One of our customers dropped by last week to let me know he was putting on a crawfish boil at the Beerded Lady in Garner. He was looking for some of our sausage to use in his cooking and made sure to invite us to attend as well. I had only recently visited the Beerded Lady for the first time the week before. It had been like a surprise family reunion for me, as I ran into all kinds of people that I knew and hadn’t seen in too long. I don’t really drink beer so the beer aspect wasn’t appealing but seeing more of my old friends and supporting my customer’s crawfish boil were both great reasons to stop by.
SWMBO had to go out of town suddenly so alone I went to the Beerded Lady and found this.
Hot out of the pot crawfish and goodies
I can’t eat the potatoes and corn, but the crawfish and sausage I could dive into. As I arrived, I heard the announcement that the sausages were limited, to only get one if you hadn’t had one yet. That made me feel good because it was our sausage that was in demand. Bad that they didn’t have enough, but I’d rather be in demand than have people unhappy with our product.
The food was delicious and once again I ran into people that I knew and hadn’t seen in forever. I also made some new friends, ran into some more customers, and overall had a large time. I ended up hanging out for a few hours and picking up some goodies for some friends of mine to deliver (Shh, it is a surprise).
If you haven’t been to the Beerded Lady, I suggest you take the time to visit. Even if you are not a beer drinker, it’s a really nice place run by nice people. They also have cider, wine, and mead for sale so there are more choices than just beer. It’s a great addition to Garner.
When we opened to the public officially back in December, we started a program with Groupon to do a little advertising. I think it’s safe to say that we blew the doors off this place once the word got out and we’ve been playing catch up ever since. I threw all the kids and the wife at the store, with no training, trying to keep up with demand and we’ve held on, just barely.
In February, we changed the deal with Groupon to greatly reduce the number of Groupons we were selling and bring some normalcy back to our world. Because Groupons are good for four months from the date of purchase, the last of the Groupons from that initial batch will be coming through on June 15th. That means that we will be reducing our new customer traffic significantly and THAT means that for all of you existing customers who are used to us being out of stuff all the time, well that should be ending shortly. Once June 15th rolls through, we will be concentrating on taking care of our existing customers and trying to better stock for our routine folks.
What our freezers should look like
We are still taking (and very grateful for) new customers and we always REALLY appreciate referrals to your friends, but hopefully we’ll be at a more sustainable volume level and you can feel comfortable that we have your product on the shelf when you stop by.
Except ribeyes. Goodness you folks sure do love a ribeye steak. Those will still be filled from the pre-order list in the store.
Nobody has cooked, or eaten, as much of our product as we have. We’ve grilled, baked, broiled, sauteed, and crock potted our meats. Heck, we’ve even eaten it raw (steak tartare anyone?) Having had our products every way that you can, I can say that cooking method definitely matter. I usually try and catch new customers before they leave and explain to them how they should cook their new purchase, especially the beef. Grass fed, grass finished beef cooks differently than store bought beef. (I don’t subscribe to all the tips on that link, btw. But most are good). Since I can’t catch everyone, I thought I’d type up my suggestions.
The first thing to know is what kind of meat are you buying. With only so many ribeyes to go around, odds are you’ll be buying a cut of meat you don’t normally get. You need to understand that “eating high on the hog” means that you’re getting the more tender cuts of meat. It also means they are less flavorful. That’s why tenderloin, an expensive and almost flavorless cut of tender meat, is always wrapped in bacon, or marinated in Italian dressing. Recipes are trying to add flavor to the flavorless, tender meat. On the other side of the tenderness scale, the French have perfected the art of taking the cheap cuts of meat and turning them into delicacies. And finding, along of the way, that these less expensive cuts of meat hold the best potential for amazing flavor. Shanks, jowls, brisket. These are all cuts that many American cooks fear but as any Texan will tell you about brisket, they are often the best part of the animal.
Where all the cuts of beef come from
Basically, the higher up the animal, the more expensive and the more tender the cut. That’s because the less the animal uses the muscle, the more tender and the more bland. That’s part of the reason that feedlot beef is more tender. The animals sit around and eat and do little else. By knowing where on the animal your cut comes from, you can have an idea of how to cook it. Tough cuts need a braise (like a crock pot) or some other method of preserving tenderness.
For roasts, generally the crock pot is my friend. SWMBO does most of the cooking and she uses our various roasts interchangeably from one recipe to the next. If it’s a big four pound roast, she has no qualms about trimming it down or cutting it up to make it into what she wants. Not the most cost effective method but the meals are awesome so I’m not complaining. For roasts, just follow your usual recipe. If you are cooking them in the oven, remember that grass fed, grass finished beef is going to cook faster than you expect.
