Author Archives: jericacadman

Irrigation Project – Photo Update

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We always seem to be juggling several projects at once. Right now it’s planning to build a new barn and storefront and implementing a very extensive plumbing system on our ranch. Why? To provide what we refer to as irrigation in all the pastures on our ranch.

One of the most important parts of rotational grazing is getting water to each and every paddock where the animals are. It is also important, here in Texas, to get the animals access to water misters during the very hot months of July, August, and September. Most farm animals can’t sweat and need some means of cooling to help stay comfortable in the heat. Water misters give us the benefit of helping the animals not expend so much energy to stay cool, meaning less food wasted on panting and more energy spent on raising calves and making steak.

Our solution? Underground (aka tractor-proof, freeze-proof, and gopher-proof) water lines that will have valves every 300-400 feet that allow easy access to water for misters, waterers, and cattle troughs. We may even use it to water pastures some day.

Check out our progress so far! We are putting in over 3 miles worth of underground PVC, and upon completion, this project will allow us to run laying chickens and pigs in places that previously were not accessible to them because they can’t travel as far as cows to get water.

It is an interesting but a little overwhelming project. But Matt is a great planner and manager and things are going smoothly. The kiddos even got to help a bit!

 

Here is the beastly trencher with our farm hand, Zack, driving it.

Here is the beastly trencher with our farm hand, Zack, driving it.

It's like a giant chainsaw...

It’s like a giant chainsaw…

...that can slice...

…that can slice…

...right through the ground!

…right through the ground!

Beats digging it by hand any day!

Beats digging it by hand any day!

What a cool machine!

What a cool machine!

Here are the teeth marks in the trench.

Here are the teeth marks in the trench.

Going downhill was the fastest. And it went pretty fast!

Going downhill was the fastest. And it went pretty fast!

Leading up to the wellhouse.

Leading up to the wellhouse.

Downhill toward the dairy paddock.

Downhill toward the dairy paddock.

A crossroads between two trenches.

A crossroads between two trenches.

We had to hurry to get the trenches in the driveway dug, lined with pipe, then refilled so traffic could flow!

We had to hurry to get the trenches in the driveway dug, lined with pipe, then refilled so traffic could flow!

Matt picked up the biggest load of PVC he had ever bought.

Matt picked up the biggest load of PVC he had ever bought.

It might have been the biggest order of PVC ever sold by our local hardware store!

It might have been the biggest order of PVC ever sold by our local hardware store!

Matt collects a few pre-glued pipes at a time.

Matt collects a few pre-glued pipes at a time.

Hauling them takes skills!

Hauling them takes skills!

And yes, we use an old gator as a wagon. Waste not, want not.

And yes, we use an old gator as a wagon. Waste not, want not.

Lining up the pipes next to the trenches.

Lining up the pipes next to the trenches.

The boys are playing jump-pipe.

The boys are playing jump-pipe.

That sure is a long piece of pipe!

That sure is a long piece of pipe!

One of 4 wells that will supply the water.

One of 4 wells that will supply the water.

Ready for pipe!

Ready for pipe!

This section is a main supply and has 3 lines going out. Most areas will only have one line.

This section is a main supply and has 3 lines going out. Most areas will only have one line.

Ready for action.

Ready for action.

Axl pats Daddy on the back for all his hard work.

Axl pats Daddy on the back for all his hard work.

It's pretty fun to get dirty with Dad!

It’s pretty fun to get dirty with Dad!

The Cadman men working hard!

The Cadman men working hard!

Vitamins Plus Longview now carrying all our pasture-raised meats!

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We are proud to announce that Vitamins Plus in Longview has started carrying our soy-free pasture-raised chicken, making them the FIRST store in Texas to carry all three of our meat varieties! They now carry whole chickens, boneless skinless breast, thighs, brisket, boneless ribeye, t-bone, sirloin, beef round roast, chuck roast, stew meat, ground beef, and pork chops. Please stop by and check out their inventory, and let us know what else you’d like to see for sale there!

Vitamins Plus Longview, Texas

Chicken Backs for Soup

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Question: What are chicken backs?

Answer: “Chicken backs” are the core of the chicken that is left after the breast, wings, and legs have been cut away for parts.

Our chicken backs are fairly meaty and are typically used to make broth and to harvest the remaining meat. 2013 is the first year we have been able to offer this cut, and we are excited to share the results with you.

9 Chicken Backs in a 16-quart stock pot, ready for cooking!

9 Chicken Backs in a 16-quart stock pot, ready for cooking!

 

I (Jerica) love making huge batches of broth as opposed to small ones, since it is a time-intensive process, and adding more bones and water simply increases the yield, but not really the work. In this case, I decided to make about a half batch in my 16-quart pot just so I could document what I did easily. I used 3 bags of chicken backs, which have 3 carcasses each, so 9 total. It was about 13 lb of chicken backs, and would have cost me roughly $35 if I had bought them from myself at farmers’ market.

I took the thawed chicken backs overnight and placed them in the pot and covered them with water. I put it on medium-high and brought it to a boil, then reduced the heat to low to keep the broth at a visible simmer.

Stock Cooking

Let ‘dem bones simmer for at least 20 hours, removing the meat from the bones after the first hour. Add a little apple cider vinegar to improve the mineral extraction.

