Lamb may not be a common dish on every table in America, but this red meat provides a great tasting addition to the menu. We talk to Nevada rancher Mike Compston about raising sheep, cutting meat and enjoying lamb.

Mike talks us through the way sheep are raised in the mountains, traditionally something Basque immigrants had done. Their influence continues in the area with the best in restaurant lamb offerings.

We also talk about the differences in mutton and lamb, how lamb sourcing differs from local butchers to US grocery stores, and he provides a depth of options in cuts and ways to prepare lamb.

Links mentioned in the podcast:

Find Mike Compston on social media:

• Instagram. MikeNVUSA
• Twitter MikeNVUSA
• Facebook Michael Compston

Sandi Brock’s YouTube Channel featuring all things raising sheep as well as her Sheepishly.Me Instagram

Where to find Grounded by the Farm on social media:

• GroundedbytheFarm.com for photos, blog posts, show notes and more
• Ask the Farmers Facebook Page
• Groundedbythefarm_ on Instagram
• Grounded by the Farm on Youtube
• @groundedbythef on Twitter

The post Enjoying Lamb Starts with A Good Cut & Simplicity in Cooking appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

As school started and our summer intern returned to classes, I recorded this week’s episode and had an unexpected opportunity to work with a former colleague again. And it all comes together with sheep.

Stick with me. You may remember Abby who interned with us over the summer, showed sheep growing up. I’m interviewing a farmer who raises lamb for the show. And while Molly Atkins and I were talking about how perfect everything would be with her contracting part-time on Grounded by the Farm and all the other things I have going with my business, she mentioned family friends had a sheep farm she spent time at.

The perfect fit is evident in the fact Molly not only had the chance to spend time on a sheep farm, but she’s already written about it and agreed I could share it here to help you get to know her a bit!

Here’s that story:

There are some places from my past that are crystallized in my memory.

When I was a little girl, my mother used to take me to a place called Full Circle Farm.  It was a small family sheep farm, nestled in the Cascade Mountains of Washington.  Bill and Phyllis were dear, dear family friends.  They ran their farm with love and care.  They loved their animals and cared for them with great devotion.

It was a magical place.  I think there must have been wild chamomile growing in the fields because the light smell of apples and clean hay infused into every thing.  To this day, the smell of chamomile tea takes me right back to the farmhouse and the warmth of our friends.

In the evenings, the fog would roll in from between the fir trees, and in the mornings, it would remain, reluctant to drift off.  The red wooden barn was full of hay, and sheep, and the warm, comfortable smells of lanolin and wooly bodies.

My time at the farm has taken on an almost mythical quality in my mind.  Was it really that green?  Was the morning fog that dense? Was the air truly that sweet? Having spent time in the Olympic Mountains as an adult, I am inclined to believe that it was.

Bill is still with us, but we lost Phyllis several years ago to lung cancer.  That loss still hangs heavy on my heart.  She was a deeply peaceful and deeply loving woman.  She was a mentor, a friend, and grandmother figure to me.

Last night I had a dream that I had gone back to Full Circle Farm.  Phyllis was there, but Bill was not.  They had sold the farm and the new owners turned it into a luxurious horse farm.  I didn’t recognize anything.  The farm house was a different building, the barn was in a different place.  Instead of chamomile and wool and sweet fir trees, it smelled like dust and heat and horses. And I was so sad.  I wanted to take the girls to show them the special places at the farm.  The barn, the goat shed, the kitchen, the chicken coop…

I’m not sure what my dream means.  Perhaps it’s telling me that you can’t go back.  A reminder that I must look forward.  Still, I treasure the memories of Full Circle Farm, and I hope I can find new memories to make for my own children that are full of the same magic as that place.

You may not see or hear Molly often, but she will definitely be making contributions. And she’s great at helping me level set so if you look, you’ll probably see her fingerprints on the things I do.

The post Going All In on All Things Sheep-ish This Week appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

As we have been discussing recently in various episodes and posts, the pandemic that we are all dealing with is causing complications for the food supply. And this week we are seeing grocery stores and others limit meat purchases due to supply constraints. We previously talked about the way some people buy meat locally, sometimes direct from a farmer or via a local butcher.

While buying locally or direct is definitely an option, the idea of shifting a large amount to a different system is complicated as are the various steps between farmer and plate. And many farmers have cattle, pigs, etc ready to go but with closures of some really big processing plants, could someone just ship a few cattle to my local butcher shop?

Farmer Jenny Rohrich of Prairie Californian grew up in a family where local meats were the family business. Her family owns Chico Locker & Sausage in Chico, California — the local butcher for some of the farmers I know. Although she lives on the North Dakota prairie with her husband and their growing family, she shares a wealth of experience in this space.

Jenny posted this on a personal Facebook page and said I could share it here to help people understand some of what’s happening with meat processing.

Let’s talk about meat inspection because with these large packing plants shutting down and supply and demand issues in the meat industry, I feel like not many people realize why their favorite local butcher often can’t just buy up animals to butcher in house and then sell in their store. The issue is inspection and regulations surrounding inspection. And it has been this way for decades upon decades.

In order to resell meat of any type, it must be butchered under federal inspection. Federal inspection is different from state inspection in many ways: first being an FSIS (USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service) personnel is present at all times while slaughter operations are taking place. That federal inspector first inspects the animals live as well as watching the ENTIRE slaughter process and then does a carcass by carcass evaluation. The inspector literally holds the key to the locked USDA inspected stamp that is put on each and every carcass butchered under federal inspection.

There are many other facets to inspection under this classification some including: the inspector also does an organ biopsy sent off for testing to ensure no antibiotic residue, plants are also required to take random ground beef samples regularly and send it off to test for potential bacteria like E.coli, etc., and there are strict protocols for things like cleaning, storage, distribution, and even labeling. Every step of the food chain the meat runs through is analyzed under a federal inspector.

