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-- Winter Share Week 7 --

Good Afternoon Trevor,,


The snow is so pretty on the farm this time of the year. We need weather like this to help the forages rest, reduce pest populations, and help break down and decompose organic matter from last year. Oh, and it makes the fields so firm that you have a chance to spread manure.


This time of the year I feel guilty soiling the bright white snow. But, it sure makes it easy to see where you have been with the spreader! Read below to learn more about our nutrient management and the "upcycling" we do.


As for food - yes, this is the only newsletter where you'll probably talk about both the ins and outs of digestion in the same paragraph - we do have a tasty week ahead of us!


In this newsletter:

  • Manure, composting, and fertilization at the farms
  • Promotions - more pierogies, sales on ham hocks, and make cold weather dishes with promotions on beef, chicken, and turkey.


Sincerely,

Trevor

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Weekly Promotions

Ham Hocks - 20% off


Few cuts have as much flavor as a ham hock. These are brined with a natural cure (celery powder) and spices, then smoked thru. Simmer the ham hock for a rich broth ideal for beans, soup, or potatoes. Pick the meat from the bone and enjoy in your soup. Don't throw the spent bone out. The dog will love it!




Grassfed Beef Shanks - 10% off


On beef, the "hock" is too large for just one cut. The classic preparation is to cross-cut it on the saw, exposing the valuable marrow - making for a rich broth.


Crosscut shanks are ideal for a stew, beef soup, or even braised, picked, and made into a stroganoff.




Homemade Pierogi


These sold out so fast last week. We upped production on the off week and hope to have plenty this week.


2 flavors to chose from this week:


Kraut and Onion


Potato and Cheese


Both are sold in 6 packs, simply boil and pan fry to a finish.

Turkey Packs - $3 per lb



If ham hocks aren't your flavor for soup on these cold days, consider doing a turkey soup.


Turkey packs are about 5# each and include a drumstick, wing, and bones. Simmer the entire package with celery, onion, and carrot. After a few hours, pull the wing and drumstick out. Pick off the meat and return the bones to the simmer to extract more flavor.


After you strain out your broth, add back the turkey meat and start building your soup. This is a very flavorful, nutritious, and cost effective way to eat good this winter!

Heritage Chicken - NEW


If you read this newsletter regularly, I often talk about the pride we take in our pasture raised chicken. And how much work it is.


Almost 100% of all chicken in the US is a breed called the Cornish Cross. It was developed by intensive breeding in the 1950s to produce a fast growing, "efficient" bird for confinement production. The breeders discovered that if they could isolate a dwarfism trait, the bird would be less mobile staying closer to the food and eating more. It worked and created a very meaty bird - one dominated by large breasts. It also changed the consumer and how Americans cooked chickens.


For us farmers who want to raise a bird outside, the Cornish Cross is a challenge. They are lazy, overweight, and face high mortality when it gets too cold, too hot, too wet, etc. They are intended to be raised in confinement under controlled environments. On pasture, I have to build structures and work harder to overcome their shortcomings.


This year I experimented with going back to "Standardbred Chicken" - aka Heritage Chicken - for a more athletic, vigorous bird. I selected Delaware chickens as a heavier framed, dual purpose breed (egg and meat production). I started with a "straight run" (males and females) in July. Once out on pasture, they were a breeze to take care of. They roamed freely, pecked around, scratched, and roosted up off the ground at night. My mortality was very low and the feed consumption was low.


They grow very slow though. After 15 weeks (about twice as long as the cornish cross), they still weren't as big or meaty as a Cornish Cross. The females - hens - were light and boney. I ended up keeping those for egg production.


The males - roosters - dressed out over 4#. They have moderate breast and long, strong legs. The meat has a firmer texture, and takes well to very traditional recipes such as Coq au Vin, Chicken Fricassee, Chicken Chasseur, Chicken Marsala, and Chicken Cacciatore. The mature bones also produce a rich broth.

