Farm Fresh

[Schielke]

I figure we need a discussion about where to source foodstufs other than produce straight from the farm. I am very interested in finding a source for the following:

Farm fresh eggs

Chickens raised by an actual farmer old school style

Pork, straight from the mud puddle.

Beef that did not graduate from "Bovine University" as it were.

The Pork and Beef things might be kinda cool if we can swing them. I have heard of a group of people buying the rights to a particular animal at the beginning of the season and then when "harvest" time comes around everybody gets their portion of the pig or cow. It would be kinda fun too...in a sick sort of way...we could check up on it and maybe go on a field trip to visit it.

Does anybody know of any sources for the above stuff? Thoughts?

Thanks!

Ben

[mamster]

This is one of the aspects of being a food person that I know the least about, being a dyed-in-the-wool city slicker, but I'd buy a share of a nice fatty pig any day.

There is frozen pork and beef sold at the University Farmer's Market, but I've never gotten anything particularly impressive.

[tighe]

A while back, I found out about a ranch near Walla Walla called Thundering Hooves. I haven't had any of their meat but have heard raves from those who have. You have to order in pretty large quantities, but maybe we could buy and eGullet cow and split it up. They also have pork, lamb and poultry....

[Schielke]

A while back, I found out about a ranch near Walla Walla called Thundering Hooves.  I haven't had any of their meat but have heard raves from those who have.  You have to order in pretty large quantities, but maybe we could buy and eGullet cow and split it up.  They also have pork, lamb and poultry....

Sweet.

We need to discuss this some more! And somebody start thinking of names!

Ben

[Nick]

Get hold of your county extention agent's office - part of your state agriculture department - and see if they have suggestions.

Also try to find out if you have any CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture) in your area.

Edited January 18, 2003 by Nickn (log)

[tighe]

....And somebody start thinking of names!....

"And I think I'll call you Lunch! Helooooo Lunch!....."

or how about 'Chuck', short for Chuckroast......

[Schielke]

Wilbur comes to mind.

Ben

[Blue Heron]

My brother and I split a 1/4 side? of highlander beef a couple of years ago from a farm (Hemlock Farm) up in Sedro Wooley. The beef is marketed as lean and low in cholesterol, but I found that it didn't haven't enough fat for my taste (it was actually too lean!). It tasted like european beef to me, meaning it was also a little tough (maybe due to lack of tenderizing hormone additives), as I recall. But I ate healthy, that's for sure!!! These cows look really cool, too, on the website.

As for eggs and poultry, I would think one could trust anything at University Seafood & Poultry in the U District, as they have high quality. Also, isn't there a place at the Pike Place Market?

****

This is more info about the beef (an email my bro's colleague sent out to him)...

"My Mother and Step-father own a small Highland cattle farm in Sedro Woolley WA and are coming up on time to sell

some beef. Highlands for those not in the know are Scottish cattle from, you guessed it, the Highlands.

They are a rugged animal and I can attest from first hand experience produce a lean and flavorful beef. Below is the blurb from my parents farm and here is a link to the official Highland Association website for

those of you with inquiring minds Click here

http://www.nwhca.cattletrailer.com

in all the pricing is ridiculously good given that the same quality of beef can be found for 10 times as much from farms with a better sales pitch, but they don't listen to me. Anyway if anyone finds themselves

interested let me know or you may contact my parents farm directly.

Hemlock Highlands produces superior beef for private customers who appreciate meat that is extremely fine grained and test low in fat and cholesterol. The herd is disease free and raised on good pasture and good hay. The only supplements they have are vitamins and salt. The animals are not fed growth hormones, or tenderizing hormones. Resulting in meat that is pure and of the highest quality. This superior meat is cut wrapped and packaged according to each customers specifications, then flash frozen. An average side of Highland beef weighs just over 240 pounds, ideal for many smaller families.

This excellent beef is available in quarters, halves, and whole orders. For more information please contact John or Jean Bates at (360)856-5817. Beef is sold $2.50 pound hanging weight plus cutting and wrapping. PS. This is the only kind of beef the Queen of England eats (she has a 200 head for herself), and she just turned 100!!

[Nick]

I could have sworn that my second cousin Charles told me his mother ate only Belted Galloway beef and Hampshire pork.

Edited January 18, 2003 by Nickn (log)

[Blue Heron]

I could have sworn that my second cousin Charles told me his mother ate only Belted Galloway beef and Hampshire pork.

Cuzzie Charles might have been mistaken .

Another Highland beef farmer (in Indiana) pretty much says the same thing about the Royals for centuries have have been eating Highland beef and the Queen of England has her own herd! More on Highland Beef and Queen of England

[Jenaya]

The Creamery at Pike Place has awesome eggs. Duck, brown/white chicken, quail, etc... available in bulk.

