Lucy informed me yesterday afternoon that we still have some ribeyes left from the cow I picked up this week. This is quite unusual as the ribeyes are usually presold before they even show up. But taking two cows in one month allowed us to have some extra beef. If only I had two cows to take every month! Oh well, the difficulties of being a small farm.
I don’t know how many we have left, or how long they’ll last today, so I’d get by here if you want some. We also have filet mignon, NY strip, sirloin, all the steaks. Plus of course roasts, pork chops, bacon, chicken, lamb. You know, all the goodies we keep here for our munching pleasure.
The girls are working and they quietly asked me for a slow day so they can work on their arts and crafts projects. So of course I’m honoring that by inviting everyone here to keep them busy all day! Never ask the boss for slow day, jeesh! What were these girls thinking?
This time it’s not “going to be ready.” It’s actually ready. I’ll be leaving here shortly to drive the two hours to get our beef from the processor and put it safely away in our freezers when I get home. That means all the hard to find cuts will be back in stock for tomorrow’s normal hours of 2-6.
It is August. And September is right around the corner. Better make sure you get all your summer fun in before it’s too late.
Of course, we are looking forward to fall. We have some events planned that should be fun. Some for new customers, and some for old customers. We will have more details as we progress. Till then, better squeeze all the days on the lake that you can.
We didn’t get the beef yesterday. I planned my entire day around it. I checked with the processor about 2pm, and rolled out of here about 3pm for the one hour drive to Siler City to pick up all of our beefy goodness. All was good.
I turned the cooler on on the truck so it would be frozen when I arrived, stopped and got some water to drink on the way, and began my normal routine of cursing people WHO CAN’T DRIVE! Argh!
I’d made it about 1/2 of the way there when my phone rang with a number I didn’t recognize.
“Hello?”
“Don’t come! We’ve lost power. You cow is half cut up and not vacuum sealed. We can’t do anything with it till we get power back on!”
Well this was new. At first I said I was coming anyway so I could put the beef in my truck to keep it cold but they assured me they had backup power for the coolers. Just not for the saws or the work rooms. Hmm. Nothing to do but to come home empty-handed. So I turned around and instead cursed the STUPID DRIVERS on the way home.
I only posted two posts this past week. One, where I told everyone we’d have beef on Saturday. In the other one, I told everyone we’d have beef on Saturday. Sigh.
Since we don’t have beef now till Monday afternoon which for you fine folks will mean Wednesday, I’m instead announcing a one day sale on pork because we do have that.
Today only, all pork (except bacon and ribs) are 20% off. I’m doing this because I promised you you’d have beef today and people will not see this and show up all happy expecting steaks. I hate letting people down, even if it’s not my fault. So instead it’s time for pork!
The girls are all working and excited to see you today so stop by and get some pork.
Just a quick update to let you know that I’ll be picking up our latest cow this afternoon from the processor (back here around 5pm). We should be well stocked with everything including all the steaks so plan on popping in tomorrow and getting something for the grill.
Also, I dropped off hogs yesterday at the other processor so we will be restocking on pork products shortly. Although I’m not aware of anything we are out of currently on pork, but we like to keep ahead if we can.
We raise both beef and pork here on our farm. The rest of what we have in our store comes from other farms around the state. We are proud to represent other farmers in our little store. But we are most proud of the quality of our beef and pork, which we think is the finest you will find.
Our beef is grass fed, grass finished. No commercial feed EVER!
Our pork is raised on forage and produce from the farmers market. No commercial feed EVER! Our pork chops are darker and redder than the steaks you buy at the grocery store. They taste better too.
If you haven’t tried one or the other, then you owe it to yourself to give them a try. We are open today from 2-6pm and again on Friday from 2-6pm. Saturday we will be open 8-5 and we’ll be freshly stocked on beef.
Yesterday I took one of our cows to the processor. This is usually a once per month occurrence, but in July we were able to squeeze in two trips due to the demand from you good folks.
I know what some of you are thinking. Aww, it’s so sad, this poor guy. Yes, yes it is. #47 was born here and has been a good cow (steer actually) all his life. Never caused any trouble, never been sick, never escaped. But if we weren’t going to eat the cows, they’d never live at all. We aren’t running a cattle rescue, we are running a cattle farm. This is the final step of a very important process, one that is handled with respect and care. Our cows only have one bad day in their life. The rest are filled with sunshine and seas of grass. I wish I could say I only had one bad day in my life.
