Farm work day recipe.

When  folks come to help out on a scheduled work day here at the home place we like to feed them! As many of you know I follow a Primal lifestyle and have dropped over 200 lbs doing so. So here is one of my favorite Easy, crowd pleasing, guilt free recipes for a work day or any large gathering. (serves 10-12)
Most of my recipe's are geared for a dutch ovens hung over a fire pit but can easily be adapted for stovetop or the oven.
Beef Burgundy
6lb stew beef or Ox tails (Grass fed and Finished if possible)
3 lg onions roughly chopped
3 cloves Fresh garlic Minced
4lb crimini or button mushrooms. (small ones may be left whole, cut larger ones in half or quarters)
1/4 C. Organic, no soy, Steak sauce
1/4 C. Brown Sugar (may be omitted)
2T pepper
1t. dry mustard
2C water
1 750ml bottle GOOD red wide. (if you wouldn't drink it DON"T cook with it!)
1/2 C. Almond or Yucca flour.

Place a heavy stock pot or dutch oven over the heat source and while it is heating dust the meat with the flour.
add to your pot in batches and brown the meat. You aren't cooking it through, just browning the outside of each piece.
Remove the meat from the pot and set aside.
Put everything except the mushrooms into the pot and bring to a slow simmer. Add in the beef, cover and let cook for 2-2 1/2 hours. Add in the mushrooms and simmer an additional 2 hours. remove from heat and let sit covered 20 minutes, Serve.

I serve this over Cauliflower when it is in season or Sun Chokes. Potatoes work really well for those of you not following a Primal lifestyle.

A nice Spinach or mixed green salad with a good Olive oil and Balsamic vinegar dressing is a great side for this dish.
Enjoy!

Streamlining is a lot of work!

We have implemented a CSA and some new membership options like buying in for a whole year, Holiday meats , exotics and the like. And I can't spread things out like we once did. We have had to really streamline and try to get on a set schedule. This has been my biggest shortcoming from the start. I raise great animals, can run the day to day operation like a well oiled machine, but delivery schedules with a good time buffer seem to escape me. Thanks to Tim and Christina I am learning how to be as efficient off farm as I am on farm.  I am so grateful for these great teachers!

Our research project is half funded and we have a way for you to donate in place. I am looking forward to doing a peer reviewed study of the benefits of Grass fed production over confinement raising. With scientific data to back everything up rather than the pseudo science and Celebrity tie ins we see so much of. My heroes come from the real world, with hard work and verifiable knowledge to back the claims that they make. I like that my customers can see what we do, and can ask questions without being worried that we will avoid answering or ignore their concerns. Now if I can just get the deliveries on time I will be Golden!

Garden Finally going in!

The weather has been so darn crazy that we are just now getting plants in the ground. (plus we had to wait until the last hog was ready before we could till) heirloom tomatoes, squashes, old varieties of sweet corn, pole beans and a bunch of wild and wonderful new things we've never tried before. the U-pick garden will be a lot of fun for members this year! Lemon cukes and ghost eggplant, peppers, and of course our almost famous chiles! yes Aaron there will be pequine's!
 The salad bowls are sprouting and we have decided to do some hanging baskets for our apartment dwelling members! we have berries in the Pallet gardens, and tubers where the hogs will go this fall! The herb garden is sprouting and I can't wait! My bay tree made it through the winter so dried bay leaves will be available this season! YAY! We also planted the Hugelkulture mound and will see if it really is as amazing as we hope! I will list everything we will have to offer as soon as I know what made it!
I am so proud of our farm family! Many of you are planting at least some of your own food this season and that is AWESOME! Now for some livestock news!
Lambing and calving are done for the season and the shearer was here last week so that's done too! Pigs are secured for next month and we will have 8 to grow out in addition to those Paul raises for us.
 The hens are laying and we will have broiler chickens ready to butcher in a few weeks, Who wants to help? Ray will be giving a class so it will be a great learning experience for those that want to participate. Turkey Poults will arrive any time now and with 75 spoken for we will only have a few extra for those of you that didn't pre-order.
We are half way to having the matching funds for our cattle comparison project and we have found a way to make it easy for you to donate if you wish, so watch for the link in the next week or so.
We have also been working our way through a TON of red tape to set up shipping to Hawaii and I think we have finally got all of the ducks in a row! Sheesh was that ever stressful!
I apologize for being lax on the blog but time should allow for more frequent posting soon! thank you all for your love and continued support! without all of you, we wouldn't be here!