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I am Ready!

As a local farmer, I spend most of the winter wandering around in a mental fog. I am not sure if it has to do with the intensity of farming and that after the final harvest is put away I just sort a need a break. For sure, my body is tired, but my mind is wiped out. Farming is like riding a tornado. Every day it touches down somewhere on the farm, I get off and then I am immediately whisked away by the next tornado.

This mental fog could be attributed to the obvious—I am getting older. But there is more to the story. It probably has to do with identity.  From March to November, I am a farmer. But from November to March, I am a little lost, as if in a fog. Sure I am meandering around planning, fixing things, avoiding any outside chores when it is miserable. I do get to read lots of books with my younger ones during this season.

One time my kiddos bought me a lazy boy recliner (hmmm…aptly named?) for Father’s day. I picked  out the perfect one, brought it home and promptly took it back. I RARELY SIT DOWN! And even if I were to recline, I am sure my kiddos would AMBUSH me! So if I need to recline (aka. sleep), I just go to bed.  

But something happens in March. As soon as the daffodils are blossoming, I am snapped out of my fog and my nose perks up in the air, like my Labrador retriever searching for a scent. I become completely coherent with purpose and direction. I notice the buds swelling on fruit trees, the chives growing, the grass growing and that the robins are back. I notice where the soil is drying out and watch for a weather window to “open the fields.” And at that very moment, when I am the farmer again, as if by instinct, I peer off into the horizon watching for that first tornado—I am ready.  

Farm Update: We have planted peas in the greenhouse, which are just popping up and should go out in a week, if this gorgeous weather holds. We separated and planted several goose berries bushes, raised the grape trellis another foot and transplanted the Doyle blackberries so they wouldn’t shade the grapes.  

We are repairing and replacing fence for the herd of Angus and Hereford cattle that will be arriving for their summer grazing.  Sadly, most Americans are forced to eat feedlot beef existing on a diet of genetically engineered corn and soybeans. Yuck! 

I really like raising beef cattle and on my farm the cattle get to live a pretty idyllic life. They have lots of grass and room to roam. We move them every day to fresh pasture and mostly leave them alone. Besides our healthy soils, the water from above and below our farm and the sunshine produce a crazy amount of grass, and what do cows love to eat?—grass.  So, for a cow coming to our farm, grazing on grass and gazing at Mt. Pilchuck is a pretty good gig. 

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KFF's Meat Program 2013 / How it works


LOCAL GRASS-FED BEEF

WHY

  • Our cattle are free from growth hormones, free from antibiotics for at least one year, raised and finished on quality grass pasture, and moved often to maintain their health and the health of our pastures. 
  • The ratios of Omega 6 fatty acids to Omega 3 fatty acids are exactly what they are supposed to be for healthy meat.
  • Research shows that beef raised on grass is high in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which is anti-carcinogenic, anti-diabetic, anti-atherosclerosis (heart-disease), and reduces body fat. Grass-fed beef is also shown to be extremely higher in vitamin E, vitamin A, and beta carotene.
  • We are offering natural grass-fed beef as an alternative to the deplorable practices and ethics that exist in animal farming today. 

PROGRAM SCHEDULE 

  • March – We start accepting beef orders. Shares are limited and so orders are on a first-come, first-served basis. Orders are not secured until the deposit is received. 
  • June, August or October – This year we are offering three options for when your beef will be ready: June, August or October. A month before it is ready, the meat shop will contact you to discuss how you would like your beef cut and wrapped. Approximately three weeks later, your beef will be ready for you to pick up at the meat shop (we do not deliver the beef). KFF will also contact you to notify you of any remaining balance due for your share. 

COST BREAKDOWN

  • KFF costs – You will pay KFF $3/lb. for the hanging weight. Hanging weight refers to the weight of your share before it is cut and wrapped. All of your costs are based on the hanging weight. So, if you buy a • share of beef the average hanging weight is around 144 lbs. Therefore, an estimate of what you might owe KFF for a • share of beef is $3 x 144 lbs. = $432. 

