Hello
The photo above probably hints into my story this week...and it's not a fishing story. It does have a happy ending though...which I wasn't certain of last week, so I had to hold off on sharing.
More news this week
Winter Season Registration Open: details can be found HERE on our website
I Read an Interesting Article in the WSJ last weekend. Find the preview here. It's kind of like the choir preaching to the choir, but it's spot on and reflects one of our challenges we've seen the last 5 years as more businesses jump on the "local" and "grassfed" bandwagons and greenwash the terms. I think you have to subscribe to read the full article, but I will summarize below. Scroll down.
Sale items this week. We know the days of grilling burgers are limited, so Steak Burgers are on sale again for $12 per lb. We also have $1 off per lb on chicken breast. Also, we finally had time to get some beef inventoried. Check the website for availability on everything from oxtail to porterhouse steak.
Oh, and Egg production is coming back up. Many of you have experienced our egg shortage lately. Thank you for being patient with us. As one flock of hens phases out and the next starts laying, we usually have about a month where production dips. Unfortunately, it happens in the summer when there is more room to keep birds (but still not enough for two full grown flocks).
Eggs and Sale items available for preorder online.
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It's the weekly haul.
Every Monday we load up the trailer with beef, hogs, and sometimes lambs and head for the slaughterhouse. It's "business as usual" and you take some things for granted.
I started hauling our own animals in for slaughter in 2015 after an issue with a farmer who wasn't providing to me what he said he was (this leads into the next article below). From that day forward, we either raised it ourselves or pick it up on-farm for verification that the meat is raised the way we want it.
This past Monday was no different than usual. We start by setting up the yard to sort beef. I have a terrible setup so it can go quickly or take all day. Fortunately, it went quickly and we put two of my steers on the trailer. Next up. 12 hogs.
With the hogs and beef on the trailer - well, the rusted out 5 year old trailer - I headed out on my weekly 75 mile drive to Newswangers.
Maybe I'm Making this up, but I think it was Big Boss Man in the background
Do you ever have those moments that you remember clearly? Like what you were doing when 9/11 happened? Well this is one of those situations, I think. I was flipping through the XM stations and came across a live Elvis broadcast. It was NBC/Singer Sewing Machine presents Elvis, Live 1968.
It's clearly a classic. Big Boss Man was on and I turned it up just a bit, right before I merged onto US 30 West. A big blue Ram, hauling a flatbed, came racing up beside me. I was fully expecting to get coal-rolled when the guy started waving me down.
First, coal roll. For those of you who don't live in the country and who don't drive a diesel truck, you probably have no clue what I'm talking about. It's when a guy modifies his pickup truck to burn fuel less efficiently so that he can stomp on the pedal and leave his fellow motorists in a plume of black smoke. There is no reason to discuss the logic associated with this action. It does make me smile every time it happens - which is really often - and I feel like "The Winner" in a Bobby Bare song.
That's when I found out the door was open.
The blue Ram was not interested in a display of machoism. Instead, he was waving me down out of caution. I pulled over, expecting a flat tire or, honestly, part of my rusted old trailer to be falling off and dragging on the road.
When I walked around the back I saw the sliding door was mostly open and the hogs were crowded into the front of their compartment, clearly terrified from the highway zinging below the rear door at 70 mph.
I did a quick count and only discovered 11 hogs. I closed the door and went in with them to move them around. I counted again and again. 11 hogs.
I hate to say it, but I had to laugh a bit. "I just lost a live hog out the back of my trailer on the highway. How on earth? Who does this happen to?"
What's a guy to do, but keep on trucking
There was no sense retracing my steps. I had horrific thoughts of the 500# hog falling out the back and totaling the nearest vehicle behind me. Surely I would have noticed that? Was I sure there were 12 on there in the first place?
Then I thought harder about the door. I know I shut it. My rear door is bent out of shape and closing it is very difficult. I had to kick the door shut to get the spring-bolt to drop into place. But how did it open?
Right after I left the farm I had to detour to Paint Valley Creamery to pickup whipping cream to use in sausage at Newswangers. The ratio of flat road to potholes on Lawnfield Ave (a gravel road) is about 70% potholes to 30% road. It was raining and the potholes were full of water. Usually you just drive all over the road avoiding them. The mail lady was delivering and I had to stay to my side, hitting a pothole so hard I dropped the phone and thought I broke the truck in half.
I called the dairy and held it together long enough to tell them that I lost a hog out of the back of the trailer. The guys at the dairy - all farmers - were rolling laughing. I explained to them that I'm fairly sure the potholes jolted the bolt out of place and the door probably rattled its way open. I asked them to look around for any evidence. They saw none.
