In Your Kitchen: Amy's CSA Chicken



So we'll use this as a first post in a new feature here on the Blog, called In Your Kitchen. I'd love to share your pics and/or recipes of the cool creative ways you use Rettland Farm products in your kitchens. Send em my way, and I'll put em up.

Our first entry comes from Amy.  Amy is one of our Chicken CSA members, and she sends me pictures occasionally of the dishes she's prepared with our products. 

Amy sent me this picture of last week's CSA share, which was pastured chicken halves.  Amy's preparation:  "Rosemary and garlic roasted on the chicken and when it cools slightly we will pour on some balsamic vinegar. Soooo delicious!! "

No doubt.

Thanks for sharing, Amy!

Season 2 of The Larder Begins

The Larder at Rettland Farm is Open for the season, starting Saturday, May 11!


As a quick reminder, the Larder is a self-serve farm stand where you can purchase our fresh pastured chickens and frozen heritage pork products.

The Larder is open between 1pm and 7pm every Saturday, here at the farm. Our address is 920 Barlow Two Taverns Road, Gettysburg PA, 17325.

When you arrive at the farm, there is a small shed located by the picket fence near the parking area. (Please excuse the clutter here at the beginning of the season. We've got some cool stuff in the works this summer, but we have to deal with a little unkempt-ness to get there!)

Inside the shed is a refrigerator/freezer, which has the meat available for the week. Be sure to check both the fridge and freezer for all of the possibilities! However, please don't take any chickens from the drawers/shelves marked "CSA". These are for our Chicken CSA members only.

All prices will be clearly marked on each package. You can leave payment by cash or check in the soon-to-be-famous metal "Care Bear" tin in the refrigerator side.

There will always be someone around the farm to help if you need it.  If you don't see anyone, just beep your horn a few times, and we'll come to help.

Hope to see you at the Larder someday soon!

Share-A-Swine, Month 4 (and Another Recipe!)

So here we are folks, at the fourth and final pick up day for the Rettland Farm Share-A-Swine program. 

Our little group has gone through about 400 lbs of Rettland Farm pork in the last 4 months, the equivalent of about 2 whole animals.  That's pretty impressive!

So to wrap it up, here is what you'll find in your share bag this month:

Loin/Rib Chops:  Eat "High on the Hog" one last time.  Maybe sneak them on the grill one of these warm days!

Shoulder Steak:  We had this once before in a previous month's share.  These do best with slow, low heat.  They would be excellent in a stew or braise, or dry rub them and slow cook them on the grill or in the oven.  Don't let their shape fool you!  They look like a steak, but they need time to tenderize.

Regular Sausage:  For any occasion.  Simply amazing grilled (are you noticing a pattern here?), served on a bun with mustard and cheese.

Sweet Italian Sausage:  Our friend Christine (she of Lard Making Fame) sent out a recipe via email to the group last month using sweet italian sausage.  You can find it again here.

Ground Pork:  I'd mix this with lean grassfed beef and make some killer burgers...you guessed it...on the grill.

Minute Steaks:  Back again, since we love them so.  Stir fry, tacos, or cheesesteak.  Or whatever novel ways you've come to use them.

Thanks for all your support, Share-A Swiners! 

Enjoy!

Chicken CSA, Charm City Edition

Heads up, Bawlmer.  We're bringing our Chicken CSA to your town, Hon.

Thanks the generosity of Spike and Amy Gjerde, the owners of Woodberry Kitchen and Artifact Coffee, we are going to have a drop off point for a weekly Chicken CSA, right there in Hampden. 

This means that you can get your hands on a fresh, pastured, sustainably raised broiler chicken, from the same small farm that provides chickens to Woodberry Kitchen, and then take that sweet luscious bird home for your family dinner table. 

And you can do this EVERY WEEK for 30 weeks this summer and fall.

The drop location and day/time is TBD, but will most likely be at the Union Mill where Artifact calls home, probably on a Friday afternoon/evening.

So, if you are a member of the staff or a loyal customer of either Woodberry or Artifact,

OR if you live close by,

OR if you drive by on the JFX on your way home in the afternoon...

then, you should probably check out our CSA, and then sign yourself up today!

You can jump over here to get the basics on the CSA in general, contact info, etc.

And then CONTACT ME right away, to get your name on the list.  We have a limited number of spots available, and you need to be sure to get yours.

Your whole summers worth of personal chicken satisfaction may depend on it!

In My Inbox Today....

This was in my inbox this morning, from J.B, a longtime friend of the farm. 

It made me smile.  Proudly.  The wheels are starting to turn, folks, right here at home.

