A few times per season we invite new folks and old friends alike to join us for a no-commitment sampling of Fresh Fork. This is a week were you don't have to be a regular subscriber.

Please share with a friend who you think might enjoy good, healthy food and a culinary adventure!

Order Deadline: Tuesday, Jan 23 at 11:59pm

Orders Must be Placed Online and Paid in Full

Order Pickup Dates: Wed, Jan 24 thru Sat, Jan 27

Pickup Locations: You will select at checkout from these locations: Winter Locations

Pickup Times: at the link above for locations. Varies by day and location.

There are only 40 extra spaghetti and meatball shares and approx. 25 of each of the bundles listed. First come first serve. If you don't see it listed online, then it is probably sold out.

The fun part about our winter season is that we have time for some more involved offerings. Meatballs being one of them.

This week's "center of the plate" is a custom meatball, one made of grassfed beef and heritage pork, blended with Italian seasonings, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese.

This week's share is rounded out with a few other exciting products, including Flour Pasta Company Spaghetti, homemade tomato sauce, and shredded A2 Guernsey Mozzarella.

We couldn't decide on a theme this week, so we kind of blended 2. With NFL playoff football on the weekends, we thought the chorizo, chips, and salsa may also be popular!

There are only 40 one-time shares available this week for extra purchase. Order online before Tuesday at Midnight.

Full bag contents listed at the bottom of this email. Only omnivore shares are available as extra.

Note for larger families. The bundle includes 1 pint tomato sauce, 1 # of meatballs (8 ct), and 8 oz of cheese. The package of spaghetti is 8 oz. There is probably enough meatballs, cheese, and sauce to cover two packages of pasta. If you need additional pasta, we have a variety of different noodles available extra online.

Stock up your freezer this week with some of our frozen meat bundles. All bundles priced at least 15% off of retail price.

All bundles are open to the public and available for pickup at our usual Fresh Fork Winter Pickup Locations - this Wed, Jan 24 thru Sat, Jan 27.

WINTER WARMER BRAISING BUNDLE

Nothing beats a slow cooked roast on a cold day. This bundle gives you the best options from both beef and pork.

Approx 15# total.

Bundle includes: 2 Beef Chuck Roasts (~6#), 2 Pork Boston Butt Roasts (~5#), 2 quarts Animal Stock (dark stock blend of beef, pork, and chicken bones).

Sale Price: $63.50

GROUND MEAT VARIETY PACK

A sampling of our customer favorites, all from our pasture raised aimals:

Grassfed Ground Beef - 1#

Salt and Pepper Pork Sausage - 1#

Ground Chicken - 1#

Chorizo - 1#

Italian Sausage 1#

Sale Price: $25

BONE BROTH BUNDLE - ONLY $30

Warm up with a pot of stock on the stove! Having stock on hand is one of my musts in the kitchen for easy weeknight soup dinners, braises and even just to sip on during these cold, wintry days.

Bundle includes: ~5# grassfed beef bones, ~5# pasture raised Chicken Bones and ~2# pasture raised Chicken Feet.

Your cooked yield will depend on how much you reduce the stock/broth. Estimate 2 batches of stock - 1 beef & 1 chicken - and approx. 10 quarts each at a minimum.

BARNYARD BASIC BUNDLE - Sale Price $50

Some of our most popular winter cuts, including pasture raised chicken, grassfed beef & heritage pork.

Bundle includes:

~4# whole chicken

~2.5# Pork Chops (2 packs, 4 chops)

~2# pork sirloin roast

~1# Stew Beef

2 Cross Cut Shanks @ ~1.1# each.

The pork sirloin roast is a new way we are utilizing a great cut on the hog. It's a more tender roast, similar to a pork loin roast. Actually, it's cut about 1/2 inch behind the pork loin roast - so very similar.

You can simply season with salt and pepper, sear, then drop in the oven on a rack and roast until internal temperature is approx 145 degrees. Remove and carve for a delicious roast pork. OR, you can put in a slow cooker with apples and kraut and let go for hours for a fall apart, shredded pork meal.

FARM BREAKFAST CLASSICS - SALE Price $36.25

Winter weekends are the perfect time for pancakes and ham, bacon and eggs, etc.

