We’ve decided to continue this special now that the hens are laying a bit more eggs. Because we have the best farm customers, we wanted to do something special to say how much we appreciate your support and encouragement. Thursdays only, please take an extra $2 off each dozen eggs purchased, including those with a carton return! 💓
Stop by the farm fridge anytime on Thursday and stock your fridge with our Pasture Raised Eggs.
*Please note this is a very special price, as our feed cost has not decreased so sale is THURSDAY ONLY & while supplies last, and does not apply to discounted bulk purchases of 5 dozen and up amounts with a carton return.
Now that egg production season has wound down, we are discontinuing Thank You Thursdays. Our last day for this special for the year will be next Thursday, October 5th so be sure to stock up on our Pasture Raised Eggs TODAY or NEXT THURSDAY by taking an extra $2 off each dozen eggs purchased, including those with a carton return! 💓
We hope to be able to continue the special again next year, and again want to thank our customers for their support & encouragement by supporting our farm & shopping local!
As always, please reach out if interested in pricing on bulk purchases & to order any of our other products, many of which you can find with us at the Broadway Community Market every Saturday for the Fall season hours of 9am-1pm.
*Please note this is a very special price, as our feed cost has not decreased so sale is THURSDAY ONLY & while supplies last, and does not apply to discounted bulk purchases of 5 dozen and up amounts with a carton return.
For past several weeks I’ve been beginning to harvest Elderberries as they have become ripe. Some up (very) high with letting the bushes run wild in their first few years of growth and needing a ladder to reach, and a few lower that I was able to harvest from the ground. There were even a few low enough that the barn chickens were able to jump up and grab, or they just waited for ripe berries to fall to the ground. All in all, I’ve just tried to keep up with harvesting before any birds (domestic or otherwise) get to them before I do.
That being said, I have begun Pre-Orders as I did last year for Elderberry Syrup. I will be doing pre-orders through the end of them month to make sure everyone has a chance to get their order in before I start ordering my supplies and making syrup. This year, I plan on using not just one as I usually do, but 3 different local honey producers. I want to support local as much as possible, as well as widening the impact of immunity from using different apiary’s honey and the travel of their bees to local pollen.
If you are new to Elderberry Syrup, you can check out our information on it here. You can Pre-Order with cash, check, or card every Saturday for the next 3 weeks until September 30th at our tent at the Broadway Community Market, or by shopping our online store. *Please note when you go to checkout and select which pickup location, this will be the option you are choosing for when the syrup is ready next month. I anticipate Syrup being ready by mid-October and will reach out once it’s available for pickup!
This past Sunday following the Broadway Community Market I caught up on some much overdue to-dos. As is normal for this time of year for most people, life is super busy. Keeping up with the farm and working I had neglected cooking other than breakfast with our pasture raised eggs and the occasional green smoothie so I was really lacking on lunches and dinners and resorting to getting something quick while out.
I thawed out some of our ground grassfed and finished beef and during one of my recent monthly auto ship boxes from Thrive Market had added a jar or two of enchilada sauce so I thought this was the perfect time to try it out!
As usual I searched for a recipe, but ended up using the basic outline of the recipe (temp & time mostly as well as ingredient volume) while using what I had in the fridge to make up the rest of the recipe as I went along.
During a trip to Costco a couple months ago I bought a large container of some dehydrated mushrooms from The Wild Mushroom Co, so I decided to try those as well as some home grown dehydrated cayenne peppers from the garden from several years ago (if I had fresh or dehydrated jalapeño peppers I probably would have opted to use those instead but I used what I had on hand at the time). It’s definitely a spicy dish but you can adjust to your liking!