After an hour*, I removed the backs to a platter, let them cool for 20 minutes, and then picked off the meat from under the shoulder blades, along the back and neck, and what remained on the breast.

*The cooking time for meat-on cuts is important. If you cook it more than an hour, the bones will begin to fall apart and the meat will turn tough and stringy. It is best to pick off the meat after an hour of simmering, then return the bones to the pot to continue simmering.

Cooked chicken that used to be trash

The grand finale–cooked chicken meat gathered about an hour into the cooking process. This will be used for soup, tacos, or some other quick meal calling for cooked, boneless chicken.

With moderate thriftiness (aka no, I didn’t get every tiny scrap of meat, but I did try to get most of it), I was able to collect about ½ cup of meat per carcass, or about 1.5 cups per package of 3 backs. I tossed the bones back into the pot, put the meat into the fridge, and kept cooking the bones for another 20 hours or so.

When the time came, I poured the broth through a colander into a large metal bowl (careful—it’s HOT!). I got about 4 quarts of broth which was not terribly golden because I had neither used vegetables nor roasted the backs, which are nice touches but not necessary. I usually use broth in things like rice or as a soup base to which I will add veggies anyway, so I don’t worry about adding the flavor during the broth-making process. It comes later.
I was pretty happy with the yield. The leftover meat is great for tacos, casseroles, BBQ sandwiches, or even to throw into soup that you make with all that broth.

So for $35 and some elbow grease, I got 4 quarts of broth and 4.5 cups of meat. That’s about 2 lb of meat. If we assign a price to that, say $8/lb, that leaves about $19 for the broth, or about $5 per quart. I have no idea what the going rate is for store-bought broth or ground chicken, but I can tell you that this stuff is the best quality you can get. Homemade bone broth is rich in minerals and gelatin (that’s why it gels in the fridge and the commercial stuff doesn’t!). And it is an excellent way to get additional value from parts of your meat that you otherwise might have just thrown in the trash.

In this case, I’d say the chicken backs are wonderful if your primary goal is to get loads of broth plus a little meat if you don’t mind the work. If you want the golden chicken broth color right off the bat, you’ll need to add bouquet to this, such as herbs, carrots, celery, and onion. I usually opt to wait to add the veggies and use them as part of the meal for frugality’s sake, but I frequently add scraps that I have saved in the freezer, such as potato peels, carrot tops, celery leaves, onion roots, etc, in order to improve the flavor, and again, make something out of nothing that is extremely nutritious.

So from chicken backs you get two things: broth AND meat, which is perfect for making chicken tacos. Check out Jerica’s real lard-made flour tortilla recipe here.

Or you can read about how to make homemade broth and soup in more detail.

How Do We Make It To Market?

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How Do We Make It To Market?

If you’ve ever shopped at a farmers market, or perhaps been lucky enough to visit several different ones, you’ll realize that it is usually a totally unique experience—for better or worse, it is nothing like shopping at a supermarket or a mall.

In some cases, there are similarities to conventional shopping outlets. A large market like Shreveport’s will have traffic and noise and lots of people. But shoppers find that it’s worth the inconvenience because the vendors come from a larger radius and thus can offer a wider variety of produce during the market season.

Indeed, in my own short experience with the Shreveport Farmers Market, I have seen everything from shrimp, cheese, and rice to sweet corn, cutting boards, and fresh-ground peanut butter. Smaller markets usually feel the burden of seasonal challenges more strongly (meaning you might see just a whole bunch of okra and eggplant come August), but they are easier to navigate and have a more laid back atmosphere. Whatever the size of the market you attend, have you ever thought about what it takes to get to market?

Surely as a shopper you have gone through your mental checklist: “Cash, canvas bags, shopping list, stroller for carrying things, cooler for cold items, recycled bags, egg cartons,” etc. You probably dress especially for the outdoor atmosphere of your market—hat, sunglasses, walking shoes. The challenges you overcome are many (besides the parking!): no air conditioning (unless you happen to be really lucky!), no shopping carts, and no 24-hour service. Often enough, there are no credit card machines or bathrooms!

But still you persist because you recognize the value of the local and the seasonal. It tastes great and you are building a sustainable food system in your area. It’s worth the inconvenience to make it to market, right?

But what about the folks who work to make your market?

Let’s take a moment to step into the worlds of the vendors and market manager on market day.

The Vendors

We get up before dark. Before the roosters even start crowing, we go through our checklist, willing the coffee to kick in so we can think clearly in the early morning hours. There are a few things that we absolutely can’t function without—the change stash, the price list, the extension cord, the plastic bags. Everything gets loaded and off we go. We pray on the way that there won’t be delays or traffic jams or accidents. In the world of the one-and-only freeway, we just hope that there won’t be a holdup with no detour, because if we don’t make it through the gate by 6:30, they won’t even let us into the pavilion to sell.

But the work starts way before 6:30 in the morning on market day! In fact, when we hit the ground after the last week’s market has ended, our work begins. Picking the crops, tending the animals, milking the cows, collecting the eggs. There is so much to do. It’s like the sports and the big game. You prepare all week for a few hours’ of glory-time. Then, win or lose, when it’s over, you begin again.