She also sells Norman Brook milk and has the best butter selection in town!

As far as farm-fresh meat goes, I don't know much about it locally - but once a year, my in-laws in Alabama "buy" a cow, have it slaughtered and butchered, and put it up in an extra freezer purchased for exactly that purpose.

Maybe call the Washington State Beef Commission?

[trillium]

Hey guys,

I'm a big fan of grass fed animals, in Chicago I was lucky enough to buy the best pork ever from Greg Gunthorp, whose pork products really were the Platonic ideal. Here in Portland I buy pastured lamb and beef, many times at a lower or equal price to meats sold at New Seasons or Whole Foods. If you buy the whole hog, so to speak, it's even cheaper. One of the best resources I've found is the eatwild website, which lists farmers by state with contact information. I can personally vouch for River Run Farms, I've been buying their grass finished, dry aged, organic beef since I moved here. If I could find people around here to go in on animals with me, I'd be all for it.

Many of the "heirloom" varieties of farm animals are disappearing, and eating them, perversely enough, is a really good way to keep them around. The slowfood website also has good resources on tracking down farmers that grow heritage varieties of turkeys (there is turkey beyond the Large White!!), I'm not sure what other animals they might have info about.

regards,

trillium

[col klink]

I don't know much about getting home-grown beef, but the best resource in Seattle for pork is The Butcher Shop in Ballard on the corner of 20th and 65th NW. They usually have spare ribs, loins and shoulders always in stock. Anything else you need they order. They have a good relationship with a relatively local farm and you can get suckling pig to whole pig, whole legs and pork fat. If you'd like, they'll even cure a ham for you and then you can smoke it! Really damn tasty.

If anyone would like to split a cow or pig, let me know!

As for poultry, Central Market carries whole and piece organic free-range chickens that I hear are very tasty. They also have fresh duck! All the time!!!! I would love though to find a place that had chickens running around out back and you can choose them yourself. That would be ideal. My great grandparents in Detroit had a grocery store (with liquor! Yeah Michigan!) where you could select your fresh chicken whilst it still ran and great grandma would chase it down, kill it and dress it. Guess I'm living in the wrong day and age (or the wrong area).

[col klink]

All right folks, I just remembered a post back in the day about the logistics of raising goats (to later eat). The thread can be found here (click me now!)

The website I direct people to sells goats and emu chicks but now they're selling laying hens Muscovy ducks. They also give tips on the care of Sonoran gopher snake.

Here are the cute little edible duckies!

Going back to the goats, I initially wanted Pee Wee, but upon further inspection, I have a hankerin' for Pactches!

[Schielke]

Trillium, thanks for the resource!

Klink, I am seriously considering going in on part of an animal. Let's look into a few sources and check pricing. I figure if we do it, we should make it happen right around bbq season. I am hoping to get my own smoker sometime in the not so distant future... oh yeah.

Also, I dont think that your vision of grandma chasing a chicken is too far off base. There just has to be someplace out in the countryside that will do that for us as well as farm fresh eggs.

Ben

[Dave the Cook]

A few years back, a friend of mine started raising cattle on his small farm in North Georgia. Once he had his fences in and the stock was acclimated, a bunch of us went out to his place for a cookout -- catfish and bass from his lake, watermelon and corn -- a summer feast.

Just before dinner, a few of us took a tour of the farm. We were on Honda ATVs -- me and my older son, my brother-in-law and his son, and Mike (the gentleman farmer) and one of his boys -- two to a vehicle. We got to the other side of the cow pasture and, since the terrain seemed pretty safe, we let the kids take the ATVs back, while we grownups hoofed it. Mike and my brother-in-law got to talking about how to stock the lake, and I got interested in something else. Anyway, we got separated. I wasn't quite lost, because I could see the house from where I was. I just couldn't figure out which way to go on the maze of paths that confronted me.

So I decide to go straight through the cow pasture. I'm only two generations off the farm, and growing up, I'd met my share of livestock, so I wasn't afraid of the cows -- they don't call them ruminants for nothing. However, bulls they can be possessive and/or territorial, and when I crossed one's path, he wasn't having any of it. He chased me across the pasture and over the fence, where, much to my later embarassment, I ripped through the backside of a very nice pair of hiking shorts. The escapade made great conversational fodder at dinner, but I was less than amused. It's common to think of domestic cows as big, sweet dummies, but having several hundred pounds of beef on the hoof chase you around a big open field can change your opinion. And leave you with a tinge of fear that you might not have had before.