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Holy S*!%

It always makes me laugh when folks assume a farmer has nothing to do in the winter. Just because it is cold doesn't mean the work stops. It just changes.


For me, summer is about preparing for winter. We utilize the longer days, abundant forage, and warmth to raise animals outside and put up forage for winter.


In the summer, the animals spread their mess out for us. By using a rotational pasture program, the birds, hogs, and beef all spread their manure around to help fertilize the fields.


In the winter, the hogs and beef more inside. We raise meat chickens only in the summer, so that chore goes away. But with the animals inside, the work changes.


Right now, a major chore for us is managing the beef barn. It's not a picture perfect setup. I rent an empty "free-stall" barn (pictured above) a few miles away. It has a few key features I'll describe:

  • manure pit. Literally a concrete pit outside for storing manure
  • headgates and feed bunk. Effectively a heavy gate that the beef put their heads thru at an angle to grab feed out of the "bunk." The bunk is just a trough recessed in the concrete
  • stalls. There are about 60 stalls in the barn, which are just areas for the cattle to bed.


These barns were designed for dairy cows, not beef, and here are a few of the nuances I deal with.

  • boy cattle - aka steers - pee down. And first thing they do when they wake up is pee. In this case, the boys stand up in the stall and pee down into what was dry bedding. In the scenario of a dairy cow that would be in the stall, she would stand up and pee out into the alley
  • I am grassfed and I feed high moisture, wrapped hay which makes high moisture manure. 1st cutting is a majority of my hay supply. Making dry hay in early May - particularly from a dense grass pasture - is nearly impossible. The fermented wet hay is very nutritious and tasty, but it makes for a mess on manure.
  • young cattle - particularly Angus - are flighty and move quickly. They need good footing to not slip out. The manure makes concrete like an ice rink. We have to add sawdust and straw to soak it up and give them footing.

For dairy operations, usually barns like this are sraped out daily, but we've found this doesn't work for the beef. So the basic management technique I currently use is to build a "pack." The pack is bedding where you keep adding fresh dry material - like sawdust and straw - to the top to absorb the moisture. Eventually, the pack gets water logged and needs cleaned out.


For my farmhands and I, this means at least twice per week we go put in sawdust and straw. This costs hundreds of dollars each week. Then, after about 3 weeks, it's a sloppy, sloppy mess and a foot deep. We have to scrape it out and start over. There are also other considerations too. We try not to scrape out until it's cold and/or dry because otherwise the manure will capture rainwater in the pit. I have to haul the manure back to my farm, and if the pit is full of water, we have to bring in extra dry material to just soak it up.

While this is a lot of work, it is the backbone of some of our manure management. The hay came off of my fields. With that hay came valuable minerals and nutrients from the soil. You have to put back what you take away, or eventually you'll have nothing. It's like a savings account for nutrients. You hope that the portfolio of nutrients is right to feed your animals and the soil biology in such a way that it grows faster than you can deplete it.


Once the manure is back at the farm, we let the biology do it's magic during the warmer months. During the summer, it sets and cooks, breaking down fibers and organic matter into rich compost. We turn it a few times in the summer to mix it up and introduce oxygen to the organisms. Then, we spread it in the winter.


On days like today where it's too cold to repair fence or do much outside, we hang the manure spreader to the tractor and start "slinging turds" on the bright snow. In the spring, these nutrients will help produce a healthy forage crop for the season.

BAG CONTENTS

OMNIVORE

Corn Chips

Black Beans

Salsa

Lettuce

Feta Cheese

Frozen Sweet Corn

Candy Jalapenos

Chorizo

Ground Beef


VEGETARIAN

Corn Chips

Black Beans

Salsa

Lettuce

Feta Cheese

Frozen Sweet Corn

Candy Jalapenos

Carrots

Mushroom Medley

Apples

Tofu


MINI

Corn Chips

Black Beans

Salsa

Lettuce

Frozen Sweet Corn

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