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! š ). 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… ... ContinueĀ reading
Here’s the third installment–if you’re here, you’re a trooper! I appreciate you taking the time to educate yourself on these very important issues.
My first article was some discussion of why we’re even bothering to make the case for meat. If there are all these problems in the food system, resulting in the best products being shockingly expensive to produce, wouldn’t… ... ContinueĀ reading | 1 Comment
Last time, we talked about why we (Matt and Jerica) chose to pursue eating and producing animal products (meats, bones, fats, eggs, etc) because they are more nutrient-dense and digestible than vegetables. For a sick body, every bite counts, and for impaired digestion, those bites have to be highly digestible. Enter Animal Products.
With his ongoing and terrible flare-ups of ulcerative colitis, Matt could… ... ContinueĀ reading | 8 Comments
I have some food for thought for you to ponder as we begin to answer some of the Big Questions that surround what we, the Cadmans, do and why we do it here at Shady Grove Ranch.
Iām going to do a series of brief articles that will hopefully build your foundation of understanding your food sources and also that encourage you to continue your commitment to supporting locally… ... ContinueĀ reading | 6 Comments
We started this ranch from nothing a short 6 years ago. Itās been an intense, never-die experience that is harder than we ever imagined. It may not seem like it, but we are still tiny in terms of farm sizes, producing only a few tens-of-thousands of pounds of meat per year compared to the millions of pounds produced by a single feedlot or confinement location. Translation… ... ContinueĀ reading
Itās almost hog-killinā time.
It is likely that most of our ancestors just a generation or two back participated in a yearly community effort to put up pork for the winter. Here in Jefferson, itās mid-October, and weāre still seeing 80+ degree temperatures, but soon enough itāll be cool even during the day, which is perfect weather for outdoor processing like they did way back when.
Of course… ... ContinueĀ reading | 1 Comment
The catās out of the bag–weāre finally building a farm store! Our store will provide a pleasant and convenient place to shop here at the farm. It will include a commercial kitchen, which will allow us to expand our product selection to additional goods like bone broth, breads, prepared meals, fermented foods, etc. In addition to the delicious and wholesome meats, eggs, and veggies we already offer… ... ContinueĀ reading
I find it to be a great comfort that we get to start thinking about the winter holidays in the dog days of hot East Texas summer. July means turkeys are already on pasture, foraging away to build up the centerpiece of the Thankgiving feast.
If you’re new to our operations, here’s a little bit of info on… ... ContinueĀ reading
Here is a fun article for you. Our apprentices, James and Anna, arrived to the ranch way back in March of this year from South Korea (after a week of visiting James’ family). We had planned to let them transition to farm life gradually, considering that they had just moved all the way from Korea and were still recovering from jet-lag! It was supposed to be an easy week to move… ... ContinueĀ reading
Have you heard the term āGreenwashing?ā Even if you havenāt, perhaps youāve noticed the vast increase in availability of things at the supermarket that have pretty, healthy-looking little green labels. Itās so nice to have so many healthful optionsā¦ or is it?
Not all that long ago in the East Texas/Shreveport area, real health foods were hard to find. I remember the days of driving from one farm in… ... ContinueĀ reading | 3 Comments