When we get there we start the set-up. By the end of the summer it becomes so automatic that we hardly have to keep our eyes open, and we are grateful for a little more brain-rest time. Some vendors come up with clever additions to their booths. Decorative flowers, rubber mats to stand on, shade tents, mister fans, product samples, information handouts, even cold drink for sale. Anything to help attract customers and to make the market experience more pleasant for both shopper and vendor.

By the time the opening bell rings at 7, we’ve been working for almost 4 hours already! So when our faithful customers bring us gifts of fresh coffee or homemade cake or even a bit of homebrew—wow! Does it make our day!

When we smile at you, the passerby shopper, don’t feel scared off. We’re proud of our hard work and our interesting products. Please take your time and browse! After all, when you’re standing there, it helps others to feel comfortable to step up and take a look, too.

But remember the unspoken rule at market—if you’re not buying, please don’t make a potential customer wait while you chat with us. Wait until we’re done transacting. After all, that’s why we’re there. It’s fun to chat, but shooting the breeze doesn’t pay the bills!

When you bring along your shopping list, please leave room for flexibility. If we don’t have what you’re looking for, ask us for ideas. Don’t be afraid to try what’s in season. After all, that’s why you’re here! What local food lacks in convenience it makes up for in flavor! In other words, you may have wanted cabbage, but it might already be sweet corn season. Are you willing to try something new for the sake of seasonality?

Here’s an insider secret—it floats our farmer boat when you want to buy what we farmers want to sell. If we have gobs and gobs of tomatoes but you’re disappointed because our figs haven’t come in yet, please buy some tomatoes! If we’re running a special on chicken soup bones but have run out of beef stew meat, adjust your mealplan and make chicken soup this week! Farmers have the unique challenge of being controlled by seasons and nature. We can’t call up our overseas warehouse and ask them to ship another containerful of that out-of-season crop. We have what the earth yielded, and hearing, “Well, I’ll check back next week,” can be pretty disheartening. Those tomatoes won’t keep until then, and the birds may get to our figs before we do.

At noon, the closing bell rings and we collect our belongings as quickly as we can to begin the trip back to the farm. Most of us head home to work again. Milking the cows, collecting the eggs, watering the veggies. Then a little rest finally, after the chores are done.

By the time we get home, it might have been a solid 12-hour work day or longer, and that’s before the evening chores! But our memories of the interesting questions and conversations at market replay in our minds as we wind down and prepare for another week of market preparation.

Our warmest memories are in knowing we taught you a little something about the land or from hearing your stories about how tasty our products were in the dish you made last week. It is a special thing to sell to friends at our local farmers market.

***

The Market Manager

Perhaps even less considered than the vendors’ pre-market preparations are the preparations of the market manager, which start long before the customers even start making their shopping lists! I interviewed our market manager for this article.

Meet Noma, manager of the Shreveport Farmers’ Market, the largest farmers’ market in the Ark-La-Tex.

Sorry to switch styles on you, but Q&A worked best for this section!

What things do you have to do and think about and bring with you before market even begins? 

Because the farmers/ranchers are still the heart of this market, I think about them and their needs first. They are the ones who get plugged into the layout first. I won’t say the other things are “filler,” as they are well-loved by our public, but it is, after all, a FARMERS’ MARKET. People have come to expect the vast variety we offer. 

There are a million logistical challenges involved – will their trucks/trailers fit; I don’t want people selling similar things too close together; do I have water for sale in all areas; who needs/gets electricity; all those sorts of things. In fact, getting all of this figured out is one of the biggest parts of my job.

When do you start preparing for each market? 

Generally, I start coming back in, as I am part-time/seasonal, in about January. That’s when we’ll get the calendar from the City that dictates our dates. I start planning the meetings that take place in early Spring. I get all the notices and press out for that, which takes place generally in March or April.

What are your responsibilities during market?

My duties have really changed a lot this year, for this is the first year I’ve had employees working for me. The employees cover collecting payments from the vendors, and make sure rules are being followed, etc, while I answer questions from the public at the Info Tower.

This was also the first year we’ve been able to accept SNAP, so a lot of my time goes to doing that. Although it’s time-consuming and does not add anything financial to the market, we think it’s important to give the opportunities to have healthy foods to all segments of our community.

In theory, I should be at the Tower all the time, but there are still things “only Noma can do” at times, so I tend to be here and there throughout the hours we are open.

What else would you be doing if you weren’t at market?

I have two other jobs that I work around my season at the market. I am a free-lance writer with a regular gig with Forum Magazine, writing mostly about interesting homes. I also work for LSU Medical School as a monitor in their Standardized Patient program.

I am supposed to be a creative writer and an artist, but I don’t find a lot of time for that these days. Still, something occasionally pops out.

I have big old 1921 house that I love, and pets. I’m really a homebody when not at the market.

What unexpected events make your day at market? Is there anything special that happens or that someone does from time to time that make it worth your while?

When people tell me how much they love our market, I just glow. It’s what I want to happen. It was also very fulfilling to have people coming to the Info Tower and pointing to the East End and asking, “What’s down there?” It finally validated that the West End is getting the attention it deserves. I strive to be fair, and that was a great indicator that things are finally beginning to balance.

Another exciting facet of our market’s growth is getting the great media coverage we’re receiving. So many times, TV stations or reporters or documentarians come into our market with the knowledge they’ll get a great, heart-warming story. I do not care for my image on video or the sound of my voice, but as long as I don’t have to watch it, I’d do just about anything for this market.