Kettle/Pot For boiling water to prep mushrooms (optional)
Ingredients
1tbspolive oil
1md/lgwhite oniondiced
4clovesgarlicminced
115 oz jarRed Enchilada Sauceor homemade
1poundgrassfed ground beef
4-6cupschopped mushroomsfresh or rehydrated
½cupdiced cayenne or jalapenosfresh or rehydrated
1tspground cumin
8-10md/lgflour tortillasor grain/gluten free
3cupscheeseMexican blend or other (I used Havarti sliced cheese that I cut into shreds)
fine sea salt & freshly ground pepper
Instructions
Prep mushrooms/cayenne if using dehydrated and make your enchilada sauce if choosing to make your own. This looks like a great recipe from Gimme Some Oven.
Heat your skillet over medium-high heat and add oil. Sauté onion and garlic until fragrant, about 3-4 mins stirring occasionally. Add ground beef and cumin and sauté until browned, breaking apart while cooking about 5-7 mins. You can also add in your jalapeños here if using and sauté along with the beef.
Combine mushroom/cayenne mixture to beef filling and sauté a min or two longer. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Preheat oven to 350℉. While oven is preheating, begin preparing the baking dish by spreading about ½ cup of the enchilada sauce across the bottom. Begin assembling the enchiladas by adding about 2 tbsp sauce in the middle of the tortilla, followed by the filling, and about ¼-⅓ cup cheese. Roll up the tortilla and place in the dish starting from one side, and repeat the process until the dish is full. Pour remaining sauce over the top of the enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Bake enchiladas uncovered for 20-30 mins, until cooked through and cheese is melted and tortillas have a slight crisp on the outside.
Serve and enjoy with toppings of choice!
Notes
This recipe should also freeze really well (if you make extras, if not I dare you to not eat it all within a day or two). Just prep everything as you usually would and freeze instead of cooking them. The instructions for cooking are basically the same as they would be while making them, 350 F for about 30 mins until warm all the way through.
This past week I shared with our email & Facebook subscribers a brief recap of 2022 from life on the farm, as well as some changes for the new year. You can read the full newsletter at the following link: https://mailchi.mp/b6cb3920b0d8/farm-updates-changes
I also wanted to upload our updated retail price sheet, as outlined in the newsletter here for reference as well as I begin to update all of the places where we have our products & prices listed.
You can view and print the updated price sheet below. I’ve also included a printable copy of the National Monthly Grass-Fed Beef Report from December if you’d like to compare where we fall in our price structure to the National Average.
We are offering our customers that order on a regular basis the option to order upfront whatever you would like at the previous price point for as many months in advance (inventory depending for beef) as you’d like to pay for up front. Please reach out to me by February 28th if you would like to take advantage of this offer!
Something we left out in the newsletter & shared on Facebook last week is our poll on selecting a logo for the farm! If you would like to be part of helping us select a logo, you can view all of the designer submissions & find the poll link to select your favorite design at this link: https://99designs.com/contests/poll/65d0451611
If you would like to keep up with future farm related news, please subscribe to our newsletter (we currently don’t send anything out very often) by typing your information below. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook & Instagram as we’re more active on those platforms! As always thank you for supporting our farm!
I’m back with another great recipe that’s a staple for me! Ever since I started my journey of healthy, real food eating and cutting out all the junk, I really started to examine what was in all the processed items at the grocery store and trying to make my own (healthier) versions.
Enter Mayo. I love mayo, probably a little too much. But when I started looking for healthier recipes years ago, it was really hard to find a homemade mayo that tasted like what I was used to. While I’ll admit my tastes have changed over the years, growing up eating the classic store bought variety I was so used to made it a little difficult to convert. especially when my first trial and error was using the very healthy (but VERY distinct) extra virgin olive oil. The grocery store varieties usually used highly processed canola oil, and for good reason. It’s cheaply processed, and also has a mild flavor, or atleast it’s been so processed and chemically altered to make it that way.