     

    • In order to reserve your share of beef you will pay KFF a deposit of $300 per • share. So, if you order a • share of beef your deposit will be $600. Once we know the final hanging weight of your share of beef, we will be able to calculate any remaining balance you may owe to KFF, which you would pay at that time. 
  • Meat shop costs – The meat shop fees are separate from what you would pay KFF. You will pay the meat shop directly for their cutting and wrapping service when you pick up your beef. The meat shop charges a separate processing fee of $13.75 per • share, plus a cutting and wrapping fee of $0.55/lb. An estimate of what you might owe them for a • share of beef is $13.75 + ($0.55 x 144 lbs.) = $93. 
  • In the end – What you will bring home is approximately 65% of the hanging weight of your share. 65% of 144 lbs. equals 93.5 lbs. of actual cut and wrapped beef per • share. With all costs considered, your estimated total cost for a • share of beef (93.5 lbs. of beef) will be $432 to KFF + $93 to the meat shop = $525. This, divided by the average 93.5 lbs. of finished cut and wrapped meat, means that you would have brought home local all natural grass-fed beef at a cost of only $5.60/lb.! This is a very competitive price for grass-fed, hormone and antibiotic-free ground beef, and an exceptional price for the premium cuts

HOW TO ORDER

  1. Decide how much you want – The beef is sold by the share: • beef, • beef, • beef, or 1 whole beef. A • share of beef will fill two shelves of a large upright freezer. 
  2. Place your order – You can order and pay online or over the phone. To order online: from our Home page, select the Products category, then select the Meat category, select the Beef category, and then order the share for the month and size you want. Your account will then be invoiced for the deposit and your share will be reserved. Your order is not secured until the deposit is received. 

     

    • Please note: If you are a current produce customer and you are set up for us to automatically charge your credit/debit card for your produce deliveries, if you order your beef online but do not pay online at that moment, your card will be automatically charged on your next scheduled billing cycle. 
  3. Cancelling your order – Please understand that if you decide to cancel your order we will make every effort to find another buyer for your share. If we are able to find another buyer w 

LOCAL, ALL NATURAL, GRASS-FED LAMB

SCHEDULE

  • March-May – You reserve your lamb by paying the deposit. Lamb is only available as a whole share, so smaller portions will not be available. In May, we will e-mail you information on contacting the meat shop to discuss with them how you would like your share cut and wrapped. 
  • May/June – The lamb is processed and prepared for you to pick up at the meat shop sometime in late May/early June (we do not deliver the lamb). Once we know the final hanging weight of your share, we will contact you to notify you of any remaining balance due to KFF. 

COST BREAKDOWN

  • KFF costs – KFF charges $5/lb. for lamb, based on the hanging weight. (Hanging weight refers to the weight of your lamb before it is cut and wrapped.) This amount is broken up into two payments to KFF: 1) the deposit of $200 to reserve your lamb and 2) any remaining balance due, which we calculate once we know the final hanging weight of your lamb. Since the average hanging weight of a lamb is around 65 lbs., an estimate of what you might owe KFF is $5/lb. x 65 lbs. = $325. This total, minus your $200 deposit, would leave you with a remaining balance due of $125 to KFF. 
  • Meat shop costs – The meat shop (Del Fox Custom Meats) fees are separate from what you would pay KFF. You will pay the meat shop $90 for their processing, cutting and wrapping service when you pick up your lamb in May/June. 

HOW TO ORDER

  1. Place your order – You can order and pay online or over the phone. To order online: from our Home page, select the Products category, then select the Meat category, select the Lamb category, and then order the lamb share for June. Your account will then be invoiced for the deposit and your share will be reserved. Your order is not confirmed until the deposit is received. 

     

    • Please note: If you are a current produce customer and you are set up for us to automatically charge your credit/debit card for your produce deliveries, if you order your lamb online but do not pay online at that moment, your card will be automatically charged on your next scheduled billing cycle. 
  2. Cancelling your order – Please understand that if you decide to cancel your order we will make every effort to find another buyer for your share. If we are able to find another buyer we will gladly refund your deposit; however, if we are unable to find another buyer your deposit cannot be refunded. 

LOCAL, ALL-NATURAL, NON-GMO PORK

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

  • January-May – You reserve your share of pork by paying the deposit. In May, we will e-mail you information on contacting the meat shop to discuss how you would like your share cut and wrapped. 
  • June – The pork is processed and prepared for you to pick up at the meat shop (we do not deliver the pork). Once we know the final hanging weight of your share, we will contact you to notify you of any remaining balance due to KFF. 