What are your challenges on a typical market day, and what do you do to compensate for them?

Complaints are not fun, and I get them from all directions – the public, the vendors, the various entities that put the market together. I try to listen and let people know why things are how they are, or learn from the feedback. For instance – the bathrooms under the Spring Street Bridge are being refurbished. It is very inconvenient for both vendors and shoppers. However, there really is no good time to fix them. Festival Plaza is a multi-use space that is in use almost continually. The only other time available would be the dead of winter when freezes might disrupt the plumbing improvements. There are other bathrooms, just a few yards further. It’s not the best thing in the world, but when people realize that most markets don’t have bathrooms, or electricity, or the need of so many parking places, it kind of puts it in perspective. 

I was a vendor before I took over as manager of this market. I try to just make the market that I’d want to sell in. One that offers diversity to the public, opportunity for the vendors, and a destination for the City. And in all honesty, I love what’s been happening here. That’s compensation enough.

***

The 2013 Shreveport Farmers Market season ends at noon on August 31. The fall market starts on Saturday, October 26 at 8:00 am and runs each Saturday through November 23. You can keep up with Market announcements by following their facebook page or by visiting their website.

Shady Grove Ranch will provide deliveries to Shreveport every two weeks while the market is closed in September and early October, then again in December through May.

What happened to my dark-yolked eggs?

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What happened to my dark-yolked eggs?

201309 eggs color

 

I have seen lots of conversation online about consumers’ local, pasture-based egg source selling them pale eggs in the summertime—even paler than what is found at the supermarket!

Naturally the reaction is, “Why am I paying more and going to greater lengths to get what appears to be an inferior product?”

Good question.

Eggs, like all seasonal foods, change in appearance, quality, and even taste according to environmental factors. Here in east Texas, the animals’ biggest challenges are keeping cool during our long, hot sunny summer days. In fact, our hot, dry summers are almost like northern winters in the sense that the plants and animals go into survival mode and don’t produce as much or as well as they do during the rest of the year.

But back to the question. How do you know that your locally-sourced pasture-raised eggs are better than supermarket or health food store “cage-free,” “organic,” and “free-range?”

Let’s not go too far into what “they” are doing wrong—let’s just talk about what “right things” you should look for when sourcing eggs and the reasons for doing so.

What to look for in an egg source

1. Exposure to sunshine.

Being in the sun allows chickens to naturally produce vitamin D. It also helps their environment to be cleaner because of the sun’s sanitizing ability. Pathogens cannot take hold in a UV-washed environment. Of course, the chickens tend to hunker down in the shade during the hottest part of the day, but they still get plenty of sunshine exposure.

2. Exposure to growing vegetation.

Real vegetation is one of the main sources of the detoxifying agents like chlorophyll and beneficial polyunsaturated oils in pasture-raised eggs, such as CLA and omega-3 fatty acids. Sure, those can be artificially supplemented in conventional chickens’ diets, but doesn’t that defeat the purpose? Perhaps the natural seasonal change from lush spring green to fibrous summer forage plays a role in producing healthy chickens, eggs, and egg-eaters. It is certainly something to consider!

3. Exposure to real bugs.

Eating insects is where chickens get their vitamin K as well as other hard-to-find nutrients. Plus chickens have fun chasing the bugs and chasing each other when somebody finally catches one. Thank goodness for chickens so we don’t have to eat bugs ourselves just to get vitamin K! Eggs are much tastier than grasshoppers. 

Pro tip: “Cage-Free,” “Free-Range,” and “Organic” labels DO NOT indicate that the chickens were actually raised outdoors. It can simply mean that they “have access” to outdoors, which can be a tiny enclosed concrete pen with screen walls. No grass. No bugs. No sunshine. Better to look for “Pasture-Raised.” Better still to visit the actual farm!

4. Avoiding Genetically-Modified Feeds (GMOs).

Genetically-modified organisms come in a variety of forms, but the primary ones you’ll see is soy, corn, cottonseed, rapeseed (aka canola), and alfalfa, and the primary use for these kinds of crops is for livestock feed. If your farmer doesn’t know whether the feed contains GMOs, it PROBABLY DOES. It can be extremely difficult to source non-GMO feed at typical farm supply stores, as livestock feed is one of the top outlets for GMO products.

GMOs haven’t been required to be tested for safety AT ALL, and the few trial feeding experiments that have been done indicate that feeding animals GMOs results in stomach and intestinal problems and development of tumors. Thanks but no thanks.

5. Avoiding soy.

Soy contains lots of nasties, including estrogenic compounds, high levels of phytic acids, and goitrogenic phytochemicals. Soy is cheap and high in protein. Soy also happens to be a plant and so has become extremely popular among chicken feed producers because the necessary protein levels for healthy hens can be attained while still using a “vegetarian-based” feed. Newsflash: chickens aren’t vegetarians. They need bugs! But when you put 80,000 of them under one roof, there aren’t enough bugs to go around. Thus the “need” for high-protein soy. 

Chickens do need some supplemental protein, but there are better alternatives that are lower in those bad phytochemicals and are not genetically modified (yet), like field peas, sesame, peanuts, milk, meat, and bugs! There are those bugs again… 

6. Avoiding antibiotics.

There are three ways antibiotics might be used in a laying chicken’s life. First it is when the birds are young and it takes the form of “medicated” feed.

