Author Archives: jericacadman

Where’s Waldo?

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I have noticed this really interesting phenomenon that happens when people come out to the farm to pick up orders. They get out of their cars, stretch their legs (since most of them having driven a little distance to get here), take a deep breath as they take in the quiet, fresh scenery, and ask, “Where are the chickens/cows/pigs?”

And I look around with them, and if it’s not obvious, I answer, “Hmm… I don’t know.”

Well, is she a farmer or not? How could she not know where the animals are??

The answer isn’t that I don’t get out of the house much (even though it is partly true, haha!).

It’s really that it’s because no animal on our farm is in a fixed location. The fences, houses, water troughs, mineral bars, hay rings… everything is mobile.

We are a Mobile-Pastured ranch.

Sure, we have a couple of permanent structures, like our perimeter fencing and some of our cross-fencing, and our chick brooder house remains where it is, but the chicks are typically out of there at around 2-3 weeks of age so they can grow up in their mobile pastured pen.

The point is that we are most interested in getting animals away from their manure and keeping them moving to fresh, new, living pasture so that the old pasture can keep living and the animals can stay healthy and clean. (Boy that’s a mouthful–try to simmer that down to a one-word label!)

There’s no fixed formula for how often the critters get moved–their needs change with the season, their ages, and their group size. And so it’s a “Where’s Waldo?” kind of situation, and only the Master Farmer (Matt) knows where everybody is at any given time.

We like to say that Matt manages the critters while they’re on pasture, and I manage them once they’re in the freezer. So since I am not out there, morning and night, checking, feeding, egg-collecting, and moving, I don’t always know where the beef herd or the pig herd or the chicken flock are located. Sometimes I can see them from the house, but many times I can’t.

This makes us quite the anomaly. Most farms have the chicken yard, the pig pen, the cow pasture, etc. Why don’t they stick with a truly rotational mode? Because it’s tough! It’s tiring! It’s complicated! Imagine getting access to electric fence and water across 185 acres of rough terrain, woods, hills, ravines, rocks, and ponds.

Developing infrastructure that can be moved easily and efficiently from place to place, but still hold up to weather, wind, and pigs scratching their rears (no kidding!) is no simple task. And that’s why we’re “lunatic farmers” amongst our peers. It’s hard. It’s weird. It’s flat-out-crazy.

This is why it’s so important to go SEE the farm you buy from. Because a lot of farms are throwing around that “Pasture-Raised” term, and what they really mean is that the chickens are outside in a permanent yard. Sure, that’s a far cry from a true CAFO operation, but come back in a couple months or even a couple of weeks, and that yard will be stinky, dirty, and totally devoid of live vegetation.

Is that really what you want in a Pasture-Raised Egg?

All I’m saying is get educated in the matter. All it takes is one visit to make sure. We want you to get to know us as Ranchers so that you can be sure that your food meets your standards. It’s not about bashing what Farmer Jones does. It’s about supporting farms that raise food according to your values and needs.

Come join us at our next free farm tour, Saturday, March 25 at 10. We’ll visit the chickens, pigs, baby chicks, goats, and cattle, and we even hope to have some samples and a few farm demos set up for you. It’s super fun, we’re having beautiful weather, and we’d love to have you out. RSVP here!

Someone is trying to trick you.

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Someone is trying to trick you.

They have started using this marketing word, and it’s working. What’s the word?

Local.

“Local” is the new “healthy.”

But my, oh, my, how the falsehoods abound.

(Quick disclaimer: I don’t think “local” is the only criteria for good food. I think rearing practices trump nearness of raising critters or veggies. Every crop-duster and chicken CAFO is local to somewhere. But we definitely need to address this Local Love issue because I think it has gotten way out of hand.)

Take, for example, the giant Geico billboard we saw while driving on a delivery one day. It has the famous little lizard, and it says, “We’re local!”

What does that even mean? That they have a local office you can go spend money at that ends up at HQ in some huge metropolis out of state, just like every other national multi-billion dollar company? Does it mean they have a local phone number so you don’t have to pay for long distance….which pretty much doesn’t exist anymore anyway, except for international calls? It’s so ambiguous that it’s practically meaningless, and yet it sounds so good.

Following is another good example of the misuse of the term.

A pasture-based farmer colleague of ours near the Ozarks in Arkansas snapped this photo of some apple cider for sale. The sign on the display says in prominent lettering, “Farm Fresh. Locally Grown.” The subheading states, “Proudly Supporting Ohio Farmers.”