Basically, federal inspection ensures that the plant is maintaining the most stringent of food safety standards. And as a result, meat that is processed under this federal inspection can essentially be resold anywhere. It can be wholesale, sold to restaurants, or simply put into the retail market. Any meat you are buying from any retail store has been processed under that classification.

This differs from state inspection (where depending on the state), often the same standards are not required and much of the analyzing every step of the food chain is mostly the responsibility of the plant itself versus the federal inspector. A state inspector is still present (not at all times) to oversee paperwork, processing, labeling, storage, and sometimes slaughter to ensure that the plant is maintaining the required state standards for inspection. Some states have adopted an inspection classification called Equal to, meaning the state recognizes their classification of inspection as “equal to” federal inspection within the state (interstate commerce is not allowed), however many states do not recognize this type of classification.

So why can’t all our favorite local butcher shops just become federally inspected? In many cases, it would require a complete renovation of the facility, sometimes the burden of expenses for testing or tracking origin paperwork is too great, sometimes the plant couldn’t take the risk that would result from a recall in say, something like a labeling error. There are a variety of reasons as to why small plants cannot and many do not pursue a federal inspection classification and they all reflect back to the fact that the burden of regulation when it comes to meat inspection is often too great. Another issue is a nationwide shortage of inspectors, so even if plants are able to obtain a federal certificate of inspection, they are not guaranteed enough inspectors to run at full capacity.

Now, do I want regulation to be done away with completely? Absolutely not. A safe meat supply and plants who maintain high standards of safety are so important. However, any small butcher shop will tell you the woes that the burden of inspection puts on their business. And has been doing so for many decades. The politics and issues surrounding that is a completely other conversation, however, I just wanted to share this to enlighten people on this is how our current inspection system works, whether you agree with it or not.

And if you are curious in learning more, have a conversation with your favorite local butcher and ask how you can help them!

Local butchers are awesome and can do great things in our communities, but understanding other parts of the system they are part of helps us not expect too much from any part of the chain.

The post Can my local butcher help with the shortage of meat now? appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

The latest episode of Grounded by the Farm speaks to something many of us are facing this week whether we are at home in big cities or rural areas — we are focused on having enough food at home. Buying, storing, and cooking more meals. 

The last time I was at home cooking this much was when I lived in the Mississippi Delta, an area I frequently called the middle of nowhere. I personally am looking at food differently. Although I have many grocery stores and restaurants within a mile or two, I am planning for my meals, thinking about what I need to have in the house for a week or two instead of going out to the grocery store every few days or stopping by restaurants so much more often.

My friend Val Wagner who lives in North Dakota came to mind as she lives well away from a grocery and has a big family. I knew she’d have a lot of tips to share.

Meet Val Wagner & Her Family 

The Wagners farm in the small town of Monango, North Dakota. That’s in the southeastern part of the state — an hour or so from the big towns of Jamestown, ND and Aberdeen, SD. It’s Val, who also has a job in a law office in Ellendale, ND, husband Mark who is full-time on the farm and their four boys — Ian, Scott, Evan and Eli. On the top end, Ian is graduating from high school this year and Eli is the youngest at 11.

Val explains their operation saying: “We have red Angus cattle, they are Simmental – red Angus cross. And then we also grow corn and soybean, and wheat, and then alfalfa or grass for our cows to eat, you know, most of what we grow are all things that we can consume here on the farm ourselves or eat ourselves. And then if, if we don’t need it, then our cows do. So that’s kind of we try to make sure we’re our own ecosystem if we have to be.”

Not Everyone Visits North Dakota 

Val & I met via Twitter and various agriculture meetings. At some point, I did a quiz on Facebook where you say which states you’d been to, I’d made all but four to five, Val took it as a personal challenge that I had not been to North Dakota. She wanted to make it clear that I didn’t know what I was missing.

Next thing I knew I was up on the prairie both for work with her sweet corn patch donated to Feeding America for food bank use. And soon I was taking a Dakota vacation seeing the sights in North Dakota and learning things like how to work cows. And it was so beautiful, when my niece asked about getting experience working on a farm, she ended up in the beautiful rolling prairie working cows, driving tractors and more.

I agree with the way Val sums up her home state…. “I also knew that there was so much more here than most people even ever imagined just because we do you know, North Dakota kind of gets the bad rap of being kind of a flatland of, of nothingness. And we do have some typography. I mean, not a whole lot, but, but we also have just a lot of really cool things to experience. And, you know, the people here are the best.”

Val laughs that the difference between North Dakota and other parts of the country always is striking to her boys. “When I’ve taken my boys to other states, one of the things that have always amazed them is they just assumed trees grow in rows. Because the trees in North Dakota have all been planted. So anytime we’ve gone to somewhere like where I was born in Wisconsin, the boys are just amazed that these trees are just all over the place, and how did they ever see anything or do anything when all these trees are just all over? And it’s like, that’s how they occur naturally. We don’t have that. And so it’s sometimes it’s hard for people to understand that when we talk about wide open spaces. This is what they mean. We are wide open spaces.”

Growing Sweet Corn 

The Wagners planted a few cars of sweet corn one year as part of a program with my day job. The company donated seed and farmers played it forward by donating the sweet corn in ways that benefitted their communities. Val and Mark chose to have a big picking party and donate the corn to the state’s Feeding America program.

“We actually plant generally between two to three patches of sweet corn, about one acre to a half acre in size, so about the half the size of a football field or maybe a little bigger. That’s a lot sweet corn… especially if you think about each one of those patches or that side so we’re talking two or three maybe possibly even four football fields of sweet corn. That’s a lot of sweet corn. The last two years Ian – my oldest – and Scott his, his little big brother. They’ve been using the sweet corn, they deliver it to the people in town and whoever’s looking for some and they’ll give my donation for it. And so we’ve provided sweet corn for probably a multi County area here for the last couple years. So that’s really hoping, hoping that this year we get to get the corn in again. And usually it hasn’t been a problem. But we’ve, again been dealing with moisture issues. So we’ll have to see how that that’ll go,” she explains.

