This Week's Promotions - - Winter Season Week 2 Bag, Open to the Public - -

Bent Ladder Cider Story - - Thanksgiving Offerings - - Bag Contents

Salmon Week - Our one time per year Wild Alaskan Salmon Buying Club is SOLD OUT. I've talked to Heidi, the fisherwoman, and she is going to check her inventory and see if she can't send us some next month. Stay tuned and we'll give those on the wait list first chance at that fish. I can't make any promises though until we see what she has.

If you don't see the salmon on the website, that is because it is sold out.

One Time Share - The weather lately has been AWESOME. So the farmers have plenty of produce and we have a great bag this week. Buy a 1 week share this week with no commitment. Login to order. Bag Contents below, including apple cider, grassfed beef chuck roast, broccoli, brussel sprouts, spuds and more!

Caramelized Apple Onion Bacon Brats - We badly need an acronym for this brat. Regardless of what you call it, it is delicious. When I developed this recipe, my goal was to make a moist and sugar free poultry bratwurst. I started with boneless chicken and turkey. I added turkey skin for some fat, and smoked nitrate free bacon for salt and fat. To sweeten the brat, I caramelized 50# of onions in the tilt skillet and folded it into the 50# of meat. Finally, instead of water (which all sausage recipes have), I mixed in homemade apple sauce. This helps keep it moist and adds a balanced sweetness.

Try this brat roasted in the oven, pan seared, or grilled. It also smokes well and is even versatile enough to slice up at breakfast.

Usually $11 per 1.25# package - on sale for $9 this week.

Animal Stock - a winter staple. Stock is the basis of a good demi-glace on a steak dinner, mandatory to stew or braise a roast, essential for good soup, and the primary ingredient for gravy. It is also a great option to drink as bone broth - simply warm it and season with salt. Try our "all purpose stock," the Animal Stock, made of beef/pork/chicken/turkey bones. Sold by the quart. Regularly $8 per quart. On sale for $5 per quart.

Apples - $3 for 6 ct. We have an nice selection of apples right now. Our price is already really low, so this isn't really a sale. Our regular price is approx $1 per lb. Be sure to stock up this week with the biggest selection of the fall:

Pink Lady Apples

Gala

Red Delicious

Golden Delicious

Granny Smith

Honeycrisp (extra $)

Evercrisp

Braeburn

Cortland

Jonathon

Jonagold

If you have never done our Winter Share, it is slightly different than summer. But also the same.

1) After Thanksgiving, every other week pickup

2) Products are less perishable, starting with cold hardy and storage crops early in the winter, some frozen items and canned goods mid winter, and ending with pantry staples and prepared items

3) We still offer flexible payment plans, vacation options, and the access to our online store.

Sadly, we don't sell alcohol at FFM. The concept of a mobile grocery store setup in a parking lot, often on church property or at a school, in the evenings with no mailing address doesn't fit well in the liquor laws. Ohio City Provision, however, is the only place other than Bent Ladder's farmstead store where you can purchase Bent Ladder Ciders.

Regardless of whether this is pertinent to FFM or not, I thought my experience at Bent Ladder was worth sharing. I visited there last week to shoot a video for the Thanksgiving Beer Dinner. I spent the afternoon with Matt Rittman being farm nerds in his orchard and tasting AMAZING ciders.

Another great way to try their cider is to join us this Saturday for our 12th Annual Thanksgiving Beer Dinner. This year, our "beer dinner" will be virtual again and will feature one cider in addition to two beers.

I remember probably a decade ago visiting with a friend in the eastern panhandle of WV. He is a descendent of Samuel Washington (George's brother) and had a receipt book from George's purchases for Mt Vernon. I can't remember the details, but what I remember as shocking was that George bought literally a boatload of cider that fall. He bought it by the barrels to "nourish" his staff.

In that era, the water wasn't safe to drink. Low-proof cider was a safe option to drink. In fact, our very own Western Reserve was founded on the principle of every settler having his own orchard to produce apples that could be pressed into cider, fermented, then safely drank. This was a requirement for settlers to receive their land grants.