I guess management forgot that they are a mere, oh, 700 miles away from Ohio. Then you check out the fine print and discover that the cider is actually a product of Michigan! If any of the signage is even remotely true, you’re looking at a distance traveled of over 1200 miles. Thank goodness our “local” schools and shopping centers are closer than that!

Grocery stores are especially bad about abusing the attractive marketability of supporting local farmers. Matt once stopped into Kroger and noticed, again, the prominent “We support local farms!” signage, which you see at so many stores nowadays.

We’re always looking for more locations to serve our customers via retail sales–we’d love to sell our products through Kroger! So Matt decided to ask about it. He flagged down a manager and introduced himself as a local farmer, and inquired about how to initiate the process to become a vendor for their store. The manager looked dumbfounded and said, “I have no idea.” She even went to ask their buying manager there at the store, and his reply was the same. They were so unfamiliar even with the concept of buying from local farms that they didn’t even know where to begin or whom to ask.

Question: If these stores are really selling these wonderful local products from dozens or maybe even hundreds of local farms–because you know, by nature of buying local, there have to be LOTS of farms spread across the nation–why don’t the people who DO THIS FULL TIME know how to get an actual real-live local farmer in touch with the right people to start selling his real-live local products there?

I’ll tell you why. It’s not really happening. They are trying to trick you.

It’s not just grocery stores.

There are a lot of restaurants and restaurant distributors using the same sort of marketing language. They get a couple of poster children farmers, and maybe they really buy a few things from them (or maybe not…) and then they head straight for mainstream, Big Ag suppliers.

Why don’t they just do what they say they’re doing?

I don’t think it’s that hard to figure out. People like the idea of buying local. They like even better the idea of local being fresher and healthier. But money talks, right? Bigger farms (aka CAFO operations–confinement animal feeding operations) are cheaper to operate and have economies of scale on their side. Plus there’s that convenient advantage of separating the consumer from the supply chain by moving the supply chain farther away, and so the food system begins to operate like a money laundering operation.

Restaurant Q buys from Distributor X, who buys from Natural Hub Y, who buys from Brokers A, B, and C, who buy from Farm Co-ops H, I, J, K, who buy from some obscure farms out in Farmland that no one really knows much about, and definitely no one ever visits. Somebody said the farms are pasture-based, and we can surely assume that they’re reasonably close by…

I won’t name names, but I know of two in particular, right here in Texas, that tout their “local” and “pasture-raised” products. One sources beef direct from Australia, citing that American producers can’t meet supply and standards simultaneously.

Like I said, I’m not going to name any names, but I’m just going to leave this link right here for you in case you want to read about it.

The other is a restaurant supplier actively marketing their local, pasture-raised farm products in a major Foodie city in Texas. They have a lovely little website with a prominent menu item, “Why local?” and they go on to answer the question by defining local as farms located “within one day drive from [their city.]” OK, so that sounds pretty reasonable. A day trip to the farm, right?

Well, it just so happens that this Texas farm-to-table group uses for its main supplier of pork a co-op of farms …in Iowa.

Is that meeting their definition of local? It’s a 15 hour drive to Iowa without pigs. And navigating downtown Big Texas City with your livestock trailer would add at least another hour or two, not counting stops. I don’t know many folks that can make a 15+ hour drive in one day without livestock!

In college, I moved from my hometown in South Mississippi to Ithaca, New York, to do an internship with a metallurgical testing company there. In the early days of MapQuest, I staked out my route and highlighted my paper atlas, said goodbye to my mother, and started out early. I made it 11 hours the first day, and I was so exhausted and delirious that I could barely order a meal at McD’s before stopping for the night (back before I knew better). I wouldn’t have made it all the way to Iowa in one day… I would not call that “local.”

Now, if you’re my crazy hubby, who once drove from Longview, Texas, all the way to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in one go, you might say it can be done. But gee whiz! Who wants to leave at 6 A.M. and arrive at 9 P.M. (not counting stops!) and call that a “local” farm! Not to speak of whether or not they meant that you were supposed to be able to return home in the same day… Buying pork becomes a full-fledged business trip!

