Time: 10 am – 4 pm
Vendor List:
Buck Naked Farm – Lathe Demonstration
*Parking $5, No Dogs Allowed,No Smoking, we encourage carpooling & to come later in the day*
New in the Store
Great news after much demand we are now carrying two new items in our store.
Beef Tallow
1/2 Pint- $7
Pint – $10
Quart- $15
Lard
1/2 Pint- $7
Pint – $10
Quart- $15
Our New Store Hours are Monday, Wednesday, Friday 2-6 pm & Saturday from 9-5. On Saturdays we offer free group walking tours. Please go visit https://ninjacowfarm.com/tours-2/ to schedule your tour today.
Pieces & Parts & Goats Milk
Dog, cats, ferrets & Soap Crafters, what do they all have in common?
Pork!!!
Dan surprised Jeanette & I today with our special request for
Tails, Fat Back( what you use for lard), Liver, Heart , & Feet are now all in stock in .
Prices
Tails- $4.50 per pound- Not only a great for pets but also great for stews and veggies.
Fat Back $4 per pound if you want lard or to make your own soap this fat is gold.
Liver-$4 per pound liverwurst, Scrapple or liver pudding you know you want to make your own this summer to go with all those fresh garden veggies. We have a few books in the store to steal some recipes out of for these dishes
Heart- $2.99 per pound great for adventurous eaters (slice and cook like a steak) or for pets
Feet- $2.50 per pound. These are my secret ingredient to so many dishes. I smoke them then add them to beans, collards and pork bone broth. Oh yes, pork broth should be its own magical food group.
Ears-$4 per pound. Not just a great dog treat, these are also my favorite bar food. I braise these till tender (280 F in a dutch oven for 2 hours) then slice and fry.
Neck Bone-$4 per pound try a new flavor of bone broth. If you love beans this will add an extra depth of flavor to them.
Finally Raw Goats Milk ($5 per 1/2 gallon) is back in the store on Fridays and Saturdays. The supply will be limited. Please let Lucy know by Monday if you need an order. Several of the area veterinarians in the area have suggested this for orphaned pets or pets going through medical issues such as Chemo or on raw food diets. Please check with your own veterinarians to see if this is right for you.
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Hot Dogs Back in Stock Open Today 2-6 pm
Great news just in time for the weekend. Weeping Radish dropped by this morning and delivered Uncured Hot Dogs, Beer Bratwurst, & Linguiça. Hopefully next week they will have our Pastrami & Roast Beef ready for delivery.
Hot dogs $7 lb 4 per pack in pork casing
Linguica $10.50 lb
Beer Bratwurst $10.50lb
We’ll be sampling the new products this weekend, stock up for Memorial Day cookouts.
Jammin’ Chicken
Jam, is it sitting in your fridge doing nothing? Is it only making an appearance at breakfast or on a noontime pbj? Well ladies and gentlemen let me introduce jam for dinner. Triple Berry Jam is the primary ingredient in this sauce it is from Buck Naked Farm at $8 a jar sold in the NCF Store.
At the NCF store the chicken is provided through Brittany Ridge Farms The Split Chicken Breast run $10 lb. They typically come 2 to a pack. With the kids we usually split a breast between them. the skin however is always fought over.
Jammin Sauce
- 1 Jar Buck Naked Farm Triple Crown Jam
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 sprig of rosemary
- 1/2 cup of water
- 1/8 tsp cayenne (optional)
- Combine all ingredients and bring to a boil on med. heat
- Boil until syrupy and coats the back of a spoon.
- Remove from heat to cool
Jammin Chicken
- 4 split chicken breast
- salt & pepper
- Preheat oven to 425F
- Bring chicken up to room temperature about 1 hour on the counter.
- Dry off with a paper towel, salt and pepper chicken
- On a sheet pan place a cooling rack
- On rack place rosemary sprigs
- Place chicken on rosemary & place in oven 45 min to 1 hr until meat thermometer reaches 160F
- Once the chicken reaches 160 glaze chicken with Jammin Sauce
- Place chicken in oven for 5 minutes
- Let rest for 5-7 minutes and serve.
