Tag Archives: pigs

Will this get you back into the kitchen?

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:

They lack the knowledge and skill to cook homemade meals.
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!

Meet James and Anna!

Where are the two of you from?

James: I’m originally from a small mile plus high mountain town in Arizona, named Heber/Overgaard.

Anna: I’m a Korean from Seoul in South Korea.

What are your individual backgrounds?

James: As I mentioned I grew up in the mountains of Arizona, before eventually heading down to the desert where I attended the University of Arizona. I double majored in Media Arts and Creative Writing. After university I headed to Los Angeles to make my fortunes as a movie writer and director. As with most who pursue that lofty dream it did not pan out for me. After five years in L.A. I left the country and headed to Seoul, South Korea to teach English. Living abroad was a wonderful experience. I stayed in Korea for seven years working as a teacher at a public middle school. I had met me wife (Anna) while living in L.A., but she returned to Korea shortly before I moved there and eventually we married in Korea before heading back to the U.S. to pursue our farming dream.

Anna: I was born and grew up in a quite big city right next to Seoul which is the capital of South Korea. My university is in Seoul as well and as it so happens, I majored in Media journalism, that sounds pretty similar to James’s majors. I had been living in a city in my whole 30 years and even my family and most relatives are living in cities. As previously stated, it might be easy to guess that I didn’t have many chances to experience farming so I hadn’t been interested in farming before James declared to be a farmer very soon in the future. He talked about farming and livestock all the time and encouraged me to work in one CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) team in Korea. Through the CSA, I learned many things about agriculture.

What got you interested in farming?

James: The catalyst for me was the combination of wanting to eat healthy food and not enjoying my job. I started researching ways to provide my own food then discovered you don’t have to be born into farming or be rich to get into the trade. After that I spent three years testing the idea before I quit my job to become an apprentice at Shady Grove Ranch.

Anna: It is the same as James said. And plus, I can give a more healthy and happy environment for my family.

What do you find most interesting about sustainable farming?

James: The thing I find most interesting and enjoyable is the synergy between man and land. Land doesn’t do well left to itself and the idea of being able to shape and improve the land and build something and watch its betterment over a lifetime has quite the pull for me. It’s the project that never ends, it’s multi-generational if you manage it correctly, and the value it adds to the world is a very rewarding thing to participate in.

Why did you choose Shady Grove Ranch?

James: Because we got rejected by Polyface [a sustainably-minded farm in Virginia that has pioneered the farm-apprenticeship movement]. Haha. Actually Shady Grove Ranch ended up being the perfect fit for us. Matt and Jerica are basically doing everything we want to be doing and they’re of similar age, and the timing was right for them and us. We placed an ad on the Eager Farmer website and they contacted us. We started a dialogue and soon after we both agreed it would be a great fit. I also loved the idea of working with two engineers. I knew I would learn much more than just the ins and outs of pastured meat farming.

Anna: When we were looking for a farm to have internship, James told me we would need to choose between Shady Grove Ranch and a farm in Virginia. I said I liked Shady Grove Ranch more because Texas looks better and Matt and Jerica who are the owners of Shady grove ranch do most things by themselves like building mobile houses or marketing so I was sure James and I would learn a lot from them. Also, I had a good feeling with Matt and Jerica’s attitude and personality. I never had talked with them before I came to this farm but I could feel by our email conversations.

What did you like to do for fun before you started farming?

James: Before I got interested in farming I was doing a lot of hiking in Korea. Korea has 21 national parks, and I visited and summited the highest peak on every one. It took me two years to do, but was a great adventure that allowed me to see the country. Many of the parks I visited more than once.

Anna: I had visited famous restaurants and cafes with friends to taste delicious foods. I (and most Koreans )didn’t have enough vacation or days off so tried to do something or anything on the weekends. Like Hanging out with old friends, date, go to walk… So I researched interesting places that have delicious food was the thing I did many times when I could.

What do you do for fun now?

James: Now I go to Walmart on my day off. Haha… Just kidding. We’re trying to see the local area when we can. We visited lake Caddo and Big Cyprus Creek. I also enjoy reading if I have the energy after a full day of farming.

Anna: It is not for fun but I am kind of enjoying baking and cooking although I have failed some times. And gardening.

What has surprised you most about the farming lifestyle?

James: I always knew farming and building your own farm business was extremely tough. However, when I first got here it really hit me hard at how much sweat must have gone into building Shady Grove into what it is now. I did enough research to anticipate the lifestyle more or less, but the work life balance is certainly a challenge. I guess that’s why farming is considering a lifestyle and not a job.

Anna: I realized that you don’t need many things to maintain the farming lifestyle. Of course, you need farm gear, tractors, truck and fences. But except stuff for farming, you are able to be self sufficient . For example, TV, extra shoes and clothes, nice furniture, extra food and nice car are not necessary or expected. The farming life is simple and not wasteful.

What is your favorite thing about being farmers?

James: Being able to spend my days working outside with nature and of course the farm animals. I also enjoy working on a variety of different projects so it’s nice to work on and complete projects instead of doing the same thing or things every day that most jobs offer. We’re always trying to innovate and get better and you can see the results of your work and that’s very satisfying.

Anna: I don’t do a lot of work as a farmer yet, I love to watch happy animals. These animals are healthy and happy and I really appreciate healthy food James are helping to raise.

What is your least favorite chore?

James: Currently my least favorite chore is feeding the pigs. I hand feed about 700 pounds of feed each morning and the pigs get a bit ornery and start bumping into me and it can get a little chaotic. However we’re working on changing the feed set up to a self harvest system for the pigs so hopefully that won’t be my least favorite chore for much longer. Even though it’s my least favorite chore the pigs are indeed healthy and happy, it just puts more chore into the chore for me. 😃

Anna: I am still afraid of chickens. I am getting more brave but it is a little bit hard for me to catch chickens. why? I don’t know. I feel they would attack me or I am afraid if I could hold them too hard and hurt them.

Winter Photos and More

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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.

: The pigs just get rid of the snow. What do they do? Eat it? Smash it into smithereens? We will never know.

: We tried two methods for snowman-making–the traditional rolling method, and a new bucket method! But we only had one pair of safety glasses…

: The boys say “Hi!” And then they threw snowballs at me.

: It truly was a white-out for a while!

: The view by one of the ponds.

: The chickens got out to scratch around a bit.

: Zeke didn’t mind the snow. He’s not so white, after all!

: It really was pretty to look at.

: 185 acres holds a lot of snow! This pond even iced over a little bit.

: And right before the snow came, Matt started on a new homemade rollaway nest box project to help get fewer soiled eggs. (I don’t make it into many farm photos, so I photobombed this one.)