By the way, I have forbidden Matt from doing any crazy long driving now. That was back in his “bulletproof” days…

But you can see how ridiculous the use of this term “local” has become. Granted it might not be out of the realm of possibility if we were all “driving” Lear jets around. Lear jets full of pigs for restaurants…

What this trend means is that you, the buyer, must be oh, so cautious, and not get sucked in by the fancy marketing and attractive buzz words. Worse, people often read “local” as synonymous with “grass-fed” or “hormone-free” or a whole host of other non-applicable terms.

How should we define local?

Polyface Farm, home of Joel Salatin and his family, is probably the most well-known farm like ours. A truly loco-centric, rotationally-focused real-deal type farm. They define their local food-shed as those customers that can make a day trip to the farm and back home again after spending a bit of time browsing the farm, viewing the operations, and shopping in the farm store.

So for most folks that means less than a 3 or 4 hour drive. That sounds pretty reasonable to me. Honestly, anything beyond that would just seem ridiculous. I mean, for us, that would mean buying from farms near Houston, or on the other side of Dallas–that far-reaching of a “food-shed” would be a stretch, to be sure, but it could be done if we had no other options. But you bet your biscuits that I wouldn’t be looking at Iowa or Ohio or Michigan for “local food.”

When buying local isn’t possible

Please don’t hear what I’m not saying.

If you have to ship your food in because there really aren’t any decent rotational-pasture-based farms near you, do it. It’s worth it for your health.

If all you care about is low price, and Iowa pork is cheaper than Texas pork, fine. Capitalism wins, right?

But what gets my goat is when companies are deliberately deceiving customers through marketing schemes that say, “We support local farms!” when they really don’t–they’re just like everyone else, buying through the handful of Giant Food Suppliers and giving consumers the illusion of local, small, diversified economies. And finally, even if it really is local, that doesn’t make it healthy. 

What if there’s not a good local farm? Simple! Take your signs down!!

How can you know the truth?

The best way to know is to go SEE it. Meet the farmer. Know your source. It’s worth it.

There is good news.

I hate leaving you with all bad news. So here’s the good news. We’ve been working hard to get our products into some restaurants in the area (and of course we so much appreciate all of our local stores that really DO support local farms!). Here are two restaurants that have recently put our pork on their menu. More coming soon!!

Restaurants Featuring Our Products

  • Wine Country Bistro in Shreveport, Louisiana
  • El Cabo Verde in Shreveport, Louisiana

Our Wonderful Retailers:

  • Granary St. in Longview and Tyler
  • Vitamins Plus (inside Drug Emporium) in Longview, Tyler, and Shreveport
  • Jack’s Natural Foods in Longview
  • Sunshine Health Foods in Shreveport and Bossier
  • The Farmer’s Wife in Mt. Pleasant
  • Flour Child Fine Foods in Texarkana

Running a farm is like flying a spaceship.

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Yesterday afternoon, I got a call from one of our institutional vendors, verifying our practice standards so they can make sure they’re marketing their product correctly. As I was chatting with him, I realized something.

You see, a lot of farmers get defensive when people start poking around, asking about their practices. As the gentleman asked me very industry-specific questions, I realized why that is. He was probing, judging, making sure we are legit. And yes, if we had something to hide, or if we had been misrepresenting our product, it would have made me nervous. Even still, we’re not perfect. We have a lot of plans on how to improve things out here. Matt and I are even bigger dreamers than we are doers, if you can imagine! There’s a whole lot of energy and vision living under this roof!

That said, we do not yet have it all figured out. There is no instruction manual for this kind (or probably any kind!) of farming, no playbook, no one-size-fits-all. Matt and I didn’t grow up farming, so we’re a few generations removed from our ancestors who did organic farming for their livelihoods, and we don’t have the inherited wisdom of days gone by. Even little things like learning the quickest way to put up a fence, the way to latch a gate, how to weld pasture skids, and the way to dig a hole. That knowledge has come by hard work and practice.

Matt’s latest creation is a pig-sorting box. When processing time comes, it’s quite a feat to separate breeders from feeders. Pigs don’t herd like cows, so this handy little contraption will help tremendously!

The specifics of natural, rotational pasture-based farming are vastly more complex. One contributing factor is the nuances of our situation. Our climate here in Jefferson, or more specifically, “Lassater Marion West,” experiences very different weather patterns compared with farms as close as 30 miles north or south of us. And of course, our specific animals, forest types, topography, and a million other factors, make certain things work well for us, and certain other things not work so well. But you know what–sometimes the only way you can figure it out is to try it. If it doesn’t work, try something else until you do figure it out.