This bundle includes some of our customer favorites, and a few "seasonal" items like our smoked ham steak.

For those getting this, remember to save the grease off of your ham steak for some red eye gravy! Just google it.

Bundle includes:

English Muffins (1 pack, 6 muffins)

Maple Breakfast Links (~1#)

Nitrate Free Bacon (~1#)

Smoked Ham Steak (~1.25#)

Eggs, 1 dz

Cornflour Pancake Mix - 1.5#

STEAK BURGER KIT- SALE Price $25

Burgers, inside or on the grill, are great any season. Burgers are made from trim off of the strip loin, ribeye, and tenderloin. Each burger is 1/3# patty.

Buns are made from organic, local flour and enriched with milk and potato to keep them moist and pliable.

Try a burger cooked medium rare, smothered in sauted mushrooms and onions, and covered in melted havarti cheese!

This week's kit includes:

Homemade Hamburger Buns, 4 ct

Steakburgers, 4 1/3# patties

Shitake Mushrooms, 6 oz

Candy Onion, 1 ct

Havarti Cheese, 8 oz

MINI CLUCKIN' GOOD DEAL -

SALE Price $70

Approx 14# of chicken!

Includes an assortment of our most popular pasture raised chicken cuts. All from our pasture raised chickens.

Boneless Breast - 2 packs (4 ct, ~2.5#)

Thighs - 1 packs (4 ct, ~2#)

Drumsticks - 2 pack (8ct, ~2.5#)

Wings - 1 pack (6 ct, ~1.5#)

Ground Chicken - 2 pack (2#)

Whole Chicken - 1 ct (~4#)

Yes, the juxtaposition of healthy, tasty food photos next to steaming piles of turds is unique to Fresh Fork Newsletters. You food starts somewhere, and sometimes the beginning is really the end of a cycle, so to speak.

For us, the basis of pasture based faming is healthy soils. We focus on our soils year-round, from the grazing routine in the summer to the fertilization in the winter.

Here's a quick cycle of pasture, concluding with our hefty winter task - spreading manure!

Step 1: Gather Manure and Carbon.

In the winter, the animals are inside the barns. They are bedded with sawdust and straw to keep their areas dry.

Their manure and urine is collected in the sawdust and straw. That's our carbon source to capture the valuable nitrogen in the animal waste.

We either add to the bedding or clean the barns out weekly, creating a small mountain of composting material. In the winter you can tell it is "working" because it is steaming in the cold.

Here is a photo of our spring "haul" from the beef barn. This mountain is 2 months worth of manure and bedding.

Step 2: Haul it to a central location to age

When the ground is solid - either frozen or in the spring during a dry week - we relocate all of the manure into a central location where we can tend to it. Here, you can see the composting process is active. It generates a lot of heat when aging.

Step 3: Arrange in Windrows and Turn It

One of the biggest problems with a compost pile is turning it. It leaches out water and essentially creates a muddy mess around it. You destroy the area around the pile.

So this past year we switched to arranging the manure into long rows - called windrows - approx 8 feet wide and 6 feet tall. We then rent a fancy compost turner to go thru and rotate the compost. That's the machine to the right.

Step 4: Spread the Compost

Eventually, the big chunky manure breaks down into fine particles that looks like potting soil. At this point, it is ready to spread.

Manure and compost are most often spread in the winter when the ground is frozen. This keeps you from tearing up the field with a tractor. When the snow melts and the ground softens, the spring rains wash the valuable nutrients down into the soil to feed the biology and plants for spring growth.

Step 5: Grow and Harvest the Hay that Feeds the Cattle

The manure and compost are an important part of fertilizing a farm and producing nutrient rich feed for the livestock.

In this photo it is late May and the compost has done it's job. The hay is harvested and being hauled off to be wrapped (silage) for the upcoming winter in the beef barn.

In total, we'll haul off approx 500 large round bales of hay - approx 1,200# each - and bring it back to the field in the form of compost and manure - spread in loads of approx 5 tons at a time. In a typical winter we'll spread approximately 100 loads onto the fields. This takes a lot of time.

Extra-one time Omnivore shares available this week! We are sold out of vegetarian and carnivore shares for the season.

CARNIVORE