Real food is simply food you trust to nourish your body, nourish the farmer and nourish the planet. ~ Kimbal Musk, Fertile Ground: Why Food Is the New Internet
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This article in The Wall Street Journal is a good read: Kimbal Musk Says Food is the New Internet– "Former tech entrepreneur Kimbal Musk's ambitions for innovation in sustainable farming are as grand as his brother Elon's for space travel and electric cars."
"We don't need to feed the world, we need to get smarter about food. The Industrial food system built in the 60s and 70s has left us simultaneously fat and starving and it's time for it to die. There's an opportunity for smart young entrepreneurs to build a new smart food system that supplies the natural, local food people are demanding. Farmland is available, new technologies have created new possibilities and investors are flooding into the sector." Fertile ground: why food is the new Internet | Kimbal Musk | TEDxMemphis
We agree with Kimbal Musk about real food and have set ourselves to provide that for all of you. But, it comes with a price.
This week we have fresh Harvest Haven chickens organically raised on greens, organic grains, and in the sunshine for their health, yours and the planet's. Like craft beer done with the best ingredients in small batches, our chickens cost more than those raised in humungous, confined intensive operations.
To give you an idea of our inputs, here are some of the costs per bird:
Purchase price for a day-old chick – approximately $3.00
Organic feed for nine weeks - $8.00
Slaughter cost - $5.00
Propane and electricity for heating - $1.00
Incidentals, such as wages for helpers to catch birds for slaughter and transportation to slaughter facilities can be added to this figure.
Wages for James – James gets wages? I thought he did it out of the goodness of his heart.
As you can see, our costs are over $17.00 per bird. If you buy a 4-pound chicken at $4.99/lb that equals $20.00, leaving only $3.00 to keep the operation going. We've raised the price to $5.29/lb to off-set some of the increased costs we have.
We are very thankful that our customers understand and appreciate our position. As one of our customers said, "Cost is only ever an issue in the absence of value!! Thank you for providing the value!"
We're glad to be able to provide real and valuable food for you.
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Fresh whole chicken is available this Friday, June 9 and Sunday, June 11.
The price for whole chicken is $5.29/lb. But, if you buy 4 or more fresh chickens, the price is $4.99/lb.
Fresh chicken parts will be available Monday afternoon, June 12.
Pre-order or drop in.
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Yes! The Downtown Farmers' Market is only a month away. The first market is Wednesday, July 5 at 10:00 A.M.
Meet us there!
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New York Strip Steak - Sale $17.89/lb Reg. $19.99/lb
Beef Bacon- Sale $10.49/lb Reg. $11.79/lb(See Recipe Box)
Lamb Garlic Sausage - Sale $10.99/lb Reg. $12.49/lb
Garlic- Sale 3 bulbs for $5.50 each Reg. $2.99 each (See Recipe Box)
Bioitalia Macaroni- Sale $3.49 each Reg. $3.99 each (See Recipe Box)
Fresh Blackberries - Sale $7.89 Reg $9.29 (See Recipe Box)
Fresh Nectarines - Sale $5.29/lb Reg. $6.59/lb (See Recipe Box)
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Please note, all ingredients in our recipes are organic.
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Mac and Cheese with Bacon Bites
A favorite because it's so easy to make and tastes great.
2 cups cooked macaroni
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Harvest Haven egg, beaten
1 tsp dry or prepared mustard
1/2 cup milk
1 cup (or more) shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup (or to taste) Harvest Haven beef bacon, cooked and chopped into bite-size pieces
1 – 2 Tbsp Harvest Haven onion, finely chopped (optional)
Combine macaroni, salt, pepper, egg, and mustard dissolved in the milk.
Stir in cheese, reserving enough to sprinkle generously over the top; mix well.
Turn into buttered 1˝ - quart casserole, top with bacon bites and remaining cheese. If using the chopped onion, it can be spread in the bottom of the buttered casserole dish, then the macaroni and cheese spread on top of it.
Bake uncovered in 350°F oven 30 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted into center comes out clean.
Serves 3 or 4.
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Julia Child's Garlic Soup
1 head of garlic — each clove separated and peeled
2 quarts of water
1/4 tsp of sage
1/4 tsp of thyme
1/2 bay leaf
4 parsley sprigs
3 tbsp olive oil +
3 egg yolks
an additional 4 tbsp olive oil
1. Peel the garlic.
2. Add all ingredients up to egg yolks in the water, and boil for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Beat egg yolks in the serving bowl and slowly add in the additional 4 tablespoons olive oil, beating with whisk the whole time. It's like you're making mayonnaise.
4. Just before serving, add one ladleful of the hot soup to the egg mixture, slowly. Beat some more. Pour the rest of the soup broth into a the bowl, through a strainer. Smush the garlic gloves through strainer to squeeze out extra juice at the end.