For the rest of you folks that are instead thinking, RIBEYES! That is true, we’ll have steak in the freezer on Saturday so plan on stopping by and picking up your beefy goodness. If you’d like to get your name the pre-order list, shoot me an email and we’ll hold your steaks for you.
Lucy here on the actual non- recipe part of the blog. We’re still having some internet issues here on the farm. The store is open tomorrow 2-6 p.m. & Satuday from 8-5. Erin & Crystal will be running the store while Dan gives tours. SWMBO & I will be off picking up our kiddos and hosing them down after a full week of sleep away camp.
Ninja Cow Farm has a wonderful new product in stock. DUCK!!! Seriously, we now have Duck thanks to Blue Whistler Farm over in Bahama, NC. Blue Whistler is a wife and husband owned 5 acre farm. It may not seem like much land, they work it and are producing some great products.
Last year I was introduced to Amy at Blue Whistler Farm. I followed her for a while, light facebook stalking in truth. What drew me to her was the amount she loved and cared for her animals while they were on the farm. How she is able to provide with love and care yet realize this is a business and you must follow the rules of it to be successful.
Look at those happy faces!
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She has tried several animals on her 5 acre farm. Amy shares her triumphs and successes along the way. Now we can share her ducks with you. Blue Whistler Ducks are pastured raised, while receiving conventional feed rations.
As you can see though they stay in the pasture not in a closed in cage on a factory farm. Amy is hoping this winter to bring us Duck by the cut as well. Blue Whistler ducks are currently sold whole in our store for $8.45lb. Drop by and see us for a new flavor on your table.
Yesterday I picked up a surprise cow from the processor. No, not a surprise to me. A surprise for you, and Lucy. Lucy was complaining that we were running out of everything. Steaks, hamburger, everything beef related. I called the processor and was able to squeeze in an extra slot for this month. Yesterday afternoon I picked up said load of beefy goodness and everyone on the farm worked to get it put away after 5pm.
Ribeye steaks, ready for sale
The end result of all that is we have a freezer full of everything, including ribeye steaks. Two steaks I’m pulling out for my use, because we NEVER get ribeyes, they area always pre-ordered before the cow gets here. The rest of the steaks are in the freezer and first come first serve.
I’m posting this because our regulars know how hard it is to have ribeyes. If you text or call, we can put your name on them and hold them for you to swing by and pick up. Same goes for any of the other cuts that are hard to get. Skirt steak, filet mignon, NY strip, tongue, heart. If you want one, just let us know. We have a bunch of first time customers coming today and I’m sure they’ll buy all the ribeyes not knowing how big of a deal it is to find them in the freezer. I’m happy for anyone to have them, but we want to take care of our regulars first so let me know. My number for text is 919-810-2530 or shoot me an email and dan@ninjacowfarm.com.
Now, onto the internet. It only took 5 techs, and 8 days, but we have temporary internet hooked up at the farm. In the process we killed two of the three other internet services on the farm for which I felt terrible, but everyone is up and running currently so at least it all worked out. Now that I’m up I can once again get some work done on the computer. Just little stuff like paying my taxes, doing payroll, you know, the optional parts of running a business. My desk looks like a recycling center after a windstorm so I’ll be in the office all day today trying to get a weeks worth of paperwork done in one day. But the good news is I’m right here if you need something.
The girls, chatting and working.
The girls will be working today, The Princess, Wildflower, and Crystal all in the store. With fresh beef in the freezer it will be a busy day for them which they really enjoy. Slow boring days are the bane of their existence so feel free to pop in and make their day. Especially after lunch till 4pm. That looks like a slower time according to the schedule.
This is our second grazing update of the year. This is rotation #2 around the farm. Grazing update number 1 covered our area near the golf course while this update will cover the area close to Old Stage Road, behind the lower pond.
Water has been plentiful this year and grass has been growing readily. It’s in the 10-15″ range with 100% ground cover. Regrowth from the first grazing has been quick and the cows have more grass than they can consume in one grazing allowing us a lot of flexibility. The brood herd is at our leased farm so again this year we are intensively grazing only our finish cows. (Update from the future. We had to pull our brood cows back to the main farm twice this year because there wasn’t enough grass at our leased farm. That pasture needs some work.)
Before grazing, the grass is full and lush. 100% ground coverage and averaging 12″ tall.A closer view of the grass before grazingAfter grazing
We have a lot of trample in this field. There is a lot of residual material left, all of which will either convert into thatch of be part of the regrowth. This field was mowed after the cows moved off of it, as we normally do for all of our fields.
“Don’t come! We’ve lost power. You cow is half cut up and not vacuum sealed. We can’t do anything with it till we get power back on!”
