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GrassRoots Meats Newsletter
August
2018
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Farmer's Market
It's going great again this year! I have a new helper, Jordan Maxwell, and she is doing a good job. Our granddaughter, Charlee, came along to help for a couple of weeks. She may have found it just a little bit boring. Oh well.
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View From the Porch
Oh my goodness, what beautiful sunsets in July. I took both of these pictures one evening, first to the east, then to the west.
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Garden Update
If you have been getting this newsletter for awhile then it's fairly obvious that gardening and cooking are my passions. While I am not an expert at either, by any stretch of the imagination, I love learning (usually the hard way) and always like trying out new ideas. This year I am enjoying huge successes with the garden. And I love sharing my pictures.
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The greenhouse is a jungle, especially this old water trough. I have broccoli, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, and melons, all growing together. An apricot tree is in the middle. It is actually crazy beautiful, and everything seems to be thriving. So far I have only harvested broccoli but it promises to produce much more.
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The tomatoes are really coming on. Should have a very good harvest.
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Snap peas and snow peas. Yummy good.
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Been Busy in the Kitchen
My friend, Ann Shepherdson, invited me to pick raspberries while she was out of town. Turned a half gallon of berries into 8 half pints of sauce. It is off the charts amazing.
Our orchard produced an abundance of chokecherries this year, for the first time. I made a couple jars of jelly, but mostly I made syrup. Been adding it to our iced tea for a delicious twist. Great on pancakes, too. We love the wild, tart flavor of the cherries.
So much kale! Made some kale chips with melted butter, olive oil, and our Rich & Savory Spice Blend. Very yummy.
Okay, so this is my craziest thing. My friend, Bonnie Masters, gave me a mature Stockton aloe, or Virgin Trinity (also known as aloe barbadensis miller-stockton), supposedly the most effective variety for supporting good health. Allan suffers from acid reflux and Barretts disease, and he has found that aloe juice is very effective in healing this condition. We are going to try making our own juice. We cut up the leaves, soaked them, then scraped out the gel. I put it in small freezer bags so I can pull out a little at a time. Always experimenting! Hoping I can come up with a juice that he enjoys.
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Good Job, Lisa!
Most of our cattle spend the summers on high mountain pastures north of Pagosa Springs. Our daughter, Lisa, cares for them, and she is doing an amazing job keeping them in constant, high quality grass. It's another great season for the cattle.
We depend on the irrigation water, especially in a drought. Lisa is managing the water very well, as is most obvious by the quality of the pasture. She also keeps the cattle moving from pasture to pasture, called rotational grazing, or management intensive grazing, keeping the grasses at peak all the time.
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| When they lie down they are nearly buried in the lush, tall grasses. |
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Our Red Angus bull - looking amazing! We bought him in Oklahoma from Kevin Felix. |
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| The red heifer in the center is out of our Shorthorn breeding. |
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The red and white critter in the center is one of our Shorthorn bulls. |
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AUGUST SPECIAL
10 Pounds Ground Beef
$70
20 Pounds Ground Beef
$130
40 Pounds Ground Beef
$240
As usual, if your order comes to $200 take an additional 5% off, and on $300 orders take 10% off.
As low as $5.40 per pound for 40 pounds!
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In Closing . . .
So while we are getting a wee bit of rain, we desperately need more. Some evenings it rains for about 1 to 15 minutes and then is done. Such a tease. We count every drop as a blessing, and are grateful that we still have irrigation water. They have pushed out the date for turning it off out a bit, thankfully, but some serious rain would extend it much farther. Thank you all so much for your prayers. We know God has not forgotten us.
So rough for the folks battling wild fires. There have been many fires started by lightening strikes in our area, but so far they have been able to manage them. If I ever complain about too much moisture please remind me of this drought. Some day it will end, and I am thinking it may result in a very severe winter. Allan and I were in Colorado when it snowed over 70 feet on Wolf Creek Pass two years in a row. It seemed we shoveled snow all winter long. I expect that may be coming again one day soon.
Until then . . . pray for rain!
God bless you all. Stay cool. It's August.
Lois & Allan
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Contact Information
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Phone:
970-582-0166
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