The second is similar, when adult chickens are fed “medicated” feed to prevent disease and reduce stress. The problem with long-term use of low-level antibiotics is that evidence suggests this is where your superbug pathogens come from. Bacteria always exist in food and among animals, and when exposed to non-therapeutic antibiotics, they grow resistant and become extremely dangerous. Antibiotic use like this necessitates bigger and badder guns to provide food safety such as chlorine or ammonia washing, pasteurization, and irradiation.

The third use is the occasional, therapeutic use of antibiotics for emergencies. When a chicken is sick and the antibiotics would save her life, ok. At Shady Grove Ranch, we prefer simply to “do the chicken in,” but we rarely have sick birds to begin with. 

7. Avoiding arsenic and other growth stimulants.

Arsenic is (surprisingly) widely used among poultry growers to help the birds to grow and remain productive in a stressful environment. It acts as a appetite stimulant and helps the birds to ward off certain confinement-related diseases. In meat chickens, it produces a nice “healthy-looking” pinkish flesh in the chicken. But it’s a poison and we feel it really has no place in food production if there is a better way to produce the food, such as using strategies that allow the animal to naturally detoxify and live in an environment that is appropriate and therefore very low stress.

Pro tip: “All-Natural” labels are basically meaningless and don’t refer to the way the animal was raised. So if your eggs claim to be “all natural,” they may still have come from chickens that were fed antibiotics, GMOs, and arsenic. Yuck!

8. Rotational Management.

Rotational Management is key to good chicken health, good soil health, tasty eggs, and sustainable production. When any animal is left too long living in its manure, it will get sick. Just like humans. Animals should be rotated across pasture so their manure has time to be digested by the soil and rendered safe and useful to the land. In other words, chickens shouldn’t have to live in their own toilet. This should be common sense, but we’ll be the first to tell you that it takes a lot of work and ingenuity to actually put it into practice. Many backyard chicken operations employ the use of permanent pens that ultimately lead to the chickens having health problems. Thankfully the use of “chicken tractors,” or small mobile pens, is on the rise! Why is rotation so hard? Because everything LOVES to eat chicken and lots of protection and planning are required to keep predation under control while still allowing the chickens to forage freely. Chicken tractors are a nice small-scale solution to both problems.

What about “confinement?”

Notice “avoid confinement” isn’t on this list. What does “non-confined” mean, anyway? Whether it’s a tiny cage or a perimeter fence around 100 acres, the chickens have to be confined somehow. This term takes a bit of common sense to interpret, just as with “cage-free,” or “free-range.”

Chickens don’t really need a huge amount of space if they are managed well. If you find a local farmer who keeps his chickens in a small pen, but who is dedicated to moving them frequently, that’s fine! Even farmers that lock their chickens in at night but allow them forage time during the day are doing great. After all, a farmer has to protect his flock from predators and there are lots of ways to do that while still allowing for a healthful, sustainable way to raise them.

The main thing to look for is not whether the chickens live “in a cage,” but rather, whether that cage contains these elements that are important for the birds’ health. Of course at some point even a regularly rotated cage can be so small that it causes the birds undue stress, which will be obvious by the emergence of missing feathers and bodily injury. All the more reason to go SEE where your food comes from!

Does it matter what color the yolks are?

We started this conversation talking about yolk color. There are diverse opinions about what the color of the yolk means regarding nutritional value. But there are plenty of ways to boost the color of an egg yolk, whether naturally or unnaturally. For example, it is known that if a chicken is fed mostly yellow corn, the yolk will be fairly dark. That same chicken on a white-corn diet will have much paler yolks. And chickens who have never even seen real grass may be fed ground marigold petals which lend a beautiful golden hue to the yolk. Maybe the color isn’t as important as some make it out to be…

All we know is that we raise our chickens as healthfully as possible, and here is what happens seasonally with their eggs:

The Seasonality of Eggs

Spring: Eggs are small, whites are dense and very jelly-like, shells are very hard, and yolks are dark, sometimes almost so orange they are red.

Summer: Eggs are larger, whites become more watery, shells get thin, sometimes too thin, and yolks are large and pale and break easily.

Fall: After the rains start, the eggs return to spring-like characteristics.

Winter: When it gets cold enough that the grass stops growing, the eggs return to summer-like characteristics.

This article is already really long, but if you care to consider why this happens, here is our hypothesis:

Spring/Fall

When the grass is growing rapidly and very lush, it is easy for the chickens to eat. The phytochemicals in the grass lend an orange tone to the yolk and the chickens eat much more forage than feed, yielding a smaller, tastier egg. The grass is in its protein stage, so the hen can produce better quality proteins for a denser, more jelly-like egg white. The combination of cool weather (i.e. low stress on the hen’s body) and high mineral content of the grass allows the hen to utilize all the calcium she is eating and make a strong shell. Yes, the yolk is darker and very likely has a different nutritional profile than a summer egg, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the egg is more nutritious. It is just different.

