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

Boston butt pork steaks

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.

Parmesan Pork Chops

You’re probably going “Lucy knows it’s chicken parmesan, right?”. Yes I do know, when a craving hits & there is a chicken breast shortage hits (now remedied), you substitute. In this case I used Pork Chops from the NCF farm store coming in at $9.50 lb. It makes for a good fall meal on these still cooling off nights.

In my pictures you will notice the bone & extra fat. Don’t do what I did and leave those on. My crew was startled to find they couldn’t cut their meat under layers of sauce and cheese, from now on I will use my noodle a bit better and remove the extra fat as well as the bone.

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There is no parmesan cheese in Parmesan dishes. Why?? The dish is named for the area it is from in France.  Also I do not add my seasoning to the breading. I season the meat after egging. I’ve found that this adds a bit more flavor to my fried dishes. And please make sure to let the meat come to room temperature before frying. Cold meat in a fryer = burnt breading

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Ingredients

  • 4 NCF bone in pork chops
  • 2 cups bread crumbs
  • 2 eggs whisked
  • 3 tbsp Italian Herbs Seasoning
  • 1 cup Olive Oil
  • Salt & pepper
  • 8oz jar of Marinara (I prefer Nello’s)
  • 8 Slices Provolone or Mozzarella Cheese
  • 1/2 lb cooked pasta prepared to packages instructions

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Directions

  1. Preheat Oven to 350 degrees
  2. Dip Pork Chop in Egg
  3. Season Pork Chops with Salt Pepper and Italian Seasoning
  4. Cover Pork chop in breading (let rest 5 min before frying)
  5. In a heavy bottom pan heat Olive Oil to shimmering state
  6. Cooking 3-4 minutes on each side
  7. In a oven safe casserole add pasta cover lightly with marinara
  8. Lay Pork Chops on pasta, cover lightly with sauce then lay cheese across the top.
  9. Bake until cheese is bubbling,  rest meat, & serve

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New Berkshire pigs have arrived at our farm

We have some new additions on the farm. A drove of Berkshire feeder pigs have taken up residence and are already filling out with the rich produce we provide them. We purchased them for Kayla at The Butcher and the Baker who will be taking these pigs, and lots more in the future.

Pigs in forest paddock
Some of the pigs in their new paddock
Pigs in forrest paddock.
There is some pink mixed in with our pure blood Berkshires. The mother of the pink pigs was like a big friendly dog. Her offspring are equally nice to be around.
Pigs in forrest paddock
More pigs in the forest.

I took these pics after a quick summer rain shower had passed over. The leaves of our trees were weighted down by the water and the little pigs were happily munching on the newly lower leaves.

 

 

Pigs aren’t having sex anymore.

I read this article to Lamont, our boar, recently. He seemed mildly interested, sort of like when you hear that kids are starving on the other side of the world. It’s touching but it’s not right in front of your nose so it doesn’t seem real. He then sauntered over to Penelope and continued his courtship, immediately forgetting the plight of “normal” pigs destined for our traditional food system.

Lucky for Lamont, I’m not getting that personal with Penelope. She’s already bitten me once, and tried more than once. The idea of trying AI with her just isn’t appealing for more than the normal reasons.

Sow with piglets
Penelope, with piglets made the old-fashioned way.

Getting ready for the BBQ and Beer fest on June 28th

Old time hog scalding tank
Getting the fire going for the scalding tank

When you come on the 28th to have beer and BBQ, you’ll be having an Ossabaw hog that was born and raised here on our farm. He never had one ounce of commercial feed and has lived in the open in our woods since birth. He was born here, and died here, having never ridden in a truck, been in a cage, or had a bad day. On his last day he had a breakfast of farmers market sweet corn and never knew what happened.

This is as good of pork as we can produce and we’re excited to have Mike of Mike’s BBQ try his hand at our pork.

Hog going into old time scalding tank
Ossabaw hog going into the scalding tank, 140 degrees.

If you don’t have your tickets yet, better get them soon. The 28th is coming.

I’ll be delivering this hog to Mike on Monday so he’ll have all week to do his magic with brines and rubs.

Pork on sale, we’ve hit the bottom of the barrel

Cow trying to lick the bottom of a barrel
Are you sure there aren’t any more pork chops?

Folks, we’ve hit the bottom of the barrel. With the help of Kayla at The Butcher and the Baker in Fayetteville we are officially out of EVERYTHING porcine except for fatback, pigs feet, and smocked ham hocks. Everybody knows that fatback and smoked hocks are great for collard greens and we won’t have any good collards till this coming winter however there are other things you can do with those cuts. Before I talk about that though, let me tell you about feet.

I made pork stock (foot soup as SWMBO called it) and used two pigs feet in the stock rather than pork bones. I simmered the stock for about 24 hours, drained all the chunky bits, and froze the stock in vacuumed bags. Easy! Darling Wifey decided to use some later for a recipe and folks, let me tell you, that stock was jello! I don’t mean it was thicker than the watery stuff you get at the store, I mean you could stick a spoon in it and it would hold it upright. It brought a richness to her cooking you just can’t get any other way. If you’ve never tried homemade stock before, get a couple of feet from us, they are on sale, and find out what real stock is all about. Pork stock isn’t something you can buy in the store like chicken or beef stock. If you aren’t sure what to do with it, there are some good ideas here and a recipe here. You can substitute pork stock for pretty much any stock you would use. It’s a neutral taste and not “porky” but it’s oh so rich.

Now onto fatback. Here is a quick blurb on fatback from Fine Cooking. Have something a bit too lean, add some fatback to make it awesome. Think fat is bad for you? Then read this, or this to learn the truth. Your brain is 60% fat. Give it what it needs. We have a ton of fatback left, it’s time to give fat a try. If you are cooking for your family this weekend, sneak some fatback into the recipe and watch them react to the flavor when it hits the table. Fat makes everything better.

Lastly we have smoked ham hocks. The best breakfast I ever ate was red beans and rice, sitting in a little hut in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. I can’t promise you the view I had, but with some of our smoked hocks, you can have the red beans and rice, plus a whole lot more. Check out these recipes for some ideas.

I can hear you saying now, “But I want PORK CHOPS, wrapped in bacon! When are you going to have that?”

The next pig we have processed will be used at our event on June 28th. If you want some porcine goodness that you don’t even have to cook, then get your tickets now. After that, we have some more pigs that are a few months from being done. We are currently looking to buy some more feeder pigs and should be back in stock going forward.

We also have the first of our cows ready to process. He’s going into the family freezer, but we may sneak a few cuts out for you to sample so good news, meat is on the way.