This was years ago — the son standing next to Val is the 6’8″ basketball player towering over her in the family photo above. LOL

How do you store sweet corn & other food long-term?  

Picturing acres of sweet corn, even if a lot is given to friends and others, there has to be a lot left for the family. I had to ask how she tucks that away.

Val explains, “if I were to count, I believe we’ve got six or seven deep freezes that we that we have. But of course we raise not only do we raise beef but in the summer during the fair season, my boys raised for each pig so they have their animals. We’re also a hunting family. So we do hunting, when the weather allows and and timing allows. So we have a lot of space to store own food.

“We have a garden that we raised what we can when we can. I enjoy canning and I enjoy preserving food and eating our own food. Not necessarily just out of necessity because we know the closest Walmart to me is about an hour away so it’s not like it’s a drive I take every day. What’s the way our schedules are? I don’t have time to go and with having for growing boys. You know, like I said, Ian’s gonna be 18 Scott is 16 — just had a birthday. Yeah, just forget these things after a while. It was Scott, almost 6′ 8″, 2 hundred and 40 pounds. It takes a lot to fill up those long legs of his. So Evan is 13 and Eli is going to be 11. They put away a lot of food and especially now without having school. We go through enormous amount of food every day.”

She says she freezes a lot of sweet corn (my friend Leah has a great post on how to freeze sweet corn easily!) And she throws it into a lot of different things whether it be chili or a hot dish  / casserole “here there whatever.”

Do you also put tomatoes up and stuff like that? What else? I ask.

“Salsa, tomato juice, bloody Mary mix, you know. Right winter gets cold. So just a whole bunch of different things whatever kind of tickles my fancy at the time the boys like pickles. I’m not I’m not very good at the cucumber thing. I don’t know. Yeah those never turn out real well,” Val admits.

Having Freezers Ready 

Although I don’t have a big deep freezer, the last couple of weeks have led me to think about how I use the freezer space I do have. And I have to admit I haven’t done so well about organizing, but I’m trying to do better. I have a FoodSaver to vacuum seals things which let’s me keep it longer than store packaging and I write on them with a Sharpie.

Val laughs saying she “I probably wouldn’t need five or six freezers if I was better at the organizing. We do we stock them pretty good. We usually raise our animals, like one or two that we know we’re going to put on our own freezer. But then sometimes you might have one that injures itself, you know breaks a leg or something, especially where we’re located that when it’s icy outside like that you have those things. And so you have to be to be ready for it. Because I mean, if all the sudden you’re getting 500 pounds of meat. You can’t be like, well, I’ll just put it in the car overnight and hope it stays frozen. And you don’t have that luxury.” 

We talked with Marybeth Feutz about that decision about whether the cow may be able to heal but Val helped us understand the practical side of if the cow won’t make it.

Getting Meat Processing Done 

Val says they don’t do any slaughter or butchering themselves explaining “We take it all to there’s a butcher shop about 30 miles from here that we’ve worked with for many years that that does a great job for us. We take the animal in they they take care of everything for us. We just tell them what it is. We want how we want the cuts to look much as what like you would do going to your local butcher. Except we know exactly where that animal came from. And we know that what we took in is what we’re getting back. And so yeah, it just makes it a little easier for us, I think to be prepared for it. Because we do know what we’re going to have to have room for. And so that cost maybe for us, it’s not as much as buying it directly from the store, but it’s still a larger upfront cost because you’re paying for the processing of a whole animal, not just the cuts you are looking for.”

A few of our friends actually sell like quarters or halves. Friends at Spring Valley farms around Memphis does that.. they call it freezer beef. Since not many people are going to eat a quarter or a half a cow at once, the put most in the freezer.

Val says people have choices on how to have the animal cut so they get the kinds of cuts they want. “Some people don’t prefer a beef roast, but they want more steaks cut, or maybe they want it all turned into hamburger or whatever it may be. So for those people who who do more of the local, selling directly to, to the people in their communities, you have to be a little more particular about how you set that up. Because kind of like when you have a pig, everybody would like a pig to be 100% bacon, but that’s not possible.”

Focus on Herd Health 

The Wagners have what is called a closed herd. All of the cattle they have on their farm were born there. They sell calves after 11 months or so and will have another round of calving. My niece was there this year for the most intense period of calving and learned a lot!

“We can be very selective as far as bloodlines and, and things like that. Because when you have a closed herd, you want to make sure you don’t have any issues with genetics and, and things being too closely related. So we keep very close records on, you know, what cow was born from, you know, the sire and for the male and the female, the mom and the dad for them and all of that, but it’s super important for us for our cows to be healthy because that we’re looking at the future of our farm. So what we do today, what we’re raising today, we’re hoping is the herd for our boys,” she says.

Val’s always talked about having her farm ready for her boys if any of them want to farm for the next generation.

“Right now it’s looking like at least two are interested in coming back to farm,” she says. “And so we want to do whatever we can to make sure that we’ve set them up in a place that there’s blessed with as many opportunities as we, as Mark and I have been. And so one of the ways we do that, when you’re looking at that herd health is making sure that we are following, you know, our veterinarian’s advice, proper techniques, making sure that we’re checking on them all the time, or we’re very involved in their care. You know, everything is very hands on for us. And so it makes it a lot of work. When you’re looking at your future everyday like that and seen it through the eyes of these boys who are excited and interested in doing that. It doesn’t make it seem like work at all.”

The cattle are moved around a range of pastures 15 miles or so from the house much of the year, but for calving, they want the cows close to the house and barn like Marybeth. She explains:

“in January, everything’s right near the farm here near our house. Usually we start calving about the second week of February. So everything is here until usually around the end of May is when we move things out to pasture. The pasture is about 17 miles from here. So we haul everything out. We used to trail them out and trail and back home, but it takes a lot of work to get them to go that far.