I was learning so much about healthy fats and reading my copy of Nourishing Traditions. I was working in the industrial agriculture industry but learning everything I could about sustainable agriculture, permaculture, and pasture based principles and all things REAL & unprocessed. It was also about this time when I was finding out about all the great real food bloggers out there and went through many different recipes that they had posted on their sites. I had started using a lot of coconut oil in recipes along with olive oil, lard, and tallow. I tried recipes that used many of those healthy oils but then discovered Avocado Oil.
Avocado Oil became the solution to my Mayo “problem”. I finally found an oil that was mild enough that it didn’t overpower the recipe (ie-tasted good) AND was actually healthy. The best recipe I found came from one of my favorite real food bloggers, Nourished Kitchen. It was also super simple, and easily reproduced or even updated if I so desired (sometimes I like to add a little Dijon mustard or apple cider vinegar). It made a great base for my favorite Avocado Oil Caesar and Ranch Dressings, and it’s also just super tasty on sandwiches, burgers (especially when made with our grassfed & finished beef) or crackers and cheese.
Make sure your eggs are at room temperature. If you are using fresh eggs that haven’t been washed, you can actually leave them at room temperature for up to 2 weeks! Looking for local eggs? You can purchase our eggs online or stop by the farm and find them in the fridge!
I frequently double this recipe to make a little over a quart which I use a portion of to make my favorite Avocado Oil Caesar Dressing.
Course Condiment
Prep Time 5 minutesmins
Servings 8
Equipment
Food Processor
Ingredients
3egg yolksat room temp, preferably from pasture raised hens
½tspfine ground unrefined salt, up to 1 tspCeltic Sea Salt, Himalayan Pink Salt, Redmond brand Real Salt, etc
2tbsplemon juicefreshly squeezed, or a real food lemon juice, like Lakewood brand Organic Pure Lemon Juice
1tbspwaterroom temp
1 to 1 ½cupsAvocado Oil
Instructions
Add the egg yolks to the food processor. Then add the salt, lemon juice, and water. It's important that all the ingredients, but the eggs in particular, are at room temperature.
Put the lid on your food processor, then pulse several times to combine. I usually check it, lift the blade out and scrape the yolk that usually gets stuck under there to make sure everything gets combined evenly.
Turn the processor on, and slowly add the avocado oil. I usually fill the middle of my Cuisinart 14 cup food processor's small feed tube once, let it drip into and combine with the egg yolks completely before adding more. Add oil into the mixture slowly, up to 1.5 cups until all the oil is combined to your preferred consistency. Usually around halfway through or near the end when I begin to hear a "slapping sound" I stop the processor, take the lid off and scrape the bottom to make sure there's not egg yolk still sitting at the bottom.
Once the mayo is at your preferred consistency, use a spatula to put in a glass mason jar for storage in the refrigerator.
I can’t believe it’s fall already! Where did the time go? I feel like I blinked and this year blew right past me. Between allthethings work, commitments outside of work, and the farm, life just flew by!
I’ve been meaning to be better about updating what’s going on at the farm here on the blog but to be honest, I haven’t found a rythm yet as I don’t really have a set schedule in any of the things I’m doing, which makes it hard for me to think about blogging and updating through ANOTHER space to keep up with. It seems sometimes that social media is just easier, and even then I’m not all that great at keeping up with that either.