Lamb Sliders with Chevre Cream
Ninja Cow Farm is now carrying a wide arrange of lamb products from High Rock Farm and Thistledown Farm. Dan goes to great lengths to search out small farms that meet his standards. He wants clients to get the best flavor of ethically raised, local meat possible.
Imagine tasty lamb as a burger, now as a fancy cheeseburger. This is a meal to impress friends. The grand total for it should ring in under $25 for 4. I served this decadent slider with a small simple salad and vinaigrette. A great way to introduce your kids to a more complex flavor palate without spending $75 at a nice restaurant that serves lamb.
In this recipe, I’m going to teach you how to make Chevre into a condiment called crema. It is a simple way to use a semi-soft cheese, turning it into a spread.
Chevre Cream
- 1 small log of Celebrity Dairy Chevre
- 1/4 cup Simply Natural Dairy Heavy Cream
- Slice all rind off of the chevre log. * While some prefer the flavor of rind I’m not a fan. It is not so friendly when melting down into a sauce.
- Crumble or cut Chevre into small pieces we want this to melt into the cream quickly.
- Using a heavy bottomed pan heat cream over a lo-med heat. Stir often as the fat & sugar content will cause cream to scorch quickly.
- When cream is beginning to steam whisk chevre into cream. Whisk until smooth. Remove from heat, serve warm.
Lamb Slider
- 1 lb of Ground lamb from the NCF store
- Salt & Pepper
- Bring lamb up to room temperature by setting on counter for 1 hour before cooking.
- Separate into 2 ounce patties. Yes they are small but with the bun and added ingredients it will be filling. Theses are sliders.
- Season meat 5 minutes before frying.
- Warm cast iron pan on med-hi heat, let this heat thoroughly, you want to get a nice crust on the lamb patty.
- Add seasoned lamb patties to hot pan, after 2 minutes check to see if the release easily and flip. If they don’t wait 45 seconds and try again.
- Remove from heat let rest for 3 minutes. Place on bun & dress to your liking.
These are rich flavors, the best way to not be overwhelmed by them is to add a bit of acid. To do that I added pickled red onion and a garden fresh tomato slice. Ru & my brother added ketchup to theirs. My husband (the short bearded man spotted periodically on the farm) added mustard to his. Lots of ways to dress a slider and none of them are wrong.
For dessert I highly recommend Celebrity Dairy’s Ginger Goat’s Milk Gelato.
An article on the history of red meat consumption in the US
I read an article recently that was shared with me by Darlin’ Wifey. She’s ever on the hunt for things farming related that she thinks would be of interest to me and to you.
The article (link here) is based on the book The Big Fat Surprise (picture below). It shares an interesting look at meat consumption in the US and some of the fallacies of history that shape our modern conversation on diet. It’s an interesting read and a good primer for buying the book if you want to go further. Growing, hunting, and killing your own meat certainly seems to be a better way to feed yourself in my opinion. I also know that before I had a John Deere to harvest my crops, having a cow or pig do the foraging for me and then all I had to do was harvest the animal was a simpler way of getting my food. Tasted better too.
The questionable link between fat and heart disease
I looks like there is a trending article in the Wall Street Journal making its way around the inter-web that does a nice job of telling the history of our war on fat and gives some compelling evidence of why it is a failed war on many fronts. The most major failing is that we as Americans are fatter than ever. Certainly fatter than when this war on fat started.
The article is fairly long and makes a lot of references to studies, both good and bad. It also pokes some pretty big holes in the original studies that supposedly showed that fat is bad for you. The author of this article is pimping her new book, which surprise surprise, is based on the same topic. Now there’s nothing wrong with promoting your book, and based on the one review so far on Amazon (850 reviews as of mid 2017, 4.5 stars average), it needs some attention to get people to buy it. It was only just released (as of May 2014) so I’m not knocking the book, just pointing out the obvious.
I read the critic’s reviews and it looks like a who’s who of the anti-carb movement, all people who have their own books. Again, not really an issue but I like to see a broader cross-section of people before I can believe the hype. However, what I have read sounds pretty good. The author is an investigative journalist and has apparently spent 9 years on this project which puts her earlier in the movement than a recent book publishing would suggest. She has gone beyond hyperbole and has, again apparently, done her research to back her findings. She lists her copious sources which isn’t common. Finally, the findings of her book match my life experiences that I’ve written about before.