“We have a couple hundred acres of grass that they can eat on warm season and cool season grasses. So that means that the grasses ripen at different times so that there’s a whole bunch of variety of them. For them to eat out there and we have water tanks that they can drink from and we rotate them around so that the grass can recover and different things like that. But our hope is to not have to bring them back home until September, October, depending on what you have to deal with Mother Nature there. So it all kind of depends on what she decides to happen that year. But we leave much pasture for as long as we can bring them back home, graze them on some of the stocks that we’ve harvested if unlike this year, there wasn’t a whole lot of grazing being done because we weren’t done with harvest until late.”

2019 Was a Bad Weather Year  

Farmers throughout the plains and many other areas of the US had especially tough times with the weather. Val explains the rain was historic saying:

“It was flooding that was so severe, we had a wettest spring, summer fall on record ever. We couldn’t we had people who couldn’t remember it ever being like this, where generally we may have a wet spring but then you end up with it. dry patch in the summer where everything dries out pretty well. And it gets pretty hot real quickly. And then you may end up with some moisture again in the fall but we never, there was never really a break. I think the longest we went with maybe four or five days without rain. Yeah. And it wasn’t just like a nice slow rain. It was like this. The the deluge, just tons of rain and a lot of destruction, a lot of washout. We had roads that needed repairing places he couldn’t get to because everything was just so wet. Yeah, I remember graduation last year. We had people who couldn’t get to different graduation receptions because they didn’t have four wheel drive vehicles.”

Thinking about Empty Grocery Shelves 

For so many of us, having millions of acres go unfarmed feels like the type of thing that could cause food shortages but it didn’t. And here we are later looking at shelves in grocery stores that may feel like there’s a food shortage.

As someone susceptible to respiratory issues, I haven’t been shopping in almost a month. I have these lovely people from services like Instacart, who shop for me and dear friends call me on the regular to say, “Hey, we’re going out today and Do you need something?” But sometimes you can’t find flour, sugar, rice, tortillas, chicken, ground beef, etc… food is still coming off of farms, whether it’s yours or somebody else’s, and it’s getting in the system, but it may be channeled off right now for cafeterias and food service or restaurants. So to me, I wonder how much of it is it’s just in the wrong places, but a lot of people are really nervous.

Val says it just doesn’t make sense. “That’s one thing I have to say, living on the farm. I guess my biggest frustration with with the shortages that we’re seeing is that I know that you know, it is that delivery of food, that must be the issue because it’s not the availability. We’re still raising, you know, cattle from beef, there shouldn’t be a shortage. We still have crops that are waiting to be sold that are in storage. You know, we have all of these things. There’s nothing that shouldn’t be available to us because it’s, it’s all readily here. So I work in the town of Ellendale, 15 miles south of us here. Again, a very rural community that coronavirus issues just kind of ramping up here in North Dakota, we’re really kind of far behind when it comes to curve that they talked about and everything else.

“The crazy thing is that even our shelves, the toilet paper is gone, the food is gone. And I can guarantee you that we have no more people in our community than we did before. Right, you now have this ramped up all of these people who who now are fearing that there’s going to be a shortage so they’re creating a shortage.”

Planning Further Out, Eating at Home More 

I think a lot of us have not been planners when it comes to our food. And we have not figured out what should you always have on hand at home so that you can tide yourself over if a big storm came. It’s just like snow every time the freakin snow storms hit right. Everybody goes out, and they buy the same things. And I think this is a little bit like that. People weren’t sure. And suddenly they have children home from school. I mean, suddenly you have four boys home from school all day every day.

Val also plans for her pantry regularly. “We plan the same way as far as making sure that our pantry has the non perishables is the important thing, because you can only plan so far ahead with your milk and things like that, because it does, it has a shelf life. But your things like your, chips and even your bread, things like that you can either put in your freezer or put in the fridge, just to make sure that you have enough to get you through. It goes a long way just to make sure that you know where we live, you’re not always guaranteed you’re going to have a trip to town. And so we make sure that you have enough to get you through a week or two that you can be comfortable and not be missing out on anything. But the big thing is, is that making sure that not only do you have some of those, the staples, but for me, the key is to make sure you have a few things that you’ve put away. That makes the day a little brighter, you know, and it doesn’t have to necessarily be just, maybe it’s some hot chocolate or maybe it’s a popcorn or something.”

Val may not realize how much I love popcorn. I have jars of Ella & Ollie popcorn nearby and bought some great flavored popcorn as I traveled. I have kept hold of one bag but will eat it this week thanks to best by dates! My mom recently made and happily ate a full pan of brownies and I keep a few things like frozen pizza around for days when I just don’t want to cook. 

For me, rice, tortillas and dried beans are critical pantry staples. I also buy those kinds of sausages that I can keep on hand for probably months if I wanted to so long as I haven’t opened the packaging, they’re already smoked and all that kind of stuff. So they really have a nice long shelf life, much less if I froze them. And a pot of red beans and rice always hits the spot for me! 

Val says her “go tos are always mac and cheese. Because my boys are connoisseurs of mac and cheese; noodles, a variety of different noodles. Because it’s amazing just changing the shape of the noodle. You may make this same dish, but if it’s a different shape of noodle, the boys will swear it tastes different.  I just change which noodle I use and it’s a completely different dish, pasta sauce, different varieties of whatever it may be. I always have a ton of pasta sauce. I have a ton of beans on hand as well. So I can always throw together a batch of chili or whatever it may be. Chips. We do a lot of chips because I may make some different dips or different things like that to tide them over. You know right now, you know, at school, they’re used to eating here at seven o’clock when they get up their breakfast. Then at school, they eat at 1120 and then they eat after school and then they have supper. Well, now they eat from 8am to 8pm. And then they have a bedtime snack before they go to bed. So it’s the amount of food that they consume right now. It’s it’s just, I can’t even.” 

Caring for Special Dietary Needs

The Wagners also have additional layers of interesting food issues at their house. Val explains that their youngest Eli, who will soon be 11, has a metabolic issue called OTC.