Then I thought about my path away from the dairy up Dolway, another gravel road. I rattled my way up it to the corner of US 250, on a steep incline. I would guess if the door was open, at that point when I accelerated I could have tossed a hog out onto Dolway. John, one of the farmhands, took a tractor over and told all the neighbors to be on the lookout for a fat hog.
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Cause if you're looking at me, you're looking at country
Then Thursday night Allyson and I were fixing dinner. It was just around dark when an old man came pounding on our side door.
I hollered for him to hold on a minute. I ran to the door and opened it. No "Hi" or "Hello, how are you." He spoke first in a deep southern accent.
"You missin' a hog?" I just chuckled. 'Yeah. I'm guessing you live on Lawnfield or Dolway.'
He explained yes - Dolway - and that Annanias, one of the Amish neighbors, sent him my way. He found the hog in his woods, right off of the side of the road near US 250 and Dolway. I told him I'd be right over.
I ran to the truck and went out back to hitch to the trailer and grab some feed. Allyson got her boots on and I met her back at the house. We hustled over to the scene and dropped some feed on the ground, trying to get the hog to come closer while I positioned the trailer as best I could.
The setup was going to be important. Hogs don't like to step up or down. I was able to position the trailer into the hillside so that it was a smooth transition from the ground onto the trailer. By this time, it was dark and I wasn't sure of the surroundings. I approached her slowly hoping to get her to follow my "breadcrumbs" onto the trailer. She got spooked by the unfamiliar surroundings and started to run up into the woods.
I wanted to cut her off before she got too deep into the thicket. I ran faster and she turned and lead me to her nest she had built under some thorn bushes. Once I saw that I knew she would keep going back there. I needed to run her until she was tired and then try to work her downhill.
A few laps and she slowed down enough. This isn't the nicest way but it's sure better than getting hit by a truck on the road or shot by someone who sees a hog tearing up their garden or field.
As she turned, I was able to slip the 5 gallon bucket over her head. Hogs don't like this at all and they will try to backup to get out of it. The trick is to hang on to their tail with one hand and apply pressure to the bucket with the other. With a hog that size, it turns into a wrestling match.
I was able to hang on and walk her backwards to the trailer, maybe 100 feet away. At the edge of the trailer, I pushed her up on and closed the door.
One the short drive home, we were kind of speechless. There had been no time for photos but I knew I had to tell this story. I started thinking of titles in my head when Allyson said something about how country this evening had been (for a girl who grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland).
Immediately, Loretta was singing in my head, "When you're looking at me, you're looking at country."
The Happy Ending
After her weeklong layover in eastern Holmes County, the hog was safely delivered yesterday to Newswanger meats.
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This past weekend's Wall Street Journal had an interesting article in it about terms like "grassfed" and "pasture raised.
The article stems from some controversy arising out of the most famous artisan butcher shop in the US - Belcampo Meats - in San Francisco.
Back in May, employees of Belcampo shared images on social media of IBP (Iowa Beef Packers) and other commodity beef in their cooler. It had apparently been an ongoing scenario and the employees were upset about it.
Instead of investigating what happened there, the journalist provided tips for consumers to identify if they are getting what they think they are.
Tip 1: Look for a whole animal butcher shop. The article points out something really important. Whole animal butchers - like OCP - will never have a meat case loaded with trays of skirt steaks, flank steaks, and hanger steaks. Each steer gives us 2 flank steaks, 1 hanger steak, and 4 skirt steaks.
As a butcher, farmer, and business owner, this is one of the biggest challenges to our model. The consumer expects to get whatever they want when they want. But it can't be that way if you want a trusted source for your food.
I remember a chef once calling asking for 75, 14 oz ribeyes per week. I laughed. No way. I would need to cut 10 cattle a week probably to get that. The ribeye - our most popular cut - is cut from the ribcage of the steer, bones 6 thru 13. The 13th rib goes on the shortloin, so you only get 7 bone-in ribeyes per side. 14 per steer. They change in size and shape from the shoulder end to the striploin end of the steer. A consistent, 14 oz ribeye would be near impossible to get without opening a box of beef from a major, national packer.
Tip 2: Talk to your butcher. While you may come in looking for a skirt steak and we don't have it, please ask the butcher for assistance. Behind the deli, our staff at Ohio City Provisions all has kitchen or butchery experience. Our first question will be, "What are you making." It might turn out that other cuts - like the bavette, denver, or clod heart steak - might work for the same preparation.
Tip 3: Grassfed and Pasture Raised. Ask your butcher who his farmers are and how they raise the animals. At OCP, I source all the beef, pork, and chicken with about 75% coming from my farm and the rest being picked up direct at the farm.