Sometimes running our farm feels like flying a spaceship. There are umpteen control buttons, switches, levers, and indicators, and you have to pay attention to and manipulate multiple things all at once to keep things running. And so when someone asks a question like, “How do you manage the pasture for soil sustainability?” it’s equivalent to saying to us, “OK, write me a 40-page thesis paper on your short-term and long-term strategy for soil health as it pertains to pigs between the ages of 3 months and 4 years.” Rinse and repeat for all the other species in their various stages of life.

View that from the consumer’s end of things: questions regarding feeding practices, confinement, slaughter, humane practices… the list goes on and on. These are COMPLEX questions. And they need to be asked when you’re researching your food source.

But… There is no simple answer. Especially for folks who know little to nothing about farming. You can’t fit this kind of information onto a label in a store to ensure an informed 15-second purchase decision. It seems overwhelming! Grass-fed? 100% Grass-fed? Grass-finished? Organic? Free-Range? Hormone-free? No added antibiotics?? What’s a wary eater to do?

I saw a blip yesterday in Farm Bureau’s magazine that pointed out that most people have never set foot on a farm. How can you know a significant amount about a topic without ever having seen it? Would you be able to fully understand a cell phone if you’d never used one? Could you operate a car, only ever having read about it?

THIS is the reason we offer farm tours. SEEING and EXPERIENCING is so fundamental to understanding. Not that you’ll walk away an expert. But boy, will you be able to ask the right questions afterward. Things move from hypothetical to real. And since we’re dealing with our food source, I’d say that worth investing some time into.

So there’s my deep thought for the day. Put our next free farm tour on your calendar and come out and see us. March 25 at 10am. You’ll love it! And I hope you’ll be more convinced than ever that buying from a rancher you know is better than any label you see at the store!

A brief update as we head into March…

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We lost all the small birds!

You’re going to laugh. We ran out of little chickens! Other than a couple remaining 3-pounder birds, all we have is our December stock of whole birds, ranging from Really Big (4.5 lb) to Huge (5+ lb)–at least that’s what I’ve been able to find in the boxes so far. The good news is, though, that they are juicy as well as plump, and we’re going to run a sale when you buy 2 Big Birds through the end of March! Cook once… eat a bunch!

What’s with Big Bird?

Well, this is supposed to be a brief update. Basically, we have switched to a more forage-friendly breed of broiler (say that five times fast) called the Freedom Ranger. Compared to the conventional breed, Cornish Cross, the Rangers are more active and produce more dark meat–that’s good for our leg-loving customer base! Yum! But they’re huge…

Cook-at-Home Challenge Continues

Last month we started an initiative to equip readers to get back into the kitchen. We had about a dozen takers, and a few more besides that who planned to use the (free) recipes for the meats they already had in their home freezer. I LOVE helping folks get back into the kitchen more often, and away from processed foods.

My biggest piece of advice for Real Eating is this: Keep it simple. Don’t feel that you have to doctor everything up with a million exotic ingredients. If you eat a crockpot chicken twice a month that you created out of real, recognizable, non-chemical ingredients–that is major progress! Do it again this month with our easy Cook-at-Home Challenge, newly renovated to accommodate the Giant Chickens we have in stock… and accounting for that two-huge-chicken sale I mentioned. 🙂

I hope you’ll join in again, or for the first time, on the Cook-at-Home Challenge.

Where’s the beef??

You have probably noticed our rather sparse inventory of grass-fed beef. We’re right at the tail end of the winter grass season, waiting for the days to get longer and temps higher so the grass can really take off and finish out our beef.

This is where the rubber meets the road for true supporters of farm-to-fork. Sometimes there are just shortages of things, and when you improvise and use other cuts in place of traditional choices, or even redo your menu to include what’s “in season,” just for the sake of eating really-pasture-raised and supporting your farmer in the off-season, it helps us to keep producing the best meats and eggs in East Texas.

If you need help with substitution ideas, feel free to write me! I’m happy to try to help you get more real food into your kitchen!

We still have a good amount of hamburger and chuck roast, and even some filet, strip, and sirloin (on sale!), so enjoy it while it lasts! We expect to process beef around the end of March. Until then, shop what’s in stock!

Matt often asks for volunteers during evening egg collection, and Axl and Tevka are usually quick to join him. They are getting really good at not dropping the eggs!

Celebrate Local This Saturday in Longview!