“Eli has a metabolic condition where his body doesn’t break down protein the way everybody else’s does,” she explains. “And so he has to follow a pretty strict diet of limiting protein and and as we all know, protein is a major building block of all life. And so there’s protein and literally just about everything except for junk food, like, which for him is a win win, because then he can eat all the junk food in the world that he wants to and it’s a free food for him. But it has to limit things like milk and cheese and bread and pastas, and of course, any sort of meat. Having to have things on hand for both both ends of the spectrum makes it very interesting because you know, I’ll have to say, Eli, you can only have like a half a serving of lasagna. Ian, you can eat the last chocolate chip cookie because that’s for Eli. Like, it’s just, all backwards.” 

Everyone is busy. Val works a job in town at a law office and all of the sons play sports. This time of year they have been running hard and had little time at home.

“I think with that, this whole corona virus and the shelter in place and all of these things that was the hardest part was weird just on the back end of basketball season. In fact, our state basketball tournament was postponed due to to everything going on around the country. And so we had been traveling non-stop for the last five weeks and hadn’t been home probably two nights in a row that whole time. We were just getting to the point where I was going to need to do a great big shopping trip to replenish everything. When all of this happened, and it was kind of like, you go in and you realize somebody already beat me to it, there’s nothing left here. And it was crazy because trying to find all of these different things to restock my shelves and it made me really realize that I can’t let it get to that point again, even if I have to, you know, as I’m leaving town, whatever, make sure that I I am stocked up because it it is difficult when you have a larger family to make sure that you get what you need.”

May Need To Consider New Normal 

I think a lot of people felt that this last week or two, especially because they didn’t know how much they would need at home with everybody at home. We never had to had to do this before. And I think now we ought to start looking, at least from my perspective, is how can we and I would say both from people like me off of the farm and people like Val on the farm, help instill a little bit more resiliency in our homes. Some farms are offering direct which I love. I ordered a box of a dozen avocados from my friend Mimi’s farm in California and I saw some more doing direct sales online and some farmers’ markets are open.

And I think more of the food system should be looking at their shifts or pivots. I hope grocery stores and others in the food system are also thinking about this, right? So granted, today a supplier is packaging things and sending it into this channel maybe food service or restaurants. I think a lot should be looking at how do we be more flexible.

I think now I at least feel like I need to slow down. Take some deep breaths. Stop any panic buying, right? It is hard when we all have so much change and you see empty shelves but we need to think less impulse and more resilient.

Supporting Local Businesses

Val says “We don’t have a lack of ability to get these items. Like there’s not we’re creating our own shortage, there isn’t a shortage. Yeah, we just have to be patient. As you know, a grocery store like mine. There’s only so much space that they have, they can’t have.” 

Other grocery stores are an hour away from Val and when I lived in Mississippi it was just over an hour roundtrip. “Generally, I save those may do those shopping trips once or twice a year, I do a lot as much as I can locally just because price-wise it’s comparable when you’re talking about the amount of time you save and things like that. And I prefer to have that option nearby. And when you go through the amount of food we go through, I mean, I don’t ever intend to have milk cows and we go through a lot of milk. So I need to have it, you know, as local as possible as far as being able to pick it up. I understand the panic having somebody in my household that I have to protect, I get that as well. But especially these items that have, you know, a limited shelf life, things like that. It just, it kind of makes me scratch my head a little bit. But there are ways that that you can, you know, mitigate that and when as far as making sure that you have accessibility to to local farms.” 

Val says a lot of farmers like her have freezers and are willing to share when times are hard. And I think we are seeing that with neighbors and friends here in cities too. And some offer beef locally. “When we do that, when we offer any of our beef to neighbors or friends, whatever, maybe we just drop it off at the butcher shop. They take it from there. Yeah, it’s I want to make sure that they have that direct communication with the butcher so they get what they they’re looking for, as far as cuts and all of that goes. And so there are a lot of places where you can do that. And again, there are a lot of places where, you know, what, what we get is all USDA inspected it, you know, passes all certifications and all things like that. It’s all in a licensed facility.” 

What if you want to buy local meat?

I know people with cattle all around St. Louis on different sides of it right? I usually get beef through the grocery store and that’s fine with me I have occasionally gotten it directly from friends. But I imagine some people are trying to decide differently about food and their homes, this is a great time to think about that. Do you want to get some beef locally and just have more on hand? The risk is, is if the freezer goes out, you suddenly have to eat a lot of beef, or you have to get a new one really fast. I think a lot of people are going to be thinking about those and I think the more farmers who are are willing to think about well, somebody wanted to buy one from me, it’s okay.

The question is, farmers have to have them fed out . So not everybody has steers that are raised and ready for the market.  If you, you talk to a farmer in your area or heck, if people really want to know, here’s how to get it, they can just leave a note on the Grounded by the Farm contact form. Help me understand where you are. And I’ll try and find a few farmers in that area. You know, I know a lot of farmers.

Val explains they don’t market that way much because they need to have business they can count on, but they are glad to work with people.  “We don’t do the majority of our marketing that way. Because, one, it’s a very, you know, hot and cold up and down. And someplace where we know, when they’re ready to go to market, they’re ready to go to market. And so I need, we need to make sure we have that stability. And then the other thing is that, when somebody does want to have a beef or a quarter of beef, that doesn’t mean that there’s one ready today, you know, so maybe that’s great. We’ll have one ready for you in June, so that you can have those conversations so that you can plan around it.

“It takes time to make sure that that meat is ready so that it’s the taste and texture and everything is, is, you know, we’re all about food experiences. And as a farmer, I just want to make sure that whatever you get from our farm truly leaves a good taste in your mouth for a farm like that. You know, I want to make sure that you get done eating that night and you have a smile on your face and your stomach is full and and you are grateful to have that experience. So you know, it takes time to get it to that point. So we want to make sure that everything is is done right and that you don’t cut any corners just to make sure that you hit a certain timeframe.”