Osso Bucco is one of my favorite cuts. Technically it’s beef shank, sliced into 1″ thick slices. It costs the same as hamburger per pound and it’s wonderful in the crock pot. All that connective tissue breaks down and makes beef broth, which your vegetables soak up as it percolates all day in the crock pot. Just sear the osso bucco on both sides before you start, (remember the mallaird reaction from earlier, it’s your friend.) The meat shreds after cooking easily because of the way the cut is made. You pop out the one bone for Fido and serve. A $10 meal including vegetables that feeds the entire family.
For hamburger, I have to give a nod to our resident chef Drew. His hamburger recipe makes for a stellar hamburger. If you don’t want to do all that he suggests, make patties with room temperature burger meat. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic and grill. Simple burgers that taste awesome.
For Boston Butt, I again turn to Drew’s recipe. If you are in our store, you can also pick up SWMBO’s crock pot recipe to accomplish the same thing. Her BBQ is no muss, no fuss, and tastes awesome.
Lastly, I need to tell you about sous vide cooking. Drew turned me onto it after about a year of harassing me to try it, finally just loaning me his unit and shooing me away to go cook. After one meal, I had one on order from Amazon. It’s pretty much impossible to overcook using sous vide and I can really dial in the doneness that I want, down to the single degree.
Our meat aquarium
After a swim in our meat aquarium (what we call it) I simply sear the meat (mallaird again) and serve. Cook times can vary by hours with no change in doneness which really makes this more like crock pot cooking. This means that I can still get my work done and pop into the kitchen at the end of the day to finish up and serve a great meal, looking every bit the hero that I am.
I get this question a lot. Usually it’s in the form of a statement about how pigs are super smart. Pigs are pretty good at being pigs. Beyond that, not so much. This is a myth perpetuated by Hollywood with movies like, Babe and Charlottes Web.
Pigs are anthropomorphized and made to be much smarter than they are. In reality, pigs can be cute and funny, but I wouldn’t have them do my taxes.
While pigs don’t have a lot going on upstairs besides what it takes to be a pig, dogs are pretty doggone smart. Not our dogs. No, they are as dumb at a box of turnips. The big dog, Cotton, doesn’t really know her name, or how to sit, or roll over. But she does know to stay with the kids, and to protect them from anything that she deems to be abnormal. She also makes sure that no predators enter, or at least stay, on the farm. Sometimes Cotton decides that something that is completely normal isn’t supposed to be there. In that case she bites whoever that is. Once it was Miguel, once it was a deputy Sheriff. She’s never vicious and she loves children so we keep her on patrol because her good far outweighs her flaws.
The little dog, Ruby, as much as it pains me to say, is actually smarter than Cotton. She knows her name. She can sit on command with nary a word spoken. I taught her, in a fit of boredom when the entire family was at the beach, in about 2 minutes. And she’s retained it so far the rest of her life. The problem with Ruby is that she’s neurotic. As in, not remotely functional, neurotic. Ruby is much like Dave Barry’s Zippy, the emergency backup dog. Little, useless, and annoying. She is, however, smarter than a pig so she has that going for her. But that’s about it.
I point out all this information about our dogs, to bring our farming/blogging mentor, Walter Jeffries at Sugar Mountain Farm, into the conversation. His dogs not only sit, stay, retrieve, etc. They also talk. Yes, I said talk. Walter has his dogs up to about six word sentences with a combination of sign language and verbal communication. How? I have no idea. I’m going with the assumption that Walter is smarter than I am and it flows from there. Perhaps it is a breeding thing. I don’t know. But with the improvement in our gene pool by marrying SWMBO, I hope to see our breed improve in the next generation.
Two of my three wonderful kids. I didn’t have a handy picture of our emergency backup kid, Wildflower.
Thanks again to Lucy, we are now adding this coming Saturday the 21st as a day when we will be open, despite my being off the farm that day.
Lucy and Crystal will be working the store on Saturday and they will be doing pickup appointments only. That means no tours are available.
When you select your provider on our booking application, select Lucy Deaton for Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday of this week. The rest of the choices will be blocked off but all of her times will appear.