We’re excited to partner with Jack’s Natural Foods in Longview, this Saturday only! We’ll have a tasting set up there from 10 to around 1, at this exciting Customer Appreciation Event. Come by and see me during the lunch hour, or at least drop by before they close at 5 to enjoy discounts and freebies. (Matt will be at the ranch building our farm store!) Bring a friend and let them taste REAL FOOD, too! 

March Delivery Rounds

Bye, bye, February! Our March deliveries to area towns start next week. Go ahead and get your order in early! Sirloin Steak is still on sale, and we have a few more Smoked Carving Hams. See what’s in stock and what’s on sale. We’ll send area-specific reminders the Monday of each delivery week.

  • Tyler: Thurs, March 2 at 11:30 on Dennis Dr.
  • Shreveport: Sat, March 4 at 11 on Line Ave
  • Longview: Thurs, March 9 at 10:30 behind Bowen Chiropractic
  • Marshall: Thurs, March 9 at noon at Buchanan Feed
  • Texarkana: Thurs, March 16 at 10:30 on Irongate Dr.
  • Shreveport: Sat, March 18 at 11 on Line Ave.
  • Jefferson: Pickup any time at the ranch by appointment!

If our local delivery options don’t work for you, we sell in LOTS of local stores. Check out our website under the Locations tab to see what’s where!

Thank YOU for supporting our farming adventures and choosing real food for your family. We couldn’t do this without you!

Don’t be confused about LYE soap!

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Soap: What’s with the lye?

I cannot tell a lye… (I know, very punny, right? I couldn’t resist!)

I want to talk to you about lye soap. A lot of people hear farmers like me talking about our good old-fashioned lye soap, and their minds instantly picture a harsh, abrasive, chemical concoction used for tanning leather, stripping paint, and cleaning dirty words out of teenagers’ mouths.

Then those of us who choose sustainably raised oils, like lard, start talking about our lard soap, and I guess folks get the idea that they’re going to smell like a pork rind after bathing!

Neither is the case with our old-fashioned lard-lye soap!

All soap starts with fat and lye. Every single grease-cutting potion on the market, from bars to liquids to foam. You probably don’t have time for a chemistry lesson, so suffice it to say that all soap is made of a fat that has been chemically transformed (by lye) into this super-cool molecule that can grab ahold of grease particles and wash away cleanly in water. A well-made soap will contain no lye at all. It gets all used up in the (wait for it) saponification process (there’s your chemistry lesson!). When fat gets turned to soap, the catalyst is lye, and what is left is a beautiful bar of cleansing power, with unique characteristics based on the fats contained therein.

So how gentle could lard-lye soap be?

Well, here’s what one customer said about our soap:

“That soap is amazing. I would like to deem myself a natural soap expert due to me trying almost everyone I could find in the Tri-State area. Seriously, due to my allergies & skin irritations I can’t tolerate mainstream/big box stores soaps & body washes. I’ve hunted on the internet and every arts & crafts fair or outdoor markets for homemade, natural soaps around. And to be fair, I’ve found some decent ones, but there always seems to be a downside like drying out my skin, or the soap magically evaporates after two days. Oh and the best of all, the pretty ones have too much dye or coloring agent that defeats the purpose of being natural. Your soap far exceeded my expectation of moisture, lather & scent. My skin feels terrific!! I don’t have the dry, itchy feel by 11 o’clock after I take my morning shower. I am only 3 days into the use of the soap & I am ecstatic over the instant results on my skin. I finally feel moisturized!!! … I don’t think that I have EVER felt this big of a change in my skin in so little time… I have the same great results on my face. I am over-the-moon excited about this soap!!”

As a fun, stress-relief project (ha!), I have started making pretty gift labels for our soaps. If you’d like to gift bars as a gift, you can add the beautification factor before placing the soap in your cart.

But if you’re just stocking up so you can enjoy the benefits of pure lard soap, you can save money by going naked! (On the bar of soap, I mean!)

Happy ..er… washing! (And happy eating!)

Hey Texarkana, we’re going to visit you next week!

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I have some exciting news for those of you straight north–we’re going to try out a Texarkana delivery service again!

We’re going make the Texarkana round every third Thursday of the month at 10:30 a.m. The meeting point will be at a customer’s curb at 15 Irongate Drive, in the Copper Ridge development.