Find Val Wagner Online 

You can find me online Wag’n Tales (wagfarms.com) is is the blog that I use Right, and I’m getting back into it again. You can find me at @wagfarms on Twitter, Val Wagner or Wag’n Tales on Facebook. I enjoy talking to anybody about agriculture and what we do here. And what’s the future of agriculture may look like? I’m looking forward to seeing the world that my boys leave for the next generation as well.

The post Having Enough Food for a Farm Family Takes Time & Effort appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Looking at beef, most of us see more than just the food on our plates. We frequently want to know how farmers caring for beef cattle, the ways cattle impact the environment and more. That got us to do a second interview with farmer and veterinarian Marybeth Feutz. The previous episode we talked steaks, burgers, types of cattle and animal use/waste.  And although she introduced us to her cattle and we talked about feed in the video, we wanted to go deeper.

Caring for Beef Cattle

My nieces & nephews helped me create a list of questions to ask Marybeth and several of the questions focused on caring for livestock.

Since one nephew told me he had noticed differences in animals that faced stress as he worked in a butcher shop, that was among the first topics. Marybeth says there are four things farmers do to minimize stress for the cattle they care for food, water, shelter and protection. 

Food for Beef Cattle

Marybeth did a great job of explaining how they feed their cows. Cattle are generally on pasture a large part of the year — they love grazing. It is easy to see that lack of food would provide stress on the animal and it’s health. Pasturing makes this pretty easy some times of year but you also have to consider the winter, etc and how much you need to supplement with feeding hay, etc. 

Clean Water

The Feutz family has a few pastures, and each needs to have water easily available. Marybeth says a typical cow can drink 50 gallons pretty quick! It’s important to have good wells, keep an eye on pumps, deal with the challenge of freezing, etc.

Shelter for Cattle

With seasonal weather patterns, farmers look at how to keep cattle comfortable. While they generally like to be left alone in the herd, providing windbreaks for winter cold can be vital. And shade for summer high temps is also a focus. For farmers like the Feutz that have a small heard, the cattle may even have a shed available though they typically prefer to be outside unless it really is extreme.

Protection from Predators

Marybeth doesn’t pull punches as she talks about the damage predators can do. Whether you are talking about coyotes or black vultures, the potential for them to get a calf away from the herd would be painful. For the Feutz, keeping the cattle in a pasture close to the house with people and traffic, predators stay away. Many farmers have dogs that help protect the dogs and move them from place to place.

Dealing with Injury & Preventing Illness

We discuss the health and care for beef cattle, how the decision differs from pets. Farmers need to weigh the animals potential recovery and quality of life which frequently is different than we have with pets. While we think of a broken leg as something simple, it can create intense issues for a cow and how the herd mentality and need to keep moving really makes recuperation near impossible.

And while I won’t lie, I’ve had flies or mosquitoes ruin a picnic or afternoon, the attraction of flies to cattle, manure, etc can mean overwhelming numbers. And those flies can carry diseases or bacteria. They can bother cattle so much that eventually the cattle avoid water or food, so, yeah that’s bad. 

Vaccinations are important in cattle too and Marybeth says some of the primary vaccines given are for respiratory viruses. It’s pretty common for animals to have issues and they even have a few corona viruses that cattle can get — no worries though it isn’t the same or transferable from humans to cattle or vice versa.

What’s the Deal with Veal?

We got to talk a bit about veal production and how that works. Marybeth spent time in school outside of Boston and remembers a lot of people being against veal. I on the other hand lived in an Italian community in New York where veal was highly desirable. Both of us have heard things about animal care, but Marybeth’s opinion has changed as she’s met veal farmers and come to understand how they treat animals.

The meat is different for a couple of reasons 1) veal calves are raised on milk so the meat stays a light pink color and 2) the calves have smaller areas to walk around in and consequently don’t get as intense muscular build so even short ribs are more tender. She went on to explain why different cuts of meat on an animal may be more or less tender — think about filet mignon placement along the top of the back vs short ribs which are part of the core or the animal’s six-pack.

Cow Farts & Climate

If you have heard anything about cattle and the environment, you have probably heard about methane from cow farts. Well, Marybeth clarifies that cattle release more of the methane from burps not cow farts. I can’t help but think that cow burps don’t sound as interesting to get someone to click or talk about the idea. The burps are methane releases from the fermentation process that naturally happens in the rumen — in fact, all fermentation puts out gas, you may remember that from our video from visiting Tennessee Brewworks. Marybeth says she frequently see information online can be incredibly misleading because animal agriculture has such a small impact on climate and carbon, especially when compared to the various pieces of the energy and transportation.

Since a lot of people are interested in going deeper, I thought you may be interested in some of the experts on sustainability and the impact of animal agriculture. Here are just a couple of the researchers I’ve met in this area:

• Dr. Jude Capper https://twitter.com/Bovidiva and https://bovidiva.com/
• Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam https://twitter.com/BioBeef and https://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/people/faculty/alison-van-eenennaam

Managing Manure, No BS

The Feutz’s put in a new containment area & are using composted manure for the fertilizer it provides. She said it not only helps crops grow but managing manure is one piece of caring for beef cattle. They are using it on their farm, the family’s garden and are donating some to an educational farm nearby called Lyles Station lylesstation.com. Lyles Station was one of the first African American farming communities in the state and still runs a lot of programs to help children understand history, our food and more. Lyles Station is even marked as an Indiana Landmark! 

Cow Attachment Issues

We talk a bit about getting attached to cows and knowing when it is their time which is different in a cow-calf herd like the Feutz’s versus steers raised for beef. In a cow-calf operation, Marybeth explains that farmers have cows for 15 maybe even 20 years sometimes whereas raising steers is usual a year or a year and a half. She & the rest of the family are especially attached to Michelle who was born on inauguration day in 2009 along with a bull calf they named Barack. Michelle is a great mom and looks after other cows calves almost like day care. Marybeth knows it will be hard to lose Michelle, but also understands they are here for a purpose and need to serve the purposes they can. 

