We Bring You Our Meat Clubs - And a Special Offer!

This week we’ve focused on sharing with you the different aspects of the meats we offer through our CSA – from how it is raised to how to best cook our certified organic, 100% grass-fed Angus beef and organic pastured pork. So what’s the best way to get some of this delicious meat into your freezer at home?

Let us introduce you to our Meat Clubs! No worries, there is no password or secret hand shake to this club – all are welcome equally. So what are these meat club shares that we are so excited about? Our meat club shares allow individuals to sign up for multiple 15 pound meat packages to be delivered throughout the year. With the meat club you are able to sign-up for these deliveries with one easy purchase and at a discounted price! We deliver our meat shares five times a year: May, June, November, December, and January. Our 3 delivery meat club signs you up for a delivery in June, November and January, whereas our 5 delivery meat club gets you a delivery on each these five deliveries. You can choose to start whenever it is convenient for you! The packages will contain either all beef or a mix of beef and pork. 

Wondering if you’ll have freezer space? Here is a picture of our own freezer with a 15-pound meat share tucked inside! It only takes up a 10”(L) x 10”(H)” x 14”(Depth) space! Plenty of room for all your other frozen goodies!

 

Why sign-up for our Meat Club? There are plenty of reasons! Here are a few that we think are worth highlighting:

1.  Save money - When you order up front, you’ll save money versus buying individual packages before each month’s delivery.
2. Order once and be good to go for the year – No need to pay attention to deadlines for sign-up. You’ll be scheduled across a whole year so you can sit back and relax
3. These shares were designed to better meet the needs of smaller households or for those with limited freezer space - 15 pounds takes up very little space in your freezer but it will always be stocked with freshly frozen meat.
4. You can spread your payments out over 6 months when you sign up for our meat club.

So now that you know all the reasons why the meat clubs are a great option, what comes with each of these deliveries? We have preselected different meat packages for each meat club option. Below is a list of the different packages for each club and their delivery month (The descriptions of these different packages can be found here: http://www.harmonyvalleyfarm.com/HVFMeatOrderForm.pdf

3 Delivery Meat Club (all packages are 15 pounds each):

June: All-Beef Mixed Pack

November: Beef and Pork Variety Pack

January: Beef and Pork Family Pack

5 Delivery Meat Club (all packages are 15 pounds each):

May: All-Beef Burger and Steak Pack

June: All-Beef Mixed Pack

November: Beef and Pork Family Pack

December: Beef and Pork Variety Pack

January: Beef and Pork Variety Pack

If this doesn’t have your mouth watering yet, wait until we tell you our special offer that is running through the end of September:

Sign-up for either our 3 or 5 delivery Meat Clubs by September 30, 2013 starting in November, December or January and receive a free copy of Shannon Hayes’ “The Grass-Fed Gourmet Cookbook.”

Not only is this cookbook a great resource for recipes, it is loaded with tips on cooking grass-fed beef and pastured pork in addition to educational materials surrounding a grass-fed and pastured lifestyle. Visit Shannon’s blog to learn more about this cookbook: http://www.shannonhayes.org/farm-and-book-store/shannons-books-hard-copies/ Use the coupon below or mention ClubCookbook when ordering to take advantage of this offer. (Offer is valid on orders post-marked by September 30, 2013. Meat club must be started with either our November 2013, December 2013, or January 2014 meat deliveries. Not valid on previous orders. Coupon or coupon code must be included to redeem offer. No cash value. Limit one cookbook per customer.)

 Find our Sign-Up Form Here: http://www.harmonyvalleyfarm.com/HVFMeatOrderForm.pdf

Cooking Grass-Fed Beef...A Few Basic Tips for Success

The way in which animals are managed and raised does directly impact the qualities and characteristics of meat.  It is important to realize this because it will directly affect how you cook your meat to get the best quality end product.  Grass-fed beef from animals that have led stress-free lives grazing on pastures tends to be more lean and flavorful when compared to conventionally raised, grain-fed beef.  If you are accustomed to cooking conventional, grain-fed beef, or have had less than delicious results cooking or eating grass-fed meat previously, there are a few things to consider that might make a difference in your end result.