The next spring, we had a reprise of the picnic, this time enhanced with grilled, *grass-fed* beef, something I had never had before. Over dinner, Mike mentioned that he had butchered and aged several cattle at a nearby deer-processing plant, and asked if we wanted a quarter or a side -- we could take it home that night. My brother-in-law and I agreed to split a side. Later, as we went to pack it up, Mike started pulling packages from the freezer. Each one was labeled with the cut and the weight -- and something else. Mike said, "I figured you'd want some of this, and I wanted yours to be extra-tasty. So I took special care to pick the right animal when I thinned the herd. I had too many bulls, so the choice was really pretty easy." He turned the package over. The extra label said, "Dave's Cow."

[Schielke]

Right on! Great story.

I have had a similar experience, but without the tasty end. I was going bird hunting with my dad back when I was a kid and we had to cross a cow pasture to get to our destination. At the time, I had the same impression of cattle that you did. Until one of them was mooing loudly and chasing after me when it noticed we were in their field. From then on, I knew cows were one of the most devious creatures in the world and I have no regret when I dive into a rib-eye.

Ben

[Nick]

Y'all must have run into a herd of Holsteins (the black and white ones) or maybe Brown Swiss (the tan ones) - if we're talking about milking critters.

When I was a kid, to get to one of our favorite swimming holes we had to go through a fence and and cross a field to get there. Probably a hundred yards. Even if all the cattle (Holsteins) were up at one end of the pasture, we'd run. A couple of those cattle loved to chase down kids and once they started after us, the rest of the crew would follow. Thundering hooves. Eight or nine hundred pounds apiece chasing down us sixty to seventy pound fair game.

It was when farmers started getting Holsteins for their greater milk production that this happened. Jerseys and Gurnseys were much more peaceful.

Edited January 22, 2003 by Nickn (log)

[col klink]

So what's the official word on cow tipping? Is it really an myth to lure idiot city-folk into the pasture for some hazing?

[trillium]

All right folks, I just remembered a post back in the day about the logistics of raising goats (to later eat). The thread can be found here (click me now!)

The website I direct people to sells goats and emu chicks but now they're selling laying hens Muscovy ducks. They also give tips on the care of Sonoran gopher snake.

Here are the cute little edible duckies!

Going back to the goats, I initially wanted Pee Wee, but upon further inspection, I have a hankerin' for Pactches!

And if you make it out to Snohomish you can just hop back onto Hiway 2 and drive on up to Sultan for the chili cookoff.

regards,

trillium

[Nick]

So what's the official word on cow tipping? Is it really an myth to lure idiot city-folk into the pasture for some hazing?

I never heard of it until I got on the internet.

One time though I did get pissed at a cow that was acting up and threw her to the ground. Later on, I felt bad that I'd done it because most of the time she was pretty good.

[Really Nice!]

A while back, I found out about a ranch near Walla Walla called Thundering Hooves.  I haven't had any of their meat but have heard raves from those who have.  You have to order in pretty large quantities, but maybe we could buy and eGullet cow and split it up.  They also have pork, lamb and poultry....

They had a table at the University Farmer's Market last year where you could buy low quantity. I bought a chicken and a chuck roast from them. The chicken was okay. Nothing that memorable. I haven't tried the chuck roast but plan on doing a slow braise with it sometime soon.

[girl chow]

Hey Klink, I live out in the boonies, also known as rural Pierce County (or hell, as I lovingly call it) ... I know the kids out here practice the sport of cow tipping -- especially in South Prairie ... I've heard some crazy stories about them kids...

I'd like to take you city folk out cow-spotting in Graham. That's like the county seat for cow tippin' and beer guzzlin' and meth manufacturin' ... If we have time, we'll stop in Orting for lunch(or we'll just shoot us a opossum and boil it up on the roadside .. pretty much the same stuff served at the Orting Diner).

Now, I've always wondered if all the farms out here sell their livestock for eating or if they're primarily dairy cattle... I'm gonna have to check that out and report back here.

[tighe]

So what's the official word on cow tipping? Is it really an myth to lure idiot city-folk into the pasture for some hazing?

I engaged in some cow-tippin' in my youth. Spent a couple summer vacations on a farm in Eastern Washington. It is not a safe activity on a couple different fronts...

[trillium]

Hmmm. I grew up in Sultan and Gold Bar (and according to some that's the boonies) and never tipped a cow in my life...but then I wasn't one of the cool kids; in part because my mum didn't let me go to the kegger in the woods parties where these things usually get started...by the time I could do what I wanted keggers weren't high on the priority list. I wonder why?

The cows around us were mostly Holstien, Angus and Herefords. Nickn is right, Jerseys and Gurnsey are nicer cows their milk is richer too. If you can find Jersey heavy cream it's a thing of beauty.

regards,

trillium

Edited January 23, 2003 by trillium (log)