preserving food is work.
We like to put up food each year. Here you see (clockwise from upper right): dried apples, beets, beef, apple sauce, and green beans.
Preserving food is easier with some specialized equipment, Continue reading “The High Cost of Home Preservation”
Fall is here. You want to cook again. You want chickens that were happy chickens, living a good chicken life. You want ones that were raised outdoors in lots of fresh air and sunshine, eating the grass, non-gmo grains and whatever bugs and insects came their way. You know that is how we raise our chicken. But buying that sort of chicken from Treasures of Joy Farm means you get a whole, frozen chicken, not just boneless, skinless chicken breasts. And that just seems like more work!
I will agree that initially it is a touch more work. But in the long run with the help of your refrigerator and freezer, you are preparing multiple meals. And the flavor and texture of the meat and the potential broth make it worth it. So let’s say, you decide to buy a chicken. But now, what do you do with it? Continue reading “Chicken – What do I do with a whole chicken? Part 1”
Just like any profession, farmers need a way to keep up with the news in their field. One of the sources we use is Country Folk’s Grower newsletter.
The Grower newsletter is free (paid for by advertising) which makes it accessible to any size farm. It covers topics such as notable farmers, social trends affecting farmers, and ag-related issues, like pest control and soil fertility.
The September 2017 issue pictured above featured stories about farms ranging from a 3-acre vegetable farm run basically by one person to a much larger farm with 10 – 15 employees. It also covered trends in Christmas Tree production, common crop pests, and factors affecting growing in a high tunnel.
There were two take-aways for me.
One article featured Jim Sollecito and his Syracuse nursery/consulting business. It reminded me that he has a series of podcasts that I want to check out.
I also learned about an online resource I can use to identify pests in the garden.
What resources to you use to stay updated in your fields of interest?
Last fall, in an effort to help you get our meat more easily, we started our twice-a-month Meat CSA. It turned out that it was too much meat for most families. We want to help you, not make you have to figure out where you are going to squeeze that next roast into the already full freezer. So we have trimmed the Meat CSA (pun intended) to a monthly Meat Subscription.
What is a Meat Subscription? Each month you can choose to get Beef and/or Chicken delivered on the first Thursday of the month. Our online store will also enable you to add on extra items that are available that month, like pork, extra beef cuts, honey, vegetables, etc.
Here’s how it works: As a subscriber, you will receive an email near the beginning of the month telling you that the store is open. You will have 3-4 days to visit the (online) store. At the store you will choose to purchase either a chicken ($25) ~5 lb. and/or a beef option ($30). The beef options are: 4 tubes of ground beef OR 2 packages of beef steaks ~3.5 lb OR 1 beef roast ~3.5 lbs. Other options include choosing to pick up the order and either paying online or requesting to pay upon delivery.
We do have a delivery range. If you are outside of that range, we will add some money on to compensate for the extra distance. And if the cost of gas should go up significantly, our delivery charge will go up as well.
If you decide that you need a month off, just don’t click on the link for that month’s subscription. No meat will be delivered. The following month another email will come, and you can then get meat that month.
So how do you subscribe? Click below to go to the subscribe page. You will need to give your name, address, and phone number. These details are just so we can get the meat to you and can call you if we have questions or need to text you if there is no person or cooler to receive your meat. (By the way, we don’t share your personal data. Others don’t need it.)
We hope that you will continue to get your local pasture-raised meats from us.
to get set up and ready to go in September. Then enjoy your last days of summer!