Grassfed sometimes has a bad name as lean, tough, or gamey. That's because of some farmers not doing it right. I see at the slaughterhouse the grassfed carcasses of another local farmer. He's taking advantage of the marketability of grassfed and is selling old dairy cows and bulls as grassfed beef. Yes, they are truly grassfed from start to finish, but they are not quality animals.
Your butcher should be able to answer where the meat comes from and how it is raised. My butchers call me if my carcasses ever don't look to grade and we try to identify what went wrong. Sometimes it is genetics; other times it is that I could have done better on my pastures, rotation, etc. We are our own toughest critics.
Beef Updated on our website. For us to sell beef online, we have to open ever box and sort each item by a narrow weight range. It takes a lot of time. Lauren and the staff were able to inventory quite a bit of beef Monday. Check the website for everything from oxtail to porterhouse steak. Steaks, unfortunately, were packed in 2 packs and are huge. The price might seem shocking but the price per lb is reasonable.
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Rich Eshleman at Eshleman Orchard in Clyde has been providing us with apples for years. This week he was really excited about all the varieties ripening up and wanted to put something special together for FFM members.
Rich assembled a sample bag of this week's harvest. It is a generous portion and should have enough for both eating and the season's first apple pie.
The varieties, left to right in the photo: (By Katie Farr)
Gala, Cortland, Jonathan, McIntosh, and Honeycrisp.
Gala apples are our first variety of note. These are a largely popular variety that can be found everywhere. Galas are sweet, aromatic, and very versatile. You can use them across the board in various recipes, from saucing, to salads, to baking! These apples are on the slightly pinker/orangish side colorwise, and the flesh has more of a yellow tint.
Next up: Cortland. These apples are distinguished by the brighter red and green skin, with crisp white flesh. Cortlands are juicy and tart, and are great for pies, cobblers, and crisps. You can also slice them up for a salad or a cheese plate for a tart kick.
Jonathan apples have a deeper red skin, and are sweeter with a tart tang finish. These apples are pretty perfect for eating, simply throw them into your lunchbox, or they're great for freezing and cooking at a later date!
McIntosh apples are considered an all purpose apple. They can be spotted by the classically red skin, with greener undertones, and bright white flesh. McIntosh apples are juicy, crisp, and tart. They break down well when cooking (hence all-purpose!), and thus require a shorter cook time than most apples. You can really get creative when you have McIntosh apples in the house, from saucing, to baking, to slicing and snacking, they are perfect!
Last but not least: Honeycrisp! These apples are pretty near perfect raw. They are fantastic snacking apples, and like the name suggests, are the perfect combination of crisp and honey-sweet. If you have grander plans than snacking, honeycrisps are also great for baking, or making applesauce.
Each of these apples has their own unique taste, texture, color palette, and kitchen-use. As we get ready for the cooler weather and the start of fall, have some fun and figure out your favorite variety!
We also have each variety available for sale through the shop this week, in 6-counts, so if you already know which variety is your favorite, head over there to round out your count!
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Still Time To Join this Season - Prorated |
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As our season continues, please tell a friend to join us for the remainder of the season.
All subscriptions are prorated for upfront payments or on the weekly payment plan, so you only pay for the remainder of the season.
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Small Omnivore
Spinach and Feta Chicken Bratwursts
"Cal White" white potatoes
Leeks
Acorn Squash
Lettuce
Apples
Green Beans/Zucchini
Green Peppers
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Small Vegetarian
"Cal White" white potatoes
Leeks
Acorn Squash
Lettuce
Apples
Green Beans
Green Peppers
Spaghetti Squash
Cherry Tomatoes
Zucchini
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Mini
"Cal White" white potatoes
Leeks
Acorn Squash
Apples
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Large Omnivore
Spinach and Feta Chicken Bratwursts
"Cal White" white potatoes
Leeks
Acorn Squash
Lettuce
Apples
Green Beans/Zucchini
Green Peppers
Candy Onion
Sweet Italian Fryer Peppers
Cauliflower
Ground Pork
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Large Vegetarian
"Cal White" white potatoes
Leeks
Acorn Squash
Lettuce
Apples
Green Beans
Green Peppers
Spaghetti Squash
Cherry Tomatoes
Zucchini
Candy Onion
Sweet Italian Fryer Peppers
Cauliflower
Carrots
Shallots
Garlic
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Small Vegan
"Cal White" white potatoes
Leeks
Acorn Squash
Lettuce
Apples
Green Beans
Green Peppers
Spaghetti Squash
Cherry Tomatoes
Zucchini
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