The marbling of wagyu beef adds benefits to the tenderness and flavor that makes it stand out according to Jeff Swanson. We visit Jeff & his family in Adams, Tennessee — just an hour or so from Nashville. We delve into the history and flavor profiles of this extraordinary beef in this episode.

(A transcript created by castmagic.io is available here.)

Find out what makes wagyu different — on the plate as well as the  pasture — as we hear the history of the cattle and how the Swansons settled on this breed and have been building their family operation from the ground up.

Whether you’re a steak aficionado or simply a fan of delicious food, this episode will have you salivating. From chuck eye roll roasts to sirloin tips or ribeyes, Jeff shares their expertise on utilizing different cuts of wagyu to create exceptional steaks.

What You Should Know about Wagyu Beef

Not having a lot of experience with wagyu beef, I had a lot of questions for Jeff in this episode. Here are some of the different cuts of wagyu Jeff offers and and suggestions on how to cook and prepare them:

1. Chuck eye roll roast: This cut comes from the shoulder and has a muscle similar to a ribeye steak, earning it the nickname “baby ribeye.” After the first three pieces are cut into steaks, it becomes a great roast.

2. Sirloin tip roast: This cut is taken from the knuckle on the back leg or hip area. It is well-marbled and can be cooked in various ways, such as a pot roast or sandwich meat.

3. Ribeye: Considered one of the most popular and flavorful cuts, the marbling in wagyu allows for exceptional ribeye steaks. SouthwindS has a larger ribeye rather than cutting them down so he recommends it as a shared option. Jeff loves a reverse sear with a low temperature and shared this photo of a recent cut and the photo a customer sent of their steak cooked that way.

4. New York strip: Another popular cut, the New York strip, or striploin, is known for its tenderness and fine marbling.

5. Filet: The filet, or tenderloin, is the leanest and most tender cut of beef. It is typically cooked to rare or medium-rare to preserve its tenderness and delicate flavor.

6. Sirloin: The sirloin cut is slightly leaner than other cuts but still offers a well-marbled wagyu experience. It is known for its beefy and richer flavor.

7. Flat Iron or Denver Steaks: These cuts are more well-marbled in wagyu than grocery store beef. The flatiron in wagyu has a similar taste to sirloin but offers a beefier and richer flavor. The 8-ounce cut on either of these is marbled and enjoyable, making a satisfying meal on its own.

Jeff says smaller portions are usually preferred with the richness of wagyu so people tend to order smaller cuts or share a larger steak. He adds that keeping seasoning simple and straightforward — salt and pepper is all he uses — helps you enjoy the flavor of the meat.

Selling Wagyu Beef Locally & Direct

The Swanson’s operation has been building for seven years and when he talks about the size of the operation it’s clear they are in a bit of a quandry. Jeff says they are not big enough to sign major beef contracts but far too much just for family and close friends.

With 40 cows, they usually have 20 calves in the fall and 20 in the spring. And they process one or two steers a month to keep beef on-hand for the sales they make from the farm. Steaks, roasts, ground beef, summer sausage and other specialties provide a full slate of beef for customers.

Although some farmers choose to go to farmers markets, etc. the Swansons decided going to farmers markets was too time intensive based on all the other things they need to juggle.  Jeff worked a full-time job shoeing horses until this spring and Christina stays busy with her photography business and sons Braxton and Gunner.

They love having the direct connection with customers that comes with the visits people make to the farm. Add in the practicality that they live so close to Nashville and other thriving areas like Springfield and Clarksville, Tennessee and the reality that selling online leads to the expensive hassle of packing and shipping. And selling direct was the only option that fit the Swansons!

Farm Tour of SouthwindS Cattle

Follow the Swansons & Grounded by the Farm

Find the Swansons on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/southwindscattleco/ and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SouthwindSCattleCo

While in season, every two weeks we put out a new podcast episode. The episodes go live on our website as well as a bunch of different apps on phones and computers of various types simultaneously!

We love learning more about how foods are produced and the people doing that. If you are new here, you can probably find a favorite food in our previous episodes or maybe you’d just like the map of states to find something close to you. You can subscribe to get emails on future episodes from the website, listen to the podcast in your favorite app (links for all on podlink) and connect with us online (links below). In fact, if you find a platform we aren’t on, please let us know so we can add it!

We enjoy social media — having more fun with Instagram recently and it probably shows. But we enjoy all the channels really. Where are you? We can be found here:

• Groundedbythefarm_ on Instagram
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• Grounded by the Farm on Youtube
• @groundedbythef on Twitter
• Grounded by the Farm Facebook Page

Castmagic is the AI tool (link to Castmagic & give me a referral fee that doesn’t impact your cost) that helps with some of the content shared here and on social channels. It helps me do more faster since I don’t stare at a blank screen. 

The post Beyond the Ordinary: Wagyu Beef’s Unmatched Tenderness and Marbling appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Shelby Smith never expected to be a farmer, so it may be fitting that she started a cricket farm. That’s a the kind of farm people in the US never think of, in fact it may not be in the top 100 farms someone could come up with. It’s a niche and yet Shelby is doing it right in the heart of the Midwest — Ames, Iowa.

She describes this space as one changing quickly and compares it to the reality there was a time most Americans probably thought avocados were odd and wondered why others ate them, while some of us now absolutely crave having guacamole now. We talk with Shelby about whether crickets may be the next big thing in foods and why she believes that in this episode.

(An AI generated transcript is available for those who would like it.)

I had crickets as a component of meals or snacks for the first time several years ago — Austin during the SXSW Conference was one of the introductions, but I also had a chance to eat some on the Google campus as part of a Google Food meeting. I’ve find the conversation is limited to audiences on the coast even though right here in St. Louis a company is making cricket protein fortified oatmeal. Appreciate Shelby talking with me as lots of us are interested in how to keep advancing sustainability of our diets. But I admit, talking about crickets as food takes an open mind.

What’s a cricket farm look like?

Having never visited a cricket farm, the only thing I knew about them came from Shelby’s social media. It’s definitely very different from all the other farms I’ve visited. She gives us a tour that lets us see what cricket eggs look like, as well as baby, teen age and a few adults.

And she shares tips in case you want to grow your own! I hadn’t really thought about the fact some people would have pets (usually reptiles) that eat enough growing crickets may be a good idea.

• GroundedbytheFarm.com is our hub for photos & videos, blog posts, show notes, podcasts are here and more. You can even get new content emailed once a week as we publish by subscribing.
• Find your favorite foods or fun food educational resource information on the website.
• Groundedbythefarm_ on Instagram
• TikTok @groundedbythefarm
• Grounded by the Farm on Youtube
• Grounded by the Farm Facebook Page

The post Could Cricket Farming Be the Next Big Thing? appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Maybe it started with PBS as a kid, but I love to compare and contrast things. So when the team at Midwest Dairy recently asked if I would like to see two different dairy farms and interview them, I jumped at the opportunity. Next thing I knew the podcast had it’s first sponsor and I was in northeastern Oklahoma meeting some farmers!

The differences between the two and some of the similarities among them were really striking. After the tours, I sat down with Anthony & Charlie Coblentz and Logan Courtney, a neighbor whose dairy is just 15 minutes or so away. Touring first helped me see some of the differences and similarities and you can watch the video… you will hear and see both farms.

An AI generated transcript is available.