But here I am, trying again to get back into this. So bear with me if some of this sounds like a lot of rambling 😊
Upcoming Projects
Where to start? Well, last year I signed a contract through the NRCS for an EQIP loan, which stands for “Environmental Quality Incentives Program”. The contract was for cost share assistance on having fencing and a watering system put in on the farm, including fencing off the old fill dirt pit and a “pond” on the property that collects runoff water, 2 of the major places I’ve been trying since first starting rotational grazing in 2017 to fence off with temporary fencing. It also includes putting in a lot of in ground water line with frost free hydrants, as well as one automatic waterer, since we already have one automatic waterer but it’s all the way at the barn and the new one will be more centrally located out in the pasture. I’ll attach the original plan below. The project had certain criteria and deadlines, and I was able to receive additional funding through the SWCD (Soil Water Conservation District). Due to the aftermath of the pandemic, finding contractors and getting the project started by the June deadline didn’t happen, but luckily I wasn’t the only one with this problem and they extended it. I finally found my contractor, after meeting/getting bids from about 5-6 different people over the course of about 2-3 months. I then got to work updating my plan…
Original Plan Created by NRCS
Because I move the cattle so often, sometimes up to 2x a day, having 5 hydrants spaced throughout the pastures to me didn’t seem quite the right fit for me. I had found out about what’s known as “quick connects” and watched as many videos and read as many articles as I could to figure out how and where to put them. I then used Google Earth to update my farm plan and checked it over with the NRCS to make sure it would be okay to move forward with. Then I started to get information on prices on water line, and digging into details to upgrade the well system that hasn’t been used in about 30 years. I won’t get into that now, but it involved a trip to the courthouse and some farm history that I hope to share in the future!
Updated Map with “Quick Connects”
Quick Connect Couplers
So right now I have 4,500 ft of waterline on the way from Powerflex that I ordered over a month ago (it’s a real hot commodity right now!) that is finally in and we are picking up tomorrow! When everything is done I’ll have TWENTY FIVE water connection points not to mention 3 frost free hydrants and a new automatic waterer, and will hopefully be able to get rid of the red pickup truck with the water tote on the back, or at least for it’s current job of watering cattle. I’m excited to get this project started and bring this to life!
Once this project is complete, I have other farm projects on my list I hope to tackle, but the biggest one is the FARM STORE!
You may have seen me post about this on social media, and I had really hoped to have this project completed by now. But between getting bids for the NRCS contract and working with the contractor I chose, life has just been hectic. I still have to finish painting inside and fix some paint on the outside, as well as do some sealing of the floor. Once all that’s done I should be able to get the electrician out to install the lights and go from there! My goal is now to start the fencing and watering project and maybe as it’s getting going I may have time to get back to working on painting but as it gets colder I will probably have to pick it back up in the spring more then likely.
Fall farm life
Also new this year was our farms participation in a farmers market! I attended the Broadway Farmers Market during the fall season, which ended a few weeks ago. It was great to meet some new customers and am excited to see how it, along with some festivals I attended this fall have helped to get the farm’s presence known in the local community! We also added a fridge at the farm for convenience and to expand the capacity of storage for the pastured egg operation. It’s available to access 24/7 and we have a drop-box there for cash/check and we also accept Venmo & Paypal!
Since the farmers market season has ended I decided to try something new (if there’s interest), which is to do some home deliveries on a weekly basis of our pastured eggs & grassfed beef! Customers can find our current shopping website which is through our payment processing system, Square, and shop our narrow selection of products. We also have beef by the cut and not just ground, so if interested just reach out! Currently I’ve set the system up for deliveries on Tuesday mornings and Saturdays, with cutoff being the day before. Again I’m not sure how much interest there will be in this, but it is also available for pickup as well through the same site. Delivery is $5, or free if order is over $25. Pickup at the farm is free!
Broody hens
In other news, if you follow on social media you will see the Broody Hen Saga, and the most recent update is on there but basically…. around 7 hens from the pastured flock went “broody” which is where they decide to start sitting on eggs for 21 days to hatch chicks. This is very inconvenient when you have the majority of your flock for eggs you are trying to collect, but at one point when I realized trying to move them off the nests wasn’t working I decided just to roll with it and let them sit on some eggs! I marked the eggs so I would be able to tell when I started them and when I could expect chicks, as well as to differentiate incase they got off the nest which ones had been there and which were fresh. It’s been a whole thing, as you can check out over on Instagram, but long story short we now have 6 baby chicks!