Final Thoughts — Cowboy Boots & Recipes

Since nieces and nephews helped, one wanted to know about cowboy boots. Marybeth laughed saying she only has two pairs of cowboy boots. She usually wears knee-high rubber boots when she’s out in the field with livestock and Danskos when she’s in the office or hospital cause standing all day gets old fast in uncomfortable shoes. Her husband, like many farmers wears work boots like Red Wings. I find in too funny as I hadn’t had cowboy boots until I thought I earned them. I bought one pair when I first attended a national livestock show and again when I went to the Dakotas and worked cows by helping give calves vaccines one day and weaning calves at another farm later. 

As if Marybeth isn’t busy enough with a farm & caring for beef cattle or the veterinary practice, she also has a food blog called My Fearless Kitchen where she shares simple recipes and tips for shopping. She and friends also have a Facebook group called Recipes from the Farm. Here are a few we talked about:

You’ll remember her love of short ribs!

• Slow-Cooked Short Ribs
• Sweet Onion Teriyaki Short Ribs
• Garlic Herb Short Ribs

She also has a ground beef buyer’s guide that helps you think through the ground beef you want for tacos versus meatloaf, etc. And one post provides 79 recipes you can make with ground beef!

I also mentioned the instant pot beeping in the background as the red beans and rice I was making notified me it was time to eat!

Please note:  This was the first time to do an interview via web conference. I have a bit of a learning curve with this set up when it comes to audio. I plan to keep increasing the quality in the coming remote interviews as travel is curbed in light of the corona virus. 

The post Caring for Beef Cattle, The Planet & Our Communities — Marybeth Feutz Part 2 appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

My family loves food and beef is one we seem to especially love. In our midst, we’ve got people who’ve worked in grocery stores, butcher shops, have gone to culinary school as well as some of us who just love food.

This episode of Grounded by the Farm takes a bit of a different path as Marybeth Feutz discusses beef and her Indiana cow-calf operation with us.

One of those differences was planned — rather than ask questions I had, I asked several millennial nieces and nephews to give me their questions and they loved making me ask questions that would make me feel awkward while also getting info they were interested in.

The other difference was far more awkward in that we somehow encountered a tech issue halfway through the interview that wasn’t caught til we were in editing. It’s a hard lesson learned but we’ll be fine with a two-part episode.

Getting to Know Marybeth Feutz, Farmer & Vet

Marybeth grew up in the suburbs of New York City — West Milford, NJ to be exact. She met John while in vet school and eventually, he convinced her to marry him and call the midwest home.

She is a large animal vet whereas John works as a “mixed animal vet” meaning he can work on pets like chihuahuas or livestock. Marybeth says she likes working with horses the most.

They have a small herd of black Angus cows as we showed in the video earlier this week.   

Cooking & Serving Steak

No doubt, my nephew will be thrilled with getting me to ask a farmer “What brand of ketchup do you recommend on a well-done steak?” Cause it started the interview off with the most awkward pause ever. I wish I had thought to get video. She ultimately said she was probably as red as the steak should be!

So I reworded it, asking how she recommends steak be cooked and why. She likes steaks medium rare whereas John want it to simply pass the flames to be as rare as possible! Then she explained that there are differences in how people and restaurants rate temperatures, etc so you really are best to ask for a cool red center.

The more you cook a steak, the more moisture it loses. That moisture is fat and that means you are also losing the flavor Marybeth explains. That dry, chewiness is part of the reason people may not like steak.

As for condiments, she says she will occasionally use something like A1 but usually if you have a good piece of meat and cook it right, you shouldn’t need condiments for flavor.

Marybeth usually uses the salt-pepper family of seasonings (sometimes lemon-pepper) and occasionally a rub. A few years ago she started using a compound butter, either purchased or homemade with some salt, herbs, etc. But compound butter is awesome whether you cook in cast iron or on the grill or whatever.

Buying Steaks

For the summer grilling season, Marybeth recommends ribeyes, t-bones or filets and says you want to look for some marbling in the meat as well as fat on the outsides. But she says the thickness of filets can be challenging for someone new to grilling so you may want to stay with the t-bone or ribeye. And since she likes a bone-in, she likes the cowboy cut ribeye. Boneless is fine too. She looks for consistent red coloring in the meat along with the marbling.

What about burgers?

There are still asterisks on burgers on the menu frequently when it comes to temperature and Marybeth says those reflect USDA guidance for food safety.  She typically cooks burgers at home with a hint of pink or light brown throughout. She has a cheat magnet on the fridge that says it is 165 degrees. 

Types of Cattle — Beef vs Dairy

Marybeth says beef cattle are built strong, sturdy to just go out and have a good time a lot like Labrador retrievers in the dog world. But dairy cows are leaner, more focused on milk production — a bit more like greyhounds are for racing.

Because dairy cows are so good for milk, the types of food dairy cows gets need to be different. The energy required is different. Kind of like women need different things while pregnant and nursing. This is so important that many dairy farms hire nutritionists to supplement vet resources.

Beef cows are focused on muscle mass and having calves. That muscle mass is what becomes the meat we eat.

Dairy steers are an interesting difference though since the breeds tend to be thinner, lankier and yet dairy steers are raised for the beef since they aren’t milk producers. These cattle are tall and skinny, but rarely bulky enough to yield thick cut steaks, etc and are usually used for ground beef, she said. It doesn’t get the same marbling or volume. You may remember a previous post discussing blended burgers using mushrooms to infuse moisture. 

The Lingo Cows, Heifers, Bulls and Steers

All that discussion reminded me that cows isn’t the generic name for al of them, its cattle is the umbrella term.

In the video, Marybeth explained theirs is a cow-calf operation. Cows are the mommas and are focused on having & raising calves. The girls they have are called heifers until they have calves of their own. The boys are usually castrated becoming steers for the beef market although a few become bulls to keep the herds producing.

What’s an under appreciated cut of beef?

