This month marks our 6-year anniversary of arrival at Shady Grove Ranch. Six years, in the context of farming, is hardly any time at all, and yet we’ve come a long way and done a lot of cool stuff and been through a lot of intense experiences! But boy, has it gone by fast. It’s especially fun to chat with our customers who have been with us from the beginning, and… ... Continue reading | 2 Comments
Perhaps many of our readers know us just enough to know that we produce yummy meats and eggs, but not much more than that. Well, let me introduce you to a bit of our kookiness by sharing this fun story. Most of the year, our 185-acre ranch is run by Matt alone, with seasonal help through our internship program. I help with farmy stuff occasionally, with Matt’s parents serving as… ... Continue reading | 1 Comment
We’re members of the American Pastured Poultry Producer’s Association, and part of the membership is being able to participate in an online discussion forum. A few days ago the question arose, “Where could a person find eggs that had been candled to ensure no blood spots, for a customer who was a strict vegetarian and couldn’t eat them?”
As it turns out, blood spots have no correlation with fertile… ... Continue reading | 1 Comment
Farming often feels like feast or famine. We believe we have exited a 3-year-long drought that started … oh, our FIRST summer of production. We made it. By the Lord’s grace we made it. But the pendulum seems to have swung the opposite direction, and rain has absolutely been dumping on us this spring! It started as two heavy snows with some ice, and then turned into cold rain, and… ... Continue reading | 2 Comments
Just for fun, I thought I’d post some photos from our snowy adventures and beyond. Here’s what we’ve been up to at the ranch for the past couple of weeks.
We talk about meats and eggs a lot, since that’s our business, of course. But I wanted to share a little tidbit that I learned along my cooking journey, and that is to use a kitchen scale for baking measurements.
First some background: One of the things I especially avoid at stores is bread. Store-bought bread, though we’ve all been conditioned to think it’s so tasty, is so unlike… ... Continue reading | 2 Comments
I was of a frugal nature before we started farming, and have become all the more so now that we are full-fledged self-employed workers of the land. We count ourselves as highly blessed, despite a tight budget most of the time. We have plenty to eat, sturdy clothes to wear, and a lovely farm to live on and work, so I’m not sure whether it’s the self-employed part or the… ... Continue reading | 2 Comments
We recently put together an event at one of our Longview retail locations: Jack’s Natural Foods. We did a presentation on Pastured Meats and Your Health, and took the time to share Matt’s health story and some of the things we learned about food during his battle with ulcerative colitis. We shared about the Weston A. Price Foundation and Dr. Price’s findings on… ... Continue reading | 2 Comments
We get the question all the time, “How long do your eggs keep?” They have an expiration date on them, which we haven’t always done, and actually aren’t required to do, but it does help us to know how old eggs are so we can make sure we’re selling fresh eggs and rotating stock appropriately. But how significant is that expiration, and if you happen to have SGR eggs that… ... Continue reading
I have decided to do more blogging since Facebook is killing off business pages by trying to force us to monetize our ads, else we get seen by less than 1% of our fans. We don’t have a big marketing budget, but we do want to share farm knowledge and stories with our customers. So a blog on our own website is perhaps the next best option. Here is some… ... Continue reading | 1 Comment