DO NOT OVERCOOK THE MEAT…TIME & TEMPERATURE ARE IMPORTANT!

The first thing to remember, and possibly the most important, is do not overcook the meat!! Grass-fed beef is more lean and has less marbling than grain-fed beef.  Since fat is an insulator, and grass-fed meat is so lean, it will cook faster than grain-fed meat and may be less forgiving without the fat to cover up a little bit of overcooked meat.  When you are reading recipes, take the guidelines for how long to cook a piece of meat with a grain of salt.  The time it takes to cook a piece of meat will depend on other variables including the size and thickness of the piece.  There are other ways to test the doneness of a piece of meat as well.  One way is to test the doneness of some pieces of meat, such as a chuck roast or stew meat, to see if it is “fork tender.” When a fork is inserted into the piece of meat, the meat should slide off the fork easily.  If it does, the meat is done.  If the fork doesn’t come out easily, the meat needs to cook longer.  Other ways to judge the doneness of meat include touch and temperature.  Learning to judge the doneness of meat by touch takes practice and time to master.  If you’ve ever wondered why chefs are always poking meat on a grill, it’s because they are feeling the resistance the piece of meat gives to touch.  The more the meat is cooked, the more firm the meat will feel.  This is something you will just have to practice and master over time. 

Checking the internal temperature of a piece of meat while it is cooking is a more reliable way to monitor the degree of doneness.  The USDA recommends cooking beef to a final internal temperature of 140-170° F, however most chefs would recommend a range of 120°F for rare meat and an upper range of 165°F for well-done meat.  You can use a simple meat thermometer or meat probe to test the internal temperature.  Insert the thermometer into a thicker, more centrally located place on the piece of meat.  If the piece you are testing contains a bone, make sure the thermometer is inserted away from the bone.  Also, remember that meat continues to cook even after you remove it from the heat source.  This is called carry-over cooking.  Don’t forget to take this into account when you are cooking and remove the meat from the heat before it reaches your final desired temperature.  Smaller pieces of meat, such as a rib steak, will continue to carry-over cook for about 5 to 10 minutes and the temperature can increase another 5 degrees.  If you are cooking a larger piece of meat such as a roast, the meat can continue to cook for an additional 15-30 minutes after being removed from the heat source.  The temperature of a larger piece of meat can rise as much as an additional 10-15 degrees. 

The next thing to remember is that you control the flame.  What I mean is that you have control of the temperature at which you are cooking your meat.  Remember, grass-fed meat doesn’t have as much fat to insulate it so it will cook more quickly.  If you are cooking grass-fed beef over a high temperature, you can cook the meat too quickly and cook the moisture and fat right out of the meat, making it dry and tough.  

COOKING METHODS:

Another important factor is to choose the correct cooking method for the cut of meat you are preparing.  Cuts of meat that come from a part of the animal that is used and exercised more will be tougher.  To tenderize these cuts you should use a moist heat cooking method which will use a longer cooking time and added moisture or liquid to help tenderize the meat. 

• Moist Heat cooking methods include braising, stewing, boiling or cooking in a crock-pot. 

• Tougher cuts of beef include the following:  Chuck Roast, Arm Roast, Rump Roast, Round Steak, Stew Meat and Short Ribs.

Cuts of meat that come from muscles of the animal that are not as active will be more tender.  These cuts of meat can be prepared using dry-heat cooking methods

• Dry Heat Cooking methods include grilling, sautéeing, roasting, broiling, stir-frying, pan-frying, and deep-frying. 

• More tender cuts of beef include the following:  Rib Steak, T-bone Steak, Sirloin Steak, Sirloin Tip, Flank Steak and Skirt Steak. 