Summer/Winter

When the grasses mature (i.e. go to seed) in hot or very cold weather, the available forage is considerably lower in protein and more difficult to eat and the hen must rely more on her feed ration than on the grasses. In summer, she drinks lots of water to keep cool and the egg white ends up more watery in texture and less dense. The heat makes her body less apt to utilize calcium and her shells get thinner. When it rains, there is a noticeable difference in the shell and yolk quality, but it only lasts for a day or so. Yes, the yolks are lighter in color than spring eggs, and maybe even lighter than store-bought eggs (where the chickens are likely fed a highly controlled diet so the yolk is the same color all year long).

Perhaps it is good to embrace the seasonal changes in our food. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about changes in quality of your farm-raised foods. But don’t be afraid to eat with the seasons, either!

 201309 eggs

Farmers’ Hands – Day-to-day tasks of two sustainable farmers

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By Jerica Cadman

Farming can be described with a vast variety of words, and Matt and I often reflect on how different farming is from “real life,” because not too long ago, we exited the corporate/university world to enter into a life of working with the land for a living. It is a life of uncertainty, excitement, disappointment, worry, hope, and sacrifice, full of interesting people, hard work, long days, and unbelievable experiences. If I had to choose one word to describe the farming life, it would be “diverse.” So I thought I would share an up-close-and-personal view of one aspect of the diversity of activity involved in livestock farming. It is a story of how two farmers use their hands.

Matt’s Hands

Despite the fact that he had no livestock experience, Matt was considered a jack of all trades well before he started farming. He was a mechanical engineer with a keen interest in design for manufacturing. In fact, his passion for manufacturing was so great,  that before he was even a “senior member” of his would-be senior design project (Formula SAE) in college, he functioned as lead welder and co-lead machinist. Now, pulling from a variety of sources, he has learned even more skills that allow him to care for all his animals on a daily basis.

Probably the most rewarding of the activities he does using his hands is when Matt brings life into the world during the occasional assisted delivery of calves and piglets. But it is a mix of anticipation and anxiousness while we are waiting for the birth, wondering if everything will go smoothly, and occasionally having to step in and help. Sometimes it doesn’t end well. We’ve lost calves, piglets, and mother cows and sows. There are times when death is inflicted intentionally, such as when we have an injured animal that is beyond help. Sometimes it is out of defense, when dangerous wildlife are threatening our livestock. Yet many times the choice to kill is not black and white—we only have to hope we made the right decision at the time.

Every day, twice a day, even on Christmas, Matt uses his hands to milk three Jersey cows. To do this well, he has to be scrupulous, timely, and consistent—milk cows like everything to be the same all the time! But Matt also has to be gentle and reassuring to the cows so they give plenty of creamy milk. When that’s over, he moves on to more brutish tasks like digging holes and irrigation trenches, hammering nails, driving in fence posts, manhandling various equipment into submission, and occasionally even “testing” the electric fence when he accidentally comes too close.

With his hands he skillfully welds together steel. Sometimes he cuts it apart. Sometimes he touches the ground to gauge its dryness or the grass to judge its lushness in order to better manage his livestock.

At the end of the day, he comes home, and most of the time his hands are covered in calluses, dirt, nicks and scratches, sweat, sawdust, oil and grease, metal shavings, and sometimes even blood, manure, or afterbirth. Matt cleans up and we sit down for dinner, and every night he holds the hands of his two young sons, Shevi and Axl, and his wife, and thanks God for the good food we will eat and the safety and blessing that God has given us.

Matt's Hands

Matt’s hands with a few typical end-of-day scratches and nicks.

 

Someone recently asked me to share more of my personal life as a farming wife and mother. So perhaps this is a good time to share what my hands do as well.

Jerica’s Hands

I’m sure many reading have children of their own and are familiar with the never-ending tasks of a mother. The changing of diapers, folding of laundry, sweeping of floors, cleaning of dishes and furniture and faces and floors, preparation and storage and clean-up of food, kneading of bread, measuring of ingredients, the whisking, the scrubbing, the stirring, and on and on.

Then there’s the mothering side of my “job,” when my kids bump their heads, I rub them, and when we cross the street, I hold their hands, and when they can’t quite master the spoon at lunch, I sit and feed them. I teach them to clap and to play and to put their toys away. I let them help pack eggs and sometimes there are casualties, so we clean those up. My hands have to move quickly as I try to thwart accidental crashes or drops or to correct the erroneous really-dirty-egg in the carton—it goes into the “personal” basket. But I do a lot more than that.

I consider myself the sales manager of our company, Shady Grove Ranch, and I spend much of my time talking with customers, jotting down orders, programming cash registers, and counting change in preparation for farmers market. I also am in charge of developing materials like price lists and sampler packages and website information and informational articles. For this I need pictures, so I frequently walk around the ranch with a camera, shooting photos of our animals and people in action. I am not an organized person by nature, so I spend a lot of time trying to figure the best way to organize my office and my desk. Sometimes it takes a lot of re-work!

Sometimes I am able to get out and work alongside Matt, moving cattle, building fences, working on projects, repairing structures… I hammer, drill, saw, staple, pry, dig, and even occasionally weld (I am a welding engineer, after all!).

Before I had my two children, I would milk cows daily, morning and evening, so Matt could spend his time doing tasks that only he could do. I grew attached to the cows and enjoyed the work, monotonous as it became over the years. I enjoy getting out and being part of the “fun” part of farming, as do most people that get to spend a little time helping us with projects at the ranch.