  • What: Texarkana Delivery of Your Order
    When: Thursday, February 16 at 10:30 a.m.
    Where: 15 Irongate Dr, Texarkana, Texas
    Order Deadline: Tuesday, Feb. 14 at midnight

As always, there’s no minimum order, and no delivery charge. Buy a pack of burger or a side of beef! We accept cash, checks, or credit, and payment is made at pickup. Orders are welcome any time until next Tuesday at midnight–check out what’s in stock and what’s on sale. We hope this helps get some delicious and nutritious food on your table!

Please share this news with a friend in the area so we can keep offering this free service!

Cook-at-Home Challenge: Count the Cost

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Does food matter?

Matt and I had a health crisis circa 2005-2006 that forced us to analyze everything we were doing so we could find answers to why his intestines were trying to kill him. And they were. Standing 6-foot-5-inches tall, and weighing less than 120 pounds, doctors said there was nothing left to do but to surgically remove his entire large intestine. They said food didn’t matter, that this disease (ulcerative colitis) was hereditary and couldn’t have been prevented, and that surgery and drugs were the only way to stop it. 

We didn’t believe it.

I hope none of you has gone through what we went through. A health crisis of epic proportions is enough to change anyone’s mind about what they put into their bodies. For us, it changed everything, from the way we eat, to the way we live and even the way we raise our children. We became farmers because we were so convinced that really-pasture-raised meats are critical to good health. 

And I am happy to report that Matt still has all his guts and hasn’t taken any medications since the summer of 2010. Praise God!

So here we are, now competing with our tiny little farm against the ever-growing and utterly convenient prepared foods industry, from fast-casual to heat-and-eat to mail-order meals delivered to your door. We can’t make it that convenient, but I can try to put some tools into your hand that will help you on your back-to-health journey. Because food does matter… and I know what you’re up against: the time, the knowledge, and the cost. There are many hurdles, but you can do this, and you may be surprised how little time it takes and how little money it costs you!

The True Cost

A lot of folks look at the cost of our meats per pound and think, “That is SO expensive!” 

And it is. 

I won’t pretend it’s not. But really–how much meat can a person eat? With quality ingredients, one tends to eat less and feel more satisfied. And of course we all know the “it’s an investment in your health” banter, and that is true, but it’s hard to reconcile that statement with having to pay a higher grocery bill. 

I want to show you what you would spend if you participate in our Cook-at-Home Challenge this month. By sticking with really basic ingredients instead of ready-made foods, and choosing homemade meals that are so simple it’s silly, you can spend less than $3.89 per serving. What fast food joint can feed you for that? And unless you have a farmer-size appetite, you probably will be able to get even more meals out of the same dish so that your final “cost per serving” is quite a bit lower! 

As part of our Cook-at-Home Challenge, I have included a complete shopping list so you will be equipped to cook everything in the package without having to take an emergency trip to the store (even more cost savings!). If you buy everything on that list at the high end of price, here’s what you’d spend:
 

Chances are you’ll find quality ingredients for less than what I estimated here, and it’s very likely you have most of what you need in your pantry already!

If you’re eating commercially-prepared meals more than a couple of times a week, please consider joining us this month for the Cook-at-Home Challenge. The Challenge will equip you with easy recipes, a meal planning strategy, a shopping list, and a ready-to-go meat meats package so you can get started right away feeding your family high quality, homemade meals. 

Bonus: Broth!

If you follow my Challenge instructions closely, you should even have enough bones and veggies left at the end to make a batch of homemade broth without spending any extra money (besides the electricity to run the crockpot)! Broth nourishes the intestines and the joints and has been found to reduce joint pain if consumed regularly. You can drink it like tea or substitute it for water in things like rice, oatmeal, and even bread! (I know… you’re probably not making bread from scratch yet, right–but we’ll win you over and teach you how eventually, I hope!)

So now it’s your turn. Check out the Cook-at-Home Challenge here, just in time for our Longview and Marshall deliveries this week. You can also schedule a time to pick up at the ranch in Jefferson during checkout. 

Why is meal-planning so hard?

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Why is meal-planning so hard?

Meal planning… The bane of many a mother’s existence. We ask ourselves, “Do they really need to eat AGAIN today?”

Let me just start by saying that I do not have this all figured out. I mentioned early on in this email series that Matt chuckles when I tell him my latest meal planning strategy because chances are, I will scrap it after a day or two. I’ve tried complicated, I’ve tried highly regimented, I’ve tried super-seasonal, all with moderate success. I keep coming back to the need to have some basic, core recipes available so that if all else fails, THAT’S what’s for dinner.