This post is sponsored by Midwest Dairy. I was compensated for my time, but all wording and opinions are mine or the farmers.

Meet the Dairy Farmers

We went to visit the Coblentz and the Courtney families.

The Coblentz family has had a dairy farm since 1972 when Charles & Ellen Coblentz decided to start the dairy. The family had farmed for quite some time and Mr. Coblentz says that his uncle had a dairy farm down the road. And while most people in the area back then may have had a cow, he wanted a barn full! He has three sons who are part of the farming operation. Charles & sons Charlie & Anthony spent the day with us.

Logan Courtney is a Gen Z farmer. There was always something about cows for him. While the family raised beef cattle, Logan had a chance to learn about dairy as a teen and decided that was for him. After college he started a dairy with his family’s support, especially his sister Autumn, who works on the farm as well as in town as a librarian. (I have lots of love for librarians!)

How To Compare or Contrast Two Dairy Farms

I’m glad I didn’t have to figure this out until I got there! But I think like everything, when you are presented with two things, you undoubtedly will see similarities and differences. The physical pieces are easy to catch and various topics were highlighted at each farm as questions were asked.

One of the most obvious differences is scale — the Coblentz dairy has 400 or so cows they are milking whereas Logan has 70. But some of the differences you may attribute to scale also go to the differences in the breed of cows they have. The black and white Holstein that most Americans equate to dairy is found on the Coblentz farm. They are larger, produce more gallons of milk and prefer to get in the shade and relax on a hot day so the Coblentz’s have a big barn with lots of fans as well as a large area for the cows to be covered as they come in for milking. Logan’s herd are pedigree jersey cows who put lots of protein and fat into milk (so good for cheese!) and they like being outdoors most of the year. Of course the Holsteins have access to pasture and Logan has some windbreaks and covered areas, but the cows seem to stick with what they like at both places!

Another piece that captures the eye? The differences in the way the two farms milk their cows. For the Coblentz family, it is scheduled to start at 5 am and 5 pm daily. A couple members of the family or maybe a hired hand work in the milking parlor together, getting 30 cows set on one side of the parlor before working on the other side with another 30 cows. Since I was there mid-day, we didn’t get to see the parlor operating, but I have video from another farm that’s got a similar set up. You may even remember an earlier blog post about some of the sustainability practices on that dairy.

 

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That’s the more typical type of milking system but there are several other styles that work similarly. The robotic milker that the Courtneys purchased is a bit different and Logan says, with a bit of pride, that his farm was the first to have a robot milking cows in Oklahoma. Since then, there have been a couple more added to the state. I first saw robotic milkers at a friend’s dairy farm in Michigan a decade ago. It’s more common place in Europe with smaller farms. And Logan says it really helps on workload as the robot milks around the clock, whenever cows want to be milked. They come and go as they like. Logan said the average is 2.5 milkings per day and that the robot collects all kinds of data on each cow. Sorry, it doesn’t look like anything from the Jetsons or Star Wars…. In fact, it reminded me as much of a 3D printer as anything! I’ll drop a photo here, but rest assured we saw it working AND you get Logan’s narration on the video from his farm later in this post.

Which dairy farm is better?

At the end of the day, I felt really comfortable with the way both farms were managing things. They both have specific reasons for making the decisions they do, all of them are focused on delivering animal care and comfort, a favorable environmental impact AND healthy, nutritious food they are proud to serve at home. The only real controversy came when we started talking about favorite dairy products! Charlie and Anthony were solidly team ice cream while Logan is a cheese guy (if you are then you really should hear this interview with a cheesemonger!). I have to say I like both of those options a lot! I think you need to see both to see for yourself how I could arrive at such an answer, so here are videos from the two farms.

Touring the Coblentz Farm

Touring the Courtney Dairy

Please Look For Us Wherever You Follow Content Creators

Every two weeks we put out a new episode. Learning more about how foods are produced and the people doing that. If you are new here, you can probably find a favorite food in our previous episodes or maybe you’d just like to wander around the map to see something close by. You can subscribe to get emails on future episodes from the website, listen to the podcast in your favorite app and connect with us on social media. In fact, if you find a platform we aren’t on, please let us know so we can add it!

Our Website

• You are on GroundedbytheFarm.com which is our hub for photos & videos, blog posts, show notes, podcasts are here and more. You can even get new content emailed once a week as we publish by subscribing here.
• Find your favorite foods or fun food educational resource information here on the website.

Learning More About Dairy

In our next episode, we talk to a cheesemonger! But you don’t have to wait to then as there is a lot of info from dairy farmers on the web too. Here are a few resources if you are Undeniably Dairy:

• The Undeniably Dairy website
• Undeniably Dairy Instagram
• Undeniably Dairy on Facebook
• Dairy Good on Twitter

The post A Tale of Two Dairies: Visiting Two Dairy Farms & Talking Similarities & Differences appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

The unique taste of lamb draws me in almost every time its on a menu and I think pasture-to-table lamb is something everyone should try. The Mediterranean flavors just aren’t the same without lamb. That’s what led me to head southeast from Columbus, Ohio, to the Root family farm. Kristin Root Patterson shares the family’s love of sheep, and how they combine animal care and a love of great food.

The Roots raise Dorset sheep, a breed that supplies meat and wool to people in the area. We talk about favorite ways to prepare lamb as well as take a look around the barn and pastures!

Finally, Lamb is Easier to Find!

Lamb wasn’t something I had a chance to get to know growing up but as I started traveling, it became something I was a lot more interested in. Kristin says she has seen the same. Even major warehouse stores offer lamb in their grocery sections. The family sells their meat and wool both locally and that means she knows as tastes change.

Lamb chops and leg of lamb are always popular, but as food programming on TV and streaming services have been encouraging people to discover new possibilities, Kristin says conversations with their butcher get more interesting as people want cuts done differently, she hadn’t even thought of cutting a brisket before but a customer wanted it so they figured out how to do it!

One note Kristin makes is to pay attention to how the meat is trimmed out. Lamb is a lean meat and some may be tempted to leave a layer of fat around a cut, but Kristin says unlike some other meats, the fat doesn’t add flavor. Most butchers will trim it closely, but you may want to be sure.

How to Prepare Pasture-to-Table Lamb

There are lots of ways to prepare lamb, but Kristin cautions people to pay attention to doneness saying overcooked lamb is the easiest problem to have. With that in mind, they always go rare though she says ground lamb tends to be cooked a bit more than some of the cuts.

Kristin talks through a lot of options for cooking lamb in our episode. And wow did I get hungry! A favorite for the Root family is lamb chops and they like to keep it simple Kristin says — just a little salt, pepper and garlic! Put them on the grill or maybe cast iron. For larger cuts like leg or shoulder, they typically use a crock pot or smoker. The family prefers to serve lamb with potatoes, rice or risotto and some green vegetables like green beans or asparagus.

A Family Affair

Three generations of the Root family are involved on the farm. Kristin says her dad keeps saying he’s going to retire, but the morning I was there he had been out trimming hooves which doesn’t seem like retiring at all!

And it’s clear that Kristin spends a good bit of time with the flock too. But hearing about how much her teenagers (Campbell & Parker) enjoy working with the sheep, being involved with the meat business, competing with wool clothing and more makes it clear there is potential with pasture-to-table lamb from the family well into the future.

