Matt and Jerica are not the only engineers at Shady Grove Ranch.
(We feel more like Master Jugglers than Engineers these days, but anyway… that’s where we started!)
But no… there were engineers at Shady Grove Ranch long before it was even called Shady Grove Ranch.
Beavers. Nature’s engineers.
Some consider them pests, and perhaps we might have, too, had they chosen a different spot on… ... Continue reading | 1 Comment
Our journey started 14 years ago, and in that short time, pasture-raised foods went from unheard of to wildly popular to what I might describe as “enhanced.” What I mean is that it wasn’t enough to just have a return to bacon or milk or bone broth. Now things like turkey bacon or ultra-filtered milk or bone-broth protein powder are in vogue.
Any turkey farmer could tell you—there’s not… ... Continue reading
I thought I’d take this opportunity to share about a fun new strategy we are trying this year. I need help, and lots of it. Housekeeping tends to fall by the wayside during our busy season, but I desire to include hospitality as one of our many activities, and worrying over dirty bathrooms and laundry strewn across the floor is something that certainly inhibits my creativity energy! Plus a messy… ... Continue reading | 5 Comments
The coyotes had pork for breakfast this week—and a feast it was, too!
Before your heart starts a-racing in fear for your bacon supply… I’m glad to tell you that the coyotes don’t amount to much of a threat on that front. Actually, it’s PIGS that are our pigs’ greatest threat! Pirate pigs! Wild, barbarian pigs with no manners nor decency, trying to woo our sows and gilts (that’s… ... Continue reading | 5 Comments
You asked for it… so here it is:
We’d love to have you join us for an adventure in learning about where your food could come from: HOW we do this crazy fringe thing of actually raising animals OUTDOORS on green, living grass; and WHY we’ve chosen to go against the grains in so many ways in order to bring you the best food… ... Continue reading
We’re offering a one-time special prior to September 10 on custom-processed bulk beef to lighten the burden on our pastures during this increasing drought situation in East Texas.
Our beef is 100% grass-fed and grass-finished, and is fat, marbled, and excellent quality. No tubs, no cubes, no grains, no licks–just rotational grazing, good breeding, good minerals, and plenty of finishing time!
You may know by now that we are one of those geeky homeschool families, where every discussion with the kids is a “learning opportunity.” It doesn’t help that Matt and I were shamefully nerdy before we had kids. Our poor children can’t get a straight answer out of us when it comes to their questions about the world around them! 🙂
We use a fabulous curriculum called Classical Conversations, and during… ... Continue reading
Not gray hair, mind you. I’m not sure there’s a cure for that, especially when you run a crazy ranch like we do! 😉 I’m talking about something else…
As I cooked breakfast a couple of days ago, I noticed on the mostly-empty package of pork breakfast sausage I had thawed a few days prior, that the edges of the meat had gone gray. Some people might call… ... Continue reading
We changed butchers a while back, and just like moving to a new town, the habits and names for things vary from meat packer to meat packer. So from this new butcher, we got this new cut back from our grass-fed cows called Flap Steak.
Before we started farming, I was like any grocery-store shopper, and was only vaguely familiar with the various cuts of meat available. So it… ... Continue reading
We’ve been raising laying chickens for going on 9 years now, and we find that the more we learn, the more there is to learn!
For example, one of the early lessons we learned is if you suddenly switch feeds on your hens, their bodies panic and they quit laying eggs and start making new feathers (aka molting)… ... Continue reading | 4 Comments