FLAVOR:

Finally, lets talk about flavor.  Yes, it will ultimately come down to a matter of personal preference.  Grass-fed beef has been described as having more of a juicy, rich, robust “beefy flavor” in comparison to grain-fed meat.  The flavor of grass-fed meat has also been described as “clean” in comparison to grain-fed meat.  The higher fat content and marbling in grain-fed meat may leave more of a coating in your mouth and an after-taste that you won’t experience with grass-fed meat, which may be why some people describe the flavor as “clean.”  Animals that are grass-fed have a distinctive, sufficient flavor that can stand on its own without a lot of additional seasonings and sauces.  Let the natural flavor of the meat stand out by using simple salt & pepper seasonings or simple herb rubs for starters.   For braised dishes such as pot roast, the flavor of the meat will be infused into the cooking liquid creating a flavorful rich stock or sauce.  As you begin to experience the flavors of grass-fed beef, we encourage you to keep it simple so the true flavor of the meat comes out and you can taste the difference for yourself.

 

 

This video clip from The New York Times and Mark Bittman discusses and shows you some of the differences between cooking with grass-fed and grain-fed beef. This video does a great job of  highlighting some of the differences that we have mentioned in this post.

There are a lot of resources available to guide you in your endeavors to cook grass-fed beef.  One of our favorites is Shannon Hayes’ book called The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook .  She offers a lot of really simple, down-to-earth and resourceful ways to successfully prepare grass-fed beef. 

Growing Practices for our Certifed Organic, 100% Grass-Fed Cattle

(Article by Richard de Wilde and Andrea Yoder)

 

As you can see by looking at our cattle, they are happy and healthy inside and out.  We have chosen to raise our cattle in a certified organic, 100% grass-fed production system, which is much different than industrial meat production and other conventional practices. There are numerous differences; however we would like to hit on a few differences that we feel are most important for you to understand when you are making the choice to purchase any meat in the future.

We want to start off with the pasture grasses since they are the main food source for our cattle.  We take great care to make sure our pasture has a good mix of grasses and legumes. Since we have plenty of grasses already in the pasture, each spring we use a practice called frost seeding to plant more legumes (usually red clover for us). Frost seeding is putting the seed on top of the pastures, usually during March, on days that alternate between freezing at night and thawing during the day. Along with the spring rains, this helps the seed make its way into the soil surface. Frost seeding offers several potential advantages, including the ability to establish forage in undisturbed sod, a reduced need for labor and energy compared to conventional seeding methods, and the ability to establish forages with minimum equipment investment.  Once the pastures take off and start growing in the spring, the cattle are anxious to start grazing. It’s important, both for the health of the animals and the pastures, to manage their grazing. We do this by dividing the pasture into smaller sections called paddocks. We rotate our cattle from paddock to paddock every five days to make sure they are getting the best of what each has to offer and adequately grazing the grass in that area so it will regrow. Sometimes we over-winter animals as well. Since our cattle are 100% grass-fed, you might be wondering what they eat when the hillsides are covered with snow. Over the course of the summer, we harvest alfalfa as well as premium pasture grasses, which sometimes are in abundance compared to the amount our small herd can eat. We bale the grass and alfalfa and store it in the barn to feed during the winter.

But what about those pesky weeds that pop up in our pastures? We mow our lush pastures when we can to either harvest the grasses or to manage the weeds. Sometimes we have to hand-dig some of those stubborn weeds. There is a newer bad boy invasive species in town, and its name is the multiflora rose. Our animals will eat off the new young shoots to prevent any more spread, but even so it can get out of hand quickly.  The other alternative that conventional farms use is to spray herbicide directly onto their pastures, weeds and grasses included. This creates a residue that stays on the good grasses and seeps into the soil. Then you also have the run-off that occurs from these chemicals when it rains and washes into area waterways. So with a little extra effort, and sometimes ‘elbow grease’, we can control the weeds without contaminating the environment or our animals’ food source.