Hi Beau-

I just wanted you to know that I am spending the year on a research leave in Copenhagen DK. supposedly it is the food hub of Northern Europe, but The Danes are rapidly growing tired of my complaining about their absence of farmers' markets. I knew this all along, but going away from it definitely has reinforced what [a nice] food culture is in place in SC PA. Agri-culture, eh?

Hope all is well and best wishes for continued success. I look forward to getting on the meat share when we get back.

J

Share-A-Swine, Month 3. (With Recipe!)

So, it's time for our third monthly pickup for the Share-A-Swine Program. 

And check it out.  We have a RECIPE!

First, this month's haul:

Chops:  Mostly rib chops this month, which are my personal favorite.  Love that fatty little tail on those suckers!

Bacon:  Most of you will find bacon in your Share this month.  However, we came to the end of the bacon supply for these two animals before all of the shares were filled.  So, for those who didn't get a share of bacon this month, you received an extra pack of pork chops as a consolation prize.  And we should have bacon again for the grand finale next month.

Sausage:  Three kinds of sausage this month.  Regular, Sweet Italian, and Hot Italian.  The regular works great in literally any dish, at any meal.  The Italians are generally used in pasta dishes around our house, but would love to hear how they are used in yours!

Minute Steaks:  We have these versatile little steaks again this month, representing the ham portion of our animal.  How did you use yours last month?  Read on to check out how one of our members used her Minute steaks.

We're really fortunate to have a recipe this month, from Amy L.  Amy is one of our Share-A-Swine members, and she sent me the following recipe that she developed to prepare the Minute Steak. She also mentioned that the recipe works just as well using plain ground pork that was in your share last month.  It sounds DELICIOUS! 

Here it is, courtesy of Amy:


TACOS AL PASTOR
2# pork chip (Minute) steak or ground pork
2 TBSP minced garlic
1 TBSP cumin
1 TBSP oregano
1 TBSP minced pineapple
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground Annatto ( Goya brand in the ethnic section of grocery store. It is an orange box. There are small pouches inside the box)
1/2 tsp pepper


If using the chip steak, place the steak in a large mixing bowl and add spices. Coat the pork with the seasonings,  (If using ground pork, mix all the ingredients together and shape into patties.)
Slice meat. It will crumble as you slice it. Heat a skillet on the stove with some olive oil. Add the chip steak and stir fry until cooked through. (If using ground pork, grill your ground pork patties until cooked through.)

You can add it to wraps or taco shells. Top with grilled pineapple, guacamole and salsa. You can also top it with sour cream.  (Amy makes a chipotle sour cream by chopping up one chipolte pepper in adobo sauce and mixing it into the sour cream.  Which sounds pretty tasty.)

There you have it, our first ever recipe shared by a SAS member.  How bout you?  Have you found any great recipes since we started Sharing the Swines?

Hope you all enjoy your shares.  See you next month!

The Joint Lard Adventure, Part 2

A few weeks back, you may remember, I mentioned a little partnership we had gotten into with our friend Christine, who had been interested in getting her hands on some lard.

You might also remember that Christine, after learning that we didn't sell lard for several reasons, willingly, innocently, agreed to make her own at home.  And as an added bonus, she agreed to document the process for all of the rest of us.

Confession time.  I have made lard before.  I KNEW it wasn't quite as easy peasy as all the rustic homesteader or the foodie snob websites made it out to be.  And I also knew that it was a little...odiferous.

Stink?  No, not really, at least not to me.  But imagine the most intense musky, meaty, porky smell you've ever experienced.  Now double it.  And NOW you're in the ball park.

Throughout history, lard was probably rendered outside in the summer kitchen of the farmstead or even in the open air, in the dead of winter (cause that's when hogs were butchered), in a big open kettle over an actual fire.  No intense odors in the house while rendering it, or lingering of said odors inside said house for days thereafter.  Trouble is, most folks these days don't have a summer kitchen, or feel the urge to cook pioneer style in a cast iron kettle over open fire.

So I had the idea of modernizing the process and using that ubiquitous household appliance, a slow cooker, to slowly render the lard.  By doing so, we'd be able to put the whole operation and all its' intense eau de porkiness, outside.

I made this suggestion to Christine, and she RAN with it.

And I have to say, I think she has written some of the best Food writing I've ever read. I sincerely hope that this post of hers gets thousands of hits, because it's the real deal when it comes to rendering lard.  Her theme of "Hey, making lard ain't pretty, easy, or fun.  But it's worth it." is spot on, in my humble opinion. 

Check out her full post here. And then add it to your favorites.

And one last note:  I've been playing this as some kind of partnership or joint venture between Christine  and I.  It's not.  She did all of the research and all of the work.  She was the one jarring up liquid pork fat at midnight a few weeks ago, not me.  I'm just some farmer guy who gave up some pork fat.

Thanks Christine!