Our processor formed a batch of bacon breakfast patties into the wrong shape, so then one of the other employees labeled them wrong as country breakfast patties.

They are indeed bacon breakfast patties, shaped and labeled wrong.

Ingredients: pork, bacon (pork, salt, sugar, celery powder), spices

We had some time last week to sort out beef cuts and we have plenty of steaks, but unfortunately it's not grilling season! So, 20% off this week on select cuts.

The T-Bone and Porterhouse are the same cut - difference is porterhouse has a tad more tenderloin portion. One side of the bone is tenderloin; the other side is strip steak.

Sirloin steaks are a great option for families, quick week night dinners, and dishes like stroganoff or even cut into chunks and used for steak tips or kabobs.

When we used to have school groups come to my farm, it was always easy to break the ice with 3rd graders.

"Do you know the best part about working in a hog barn?" I would ask, baiting them on.

'Piggies' some kid might say.

"Nope, it's a free farting zone. Let them rip." The kids would always chuckle.

But if you ever get in my truck, you'll ask what's that smell. Sadly, over time you don't only get used to it, but you learn to identify it. My wife has even gone from a girl growing up in Hudson to knowing the difference - by smell - between when someone is spreading chicken litter or dairy manure. There is a slight difference in the unpleasant smell.

This time of the year, turds are king. And they are very important.

In the summer, one of the benefits of a pasture based, rotational grazing system is that the animals spread their valuable manure around for you. With the beef and hogs in the barn for the winter, that means extra scooping.

We all know manure is valuable, but here is a highlight of the logistics of manure.

This past Monday was a cleaning day at the beef barn. I rent a "free stall" dairy barn about 4 miles from my farm. We have 64 cattle in it this winter. They are on a high protein, wet hay. Their manure is very runny.

Last year, we tried building a "pack" under them. This is where you try to capture the manure and urine in a thick bedding, such as sawdust, woodchips, and straw. The barn wasn't designed for this and it became really expensive. We were spreading about $300 of straw per week into the barn, then every 6 weeks would scoop out approx 75 tons of wet, decomposing bedding.

This year we were going to experiment with scraping the barn daily like you would in a dairy barn. We would push the manure out into the "pit" and haul it back to my farm to compost and spread later.

On a dairy farm, the manure is usually spread in liquid form. The pit is pumped into a large trailer that broadcasts it on the pasture. I'm not set up for that. I have a manure spreader as pictured above. The manure has to be solid and chunky. "Beaters" separate it and throw it about 30 feet in each direction.

This week, we went to haul home the manure (pictured left), and it was the consistency of cake batter - if you can think about food while scooping it. The first load sloshed all over the road, and even splattered forward into the bed of the truck. That wasn't going to work.

So back to where we were last year, kind of. We need about 70% carbon and 30% nitrogen for good compost. The nitrogen comes from straw or sawdust. Initially my compost pile at the farm has quite a bit of carbon from the hog barn and chicken house, so I thought it would absorb the wetter beef manure.

So this past Monday, I spent all day hauling in wood grindings from a sawmill to mix into the manure. With the skid loader, I'd drive into 2 feet deep of liquid manure, dump the wood grindings, and stir them in (hence the photo of me covered in it). By sun down, the manure was firm enough to haul home. Next step, about 15 trips home with the firmer manure, ready for our compost pile.

This compost will become the backbone of the farm and the nutrition in our food.

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