But most of my part in the “real” farming is the paperwork side of things. I never knew how much there really would be when running our own business. Farming is a full time job and then some, and I am thankful that there are two of us (plus Matt’s parents and our farm hand!) to take it all on.

A lesser part of my job happens sporadically when Matt calls me on the radio and says breathlessly, “Can you help me?” These times are usually emergencies, when Matt needs help to cut a cow out of the herd for medical intervention, or to rescue chickens from a sudden weather threat, or to recapture escaped cows, or to aid in delivering a baby animal, whether that happens out in the pasture or in the squeeze chute or at the vet’s office when things get really desperate. It is fortunate that these are the times that work best with two sets of hands, because two sets of hearts are there also to catch each other if things don’t go well.

I’ve always been a bit of a tomboy so my hands were never particularly delicate. I grew up riding horses and exchanging the mucking of stalls for lessons, so I’m used to hard work and lots of dirt. I find myself laughing silently at farmers market when I notice, as I’m pointing out something to a customer, a little bit of dirt still under my fingernails. Being a woman, I get a little embarrassed and try to remember not to point with that finger anymore. But it comes with the territory, I guess. It’s like I always say about our unwashed eggs: The dirt is there to prove that they’re real!

Who is Top Cow at Shady Grove Ranch? Part 3 – Tiny

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Welcome to part III of our “Who is top cow at Shady Grove Ranch?” series. First we introduced you to Gordita. Next we introduced you to Tilly. Now it is time to let you meet the first cow ever born at Shady Grove Ranch.

Who is Top Cow at Shady Grove Ranch? Part 3 – Tiny

If you recall in the story about Gordita, this tubby, funny-looking old momma cow was purchased at a discount with the intent to turn her into well-marbled, grass-fed hamburger. But Matt has a keen eye and noticed that Gordita was showing signs of imminent calving. Sure enough, one morning, there was a flop-eared tiny little calf in the field. Just for fun, we called her Tiny. She was the first calf ever born at Shady Grove Ranch.

This is Tiny as a newborn calf with her mother, Gordita.

This is Tiny as a newborn calf with her mother, Gordita.

As Tiny grew up, we knew she was something special . She looked just like her momma and was the friendliest cow in our beef herd. It is unusual for beef cows to seek out human contact, but Tiny did. She would often come up and lick a visitor’s hand or pants, even though we never fed the cows treats or anything. Few of our cows would even remain standing close enough to us to allow us to touch them. But Tiny was genuinely friendly and curious and seemed to enjoy making friends with us.

She was spunky, though. Very spunky! She proved that to us early on.

After moving to Shady Grove Ranch in March 2010, we set to work repairing the old fences that existed here and also frantically began installing new electric fences, since we already knew that the only fence cows will truly respect is one that offers a quick electric zap if a cow comes too close. However, we apparently were not quick enough.

One day we received a call from our neighbors reporting that a small group of our cows had paraded down the driveway and taken some nibbles of their shrubbery and lawn. The neighbors, being friendly horse people and used to large animals, had corralled the cows into their round pen in preparation for us to come get them. We apologized profusely and headed over to round up our rogue livestock.

Matt arrived with the cattle trailer and began loading up the cattle. But Tiny, the only calf in the group, did not yet know how to load onto a trailer or how to be herded like the adult cows. Calves are notorious for choosing all the wrong directions to run when humans are trying to herd them along. Tiny refused to get into the trailer!

Since she was so young, Matt decided it would be faster to carry her to her place in the trailer. He approached her and quickly straddled her, trying to collect all her legs so that he wouldn’t get kicked. He immediately felt a dull pain on his shin. He looked and realized that Tiny wasn’t kicking him, but was gnawing on his leg! She bit him!

So that was Tiny’s calfhood—she was spunky, fun to watch, energetic, and healthy.

Over the next two years, she grew into a lovely young heifer cow, and we put her in the big breeding herd with the bull, Big John.

Tiny as a young heifer, early in pregnancy.

Tiny as a young heifer, early in her first pregnancy.

Within weeks of being introduced to the bull, Tiny was bred, and approximately 10 months later (March 2013), she gave birth to her own flop-eared tiny little heifer calf. What is amazing is that Gordita, Tiny’s mother, also gave birth that very same morning to an identical little heifer. A double blessing for the farmers at Shady Grove Ranch!

Gordita and Grace in front, and Tiny and her new calf in back.

Gordita and Grace in front, and Tiny and her new calf in back.

We named Gordita’s calf Grace because we had decided to give Gordita one more chance after a failed calving of twins last year.

Now we need your help to name Tiny’s calf!

Here are Gordita’s calves’ names: Tiny, Mini, Grace.  Now Tiny has started her own line with a cute little female calf. What shall we name her? Please leave your ideas in the comments!

2020 Update

We have made Tiny’s photo into a Farm Fan Club Sticker! Get yours here with your next order!

Bull fight at Shady Grove Ranch!

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Bull fight at Shady Grove Ranch!

Pedro on the left and Big John on the right.

Pedro on the left and Big John on the right.

Meet Pedro, the young Jersey bull owned by TrueFields LLC. Pedro, who is a dairy bull (as opposed to a beef bull), is a bit more high-strung than our beef bull, Big John. That’s not surprising, as we’ve heard stories from old-timer dairy farmers about dairy bulls suddenly turning dangerous, warning us to always keep an eye out for young dairy bulls. For some reason, dairy bulls are not as mellow as most breeds of beef bulls. Perhaps it is because most dairy bulls are bottle-fed by a human instead of being raised by a cow, so perhaps they lose some of their respect for the distinction between man and beast.