The most under appreciated cut of beef Marybeth says is the short-rib. They need to be braised, not a grilling cut. You cook those all day and get so amazingly tender. It’s a fattier cut and a bit tougher to start, but that connective tissue, when it is cooked out slowly becomes like butter. She certainly made me hungry just talking about it!

How much of the animal is wasted versus used?

Marybeth points out that in the cattle industry people talk about two different numbers — live weight and rail weight. The rail weight is what you have once you removed the rumen and the rest of the gastro-intestinal tract. There are some parts that really aren’t used for food for people. There is very little waste, probably less than 20 percent.

Get More

Next time on Grounded by the Farm, more of the conversation about beef with Marybeth.  If you want to add a question or two, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line!

Video of Marybeth talking about the cows, their feed, etc. 

Marybeth’s blog My Fearless Kitchen and includes great posts about the foods she enjoys cooking with and shares some of the insight she has as a farmer and vet.

The post Picking Out Steaks & Under-Appreciated Cuts of Beef with a Farmer & Vet appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Growing up, my dad was a meat and potato kind of guy. Beef was frequently on the table but our mom find a variety of cuts. to help us stay economical on our groceries. In today’s world, my family still likes beef but like others, have different areas of interest about it. That’s what got me to visit beef cattle farmer Marybeth and John Feutz on their Princeton, Indiana farm (or maybe it’s in Fort Branch?).

Marybeth takes us through the barn to meet part of their small herd of a cow-calf farm, which means they focus on mom cows and getting them to have calves. They sell steer calves (boy calves) to nearby farms that will raise them to be the beef on our plate.

Caring for Beef Cattle

Their cows are primarily raised on grass and hay, spending spring summer and fall on pastures. The family cuts hay for winter but also provide cracked corn to help increase energy available for the beef cattle maternity process.

The Feutz’s are both veterinarians so animal health resources abound, and though you don’t see it in the video, so do cats! They have a bunch of them!

In the past year, the feeding pen that is close to the house and barn to insure frequent checks in winter and during spring calving was the focus for investment. She explains that scraping the land and then putting tons of rock, gravel and lime into the area, all  improved the conditions for the herd over winter and will make managing manure easier as spring arrives.

This is the second protein focus we have featured on Grounded by the Farm — we love the crawfish episode and I’m looking forward to catching up with Bill & Janice Cheek again when I’m in Louisiana soon! I hope to get a chance to go out to their crawfish ponds again to see how much bigger the crop is.

The post Meeting Beef Cattle Farmer & Veterinarian Marybeth Feutz & Her Family’s Herd appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

This interview with Virginia farmer and ham expert, DeeDee Darden takes place in Smithfield, Virginia where the family raises cotton & corn and maintains the family smokehouse where they salt cure hams the way it was done decades ago.

She explains the almost year-long process of salt curing and smoking hams to get the color and taste that is so desirable. As well as some of the history around Virginia and Smithfield hams in particular.

DeeDee also shows us around the family’s farm, telling us about the fall visits by many school groups in the area. Hosting school groups provides a chance for children to learn about cotton (even checking out a cotton picker, playing in corn boxes, seeing various animals, taking a hay ride and picking out the perfect pumpkin in the field!

DeeDee mentioned an element of laughter with cotton underwear used to provide insight on where clothes come from. I have long blogged about cotton on a site called HundredPercentCotton.com and had to explain how other cotton farmers soil their undies to demonstrate soil health.

Taking a tour of the smokehouse is a highlight for my visit for sure! She also shows us around the farm — animals she shares with kids and we discuss crops planted. And you get to see the store inside.

You can check out the Darden Country Store Facebook page at visit the Darden Country Store website.

The post What makes Virginia hams so legendary? DeeDee Darden explains her family’s traditions appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

There are few foods that have make me dreamy-eyed my entire life but ham and potato salad are definitely life-long loves. Consequently, a traditional smokehouse has had a near mystical quality my whole life. And going out to see DeeDee Darden at Darden’s Country Store and their smokehouse has captivated my imagination for years. I went several years ago and wrote abut it on my personal blog when I did a farms A to Z. And once I had the image and smells in my mind, I knew I had to go back as I started this website/podcast.

Getting out there immediately after Thanksgiving meant seeing the Dardens in their busy period — a big change from my previous visit in February as they had just started salt curing the hams which you can see in the photo here.

There have been quite a few updates at the store and farm in the years that passed. Some were cosmetic like new paint jobs on the store & smokehouse’s exteriors and some new ways to showcase the world of agriculture for school children. They also sell some of their homecooking — from greens to chicken pot pies and most! The aroma of ham, the sense of generations of tradition all served up on a roll…. and they incredible feeling of hospitality, those were all the same! So are all the local favorites like chocolate covered peanuts.

Touring the Smokehouse with DeeDee

During the calendar year, the Dardens salt-cured and smoked more than a thousand hams. All of that was done in a smokehouse that has served that purpose for decades. Seeing how that works is something that I’d never thought about when I was a child and chances are, I may not have believed hams taking most of a year to get cured & smoked!

She also shows the way a ham looks after it is cooked, deboned and is ready to go! And they have a world title slicer making sure there are all the paper thin slices a person could want available! I’ve eaten ham biscuits each time I went and have mercy they are fantastic!

Hosting School Kids for Tours

The Dardens aren’t actually pig farmers. In fact, DeeDee visited with me during the podcast recording about their sourcing quality hams from others. They have some cattle and grow corn & cotton as well as grow a pumpkin patch for fall visitors to the farm. That keeps the family really busy in fall with hosting school groups! DeeDee takes time showing us around the farm she shares with school groups & families. From a cotton picker to drive (stationary only) and a cotton trailer to jump in, to corn boxes, a Holstein calf named Moo-fasa and other stray farm animals they have adopted and more!

Looking at some of the photo backdrops they have made — I can only imagine how many families have posted photos from this place and love the photo the Darden Country Store Facebook page shared of the team for Halloween. I see the Lion King love is strong.

Listen to DeeDee’s Episode on the Podcast

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