As an update to the post I wrote before, I’ve decided to dip my toe back into flying. Not in any big way, but just easing back in. Step one was to go and get an airman’s medical. It’s one thing to go to the doctor and have him tell you something you don’t like hearing. It’s quite another to go to a FAA doctor, who is reporting everything he sees to Big Brother. We’ve just come off a winter where my family consumed over 800 pounds of pork. That’s over 5 months. Folks that’s about 5 pounds a day of pork! Now some of that we served to friends, some was bones and gristle and whatnot that went to the dogs. But bacon/sausage for breakfast, and pork roast/pork chops/etc for dinner, and leftovers in between? We have practiced what we preach this winter.
Now I’m sitting down with the nurse and she’s checking all my vitals. I haven’t had an exam since I turned 40 and this is when things begin to fall off of you. I’m picturing all the fat I’ve scarfed in a short amount of time. Was all this stuff wrong? Will I have blood pressure through the roof? I’m certainly stressed enough at this point. The result? Better blood pressure and pulse rate than I had when I was in my 20s. Oh, and I’m about 5 pounds lighter than I was when I wrote that previous post too.
Cooking with your kids
I came across a good article on kids and teaching them to use knives in the kitchen and then *gasp!* actually letting them go at it. There were some pretty interesting statistics about what teaching a kid to cook and to use knives in the kitchen means when the kids gets older, and no it doesn’t mean they can no longer count to 10 without taking their shoes off.
This is the Princess, at 6 years old, helping me can tomatoes. She peeled the tomatoes, then grabbed a razor-sharp chef’s knife and proceeded to quarter the tomatoes and get them ready to can. How did I know she was ready at six to handle a knife? First, she asked. Not the whiny can I have what you have (mom’s you can hear it in your head, right?) No, she asked if she could help me do what I was doing. I spent about 3 minutes showing her how to hold the knife, how to cut with the knife, and how to be safe with the knife. My famous safety lesson on knives is, “This knife is designed to cut meat and it’s really good at it. Do you understand? Yes. Ok, now what are you made out of?” Blank stare. “The answer is meat.” I’ve had children hand me the knife back after that explanation. They weren’t ready yet.
So after that quick demo, I watch her for five minutes and make sure she’s doing it right. Is she taking this serious? Is she playing or working? Is she keeping her mind on her business or getting distracted by her siblings? Any signs she’s not focused and the knife goes on the cutting board till she talks to her sister or smacks her brother. Mom comes in and tells her to do something? Sorry mom, she’s working and can’t, get someone else to do it (that goes a long ways folks, when you’re working your above kid duties and get treated like an adult).
Did The Princess ever cut herself? Yes, not that day but yes. She didn’t even cry (something she’s very proud of and still remembers). Did Bok Bok try cooking later and cut me in the process? Yes. Did either need stitches, a trip to the ER, a blood transfusion? No. If you work in the kitchen enough, you get cuts. You don’t die, and neither will your children.
And of course what could be more long-lasting than cooking not only with mom but with Grandma!
Of course here at Ninja Cow Farm, we care not only about knives and cooking but also about the kids nutrition and wouldn’t dream of letting them actually plan a meal and then cook it. Who knows what kinds of unhealthy sugary things they’d make if mom wasn’t here to supervise, like say if she went to the beach and left the kids and dad to cook on their own. 🙂
So cook with your kids. It’s good for them and good for you. Just remember, safety third!
Cooking 101
The Princess wanted an easy bake over for Christmas. Since this is a girl who butchers hogs and processes bushels of veggies in the summer, we knew an easy bake over wasn’t up to her standards, even if she didn’t. Santa brought her a real toaster oven with broil, a timer, and basically the ability to do anything that a regular oven will do.
Now that she has a real oven, she is part of the breakfast routine making bacon or muffins or whatever else she comes up with. This is part of the education we have when we homeschool. If she was going off to school it would be an egg McMuffin in the rush to get to school. Instead its home ec 101.
In case you are wondering, her cooking is yummy, just like her mother.