As sanitation improved and brewing of beer became more economical, cider production was on a decline into the late 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. Beer, derived from malted grains like barley and wheat, could be grown and harvested in one growing season. Cider required a mature orchard, which could take 10 to 20 years to establish.

Then came prohibition. It all but buried the cider industry.

Cider, like wine, reflects the quality of the grower, the apple varieties, the growing climate, and the fermentation process.

Could you imagine making wine with just any old grapes? Not a chance. As consumers, we have come to expect certain characteristics from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc.

Sadly, the commercial cider industry has determined that the consumer is ignorant enough to not think about these things. They have used hard cider as a way to press any old apple into cider, ferment it, and sell it for a lot more than fresh apple cider. If you have ever had a bad experience with hard cider, I encourage you to go back and try a craft cider from Bent Ladder.

Matt knows that good cider is made from the right varietals. Many of these are heirloom varieties from England and France that aren't commercially available anymore. These apples lack the disease resistance found in many modern hybridized apples and don't have the yields of a fresh market apple, like Honeycrisp or Gala.

These cider specific apples are often called "spitters." They are highly tannic, often bitter, and with just the right balance of sugar to ferment and provide a depth of character. Off the vine, these apples may look like crabapples and can have similar eating qualities. In the cider industry, varieties like Harrison and Dabinett are called spitters. Other varieties Matt grows include Kingston Black, redfield, calville blanc d'hiver, golden russet, and Newtown pippin.

Matt and his family have taken painstaking attention to detail and have planted their orchard with these low yield, cider specific varieties with the purpose of producing a true old world, artisan cider.

One of the things I left Bent Ladder realizing is that apples trace their roots back to the forests of Kazakhstan, which immediately made me que up a joke from some terrible movie (Borat) from my college days.

"Matt, your cider, 'It's a very nice'". He immediately got the reference. A classic ice breaker if I might say so.

We laughed and popped the top on a 750 ml bottle of his Farmsted Cider. Farmstead is one of the four ciders in his "Heritage" collection - a very limited bottling of ciders made from these cider specific varieties. A few drinks in, and I twisted his arm into sparing some bottles for the annual Thanksgiving Beer Dinner.

This year, we will be pairing our turkey courses with a bottle of the dry, crisp Farmstead Cider produced by Bent Ladder. OCP is the only location, off of the Rittman farm, where you can buy these ciders. And this week, a full bottle is included in the pairing dinner offered this Saturday night.

Our turkeys and packages are selling fast. To the left here, is a photo of the birds from Monday chores. They have it good, and they have been good to the farm.

The farm nerd in me gets so excited about things like this. Raising a bird on pasture promotes diversity in the diet, exercise, and fresh air and sunshine. This helps the bird put on fat (as it would in nature) and muscle tone for a firm, yet tender, meat structure. The goal here is flavor - not speed and efficiency of growing them.

For us farmers, we see the benefits of the manure. These birds have marched across 18 acres in the last two months, leaving behind literally TONS OF TURDS. All of a sudden this year the corporations have started to try to hijack the term "regenerative ag," but these turkeys are truly a regenerative model.

This is livestock eating from the earth and in return feeding the soil! Remember, it is the soil that will save us as we eat a healthy, nutrient dense diet that tastes great.

OK, off of my high horse. If you haven't ordered your turkey yet, now is the time before they sell out.

Both Fresh Fork and OCP are offering the same turkeys. The difference here is:

1) OCP has more chef driven options, like cooked turkey breast roulades, smoked turkeys, and brined turkeys.

2) OCP has longer pickup windows inside at the store in Ohio City.

3) FFM has more pickup options closer to home, including 11 area pickup locations on 11/21 thru 11/24.

We hope you'll consider joining us for Thanksgiving and please tell a friend!

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For more recipes, visit our archive at https://freshforkmarket.com/recipes/