COST BREAKDOWN

  • KFF costs – KFF charges $5/lb. for pork, based on the hanging weight. (Hanging weight refers to the weight of your share before it is cut and wrapped.) This amount is broken up into two payments to KFF: 1) the deposit of $450 per 1/2 share to reserve your order and 2) any remaining balance due, which we calculate once we know the final hanging weight of your share. Since the average hanging weight of a 1/2 share of pork is around 100 lbs., an estimate of what you might owe KFF is $5/lb. x 100 lbs. = $500. This total, minus your $450 deposit, would leave you with a remaining balance due of $50 to KFF. 
  • Meat shop costs – The meat shop (Del Fox Custom Meats) fees are separate from what you would pay KFF. You will pay the meat shop directly for their cutting and wrapping service when you pick up your pork in June. The meat shop charges a separate processing fee of $25 per 1/2 share, plus a cutting and wrapping fee of $0.52/lb. hanging weight. An estimate of what you might owe them for a 1/2 share of pork is $25+($0.52 x 100 lbs.) = $77. The meat shop charges an additional $0.65/lb. hanging weight for curing/smoking. 
  • In the end – What you will bring home is on average 73% of the hanging weight of your share. (This percentage can vary wildly depending upon how your share is cut. On complete bone-out hogs you will bring home more like 50% of the hanging weight.) 73% of 100 lbs. equals 73 lbs. of actual cut and wrapped pork per 1/2 share. With all costs considered, your estimated total cost for a 1/2 share of pork (73 lbs. of pork) will be $500 to KFF + $77 to the meat shop = $577. This, divided by the average 73 lbs. of finished cut and wrapped meat, means that you would have brought home local all natural pork at a cost of only $7.90/lb. 

HOW TO ORDER

Decide how much you want – The pork is sold by the share: one half (0.5) share or one whole (1.0) share. 

  1. Place your order – You can order and pay online or over the phone. To order online: from our Home page, select the Products category, then select the Meat category, select the Pork category, and then order the share for the month and size you want. Your account will then be invoiced for the deposit and your share will be reserved. Your order is not confirmed until the deposit is received. 

     

    • Please note: If you are a current produce customer and you are set up for us to automatically charge your credit/debit card for your produce deliveries, if you order your pork online but do not pay online at that moment, your card will be automatically charged on your next scheduled billing cycle. 
  2. Cancelling your order – Please understand that if you decide to cancel your order we will make every effort to find another buyer for your share. If we are able to find another buyer we will gladly refund your deposit; however, if we are unable to find another buyer your deposit cannot be refunded. 
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Grass-fed Beef, Lamb and Pork

order beefA few years ago, I was invited by the director, Robert Kenner, to attend a screening of Food, Inc. in Los Angeles. This invitation was all thanks for my brother who filmed much of the movie. I jumped at the opportunity to see the film.

Food, Inc. “lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA” (www.foodincmovie.com). It does so in a way that is honest and not intended purely for shock value but to inform and educate the often misguided and undereducated consumer. If you haven't seen the movie yet I highly recommend it.

What struck me the most while viewing the film is that food works best if we let it do what it was created to do. Tomatoes left to ripen on the vine are sweeter, have a much greater nutritional value and a flavor that cannot even compare to the tomatoes that were plucked while still green and left to ripen on the truck while in transit. The same goes for cows.

Cows were created to eat grass. Their digestive systems were designed to consume grass and yet lately, due to ease, cost and control, many cows are being fed grain. Now we all know that grain, in and of itself, is not a bad thing, but when cows start eating something other than grass things start to go wrong.

As things have started to go wrong for cows because of their unnatural diet, science has solved the problem by creating antibiotics that combat the diseases that arise. Rather than solving the problem by changing their diet, which would eliminate the need for antibiotics, we are now consuming meat from "cows that are essentially being kept alive by drugs" (baronbeef.com).

So now that we got that out of the way, let's focus on the benefits of grass-fed beef. For me the most important part is that it just plain tastes better. Richer, meatier and more complex in flavor. But there are other reasons as well. "The animal itself thrives because it is getting the food it was designed to eat and it converts that food to muscle and fat that is higher in minerals, vitamins, CLAs (conjugated linoleic acid) and Omega 3 fatty acids, and lower in cholesterol and fat" (baronbeef.com). Even though grass-fed beef isn't injected with antibiotics you have a much lower risk of getting diseases associated with beef such as E-Coli and Mad Cow Disease.

To learn more about this and in general where our food comes from I can't recommend the film Food, Inc. enough. Also, any of Michael Pollen's best-selling books like the Omnivores Dilemma provide a very thorough look into the world behind the food on our plate.