One of the concerns with raising beef cattle is managing internal parasites. In a conventional system animals are treated with a something called anthelmintic products. Most of the products used are either avermectins/ milbemycins (ivermectin, dormectin, eprinomectin, and moxidectin) or benzimidazoles (oxfendazole, albendazole, fendbendazole), (from UW Extention Cooperative).  If you are like us, you are having a hard time even trying to pronounce those chemicals. The chemical residue is then absorbed into the animal and accumulates in the organs and fat to combat the parasites. Then what happens to the chemicals? You guessed it - they work their way through the animal and are deposited into the pastures and thus passed through to the pasture environment. We rotate our animals to different paddocks every 5 days and they do not return to a paddock again for at least a month. Because of this, we actually ‘break’ the life cycle of the internal parasites. We also use Diatomaceous Earth (DE) to help kill off those pesky buggers.  We have the DE mixed with the very desirable kelp meal and Redmond trace minerals salt that we offer as a free choice ration, which they love.  The DE and minerals move through the animal and get deposited in random plops throughout the pasture. This is one way we utilize our pasture and it also helps prevents fly larvae from hatching. 

Our animals stay very healthy in our pastures and are never confined or crowded.  This helps to avoid any other health problems that may naturally occur. In confinement operations, disease can spread easily since the animal population is so dense. Because of this, conventionally raised animals are routinely fed antibiotics in their feed, mineral blocks or are given routine injections. This overuse has caused antibiotic resistant bacteria, such as E. coli 0157. While antibiotic use is prohibited in organic animal production, we would use an antibiotic to save a life or prevent suffering in any of our animals. If an antibiotic were to be used, we would sell that animal on the conventional market as it would no longer be certified organic. 

Mineral Feeder

What about flies – we all despise those little buggers too!  But they can cause great hardship and pain to cattle.  If not controlled, they can create and spread Pink-eye to the animals.  So how do we control the flies you ask?  Good question!  We make a mixture of Organic Citronella and Organic Sunflower oil and put it on strips in front of the mineral feeder. When the cattle go into the feeder for minerals, the oil mixture is then distributed to their faces and repels the flies.  This has been wonderfully effective for our cattle and we have not had any problems since we implemented this system.  The alternative would be to use either a dust bag or Cattle Rub containing insecticides to treat the animals.  Some insecticides used include Methoxychlor, Pyrethroids or Imaden, Permectrin Dust or Rabon Dust. Those chemicals are absorbed into the animal’s skin and through the air they breathe. The insecticides are then passed though the animal and into the manure and pasture environment. This is not allowed in organic production.

Now we move to the back end of the cow.  We have already touched on a few things that move through the cattle’s system, hence the reason we don’t give them those bad things we call contaminants.  Because our cattle eat the luscious grass and legumes in our paddocks, those little patty plops are great fertilizer for our pastures.  Because we rotationally graze our animals, we make sure to get a wide spread of ‘cow pies’ throughout the entire pasture area.  Some of you might think it’s not so good to have those, I agree you don’t want to step in them, but because our animals are spread out in the paddocks, we don’t have to ‘find a place’ for all that concentrated manure in one spot. Our manure stays in the paddocks and increases the pasture fertility. This means no hauling, no fossil fuel use and no disposal problems. On the conventional feedlots or non-pastured cattle, with so many animals crowded in one spot, and the average beef cow producing 10 tons of manure a year, that can spell (or smell) trouble.  All of that manure has to go somewhere! Where it goes it varies from feedlot to feedlot, but they have to find places to dispose of what really ends up as a liability instead of a valuable asset.

When purchasing meat from our farm, you can rest assured that our animals are well taken care of. We encourage you to visit our farm and see for yourself.  If you have questions about our animal practices, make sure you ask your farmers.  We are here to help further aid you in making an informed choice, one that you feel is best for you and your family. If our meat is a part of that choice, we are happy to be your farm!