Ninja cow beef, drunken cow beef, and fresh pork arriving on Thursday. With the new chicken we have in the freezer I’m pretty sure this is the best stocking level we’ve ever had with a full range of all kinds of meat. We’ve been working hard the past few months to get some of everything in and we’ve finally achieved it!
I’m around some this weekend and hit and miss during the week (I’m delivering meat and doing other farmy stuff). Next week will be tough until Friday but then I’m here through the weekend and into the following week. The weather is beautiful and there is plenty to see with new calves, green grass and all kinds of spring farming going on. Shoot me an email to schedule a time to come by for a tour and to stock up your freezer.
We’ve had requests for long enough (mainly from SWMBO) and we’ve finally been able to come through with a quality source of Organic chicken. I had to drive nearly to Virginia to pick up these birds but I think the drive is going to be worth it.
The pork freezer, temporarily housing all the chicken we just received. There’s lots more in there you can’t see. The lights are still not installed in the sales room.
I’ve been talking to John at Healthy Hen Farms for some time now, learning about his practices and today I was finally able to pick up my first order. John and his two oldest girls handled the whole transaction, including the tour of his setup. I saw their entire operation from brooders, to chicken tractors, to processing floor, to storage. Everything was small operation, small farm, grass based, and as clean as it could be.
Birds out on pasture, in Salatin style chicken tractors.
His birds looked great and I’m looking forward to hooking up some of our long time customers to get their reaction to this new source of protein.
Chickens on pasture in Joel Salatin style chicken tractors
John has 6 kids, all home schooled, so I feel good about supporting his farm. This also lets us focus on pigs and cows and leave the specialty chicken farming to John.
A little closer view of the birds on grass.
Hurry and get by before SWMBO and my kids eat all this chicken. All the pricing and details on cuts are on our new chicken page.
Tomorrow Miguel and I are going to have an old fashioned hog killing. Then we are going to make authentic carnitas. This is something we are doing as a thank you to our farmer friends whom we receive all our produce from every day. Having fresh meat, warm from the carcass to the pot to the tortilla is something you can’t get in America but it’s something people from Mexico recall fondly. We have to kill, scald, cook, and deliver all this pork, in addition to our normal farm work tomorrow so it’s going to be a busy day.
Here you see our scald tank as I fill it with wood and blocks. The wood is for the wood fire we will build to heat the water to 160 degrees. The blocks are because I made the legs too short when I made the tank.
Here is the tank filling with water. The white plastic and stainless steel tubs will hold meat waiting for the carnitas pot. You can see he handles of the bell scrapers we will use to scrape the hair off of the hog after it is scalded.
This is the copper carnitas pot we use to make the carnitas. We will run about 200 pounds of pork through this pot tomorrow, feeding about half of Raleigh I think. Of course we will have to sample it ourselves to make sure it’s not poisonous.
Everything will get a scrub down in the morning and I’m on my way to run all the butchery stuff through the dishwasher and sharpen knives. We have to move efficiently tomorrow. There is no extra time in the schedule but it should all work out, Lord willing.
Yesterday I had to be in Fayetteville most of the day. Of course, all the fun happens when you are not there. Miguel went to check on the cows yesterday over at the neighbors and look what he found when he was checking.
#52, a little girl, born yesterday.
You can see the patch of the belt from the belted Galloway heritage on this calf. We won’t be keeping any of the belted cows going forward so this little girl will be going to market once she’s old enough, most likely along with her mother. Belted cows don’t bring any money at the market so maybe I’ll sell them both on Craigslist instead. I have a few months to decide. Either way I know they won’t be staying here as momma has been a little crazy during her pregnancy. Although that’s not completely uncommon for pregnant moms anyway.
What’s that dear?
“Oh I’m sorry, I’ve been corrected. Pregnant mom’s are never crazy and have a glow about them that is beautiful.”
Now put the gun down honey. You look beautiful today. I love what you did with your hair. Ok, love you too.
Thank goodness I never load her gun.
So anyway, this little calf was born SKINNY. Like supermodel skinny.
Skinny little calf
Otherwise she was completely healthy. That’s the mom in the back ground with the full belt of white. As you can see, she is plenty fat and healthy, so for whatever reason this little calf was skinny but it won’t last long as she’s nursing big time. In a few weeks this little calf will be plump and the momma will be drawn down a bit. We usually have a bait of calves here in spring, then another batch in June/July. We don’t breed the cows ourselves and set a time for breeding but rather let the cows work it out for themselves. It’s funny how by and large they nearly all breed back for spring/summer calving if left alone.
I love calving. They little calves are so cute, the grass is green, and it’s the most tangible sign of life on the farm we have. I just wish I had been here yesterday to be part of it. Oh well, there are lots more round mommas (who are glowing!) out in the pasture getting ready to drop.
Today we moved our cows from the neighbors pasture to our other neighbors pasture. It’s only about 75 feet from one to the other but due to the timing, David our neighbor had to do the move himself. Since he’s never done a move like this before it was a little unnerving for him. Miguel and I both had to be off doing other things so before we got missing we went over to check on David and see how he was doing. While we were there, we went to check on Curious, #11. She had shown some signs of bloat last week and we’d been steady checking on her every time we were over there to see how she was doing. I knew that Curious had winter calves so I knew she wasn’t pregnant. Maybe I should check my records before I know things so well. Well today, we discovered the source of her bloat.
Curious #11, with her new calf #51
Turns out her last calf was an early May calf so of course she is due. Curious had dropped a perfect little girl calf in the woods just shortly before we arrived. The calf was up and walking, nursing and doing all the right things. Curious looked ok too so we left them in the woods to enjoy the shade and the quiet.
Fast forward the rest of the day and I go back to check on David and check how the cows are doing. All the cows have been moved into the new pasture and are happily grazing, including Curious. However David immediately says he thinks the calf didn’t move with the rest of them. I give Curious a minute and sure enough, she’s looking back at the old pasture too often. Spork is with me so I have him drive the truck into the pasture while David and his friend Charles both ride four wheelers over to the woods to look for the calf. By the time Spork and I arrive, they have located the calf safe and sound in the woods. I pick the calf up and carry her kicking and squirming to the back of the truck and then tell Spork to take us out of there. Of course, he can’t see over the steering wheel and he’s managed to drive us into the wet spot I told him to avoid. We were stuck in 2 wheel drive, 4 wheel high, and 4 wheel low. The whole time I’m in the back of the truck holding the calf so she doesn’t escape. Finally Spork takes my spot holding the calf and I get a strap and tie off to David’s four wheeler. After a bit of back and forth we finally get unstuck and the whole gaggle of people and cow head up to the other pasture. We unload the little calf into the pasture and she immediately starts circling us trying to figure out which one of us is her mom. I call Curious who after a few calls sees we have her calf and comes running looking very much like a freight train barreling right for us. Spork stands beside me, I stand out in the pasture with the calf, and David edges away and gets out the gate. 1200 pounds of running angry cow didn’t look like a good idea to him. He’s probably the smart one but I’ve known this cow her whole life. She was running to the calf and didn’t care about us.
Curious and her new calf
Mom and daughter quickly reunited and wandered off into the pasture to do cow stuff. I joked with David about bailing out on us and we called it a day. Just another day on the farm.