5. Serve immediately with bread.
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Add all ingredients up to egg yolks in the water, and boil for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. |
| 3. |
Beat egg yolks in the serving bowl and slowly add in the additional 4 tablespoons olive oil, beating with whisk the whole time. It's like you're making mayonnaise. |
| 4. |
Just before serving, add one ladleful of the hot soup to the egg mixture, slowly. Beat some more. Pour the rest of the soup broth into a the bowl, through a strainer. Smush the garlic gloves through strainer to squeeze out extra juice at the end. |
| 5. |
Serve immediately with bread. |
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Nectarine Blackberry Crisp
5 large nectarines (about 5 cups), sliced (skin on)
2 pints fresh blackberries
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
6 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter an 11x7x2-inch ceramic baking dish.
Toss the peaches, blackberries, flour, cornstarch, vanilla, sugar, lemon juice, and zest in a large bowl. Pour into the prepared dish.
In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, oatmeal, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Add in the butter and rub into the dry ingredients with your fingers until pea-size lumps form. Add in the pecans with your fingers, squeezing to combine.
Sprinkle the crumble topping over the fruit mixture. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until bubbling and golden brown on top. Let cool slightly; serve with Mapleton's Organic French Vanilla ice cream.
MAKE AHEAD: This can be made a day ahead and reheated in the oven (let come to room temperature before putting the dish in the oven – otherwise the dish could break!).
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Martin and James needed to be away from the farm for a few hours, leaving Jeannie in charge. Everything should be fine. The sheep are securely shut up in their pasture; the beef cows are free to roam in the far field; and Cherry, along with her calf and the yearlings have the leisure of walking between the corral and the green grass in the closest field.
Jeannie headed out to get a picture of Cherry for a little story about Martin's ingenious invention that would allow the cows to freely go through a small opening in the electric fence. The yearlings and calves nonchalantly trotted through the opening into the grass on the other side. Not so with Cherry. She has an inordinate respect for electric fence and just would not go through the opening. So, James and Martin jumped back and forth through the opening like madmen to let her know there was no wire to zap her. Cherry wasn't buying it.
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Cherry
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Martin had an idea. Oats! Cherry followed him through when he distracted her with a pail of her favorite treat. A farmer needs to be no mere genius; he needs to be a psycowologist.
Back to Jeannie and her picture of Cherry. As she was about to pass through the corral, she noticed the gate in the dairy barn was open. Heading over to the barn through the hay shelter, she was greeted with a little orange surprise. There was Stripes, Rosette's kitten that had escaped the workshop the other day when James had left the door open. After looking high and low, we believed it was gone for good. But, here he was and his mom close by.
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Stripes AKA "Puff"
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"I need a picture of him to send to Martin. Oh no, my phone's dead."
At this same time, Trevor, who had just dropped off a load of feed was leaving the farm… or not. He was coming back, exclaiming, "There's a calf out over there!"
Sure enough, there was Spot, one of the yearling heifers, grazing quite contentedly by the new store.
"What do I do? How did she get there? MARTIN! Help!"
While Jeannie was returning Stripes to the workshop and shutting the gate in the barn so no other animals would escape, Spot bolted down the roadway, past the barn and disappeared. Searching for her, Jeannie and Trevor found her cheerfully munching hay in the second hay shelter. After a bit of back and forth, they finally got Spot into the corral where she belonged.
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Spot
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Hearing all the commotion, Cherry came running into the corral bringing the rest of the yearlings with her, which was a good thing because Jeannie needed to count them to make sure no others had escaped.
"Trevor, may I borrow your phone to call Martin? Mine is dead. I need to know how many cattle are supposed to be in here."
"Sure."
"Yah! Martin here."
"Martin," Jeannie starts. There's a long pause on the other end. Martin's thinking, "Why is Jeannie on Trevor's phone?"
"I found Stripes." This is a wife's approach when there's bad news – tell the good news first. And Martin's quandary is deepening. "Why is Jeannie using Trevor's phone just to tell me about finding a missing kitten?"
"Okay…?"
"And Spot got out through an open gate in the barn." It takes a minute or two, but Martin's getting some of the picture.
"Trevor and I got her back in, but how many cattle are there supposed to be in that herd?"
"Good. We have them all, then."
Isn't it interesting how what goes around comes around. Remember in the last Down On the Farm story, Martin's Agricultural Aggravations, James "dumby- locked" a gate, the sheep escaped, and Martin was ready to shoot him? Well, in an early morning mind fog, Martin had left a gate open and Spot escaped. James, you are fully justified to use your skunk eradication tools.
Now, you're wondering why the title, Spot and Puff. Some of you will remember your first-grade reader, Fun with Dick and Jane. They had a dog and cat named Spot and Puff, a little orange cat. Get the connection?
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