In the meantime, I highly encourage you to take advantage of this great opportunity to purchase and enjoy grass-fed beef. Not only can you eat it in good conscience but you will be thrilled with the wonderful taste that comes from cows that eat a diet they were created for.

by Ashley Rodriquez
Chef, food blogger, and full-time mom. You can read more of her writings at www.notwithoutsalt.com

 

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Sunday Morning Breakfast

Klesick Family Portraits

Sunday is the one day where our family sits down together for breakfast. The rest of the week is a blur, but on Sunday all the schedules align. 

On a normal Sunday morning we eat around 8:45 and I am the chef. As Chef Dad, I usually provide French toast, waffles or pancakes. My favorite pancake recipe is “Fluffy Pancakes” from the Allrecipes.com website. I usually substitute the butter for oil, add whole wheat flour to the recipe, and then quadruple the servings and start making pancakes. Pancakes are topped off with mixed berries and maple syrup—nothing quite like dessert for breakfast!

My gang can really mow through pancakes! Even little Joanna, at 3 years old, can eat two or three, and the teenagers, well let’s just say they could keep IHOP hopping! But when we all sit down to the table and thank the Lord for His provision, I take a moment to look around our old farm table and I get to quietly thank Him for all His goodness.  

There was a time when Maleah, Maddy, Alaina and Emily were just about to turn 3 just like Joanna, but now Emily is living on her own. And the same can be said, of the boys. It was just yesterday that Andrew, Aaron and Micah were turning 6 like Stephen. But now Micah is a full-time firefighter living in Vancouver, WA and when he comes to visit he brings his fiancé, Elise. It makes me smile. The farm table, once again, gets a little fuller. 

As Joelle and I get older and the kids start to leave the farm, what seemed like a small house for all of us, grows a little (emphasis on “little”) quieter and a little bigger. I find myself both looking back at and forward to our breakfasts. It is the one place where my family gathers and reconnects with our past, our present, and our future.  

We are always a family and we do share other meals together when it works out, but Sunday mornings are a priority, and now a tradition and a memory-maker. 

I would love to hear about how your family connects, so we can encourage each other in the ways we make family important. Drop me an e-mail or post it on Facebook. Who knows, your way to connect might be a perfect fit for another family in our box of good community. 

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From where I sit…

LabelGMOFoodstwibbon_940x150Our national food policy is dominated by the likes of Monsanto and the other agribusinesses. Sadly, our elected officials and the USDA are all too willing to listen to Monsanto and other multinational farm and food companies. Those companies have a stranglehold on public policy and the elected officials are far too compliant or complicit on the issue of genetic engineering in our food supply. 

I think it is a travesty that Americans and Canadians have to be the proponents of genetic engineering, forcing it upon other countries. Over the next few months, I will be addressing the issues of genetically engineered foods from a farming standpoint, a parent’s standpoint and a public policy standpoint. 

When it comes to food safety, food security and healthy food, it doesn’t seem to matter if you are a republican or democrat—Monsanto and their proponents have had their way in Washington D.C. and Olympia. This has to stop. But meaningful change is only going to happen when American citizens stop being “the Sheeple,” exercise our rights as “the People” and demand a level playing field. We are going to find out very quickly in Washington State where our local elected officials stand on this issue and also where our U.S. congressmen and women and senators stand as well.

I-522 “The People’s Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act”
This is an important issue. Please read the complete text found at www.labelitwa.org. This is at its heart a labeling issue. I am not proposing we shut down Monsanto or any other company, but I am in wholehearted agreement that genetically engineered foods need to be labeled as ingredients and that consumers be given the information to make informed choices on the products at the grocery stores or other food outlets. 

Yes, I know how to avoid GE foods and so do many of you, but the majority of citizens are uniformed and the biotech food industry prefers it that way. But I believe that if people are given the choice, they will choose non-genetically engineered foods and the free market will decide what type of food and products will go forward, not Monsanto or other multinational food companies.

I am voting for I-522 because labeling is a fair and free market solution to food security, food safety and a healthy food supply.

How about you?

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"k" Quest

Excalibur_5TrayIt is that time of the year again! It is time for the "k" Quest! Once again we give our customers the chance to win a prize with our virtual quest. You get to search the "k" on our own website! 

Each day of the quest we will hide the Klesick “k” (our green seedling logo) on a new page within our website. When you find it, click on the “k”, enter your name and e-mail address, and you will be entered into the prize drawing (one entry per day per customer).

Follow Klesick Family Farm on Facebook daily to receive clues on where to find the hidden “k”. The quest will take place March 1-10, 2013. The prize drawing will be March 11th and the winner will be notified immediately thereafter. Happy Quest!