Raising Horned Dorsets

The Roots settled on the horned Dorset breed of lamb in part due to the disposition of the animal, but Kristin says they also are great for meat and wool. They have several rams and a lot of ewes and depending on the time of year, you may find a lot of lambs on the farm. Most of the lambs they wouldn’t keep had already been sold to other farmers who would raise them, while the Roots focus on genetics and breeding projects.

Kristin showed me around the barn and we followed some of the sheep out to the pasture. There had been a big rain just before I got to the area, so it was a bit muddy going in and out. But the flock seemed to care less about the stranger that joined them. They were a bit curious and I was just as intrigued about them! Especially enamored with the rams, the horns on them were just so majestic!

Hope you enjoy the tour!

Connect with Kristin Online

You can get more recipes and information, from Kristin’s website Local Farm Mom or on social media — LocalFarmMom on Instagram, Local Farm Mom on Facebook or @LocalFarmMom on Twitter. You may also enjoy listening to her podcast called Mismatched where she and a friend talk about everything and nothing at the same time. It’s a great glimpse into everyday life, including discussion of the Patterson families fruit farm with things like strawberry season!

The post Talking Pasture-to-Table Lamb with Ohio’s Kristin Root Patterson appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Having known Lauren Arbogast for a decade or so, I’ve had it on the list to visit her chicken farm for a long time. I knew I would find the right opportunity.

Little did I know that once I found a window with near perfect fall weather in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley; I would get the farm tour, a podcast episode recorded AND enjoy a local harvest festival all three!

Visiting a Chicken Farm

It’s strange to people I hadn’t ever been to a chicken farm. I mean, I’ve been to an egg farm like Dianne’s before and I’ve visited other who raise some broiler chickens but who’s farms had another primary focus. Having lived and traveled in the South so much, I’ve seen a lot of chicken houses from the outside and always wondered.

Lauren talks with us about chicken houses (I kept calling them barns out of habit!) explaining the family has several where they raise chicks from the day they break out of their shell til they are ready to be butchered and sent to grocery stores, and other customers.

Limiting access to the chicken houses are an important piece of biosecurity, which Lauren says is a big word that says they are focused on the chickens well-being and actively work to keep bacteria, diseases, etc from entering the barn. For my visit, that included a good scrub of bleach on the soles of shoes. You may remember Marcus Holtkotter talking about biosecurity in his pig barns in Germany and Dianne McComb talking about biosecurity for an egg farm.

The houses (you can see one in the video below) have systems that constantly monitor the temperature as well as food & water availability. An alarm can immediately alert the family to an issue. Even with the system there, people walk the barns several times a day doing visual checks of the chickens and systems.

Having a blend of generations, the Arbogasts have the benefit of both innovation and tradition. For instance, the family spent some of the time they were isolating due to the pandemic installing solar panels on their barns. They also look at ways to upcycle finding current uses for buildings that were no longer needed to something useful today and they get peanut hulls from farmers further south to use in the chicken houses.

She says they eat a lot of chicken too from my favorite — chicken biscuits for breakfast to the cast iron skillet full of chicken, veggies, carbs and yumminess that Lauren served for dinner.

A Harvest Festival Where You Meet the Meats

More frequently, I see farmers and small towns, doing neat festivals to get the community together. With the next generation of Arbogast kids starting their own meat market where the family sells beef, it seemed a great time to take people into the pasture to learn more about how beef is raised. And other farmers set up stalls with pumpkins, apples and flowers and some of the organizations put up tents to sell local favorites like apple dumplings!

The highlight for many was the hayride through the pasture talking about how the cattle are cared for, the way plants work with the environment and cattle as well as answer questions about the nice shacket she was wearing (which got a big laugh from Lauren).

Follow Lauren Online

Lauren enjoys sharing the farm’s story on social media. Give her a follow at lauren.arbogast on Instagram.

And the family’s meat shop can be found at:

• 5ameats.com
• 5A Meats on Instagram
• 5A Meats on Facebook

The post Visiting a Chicken Farm & Enjoying a Harvest Festival to Meet My Meats appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

How did we come to talk about Irish butter?

As we’ve been doing these interviews, I have found inspiration for episodes in a range of places. The inspiration for this one? Making a grilled cheese and pulling some Kerrygold butter out of the fridge. That’s when I remember Peter & Paula Hynes, aka Twitter’s Team Hynes are Irish dairy farmers. I had to ask and sure enough, they are part of the coop that produces Kerrygold! I mean, maybe their cows were involved in my butter? Had to have a conversation about it!

For those that are unfamiliar with it (or my love of exotic butters that are clearly outside the norm), Kerrygold Irish Butter is made with more fat… so it’s one of the creamier, more yellow, and easier-to-spread-when-cold addition to some yummy toast, it is a staple and one of many that come from the farms from our friends in Ireland. I’ll talk to Paula next! We tried to do one episode with all of us but tech problems led us to go back to square one…. Besides when you hear what I’d talking with Paula about, you’ll know it required a full interview of its own.

Following Irish Farm owners parents and successful business partners Peter and Paula Hynes is easy! Connect with them on Twitter now! Peter is over this way and Paula over this way! )

Peter didn’t start in farming early like most do. Where there is almost always a family, legacy-based tie to farming that literally and figuratively plants the seeds of what’s to come when farming is involved. Peter didn’t get involved in farming until he was 36 years old. He had already done other things in town and eventually his stepfather suggested the move. While having other job experiences provided him with not only an interesting perspective and focus on a need to be successful, it also provided him with years of knowledge and drive that few farmers start off with. Additionally, Peter was actually older than most of the instructors inside his schooling! It’s not every day that you’re learning new things from people that re younger than you are, but it’s exciting when it happens and Peter took right to it.

Do you know the differences between standard butter and Kerrygold Irish Butter? Get educated and learn what kind of creamier, deep yellow dreamy experience you’re missing now!

Bougie Butter?

The worldwide proliferation and love of Kerrygold butter has not only provided another delectable addition to any breakfast, lunch or dinner table, but changed and continues to enhance the farmer’s futures across the Irish dairy farming landscape. Oddly  enough, when Irish dairy farmers make their way to foreign lands, one of their first stops is at a local supermarket to see if the glistening gold wrappings are in the dairy case.

I feel like I should make it clear, I am a butter lover of many kinds! My mom laughed when I mentioned this episode and she said the whole family loves butter. For me, I love a variety of butters and have at least two all the time. You can find Kerrygold in the fridge sometimes, sometimes I choose other “bougie butters” like Wisconsin’s Summer or Harvest or one I was lucky enough to try recently from Kansas. And I almost always have some Land’o’Lakes or something for cooking/baking.

It’s an amazing success story, but only one of many when it comes to Ireland’s dairy contributions. In addition to adding to this growing legacy, Peter and his wife have made and continue to contribute to their farm’s ability to foster the lives of their cattle, but also feature an intense focus on providing a sustainable ecosystem to bolster the environment in a time of noteworthy environmental challenges.

A Look at the Hynes’ Farm

While there are many different kinds of cows that a farmer can feature on their land, Peter and Paula currently feature primarily pedigreed holsteins (get educated on them here! ) and pedigreed jersey cows (open a door to learn about the animal dubbed “The Dairy Queen” worldwide now! ). They also welcomed the two most-recent additions: two Fleckvieh heifers (they’re amazing and you fan find out why).