Today I drove to Chapel Hill, Bahama, Louisburg, Bailey, and Siler City. That was just to pick up part of what we put in the store today. In addition I had deliveries from some of our farmers who helped us out while I was in school (Thanks Jennifer, Christy, and Kevin!) from Moncure, Hookerton, and Ayden NC. We are fully stocked on beef, pork, chicken, dairy, honey, cheese, and honey related stuff like soap and lotion bars (we got some back in stock, yeah!). I put away about 1000 pounds of stuff today and tomorrow the girls and I will be sorting everything out and getting it ready for you.
I have not pulled the pre-orders yet, which I will be doing first thing in the morning. I’m not sure I’ll be able to get the notices out to everyone that their pre-orders are in, but if you are waiting on something, we’ve got it. I don’t know of a single item we don’t currently have in stock so you can swing by and pick up your pre-order.
The cutest shopping list I’ve ever seen
So get your shopping list ready and book an appointment for a pickup tomorrow. We’re full on tours for tomorrow, but we do have some pickups still available on the calendar.
Normally this place is crazy busy on Saturday’s. Spork is giving tours, I’m giving tours, and we have people popping in to pickup goodies all at the same time.
However this past weekend, Spork was having a birthday shindig with his cousin so it was just me giving tours. And we had about three no shows for pickup appointments. That meant that our tours were about all we had in the store for part of the day. When I came back with one of our tour groups, I walked up to this.
The girls, relaxing on a beautiful day
If you feel bad for the girls having to give up their Saturday’s to work. Don’t. Work isn’t bad. It’s fun, entertaining, and sometimes relaxing. While we prefer to stay busy, the girls make the best of any situation so no matter what, it’s all good.
After talking with Lucy, we were able to work out some days and times that she can work. This coming week I will be here Monday and I’m meeting quite a number of you. I’ll also be here part of Saturday, the 14th. Saturday morning I’m picking up our next cow and bringing it back to restock the freezer so I’m open for appointments all afternoon but closed in the morning. If you are looking for steaks, or have a pickup order already in the books, plan on coming by Saturday afternoon for a pickup as I’ll have your order pulled by then.
Starting the week of the 16th, Lucy will be open for appointments from 2pm-5pm Wednesday and Friday. She is already in the booking program so you can book appointments with her now. This should allow our regulars to get by and pick up their weekly goodies. Lucy won’t be doing tours during the week but we are open for tours on Saturday the 14th. Spork will be doing tours all day and I’m doing them 1/2 day, after I get the beef put away and the pre-orders filled. Also the Mrs. will be manning the store Saturday morning so come by and buy lots of weird stuff to test her out.
It’s going the be a little crazy the next few weeks as different people are working different times. If you have any problems booking an appointment, just text me and I’ll get it straight for you. Since I’ll be in class I won’t be answering phone calls but I will try to return them during breaks and after hours.
I posted that we’d be closed, except for Saturday’s the next few weeks. However our friend and gardener, Lucy, has volunteered to come in and work some hours every few days while I’m not here to let people stop by and pick up the essentials. This will be extra handy since I’ll be picking up beef next Saturday so we’ll be back fully stocked up on beef.
I haven’t set her days and hours exactly yet but as I get them from her, I’ll open up the schedule and post here so people can make weekday appointments.
Be nice to Lucy when you stop by, which isn’t hard. She’s a super nice lady.
We’ve decided that we need to add a new person to our farm. We need a driver to handle our daily pickups at the Raleigh Farmer’s market about 3-4 days per week, and to also make our partner farm pickups about 1 day per week. This will be a 5 day per week, full time job but the day to day will vary some depending on what we have going on that day.
Applicants will need:
A valid North Carolina drivers license
A clean driving record, applicants must be able to pass a motor vehicle background check
No physical impairments that will prevent safe operation of a vehicle
Experience operating a truck and trailer with GVWR in excess of 25,000 pounds
Experience operating a manual transmission
Experience operating forklift equipment
A strong work ethic
When required, unload and load trailer, either with or without assistance of dockworkers, with or without mechanical freight handling equipment. Properly perform task to assure safety and to prevent damage to cargo.
Ability to pass a pre-employment and random drug screening
Must be able to read, write, and converse in English
In addition to those requirements, the ability to speak Spanish is an excellent skill.
Pay will be commensurate with experience and ability. Candidates will need to be able to work a 90 day trial period prior to acceptance as a full time employee.
Applicants should contact me directly at dan@ninjacowfarm.com. Please include a resume with your email.
Except ribeyes. Goodness you folks sure do love a ribeye steak. Those will still be filled from the pre-order list in the store.