How many of you have purchased specialty ingredients, only to have them spoil before you get around to using them?

How many of you end up looking at the clock at 5 P.M., and wonder to yourself, “What should I make for dinner tonight?”

And even if you’ve conquered planning ahead, there remains that age-old question… what should you make for dinner, day in and day out?

Why is meal planning so hard??

My guess is that we get stuck in a rut and just need some fresh ideas. But when we run out of fresh ideas and creative energy, we just need some core recipes that will pull us through so we can feed our families. But it is critical to consider the amount of time we can devote to actually making dinner amidst our other activities and responsibilities. Dinner won’t just happen, so we have to be realistic about the complexity of meals we can fit into our day. Looking ahead just a little will make a world of difference for your dinnertime.

So here’s the basic strategy:

  1. Allow yourself breathing room to enjoy creative recipes when you are inclined to do so. A meal plan shouldn’t stop you from having fun if you’ve come up with an interesting idea, or from improvising if a neighbor gives you a whole mess o’ summer squash! Think of your meal plan as your framework for the days when you don’t have room in your head to decide anything else. 
  2. Allow yourself the freedom to set aside favorite family traditions. In our house, it’s homemade pizza night every other week. We missed pizza, so I figured out how to fit it into our crazy lives at least a couple times a month. I can do that. And I’m always working to take greater joy in it. Maybe for you it’s Taco Tuesday or something like that. That’s a meal plan. That’s great. Keep doing it. Work at making your ingredients better and better each time, and learning to enjoy the task of nourishing your family.
  3. For your regular-ol’ busy don’t-want-to-think-about-dinner days, try this: stick with reliable, simple recipes that get the job (of feeding your family) done. On your busiest days, use your slow-cooker. On the days when you’ll have a little more time to be in the kitchen, try the Kitchen Days recipes. But keep it simple. The Cook-at-Home Challenge is a great place to start. 

I’ve set up this Cook-at-Home Challenge to mesh with your busy schedule–half of the meals are one-step, all-in-one slow-cooker type meals. The other half require minimal prep and very little hands-on time, but for these, you do have to be available for the hour preceding dinner so you can pop things into the oven, stir your cheese sauce, etc. It’s a way to get you in more control of what you’re feeding your family by constructing your meals from real, basic ingredients, instead of commercially-prepared, heat-and-eat type meals, but it will not require a degree in culinary arts, nor an afternoon slaving over a hot stove.

Let me encourage you to make homemade dinner a priority at least two nights a week for the next four weeks. Can you do that? It’s less than 10% of the meals you will eat in that time period, assuming you eat 3 meals a day. Let’s get this 10% right and begin building the foundation for truly healthful eating. Don’t beat yourself up if it’s not always perfect. Just keeping refining it.

Many of you have asked for copies of the recipes because you’ve recently stocked up and don’t need more meat, or perhaps some of you are farther away and can’t materially participate, but want to learn some new things alongside the rest of us in the Ark-La-Tex. You are most welcome to use the recipes, but I urge you to choose really-pasture-raised meats, as these will yield the most delicious and healthful results. Conventional chicken simply will not taste as good without a lot of doctoring, plus there are many disadvantages to eating only conventionally-raised meats. If you want to know more about why that is, check out our blog series on Why Pasture Raised Meats? 
 

Finally: The Recipes

Here are the printable recipes, planning strategy, and shopping list. Tomorrow I hope to send the cost analysis of the meals and ingredients to show you the true cost of eating well. But first, “I have to finish my chores!” (Name that movie!)

So now it’s time for action. I’ve given you the recipes and the shopping list and a planning strategy to suit your schedule. Join us this month for the Cook-at-Home Challenge.

Orders for Tyler delivery are due today, so don’t miss out! Hope to see you there!

Cook-at-Home Challenge: What’s for dinner?

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I will meal-plan for you this month!

Hopefully you got to read a bit about our upcoming Cook-at-Home Challenge introduced in our last newsletter. I know there are so many of our readers that have said, “I want to eat more healthily, I just don’t feel that I have the time to devote to cooking, and even if I did, I don’t know WHAT to cook!”

I can totally relate. Sometimes I ask my family, “What do you want for dinner?” And when they don’t respond with answers like “pizza” or “fried chicken,” then they say, “Whatever,” or “I don’t know.” 