When it comes down to it, Peter is looking to focus on fertility, longevity and helping to raise the most-efficient cow possible during their lifespan and production years.

One of the things that Peter shares inside this episode is the CLEAR focus that – farming IS and must be considered a business first and foremost. The improvements he looks to make need to make business sense as well as improve the environment, cow care, etc.  And they have found farming together as husband and wife is the perfect fit for their family.

From learning how all of the things grown, cultivated and sent to market interface with the world around us, to learning about life, death, relationships and even one’s own skill set interests, farming provides fertile ground that simply cannot be matched in any other industry. While it comes with times to enjoy, to learn from and to provide some of the best memories a legacy can generate, it is also hard work that is clearly something different than what most youth of today are ready to consider as their future’s landscape. The Hynes girls really love their time on the farm too. 

Active in the Community

Peter recently won Zurich’s “Farmer of the Year” and was featured on a program called “Ear to the Ground” that visits his Cork-based farming landscape to learn more. Check it out.

Peter and Paula have been lucky enough to not only build a successful farm that interfaces with many grand industry staples in the Irish farming landscape, but they’ve also been able to raise three daughters on the farm. Recently, one of them was able to take the lead in the recent birthing of twin calves, which was picked up by a variety of international news media. While the rare women and farming, a young woman, in farming, helping what is a “member of their family” deliver twins isn’t just something for the books – it’s something that fuels the hopes and dreams of many young girls living and working on farms across the world.

At the end of long days, Peter and Paula are safe in the knowledge that not only are they contributing to world on a grand scale, they are able to foster a family, a future and a legacy thanks to the business and life decisions they make during pillowtalk. What a grand way to experience, plant and grow future dreams of success and happiness – that we can all hope to one day achieve.

Be sure to check out the many links to the family’s farm, in his social media streams and be sure to check out his videos! They’ll provide you with the same satisfaction that his Holsteins, Jerseys and Fleckviehs offer us as consumers!

The post Irish Butter…. Have you tried it? Wondered who has the dairy cows? appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

In today’s world, people talk about plant-based proteins as a dietary preference, or a way to deliver innovation. But when you think about that, how often does your mind turn to growing a plant-based protein in a desert? How often do you think about subsistence farmers, people who struggle to feed their family the most basic foods because weather strikes hard? That’s both the challenge and the promise we turn to in our latest episode of Grounded by the Farm.

A Few Video Recommendations from Priyanka

As we talked about the work that is being done, Priyanka mentioned some videos and information. We wanted to share those here for those who want to go a bit deeper on plant breeding!

The post Growing A Plant-Based Protein that is Humble Yet Powerful — Convo with Dr. Priyanka Gupta appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

I knew I was going to have opportunities to meet new people and learn new things through this podcast, but I never thought I’d talk to a Ugandan fish farmer. It had simply never crossed my mind. And as I talked to a friend who works with the Global Farmer Network, and she mentioned the potential, I was giddy.

I also realized I needed to do some serious background to get up to speed on the country and the role of agriculture there. I learned a lot in my searching &I  reading, but as usually is the case, talking to a farmer from the area really helped me understand.

So glad Jean Kaahwa would take the time to talk with us and that although the lines sometimes had static, the call went pretty well overall!

Background on Uganda & Ag

Do you even know where Uganda is? What kind of fish do they have there? What kind of experience do the Farmers have there? Waitaminit — They farm fish in Uganda? There’s not only a lot to learn about fish farming in Uganda. Grounded By The Farm was able to connect with entrepreneur and fish farmer Jean Kaahwa, who shares his insight and “schools” others to learn how to fish and to never forget the futility of only accepting fish that are given to them.

Uganda – in Africa – is next to the Congo and Kenya, and the territory there – is filled with fertile farmland. That’s where Jean is able to teach new farmers and entrepreneurs business and farming lessons that will last a lifetime.

Uganda is an agriculture-based country where more than 70% of its people work in agriculture, many are often referred to as small holders. Their farms are typically very small, usually less than one hectare (2.471 acres or 2-3 football fields) and they grow food to feed their family and try to grow enough to sell too. Agriculture is the country’s largest industry by far.

Uganda is also a large coffee grower…. There are some coffee plants are generally much tougher and more resilient than other coffee plants. They don’t require as much herbicide, pesticide, or general upkeep as their more fragile counterparts in the industry. Strangely enough, the people of Uganda are NOT consumers of coffee! 95% of the coffee grown there is exported to bring that tasty cup of Joe that many think has few competitors. While the coffee industry employs 40% of the population, it contributes 25% of the nation’s GDP and is mainly accomplished by women.

While the wide open fertile lands make for great opportunities for farms, there is also concern that there will eventually be labor problems – because there is so much open land on which to farm. This is in stark contrast to what we in the United States experience.

Getting to Know Jean Kaahwa & Fish Farming in Uganda

While Jean started as an employee with a “regular job” he realized that it was time for something else and then started with two fish farm pilot projects. Jean’s digging into how things work and being able to sell his ideas allowed him to secure investors in the fish farming effort, His skill sets grow and expanded to being able to help people with the business side of general agriculture, and allowed him to eventually begin generating award-winning programs for young people interested in agriculture. Eventually the Global Farmers Network was able to connect with Jean’s effort and things expanded further.

All of this talk about agriculture is interesting but – what about THE FISH? Here are some photos and video he sent us to share as you listen to the podcast!

Jean currently grows tilapia – https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/tilapia-fish – an  inexpensive, mild-flavored fish, and is ideal for farming because it doesn’t mind being crowded, grows quickly, and consumes a cheap vegetarian diet as it grows. Jean has also been able to grow a quickly budding network of people and resources.

While fish farming is definitely the focus, one of Jean’s team members also recently provided an excellent video about mushroom farming. Have you seen it? You know we had to take notes after seeing the way the team at J&M Farms grows mushrooms.

In Uganda, the fertile land makes generating a variety of items a straight-forward process that yields quickly and offers the environment to work well with the needs in the region.

Are you interested in learning more about the business principles that Jean shares with many budding entrepreneurs? Be sure to check out that video that will detail all of it for you right now!

Getting in Touch

You can connect with Jean online or through the card he shares digitally. The company — Africa Agri-Business Services — website is aagribusinesss.com and they have social media too.

As we mention in the podcast, he uses LinkedIn. You may notice the name is in a different order…. the beauty of cultural differences! Look for Kaahwa Jean on LinkedIn.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaahwa-jean-97b40737/ Be sure to take just a moment to connect and find out more about what Jean is doing now and how his connections can help you thrive!

Did you know he’s also on Twitter? Be sure to follow him today and tell him that Grounded By The Farm sencha’! Twitter https://twitter.com/kaahwajean1

You can also find Grounded by the Farm on social media at:

• GroundedbytheFarm.com for photos, blog posts, show notes and more
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The post Ugandan Fish Farmer Produces Fresh Tilapia & Encourages Small Farms appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

It’s the age ol’ question that continues to perplex us – which came first? The chicken or the egg? Most days, eggs are far more likely to be part of the breakfast mix than that may mean they come first for a lot of us. But for egg farmers like Dianne McComb it’s the care of hens that deliver the incredible, edible egg! So both stay front and center!  (Podcast transcript available here — Talking with an Egg Farmer)

Getting to Know Dianne

McComb’s farm is in Ontario, Canada, just two short hours from downtown Detroit Michigan. She says the area still offers all the benefits of that country, rarified fresh air experience when it comes to growing resources and rearing livestock. The farm’s rolling hills are nestled in among other farms and small cities making for an excellent sense of community, interdependency and life that helps to foster the legacy she and now four generations have crafted.

