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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

OHHHHH what a glorious day!!!!!!!!!!!




Oh did I ever have the best day ever, (Quoting spongebob there). I did a little and I mean a little research this morning (BTW Scottishtwins over at www.intendedtemple.blogspot.com got me all excited about organic)I found a family farm just 5 miles from me that sells all natural, hormone free, anibiotic free, free roaming, bug eatin eggs. OHHHH I was so excited. I got the price before I went out and they are $12 for 5 dozen. These come packaged in their own egg containers made for their family farm. I told him what I wanted and he said to give him an hour so he could pick those puppies off the ground and put em in the carton!!!! I took my 5 year old twins out with me see the farm. Steve Mitchell was the absolute nicest person I have met in a long long long time, He was so genuine and welcoming I felt like I was talking with an old friend, He loved seeing the boys and asked us to please come back when the weather was nicer and let the boys run around on the farm and see all the animals and chase the chickens and to run around with their wheaton terrior. Their website is www.mitchellfamilyfarm.us/ . I have to tell you I got these eggs home and I have never seen such large eggs before, I held them up to my store bought eggs and they are twice the size, We cracked two open and the color was beautiful, Nice and bright orange. The shells cracked perfectly in half and were very sturdy shells, These will perfect for planting plants in to transplant to the garden!!!
Also this morning while doing that search I found a farm that sells meat, They do not give hormone shots or anitbiotics or anything like that, They do eat some corn, The only all grass fed farm anywhere close was 65 miles away (Does that make any sense living in kansas??? haha) Anyway I was happy to have this meat so close, 10 miles from me, The meat was a great price only minimally more expensive then Walmart and for now I happy about feeding this to my family. I made two of the Ham steaks tonight and 1 ham steak fed my hubby myself and the twins. The ham steaks are 1 inch thick and gorgeous. You can see the one in the picture is in my biggest frying pan, and cooked ( I overcooked it actually, I was chasing baby while cooking!!!) but it still took up 3/4 of the pan fully cooked. It tasted wonderful, Like I suppose meat should taste. I bought the meat from The Clubine family farm, Mr. Clubine told me that his wife makes the best meatloaf by mixing the 1 lb of the ground beef with 1 lb of the ground sausage and he just won't eat meatloaf any other way again, So we are having that for dinner tomorrow night!! Their family website is here www.crosscranchbeef.com . They were equally as nice like a family friend, They told me that starting in March they will be bringing orders for My town to a parking lot for people to pick up so they don't have to drive out, Just call in your order and pay for it and pick it up at the parking lot, They will also be every Saturday at the farmers market in my town, And the first Saturday of May they will be cooking hamburgers for everyone!!!!
I found these local places by searching www.localharvest.org and Checking out my city's website. It really took me no longer then 20 minutes and a phone call. I am really happy I did this. I would of course like to eventually travel the 50 or so miles to get the grass fed meat + I could not find anyone close that sold Raw milk or even goat milk. I can't even find any organic milk around here that is not ultra pasturized. But I am starting and on my way. I have to tell you all that think like I did that it would be too expensive to purchase meat like this. The ranch I went to, Has their own "store", You could go there everyday if you wanted and just buy meat for dinner. A few things you need to consider, This meat does not have fillers, So when you buy a lb of beef, you darn near end up with a lb of beef cooked. It does not shrink down. Plus the healthy factor. THe prices are as follows for what I purchased:
Lean ground beef $3.05 lb
Stew meat $2.80 lb
Rump roast $3.95 lb
Fresh ground pork $2.59 lb
Pork steak $2.79 lb
Ham steaks $2.09 lb
Compared to the meat I get, Some were below what I pay at Walmart and the grocery store, Some were a bit higher, But the quality is way better, The few extra cents per pound were worth it to me. I had a ton of fun in the process, Met two of the nicest people, Chatted a bit about farming and farm life, and got some tips on gardening, Plus Steve from Mitchell family farms asking us to bring the boys out to play, and to give me more gardening tips, He also said I could purchase some of their excess garden this year if I wanted to supplement until my garden got going!!! This girl is going to bed tonight with a smile on her face!!!!! Happy farm hunting, Michelle

2 comments:

Jessica said...

Yay! I am so excited for you.

You may find that as you continue to make contacts in the local farming community there are hobby farmers who will be willing to sell you some raw milk. That's how we found ours.

What a wonderful gift you are giving your family. I always figure that even if the food is a little more expensive, the health benefits pay for themselves over time. There is nothing like eating a whole meal out of this precious, natural food.

It also makes you want to waste less, because you know you went to a lot of trouble to acquire the food. It's easy to toss a half gallon of expired milk that you got from the store. But when you know you had to go to a lot of trouble to get your hands on that raw milk, you are more willing to find ways to use the spoiled milk or to drink it all before it goes bad :)

frugalredneck said...

I think you hit the nail on the head on that one Scottish Twins, I totally agree that I will use every last piece, drop, morsel, And really that is how it should be. And I did ask the farmers I went to, But I think maybe because they did not know me that well, The mitchell family farms, I saw on their website, Links to sources of raw milk and they are getting a shipment of grass fed beef up here that I could purchase, I just have to save because it is whole,1/2,1/4 sides, lowest would be $600. We are gonnna do some more hunting in the next few months and I have to believe living her in kansas and so close to oklahoma there has to be someone with those items for sale. My hubby does have a coworker, engineer, who does raise goats and would give us raw goats milk, So we are going to try that in the next couple weeks!!!! Thanks hun alot, you inspired me for the better !!!! Michelle