So when working with Pedro, or any bull at the ranch, we are always cautious and attentive. We’d prefer not to have to keep a potentially dangerous animal, but we do have to have a dairy bull to make babies so TrueFields LLC cowshare can continue to operate. We just try to seek out as mellow an animal as possible to rebreed our cows each year. (Unlike conventional dairies where a cow can be fed hormones to extend her milking season to multiple years after a single pregnancy, we only milk our cows for about 10 months at a time, giving the cow a 2 month rest before her next calf is born.)

Our grass growth has exploded at the ranch due to plentiful rain and fairly moderate spring temperatures for East Texas. Instead of mowing, we often let the cows graze around the house. Free food for them, free labor for us! This week, Matt let the dairy herd around the house to graze. I began to hear some mooing and (believe it or not) cow growling, as if a couple of bulls were challenging each other. I went to the back door to investigate, wondering as I walked, “Who could he be challenging? There aren’t any more bulls over there.” Sure enough, Pedro was outside, scraping the ground with his hooves, snorting and huffing at another bull near his paddock.

Great. A bull fight. Just what we need–broken fences, mis-bred cows, and general chaos. On top of that, Matt was away for the day, bringing some cows to processing. I’d be on my own to control these feisty animals.

It only took me seconds to realize that this bull was not challenging another bull—he was challenging his reflection! He had meandered over to the wellhouse and spotted his own reflection in the window. Now he was snorting and threatening the big scary bull across the fence! I managed to get a short clip of video of it, and in the video, it looks like he even managed to frighten himself.

The wonders of farm life never cease to amaze me, and most of the time, they make me laugh!

Here is the video of Pedro making a fool of himself. Enjoy!

Fun Facts about Farm Words – Installment 1: Cows on Vacation

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Fun Facts about Farm Words

Installment One:  Cows on Vacation

By PapPap Cadman

Do you know the difference between a cow and a steer?  Or a heifer and a stirk?

Sometimes understanding all the various words used in raising cattle, as well as other farm animals, can be daunting.  When I arrived at Shady Grove Ranch some three years ago, that was certainly my experience.  It seemed to me at first that everything on our ranch that was bigger than a pig was a “cow.”  And I figured that that was all I really needed to know.  Who cared whether the “cow” was really a bull or a steer?  Or a heifer, for that matter?

But over the years I have learned that more exactitude would be useful.  For example, it is a lot more helpful to report to Matthew that “a bull is in with the heifers,” than that “there’s an extra cow in the field.”  Besides, I had read someplace years ago that it was a virtue to “eschew obfuscation,” so I finally decided that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to learn the proper terms for various farm animals.

This pursuit of terminological accuracy is actually great fun.  Though I am a retired gospel minister, I did spend some early years studying (and teaching) about words.  My first college degree was in Russian, and I followed my BA with an MA in that same field, and even completed doctoral course work in Russian at the University of Pittsburgh in 1976.  And though Russian is my main “fun language,” I did study a fair number of other languages, including French, Spanish, Ukrainian, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, as well as a few not-so-widely recognized languages like Old Church Slavonic and Ancient Russian.

How boring, you say?  I suppose it can be.  But, approached rightly, I have found that words are loads of fun.  What I especially like is the relationships between words in different languages.  Did you know, for example, that the term “vaccination” was probably first used in 1803 by a British physician to describe his new technique of injecting patients against cowpox?  He created the term from the old Latin word vacca, which means “cow.”  The reason he did that is because the substance he injected into his patients was taken from a cow (vacca).  And the stuff he injected, of course, we call “vaccine.” So getting a vaccination was originally considered to be getting injected with something from a cow.  It meant getting “vacca-inated”!  And I suppose that’s better than getting “cowinated.”

Speaking of cows, it is also fun to note that, though it cannot be proven, the Latin word for cow (vacca) may be related to the Latin word vacare, which means to be “idle” or “empty.”  We get our English words “vacation,” “vacate,” and “vacant” from the Latin word vacare.  The fun part is that, if the two Latin words vacca and vacare are related, it indicates that, in the eyes of the ancient Latins, vaccae (cows) were vacant (empty).  Personally I would agree with the Latins that cows are empty.  If you have ever stood in front of one of our milk cows while she was being milked, you could not but have noticed that hardly any animal has a more “vacant” look in its eyes.  When it comes to animal intelligence, cows are definitely running on “empty.”  There is absolutely no one at home.  I have seen our cows, who take the same path from pasture to the milk barn twice a day for years, suddenly stop in their tracks, utterly confused as to where they should go next… and the barn is right in front of them!

When it comes to IQ, cows are definitely “on vacation”!

Next time:  Who’s the Boss?

 

Garden Tour – March 2013

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Well, I know I love looking at pictures of gardens, so I thought I’d share ours. It is coming along well, but we haven’t eaten anything (except the herbs) yet. Hopefully this year marks the start of a regular harvest from a spring and fall garden in East Texas. We also hope to keep expanding it enough each year to eventually have some extra for you! In the meantime, check out what we have growing this spring.

What do you have growing right now?