Currently, Dianne and her brother operate the farm. They took it over from their parents a few years ago. And although Dianne’s children have chosen not continue on with the family farm legacy, the farm is in transition as new family of owners.

At 400 acres, her farm is average, and at one time featured beef cattle, crops and egg-laying hens at one time, but now eggs, corn, wheat and soybeans make up the main compliment of resources that Dianne and her farm provide. Believe it or not, the corn makes for an incredibly recyclable resource as they feed the egg-laying hens the grain to make them healthy and strong, then when the hens eliminate, their manure is used as a fertilizer to help make the corn (and wheat and soybeans) grow strong and fine, just like the hens and their tasty bounty!

Taking Care of the Hens

For some context, Dianne’s farm features 25,000 hens currently which make it an average-sized hen operation in Canada. When we compare it to the hen farms in the United States however, the number of hens increase to a  million on average. That’s a lot of eggs!

What also comes with the hens, is the ongoing, evolving relationship of care. When you walk into the barn, they know you’re there and interact appropriately. In a smaller operation like Dianne’s, that’s incredibly valuable. That top level of animal care results in hen health, regular laying activity and standard of quality.

Although a backyard chicken coop may take a few minutes a day to take care of, a flock like the McCombs are more like a regular business day. After starting her day at 8 am, Dianne walks through tending to the hens needs,  collecting eggs and the detailed cleaning needed to preserve biosecurity in her farm. She says most days, she’s done in the barn by 3:30 pm, which was especially nice when her kids were school aged. It’s a lot of work, but it’s truly a labor of love.

While the grind of a farm IS a daily activity, Dianne has a number of helping hands come in on the weekends to help round out all of the duties to take care of the farm. The housing system they used is called “enriched housing” for hens.  Hens are inside all the time, have a perching area, a nesting area, and dedicated feed lines that run inside the living quarters. When the hens lay their eggs, they roll out onto a belt that collects them. Their manure is also managed to help keep both the hens and their general environment clear and healthy.

Dianne is active with a program called Farm & Food Care and pointed us to some videos that would help us see what the farm is like.

Focusing on the Eggs

The post For Egg Farmers, Both Chickens and Eggs Have to Come First! appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

The Farver family has been growing lentils in northeastern Montana for decades. But in the past few years, the family decided to make some changes at Farver Farms, says Shauna Ferguson Farver. First up? Value-added products that let the family sell mixes of some of their favorite recipes including a sweet lentil chili and fudgy lentil brownies.

Shauna talks us through the farm’s progress and helps us understand the various kinds of lentils, tips for cooking them, finding good recipes and provides insight on some of the things farmers take into consideration to reduce the possibility of fire during the busy harvest season.

Shauna Farver (right) with members of the Farver Farms team

What Lentils Look Like in the Field

Links of Interest

Find Shauna & the farm online:

• Get to know Farver Farms
• Shop Farver Farms lentils (meal mixes and snacks)

Shauna and her family also grow crops previously featured on Grounded by the Farm. Check out the episodes on growing wheat and growing barley aka our conversation with a beer farmer.

The website that Shauna mentions as a great source of recipes is Pulses.org. You can sort by type of recipe (breakfast, appetizer, entree, etc), by complexity, type of pulse and more. Some of the peas we mentioned in our episode with Terren Moore talking about purple hull peas.

Lentils.org is a website Canadian farmers fund that also has a lot of great information and recipes.

Tamar Haspel is the Washington Post columnist who is a major advocate for lentils. You can follow her on Twitter at @TamarHaspel.

Raw Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

lentils, grown, recipe, add, people, pulses, harvest, crop, cook, greens, dry, applesauce, dishes, mixes, plant, cut, flavor, farms, farmer, crunchers, growing lentils

SPEAKERS

Farmer Shauna Farver & Janice Person of Grounded by the Farm

Grounded by the Farm  00:02

Food is more than just what’s on our plate. It’s the places where it’s grown. It’s the people who grow it and so much more. Join me, Janice person, your host on Grounded by the Farm every other week as we talk about the foods we love.

Okay, I hope you’re ready for this week’s episode. We are going to extreme north eastern Montana. Just 14 miles from Canada to talk about growing lentils. We’re going to be talking to Shawna Ferguson Farver, she and her husband’s family have Farver farms. And they think growing lentils since the 70s. Although there was a nice little period where they weren’t growing them for a while. She’s gonna talk to us about all of those pieces, but she’s also gonna help people like me, who enjoy lentils when we’re out and about but haven’t figured out exactly how to cook them. I’m a little intimidated. I’m not gonna lie. As she talks about farm, we’re gonna talk a little bit about fire safety, and some things that farmers do around harvest time to make sure that they don’t add to any of the fire problems. So without any further ado, I’m going to start by asking Shawna to help bring us up to speed on what they’ve been doing. My goodness, I have watched your progress over the years. We haven’t talked in person in forever. You guys have been changing it up. What are you doing out there?

Shauna Farver  01:31

So Janice, I think when we met, I had just started the Farver Farms and it was a blog and that’s what it was farmer farms.com. It was a blog just talking about chronicling what we do in agriculture and what that looks like. I experimented with some recipes like some of the other sites, and none of that just seemed quite authentic. It didn’t quite fit for us. And I think part of that is because I I’m a value added girl. from way back, which means you know, adding value to to our crop. And I think that’s where my heart really was. And so eventually this blog morphed into we came up with a retail product and so we added that then we added a production facility in town for those actually we added several we started in a in one spot move to another, and then we added another retail product and then we okay well what I’m

Grounded by the Farm  02:28

gonna I’m gonna slow you down, because you’re saying retail product. So what kind of retail products are you talking about making? How are you adding that value?

Shauna Farver  02:38

Yeah, the first thing we came up with were soup mixes. So we would use the lentils and put them in packaging with some spices and a recipe. You know, a few ingredients that the consumer could buy at the store to add to this to come up with a soup or like we have a spicy lentil chicken salad. A sweet lentil chili Seems like oh, and our baking mixes are fudgy lentil brownies and our lentil lemon bars. So that’s that’s where we started. Those were our original products.

Grounded by the Farm  03:08

Nice. Nice. And I’ve seen some of those. And I’ve tasted some snacks from you guys. You have snacks now, right?

Shauna Farver  03:16

Yeah, so that came later than the lentil crunchers were the next thing that came and we just have one flavor of those right now but we’re getting ready to roll out another flavor here real quickly.

Grounded by the Farm  03:26

And I think for people that listen to this podcast, the idea that you can buy a food that specifically connected back to this farm is is pretty cool. So you now have like a retail store in town.

Shauna Farver  03:39

We have a production facility in town and then we have a retail store which is rolled into a separate club, a restaurant that we bought so we have a mercantile within that restaurant and we have the the mixes and the crunches are available in the mercantile and we also use those on our menu at the restaurant.