I don’t know anybody who got full on I Don’t Know. Sometimes what I really want is someone to just tell me what to make, and I’ll make it! (Well… except for things like fried chicken and pizza, ha!) 

If this sounds like your life… I have great news for you. I’m ready to be that person that says, “Hey, here’s what you should make for dinner.” (I’m the first-born child and only girl among my siblings, so I’ve got Bossy down! 😉 )

I want to make it easy for you to get healthy meals on the table. Not only healthy, but delicious. Not only healthy and delicious, but affordable. Not only healthy, delicious, and affordable, but EASY. 

Ready?

Here’s what’s on the menu:

  • Slow-Cooker Roast Chicken with Veggies
  • Homemade Chili
  • Slow-Cooker Beef Chuck Roast with Veggies
  • Oven-Roasted Drumsticks with Homemade Mac-n-Cheese & Steamed Veggies
  • Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork with Veggies
  • Deliciously Moist Meatloaf with Homemade Mashed Taters & Steamed Veggies
  • Slow-Cooker Roast Chicken with Veggies (again!)
  • Pan-fried Pork Chops with Homemade Mac-n-Cheese & Steamed Veggies

 

Pictured above is a super-simple dish of slow-cooker beef chuck roast with veggies. You can just toss it all in the crock-pot early in the day, and come home to a delicious home-cooked meal, hot and ready to serve.

I chose this collection of recipes for their simplicity, ability to fill the belly and please the palate, and frugal selection of ingredients. Even the least experienced cook should do well with the teaching-style recipes. No more powdered cheese mix. No more seasoning packets. No more cans of cream-of-chemical soup. 

 

You can do this. Let me get you started! Join us for the Cook-at-Home Challenge in February. We’ll be making our monthly delivery rounds in Tyler and Shreveport this week, and Marshall and Longview next week. I hope to see you there!

Will this get you back into the kitchen?

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We want to help you get back into the kitchen!

It’s been a CRAZY month so far! Matt took a brief trip to the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association meeting for larger scale producers (apparently we qualify! 😉 ). It was a great time of gaining insight on our production practices and thinking about our future in raising the best chicken (and eggs and turkey and pork and beef…) in the world! But somebody had to stay home and mind the farm… Guess who that somebody was!

 

 

 

This photo was taken during my “training tour” at the northernmost border of the paddock, a lowland section that Matt plans to turn into a runoff collecting pond someday. 

My care-taking responsibilities certainly weren’t fulfilled without help, though! Boaz helped with egg collection duties (because that really is a circus with four little kids in tow!), and the Grandparents (Bailey and Bobbi) helped watch kiddos while I trekked through a HUGE pig paddock to make sure the 170+ pastured porkers weren’t going to mutiny while Boss Man was away. When he got home, Matt said something to the effect of, “Well, everything is still in one piece!” Did he expect anything less??

All I can say is that I am grateful for my hard-working hubby and glad that he’s back to managing the outdoor half of the ranch.

Meanwhile… I’ve been working on some things of my own in the spare moments of quiet between homeschooling, packing eggs, and managing the farm sales. 

As I observe the food trends in our nation, particularly in the Ark-La-Tex, I gather that the plight of many families struggling to take control of their diet and their health is made more difficult in two ways:

  1. They lack the knowledge and skill to cook homemade meals.
  2. They lack the time/money/planning skills to obtain the needed ingredients.

Cook-at-Home Challenge

If that’s you, I want to issue a new challenge to you. I want to equip you to get back into the kitchen and to start the journey toward truly from-scratch meals with wholesome ingredients. And the best part is that these meals cost less than $4 per serving, and that’s being very generous with serving size and ingredient cost. It is likely the real-life cost is under $3 per serving, depending on prices for extra stuff and how much your family actually eats.

For the 4 weeks following our free February deliveries in Tyler, Longview, Marshall, and Shreveport, we want you to commit to making two homemade dinners per week (8 meals total). For partakers of the challenge, I’m going to supply a shopping list, a planning strategy, cost analysis, and recipes.

All you have to do is place an order with us for the pre-packaged Cook-at-Home Bundle, and run to your local grocery store to pick up any additional ingredients that you don’t have in your pantry (but you probably have most of what you need already!). 

My hope is to encourage and equip you to start 2017 by providing your family with delicious, nourishing, and affordable meals that you make in your very own kitchen.

Are you ready to get back into the kitchen?

Check out the bundle here, and if you’re ready, go ahead and order!