Right now all of the babies are down at the barn with “momma” hen (which really isn’t each of the chicks’ momma, just the hen that ended up sitting on the eggs at the end and hatched the majority of the chicks). I’ve successfully gotten another hen separated out from the pastured flock and is sitting on new eggs to hatch, but my other attempts so far have been unsuccessful with 3 other hens because once they see the chicks on the other side of the enclosure at the barn, they have found a way up and over the tall pen dividing chicken wire!
It’s been fun but also a bit chaotic having all these hens both deciding to sit on a nest to hatch eggs, then deciding to play “musical nests” and move around. From what I’ve found though, the majority of the eggs have been fertile and I’m only limited to getting the hens separated from the flock and having a place where they can sit on a nest consistently for 21 days.
Blog recipe
Finally, if you haven’t seen it yet, I did post a recipe recently on the blog. I titled it “Taco Egg Casserole” and you can find it here. It’s delicious, and we ate our first one up in about 4 days so I’m really glad we have another one waiting in the basement freezer!
That’s all I have! I’m sure I’m forgetting a few things but for now just sending this out is better than perfect, and I don’t want this to be 10 pages that no one reads. When I finally write something I tell ya it’s LONG. Sorry! Have a great weekend 🙂
Over the weekend, I decided I needed to find every recipe I could that used as many eggs as possible. Since we raise pastured egg layers we are in a constant state of more than enough extra eggs!
Because I had made a recipe previously I really liked that used sweet potato as the “crust”, I knew I wanted to use that as the base for the recipe, but I also wanted to find some way to use the green peppers I got at our local Friendly City Food Co-Op’s $.99/lb table as well as some of our grassfed and finished beef from the farm.
So, I combined two recipes to make this Mexican-Style Taco Egg Casserole! It’s Paleo, Grain Free, and Gluten Free and is also a great way to use up leftovers if you have them.
I suggest doubling the ingredients and baking two: one to eat during the week, and one to freeze!
Kettle/Pot For boiling water to prep mushrooms (optional)
Ingredients
1tbspolive oil
1md/lgwhite oniondiced
4clovesgarlicminced
115 oz jarRed Enchilada Sauceor homemade
1poundgrassfed ground beef
4-6cupschopped mushroomsfresh or rehydrated
½cupdiced cayenne or jalapenosfresh or rehydrated
1tspground cumin
8-10md/lgflour tortillasor grain/gluten free
3cupscheeseMexican blend or other (I used Havarti sliced cheese that I cut into shreds)
fine sea salt & freshly ground pepper
Instructions
Prep mushrooms/cayenne if using dehydrated and make your enchilada sauce if choosing to make your own. This looks like a great recipe from Gimme Some Oven.
Heat your skillet over medium-high heat and add oil. Sauté onion and garlic until fragrant, about 3-4 mins stirring occasionally. Add ground beef and cumin and sauté until browned, breaking apart while cooking about 5-7 mins. You can also add in your jalapeños here if using and sauté along with the beef.
Combine mushroom/cayenne mixture to beef filling and sauté a min or two longer. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Preheat oven to 350℉. While oven is preheating, begin preparing the baking dish by spreading about ½ cup of the enchilada sauce across the bottom. Begin assembling the enchiladas by adding about 2 tbsp sauce in the middle of the tortilla, followed by the filling, and about ¼-⅓ cup cheese. Roll up the tortilla and place in the dish starting from one side, and repeat the process until the dish is full. Pour remaining sauce over the top of the enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Bake enchiladas uncovered for 20-30 mins, until cooked through and cheese is melted and tortillas have a slight crisp on the outside.
Serve and enjoy with toppings of choice!
Notes
This recipe should also freeze really well (if you make extras, if not I dare you to not eat it all within a day or two). Just prep everything as you usually would and freeze instead of cooking them. The instructions for cooking are basically the same as they would be while making them, 350 F for about 30 mins until warm all the way through.
If you know me, you know its no secret that I LOVE essential oils. My favorite by FAR has and continues to be Plant Therapy. Not only because of the fact that they partnered with Robert Tisserand to help formulate their KidSafe line of essential oils, but they are continually focused on education, and have a rock star team of customer service employees! Their principles and practices are in line with mine, and I just can’t say enough good about them!