Grounded by the Farm  03:58

Yeah. Oh nice. So If somebody is in scoby is it Cody Montana? Yeah, he just happened to be driving along the Canadian border and want to grab a bite to eat. They can come What’s the name of the place? So Farver farms cook house, the cook house. Oh, that sounds good. All right. Is there a bunkhouse nearby if they want to stay?

Shauna Farver  04:22

There will be soon Well, I soon I hope but there but there are there is a bunk house in scoby. There is also that’s an Airbnb. It’s not ours. But a friend of ours has one and then there’s also I think it’s the chicken coop. I think she calls it another gal has another Airbnb here in town. So yeah, those are fun.

Grounded by the Farm  04:39

That’s awesome. Oh, wow. I was just being silly asking about Oh,

Shauna Farver  04:44

yeah, no.

Grounded by the Farm  04:46

So tell me how long have you guys been farming and growing lentils in that part of the world?

Shauna Farver  04:49

So my husband husband grew up farming here and ranching and their family grew lentils in the 70s actually, wow. And yeah, they they had a Really good experience with one one group that was buying their lentils the next group they had a not so great experience and

Grounded by the Farm  05:08

very small business

Shauna Farver  05:10

does and especially when you’re you’re growing your crop that’s new and definitely new to this part of the world. So consequently those their second crop of lentils ended up in bags in the Quonset for 20 some 30 well 20 some years maybe. And yeah, and I mean, they save their their seed so they saved and cool dry storage they ate on them a lot. They had a lot of lentil dishes growing up and and yeah and so then you know, turn around here I Terry’s the year person he could tell you for sure what year but eventually lentils came around again and specifically in this part of the country because they grow so well here. And Terry said Well, I have lentils let’s let’s try those. So we throw them in the ground and tried growing lentils. They did okay and so then we bought some seeds. The next Yeah, we’ve been going strong with him. Since then

Grounded by the Farm  06:02

lintels have a very unique place in the food world. I think I have a friend who’s somebody I know via Twitter at Tamar Haspel. She’s a columnist at the Washington Post. Okay, she is like the biggest lentil advocate on dannette. So there are people who absolutely love lentils and then there are people who are going What do you mean lentils? So it’s a really big spread. What should people who don’t know much about lentils know

Shauna Farver  06:33

if they don’t know much about lentils? They should know that lentil dishes are not all about that one time gnarly lentil soup that you tried somewhere that tastes like wallpaper paste or or glue or something. They actually they’re so versatile and they they adapt themselves to so many different recipes in so many different flavors. You can use them absolutely anywhere. They’re an amazing protein. They, in so many different ways.

Grounded by the Farm  07:03

I think that protein component is a piece that a lot of people in the health side of food, want more people to understand. It’s a really good profile for protein. It doesn’t carry a lot of fat unless you add it to it in the cooking process. Right, right. Right and and it’s fiber

Shauna Farver  07:23

ton of fiber. You have to be careful with them. Yeah. I know. Our little guys. Yep.

Grounded by the Farm  07:28

Yeah, so I’ve heard a lot more people ought to be considering them. When you look at them as a group of you know, what are lentils? They’re a pulse correct.

Shauna Farver  07:39

They are pulse crop.

Grounded by the Farm  07:41

Most people think of their plate as green vegetables, proteins. So this fits as protein but most people think of being like kind of things as vegetables. So

Shauna Farver  07:54

right so pulses are you’re going to find beans also in the pulse category. There are some beans that are pulses. peas are also in the pulse category. So they sort of sit on the fence between that vegetables slash protein area and they provide components of some of all the above they have some great vitamins and nutrients in them. And it depends which pulse you’re talking about. You know, that’s dependent on how much protein which vitamins, which minerals, but they’re just such a really versatile part of the food group pulses, you can even just slide them in anywhere, especially the lentils, they really do take on the flavor of the recipe that you’re using them in. So So I always give the example we use the lentils and our big lentil brownies. And and so you boil them which does take a few of the nutrients out but but not all of them and and then you make sure that they’re really soft and you fold them into these brownies almost like you would applesauce when you’re baking and no one even knows they’re there. In fact, I fit into my

Grounded by the Farm  08:58

daughter’s high school basketball team and they had no clue. Yeah, it’s one of those great ways of getting additional nutrients into diets. It’s so funny. We talked about it in the almond episode about how sometimes children have very particular palates, and they don’t want to eat all the things and you still want to help them get different nutrients. And so it’s a it’s a good fit. So lentils are grown in the US and Canada, right, mainly in this part of the world. But I got to know lentils I would assume away a lot of people do, which is Indian food, or Middle Eastern foods. Right, right. Is that is that kind of where they originated from? I believe so. I,

Shauna Farver  09:44

you know, I actually don’t know where lentils originated from and where the flavor profiles. That’s where I probably first became aware of lentils was in a Middle Eastern Indian dish in that profile, and I think that’s where a lot of people got familiar with them. There. Or like I said in some kind of lentils stew or soup that was you know, yeah, like somebody had lentils in their Quonset throw them into a soup and and they that wasn’t a real popular flavor profile

Grounded by the Farm  10:14

so what’s what are your favorite dishes since you said that one there were some that are really bad. So what’s like a dish that’s like a go to in the farmer house?

Shauna Farver  10:24

That sweet lentil chili and and that’s one that my husband grew up eating. It’s been around forever. So what else in that with

10:31

the lentils?

Shauna Farver  10:32

Yeah, so it’s the lentils and then it’s some flavors that you might not think about adding but there’s some cinnamon and some nutmeg. I forget even right off the top of my head but and then you add a barbecue sauce to it, whatever your favorite barbecue sauce is. And then yeah, it kind of gets all mixed together and put some tomato sauce with it. And then you add meat to it. We usually add some kind of pork it seems like that goes best with it but other people have used lamb Or wild game actually is one that’s been popular with our customers they’ll put wild game with it. Yes this kind of hearty soupy Stewie full of flavor makes the house smell fantastic when you’re cooking it

Grounded by the Farm  11:16

yeah as we get into fall it’s not that cool in my part of the country but I know some people further north or re having a little bit of snow and and really old weather those kind of dishes start as football seasons get really underway and stuff people start thinking hey wait a minute, let me think about some chili and you guys have that available on your site I saw right like you have that already together and so if somebody just wants to give that a shot and and just so they can give it a taste right like so if they haven’t tried lentils before, this is a really easy like, all in one container kind of way to do it. You say we add the lentils helped me understand what kind of lentils you grow and then what kind lentils there are because I have some green lentils in there and I’m still not sure what I’m gonna do with those anytime soon.

Shauna Farver  12:07

Right so our lentils are green lentils, but they’re viceroy is the name of the the seed that we use, but there you’ll also hear them called Small greens. But there are small green lentil, and part of the reason we chose to grow those was a at the time, that’s where we could get a regular commodity market. They were buying the small greens, but be what we found was they cook up much quicker. So really, the the small greens that we use in our mixes are going to take about 30 minutes to put that whole recipe together and have it on the table for your family, which is pretty cool. But then there are also large greens there are there’s a rainbow of colors. There’s purple, there’s black Beluga lentils, which are just little tiny guys, they’re orange and red and all kinds of lentils and they all have a little bit different flavor profile to them. But we found that these Small greens really well, they have a very earthy flavor and they’re gonna pick up anything that you put them with and really, really be complimentary to,

Grounded by the Farm  13:08

to it. I am so excited. I have small green lentils in my cabinet. Yay, I’m gonna have to get busy on that. Here’s a question for you. Let’s just say you’re traveling somewhere like, I don’t know if your family went to Denver, Colorado Springs, or that’s probably not that far off for you guys or and somebody invited you to a potluck, and they said they want you to bring something with lentils, but you didn’t carry your favorite mix with you mix. So what do you look for in the grocery store? How do people pick what kind of lentils to buy?

Shauna Farver  13:44

So I would probably start by going online and finding a recipe. And I think it’s pulses.org. USA pulses have a fantastic set of recipes and there’s also a Twitter account and I would have to look down at I’ll confirm

Grounded by the Farm  14:00

all that and we’ll put it in the show notes to make. Okay, welcome go to exactly to the site. Okay. One of the questions I had was, how do you find recipes that you feel you could trust? And I think that’s right. I mean, there’s so many websites, a lot of them I love but a lot of them I don’t have connections to so how do you find one you can trust this is when you would trust pulses, or I know there’s one lintels, that org that I think the Canadian farmer that’s, yep,

Shauna Farver  14:27

yep. And that’s the other one. Yep. And they have a really great Twitter site.

Grounded by the Farm  14:31

Yeah. So you would go there first and decide what you want to cook or what you want. I would

Shauna Farver  14:36

Yeah, I think I think lentils are one of those things that we don’t inherently know how to cook with or what to do with it. You know, somebody hands you a pound a hamburger. Oh, you know, 1000 things you can do with that pound a hamburger but if someone hands you a bag of lentils or or you want to use a, you know, lentils in a recipe, I think, inherently we don’t. You know, we aren’t all necessarily hardwired to know what to do with those lentils. So yeah, I would look for a recipe first. And they’re going to run the gamut from breakfast cases, to desserts to side dishes to main dishes to all kinds of flavor profiles, you’re going to find them used in so many things. So so once you find those places that have the recipes, yeah, you’re going to find a recipe that looks good and, and then determine which kind of lentil you need for that recipe. Yeah, pick it up at the store,

Grounded by the Farm  15:25

just because not everybody has even purchased lentils, or they found with other dried beans and things along that line. Right? You’ll rarely

Shauna Farver  15:33

find them with the dried beans, and peas.

Grounded by the Farm  15:35

And that’s one of the places I found that lentils and pulses differ from some beans is that they’re harvested when they’re dried down versus things like edamame, May, and soy beans. Those are a heavy oil seed. They don’t write down they’re not rolls. So see I did do some research. Yeah,

Shauna Farver  15:56

you’re dead. You’re right.

Grounded by the Farm  15:58

So that’s a good idea on how to get people started. What’s most likely to go wrong if you haven’t cooked with them before?

Shauna Farver  16:07

So there are some really simple lentil recipes. I mean, they they can, you know, they’re again, they’re one of those things that can be really super simple and you’re just gonna boil them a little bit and toss them in there somewhere you can, you know, get really complicated with them. The biggest thing that’s going to go wrong with lentils is you want to follow the recipe and see how that lentil should be cooked. How done it should be. So for the most part, lentils you’re going to want to cook them identity just like pasta. If you cook them too long, they’re gonna get mushy, which doesn’t really lend itself to most recipes.

Grounded by the Farm  16:41

Oh my god, did you read my notes because my colleague Molly said, How do you keep from getting them too mushy? Because it always goes wrong for her. Yeah. So she says are over cooking.

Shauna Farver  16:53

Over cooking. Yep. So you want to, you know, just like you do with pasta. You want to kind of test it out a little bit once in a while. And it should be you should be able to chew it but it should still be have still have like a little pop to it almost.

Grounded by the Farm  17:06

Usually with lentils, you don’t have a lot of water that you form out of, or do you?

17:11

You know we do and

17:13

it

Shauna Farver  17:14

it depends on the recipe. Okay, so if you’re going to cook the lentils first and add them to the recipe that yeah, it’s just like cooking pasta. If they actually go in to the recipe first and you’re cooking all together then yeah, maybe more like rice But okay, you know, I I was taught to cook by a German grandma who got in there with her fingers a whole bunch and so I’m just always testing them, you know, kind of during the maybe with a spoon depending who I’m serving it to, but

Grounded by the Farm  17:42

obviously at the cook house, people in the kitchen are doing everything according to sanitary saturd

Shauna Farver  17:48

absolutely right. So they’re gonna use a spoon to sample and make sure although they have it pretty well timed out at this point, but but in your own kitchen. Yeah, just get in there and sample it and see you Know where those little guys are at at what At what point they. But be careful Yeah, to make sure they don’t turn to mush.

Grounded by the Farm  18:07

Yeah, cuz that would be a bad day. Right? What other kind of lentils are grown in the US? Like if people want to explore things that are grown here? Are there some that are grown here that aren’t available in other parts of the world or

Shauna Farver  18:21

that we typically do better? I know that in the US there are so many varieties grown so like I said, they’re the small greens. They’re the large greens that are going to be a little bit larger and more flat probably. They’re yellow lentils, they’re purple. There are, I guess, the black belugas? You can get almost anything you want in the US as far as lentils, I think and a lot of them aren’t grown right in the US because farmers have gotten so diverse with their lentil

Grounded by the Farm  18:50

profiles. When do you start planting them? I guess is a good question. And are you busy with harvest right now because this is harvest time for so many us, folks.

Shauna Farver  19:00

We are and especially for us. So here on the northern tier, we run weeks behind people just 60 miles south of us. And we run months behind a lot of other farmers, your pulses, especially your lentils, you’re going to find those grown here in our area and over into Northwest North Dakota. And then you’re going to also find those grown in the police country over in Washington and Idaho. And so those are going to be planted in the spring. Normally, we’re planting in May, sometimes in April, depending on the winter that we’ve had, but usually those are going to get planted in May. And then we harvest ours, end of August 1 to September just kind of depending on whether ours are maybe a little more unique than some we swath ours. So lentils are an indeterminate crop. It means they’re going to continue growing as long as they have cool weather and moisture to keep growing. And you were right before you want to harvest them once they’ve dried down. So there’s two ways to accomplish that. One is going to be what they call desiccation that spraying them to kill them. And the other is swapping the plant and actually just cutting it off and killing the plant so that the lentils will dry down. And so we

Grounded by the Farm  20:11

may have shown some of that when we talked about hay and alfalfa in another episode because you swap hay. So it’s kind of like if somebody let their yard go really tall. When you cut it down. You let it sit there and dry before you get rid of it or something like that. Right, right. And normally with lentils, you would hope that they started drying already, before you cut them or do you kind of real grade.

Shauna Farver  20:36

We cut our screen. Okay, we can, yep, we kind of green a couple of reasons. One, then we can really control when we’re harvesting that crop. We can watch the weather. We can see there’s rain coming, we don’t want to cut them right now because we want to have a dry spell in front of us before we lay those down. We can watch to see if there’s wind coming because once they’ve been swapped, and they’re in this nice little neat row. If we get a big wind, it’ll move that row and make it really hard to come back and pick up. So we swapped them green. But the other thing is fire danger. So, right now there’s, you know, fires raging in the US, if we kept them really green, we significantly cut down the fire danger versus cutting them once they’re dry.