I have been a customer of theirs for 6 years now, and in that time I have I slowly build up a small apothecary of essential oils. Recently I decided maybe I needed to reign it in a bit as it felt a bit like hoarding 😉 ha! My essential oil peeps know what I’m talking about! Some of my favorite individual oils are Lavendar (of course…who doesn’t?!?), Patchouli, Cedarwood, and Citrus oils especially for cleaning. My favorite blend (synergy) of theirs is hands down their Relax synergy, which combines many of my favorites into one amazing powerhouse. I add this to the diffuser almost nightly, and other than magnesium oil, puts me to sleep faster than I can count sheep. Coming in at a close second though, is their Germ Fighter synergy…because I have been using it recently in my diffuser necklace (similar to this one) to ward of a beginning cold. It good stuff!
Another company that I have been following for quite sometime is Sew Grown. Like Plant Therapy, they are a small family owned business that has amazing customer service. Their main products are a line of essential oil cases and purses with essential oil holders inside. They put thought into every detail of their purses, clutches, and essential oil cases, right down to the fabric which is a beautiful and vintage, quality fabric brand. You can see some of the pictures below from their collection. They even have a wooden diffuser tag on the outside of each of their bags, how cute is that!? Another thing that makes Sew Grown Sew Special (see what I did there) is that most of their cases are handcrafted in the USA by American’s with disabilities!
EO Diffusing Bracelet-Eden
Tresco EO Purse
Inside details of the EO Purse
Louis EO Purse
Francine Crossbody
EO Diffusing Bracelet-Eva
Francine EO Purse
I love both of these companies so much that I decided it was time to start carrying their products! Once we have our on-farm store open and running (which is still quite a while away) I will be able to carry more of their products, but for now I will be ordering a limited amount of product to see what has the most interest and popularity! You can now shop the online store for these products, and if you check out either companies individual site and see something you’d like to see us carry, please let me know and I can order it!
New promotions! Valid now through Valentines Day February 14th on order through our online store:
For any order that contains one (1) bottle of Plant Therapy Essential Oil and one (1) Sew Grown Dream Chaser EO Diffusing Bracelet, get 2 free Starwest Botanicals Herbal Bath Bags, one for you and one for your Valentine! Bath Bag Ingredients: Sea salt course, organic orange peel, organic chamomile flowers, organic lavender flowers, organic rosemary leaf, organic raspberry leaf, organic rosehips, organic peppermint, organic sage leaf, organic lemongrass, organic red rose buds and petals, organic bay leaf, and organic cloves.
Any order of a Sew Grown Essential Oil Purse will get one (1) 4oz tin of Herbal Healing Salve, free!
Orders can be shipped or I can meet anywhere local to New Market/Timberville!
Hi everyone! It’s been over a year now since I created our farm page, and I had such plans to blog regularly since creating the page but, well, life just got in the way. So here we are, 1 year and 5 months later and my first post is just telling you that I suck at blogging! But really, life in this past year and a half has been a little crazy. I got a new job, lost our beloved pup Gunner, lost said new job exactly 1 year to the day of starting it, and now luckily have found a new job working from home that is so far turning out to be almost exactly what I was looking for! More time for the farm, new projects and building a business. Oh! but some projects have happened in the midst of all the chaos. We started building the “egg mobile” (see pictures below), bought a greenhouse (still to be setup), got bees (and lost bees), and with the help of some friends got a glass-front freezer hauled across the mountain from Monterey.
Here’s what’s on the list of things to accomplish sooner than later:
Finish up the egg-mobile
Create an on-farm store for all the free range, pastured egg goodies to come from the egg-mobile, grassfed beef and homemade natural products
My next blog post (haha!)
I’m hopeful for what’s to come the rest of this year! What are you looking forward to?