21:20

So, yeah, well,

Shauna Farver  21:22

the reason for that is they are a really low growing crop. So if you’re swatting, you’re having to cut really low to the ground. So that obscure instance of maybe hitting a rock with the header, you know, the piece of machinery that’s cutting that and throwing a spark or something. So yeah, we can’t really green.

Grounded by the Farm  21:38

That’s a really interesting way of having to think about harvesting a crop is wanting to prevent the possibility of additional fires, which, right now, I’d say some people have not thought about what they were doing and how it might involve fires in TMI gas. Yeah. So the idea that you actually Harvest when it’s green, because otherwise you you wait until it’s a little bit cooler than the plant really likes and it starts naturally soon messing the plant.

22:09

Correct.

Grounded by the Farm  22:09

And so what you’re trying to do is lay that plant down so it’s starting to dry. Do you guys have to turn it? Is it like deep foliage that you have to turn like sometimes on hay, you have to turn it once or twice to get it to continue drying down,

Shauna Farver  22:24

not if we catch it at the right time. So then there’s a window there. So you lay it down, and hopefully it will dry then if we if we pick the right time. So we have enough dry days, there was one year there been several years that that we dropped it and we missed the forecast or the forecaster missed the forecast and we had more rain than we anticipated and it just kind of continued and that plant actually then continued. It got back into the ground and when we went to pick it up the plant was actually connected into the ground again. And yeah, it wasn’t Yep, you’re rubbing your forehead. It was a nightmare. And so there’s there’s a narrow window there again you know we get it laid down if it dries down and when there’s enough dry days then no it doesn’t have to be turned.

Grounded by the Farm  23:08

I just tried to imagine so many different things to have to learn as you grow crops What else do you guys grow you grow wheat or other crops we

Shauna Farver  23:17

oh we do. We grow spring wheat we we grow durum which is a variety of wheat that’s used for pasta. We’ve grown barley, we grow hay and alfalfa for cows. We’ve grown flax we’ve grown canola is probably something else I’m missing but he’s we’ve grown dry peas before a

Grounded by the Farm  23:37

little bit above. It’s interesting in that Montana kind of space. I went up a few years ago for a conference and it was the grain growers and I realized it was also the post growers like that all pulled their meeting together and thrown together. I can still remember a gentleman bringing me some chickpeas that he had made a snap he like fries up his chicken He’s put some seasonings and he keeps that in his combine when he’s harvesting so he’s having good nutritious snacks instead of Yeah, that’s what he told me up.

Shauna Farver  24:10

Yep, exactly. Same exact concept with our lentil crunchers.

Grounded by the Farm  24:14

Yeah, I just think that’d be a great snack to give your kids and if you have the individual sizes,

Shauna Farver  24:22

what flavors do you have? Right now? It’s just a signature salty flavor. Yeah. So ours go from the farm over to 45 miles to a neighboring town where they clean them for us. And then we bring them back. And then we actually take them out to Big Sandy where they they’re doing a production for us right now. And that’s four and a half hours one way. We take them out there to get the production done on them. Then we bring them back to our facility to package the larger quantities. Yes, and to package the mixes so

Grounded by the Farm  24:54

so when you talk about taking it out to the other place for production, what are they doing? Are they just cleaning them and things like that sorting out the bad ones from the good

Shauna Farver  25:04

ones. So we take them 45 miles one way and they clean them, it cleans all the seed the weed seed out, it sorts out the bad ones from the good ones, it sorts the wheat or if there’s another volunteer crop that was growing in that field, it sorts that out. They bag it in 50 pound bags, and we bring it back to our production facility. We produce some mixes here we bag the mixes here and then the ones that are going to be lentil crunchers go four and a half hours the other way to a facility where they actually do the boiling and frying for us. Okay, and they package the small one ounce crunchers. We bring bulk back here and packaged to eight and 25 ounce crunchers.

Grounded by the Farm  25:43

Yeah, it’s a lot going on.

Shauna Farver  25:46

It’s a lot going on. And we’re located in a part of the state where there just isn’t a lot of infrastructure for value added food production. So we’ve had to get pretty creative.

Grounded by the Farm  25:55

Well do you use I’m still thinking about those brownies. Right. I have I Chocolate cake in there that a friend brought over. If you wanted to do brownies or something like that, what how do you start that process?

26:09

Yeah, so

Grounded by the Farm  26:12

it’s like the flour or what do you just add

Shauna Farver  26:17

it just add it in. So our brownie recipe, like I said, it’s a lot like cooking with applesauce, if any, anybody out there has ever done that. For us, we boil those lentils. I leave them a little bit chewy so that it’s almost like a monster cookie kind of texture. But yeah, you make the brownie mix, just like normal, and then you, you toss the lentils into it. If you want to mushy so that the kids don’t know they’re there. Then you boil them until they’re pretty soft, and you can wish them they’re more like applesauce. And then, of course, our recipe is made for that and tells you how much oil and how much water to add. But for those home cooks out there, you could do about the same thing and I think the conversion would be pretty Much like like you would with applesauce however, you know, convert that recipe to use applesauce instead of the oil and eggs.

Grounded by the Farm  27:07

That’s really helpful because I know a lot of people have done that kind of thing with cake mixes or whatever over the last few years. So that makes a lot of sense. All right, so I guess those cover the questions I had other than how can people find you so they can like follow up on one if they’re in that part of the world?

Shauna Farver  27:27

You know, we’re even north of highway two. So scoby really is a destination kind of place you have to be trying to get here to get here.

Grounded by the Farm  27:36

Where can people find you online?

Shauna Farver  27:39

Yeah, they can find us at Farver farms calm online and they can find our mixes and our crunchers all there to pick up and when we shipped nationwide, and, and how shipped nationwide and so they can pick them up there and try them at home.

Grounded by the Farm  27:54

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. I think people have been cooking a lot more. Mm hmm. And cook a lot more from scratch. But I think people also want the right kind of things that are kind of pre prepared. And things like right. So you know, when you’re thinking about, you know, all the all the sweets and all that kind of stuff, this is a way to get one that’s a little bit different. Or if you’re going to be part of a chili cook off this fall. Yeah. And then a little bit

Shauna Farver  28:22

different rave reviews. And what they’re going to find is they’re going to get a mix that has the the lentils in it, it has the seasoning packet in it, and they’re just going to have to add a few things that they probably have in their kitchen anyway. And it makes it really user friendly. Super easy to try.

Grounded by the Farm  28:40

Well, I really appreciate your joining us and I can guarantee you a couple of orders will be coming in pretty soon. If nothing else, some of my family is going to want to try some of the things you’ve just talked about. But thanks so much,

Shauna Farver  28:53

Jen. It’s we appreciate you having us up.

Grounded by the Farm  28:57

All right. So there you go. As you can tell we Have a lot of links this week. This week’s episode had lots of different things we talked about in terms of website, different topics of discussion we’ve covered previously. So we’re gonna be putting all those links together in the show notes. I hope you guys take time to check that out. You can always catch that in any of the apps that you use for podcasts, or hop over to Grounded by the Farm calm. We put that information as well as some photos and things. So please go ahead and check it out. Another thing as we ask each week, would love to get you to share this with friends that you think may enjoy it, whether that’s in person, whether it’s on social media, I appreciate you guys helping us reach more people who like us really love food, but also are intrigued to find a little bit more out about what happens to it as it’s grown and is coming towards our place. Thanks so much. We’ll be back in two weeks.

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