WellsTavernFarm’s Weblog

Black Friday evening, after my husband had worked a long day in retail (which began at 5 a.m.) we hooked up the trailer to the Dodge truck, and headed North to Stockbridge, Vermont.  It was time to pick up our new heritage breed pigs, named Olive, Ruby and Big Red.  Olive and Ruby are both sows, and each had one litter unassisted. Ruby is preganant again, and is due at the very beginning of February. Big Red is the father.  They will move into the pasture to the East of  the house, and we will move the lambs to another location.  By keeping the new pigs closer by, we can keep a better eye on them. 

So, Friday night, we took the Dodge Ram 150 (the truck that we have had so many troubles with through the summer) and drove.  Myles was exhausted, and it was my job to keep him awake, since I am still not able to drive a standard clutch.  After we found the place with the pasture of pigs, and got them loaded up (which was far to easy) we drove back to the intersection of route 107 and 12, and stopped at our favorite diner, the Creek House diner.  It was about 7 p.m., and we were cold, tired and hungry.

At the Creek House, we have had some of the greatest breakfasts, and burgers anywhere.  Friday’s offerings were no disappointment: I had a BBQ burger.  It was wonderful.  Previously, I have had the Creek House Burger and Black and Blue Burger — all three are great — and feature ground beef from The Royal Butcher in Randolph.

After eating, we got back on the road and I asked if that was still rain pelting the windshield, or was that snow?  well, I asked him at the wrong time — just as we were headed down an eight percent grade mountain with warning signs.  That was just my luck Friday, let me tell you.  It has taken literally days to recover from selling turkeys on Tuesday and Wednesday.  We delivered or had picked up, almost 60 birds in 48 hours.  It was sheer craziness.

The pigs are beautiful, and the trip, apart from being about three hours long on the way back, was uneventful.  Aparently we have replaced nearly everything that was wrong with that truck.  Or at least that is what t feels like.

Soon, I will be posting pics of the new pig additions to our farm.  They are highly visable from the road, if you want to see them yourself.

We are roasting up two more turkeys today: one simply with salt, butter and pepper on the skin, and the other with sea salt, freshly ground pepper and butter on the skin, and Macintosh apples from Apex Orchards in Shelburne (just a mile and a half away)  and a tablespoon of minced garic in the cavity.

Turkey sandwiches for lunch today were delicious and doctored up: mayo on toasted wheat bread, shredded turkey, a tiny bit of stuffing, a healthy serving of  (dry) taco seasoning (mainly a cayenne and garlic affair), crispy bacon and cranberry sauce.  There was a lovely sweet balance of cranberry to counteract with the bite of the taco seasoning. I loved it (it was my idea, so yes, I did love it) and our 17 month old loved it as well.

Thank yous and copious amounts of gratitude go out to our 2009 customers, an elite group of New Englanders who will enjoy their turkeys tomorrow.  I have heard from one customer today that she has her bird in the oven already.

I also have to share with you that I have heard from another customer who shared her cooking experience with our heritage birds on her company’s website: http://farmaid.blogspot.com/2009/11/staff-recipes-roasted-heritage-breed.html  Yes, it is THAT FarmAid.  Great photos, too.  Personally, I can’t wait until I can dig in tomorrow.

I have a couple more turkeys to distribute to local folks, and then we are done until next year with turkey.  Not the raising and caring, but the distribution and eating part.  We still have about 25 birds in our flock who will naturally begin to lay eggs in the next few weeks (they, unlike chickens, lay very seasonally) and we will collect the eggs each day, and deposit them into our cabinet incubator, and hatch out baby turkeys (“poults”) about thirty days later.  We will continuously hatch turkeys now through spring, most likely. 

So, I must deliver a turkey and then rest.  While I drive I reflect on the lovely people that I have met through farming, and small improvements that we could make in the way that we do everyday chores on the farm.  On my return trip from Waltham today, I could not get over how grateful we are that there are turkey customers who appreciate the birds that we raise.  To them, we say “thank you.”

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to reflect back on the harvest season.

My eighty plus tomato plants were a bust this summer – they grew fabulously, they transplanted very well, and then came the early blight and the hungry wildlife and the few tomatoes that did hang from the poor plants were someone else’s dinner.

Our adventures with the “new to us” 1987 Dodge Ram truck were often topics of conversation at the local farmers markets: running the heat full tilt on the 98 degree day while hauling the trailer up to Vermont, or the day that I was at the radio station and I worked while receiving sporadic and “call-dropped” lousy reception calls from my huband as he lost the brakes while towing the trailer with a very large pig.

Then there was the trip to Cobleskill, New York with my mom, and the two kiddos — I drove the family minivan and we loaded it up with heritage breed piglets and drove home. The stench was tremendous.

We took a singluar “vacation” to the big Maine agricultural fair – Fryeburg Fair, and learned more about what other breeders are doing with their animals, and took many pictures!

We have met some of the nicest customers this year. That is probably the greatest thing about 2009. Whether it is the fellow who comes from Ashfield for a couple dozen eggs once in a while, or the random drop-by of Perri and family to pickup meat — or Sita, or Danny or Bill or Bev… we have really enjoyed seeing the results of our labor being appreciated.

Monday and Tuesday we will meet new customers and reaquaint ourselves with repeat-customer-friends; we will find out how the turkey cooked up last year and see how much the kids have grown. What we do day in and day out caring for turkeys (for example) really culminates in creating a great little community — one that I could not have dreamed up in a million years. From doctors, development specialists, college students & online shopkeepers, to localvores, radio professionals, professors and chefs (and many other people)… we all come together at our separate Thanksgiving tables and celebrate the harvest over a heritage, pastured turkey.

My mom is a gifted self-taught genealogist when she is not working at her paying job or on the farm. She says that our family tree contains clothiers, shoemakers and felters (hatmakers). So I have “making things” in my genes.

One of the more recent additions to her research on our tree is information about Henry Gregory. He seems like quite the character!

June 16, 1640: John Leonard complaines in an action of the case against Henry Gregory for taking more recompence for driving home of certaine stray sowes than his share come to, & for taking of more pigges with his sow that his share comes to. This case and those immeditely following are recorded in the note book of William Pynchon, the Springfield magistrate, which is now in the possession of the Law School of Harvard University. A photostat was kindly lent me. Some of the pages are damaged. In the Leonard case, the jury decided against Henry in the sum of 8 shillings. It seemed impressed by evidence of “sixe pigges” and only “5 teates drawen.”

Whoops! Apparently Mr. Gregory (who was of the shoemaker family) was caught with one too many piglets with his sow – the evidence being that only five teats were being used by the piglets who belonged to his sow. The research and commentary in the paragraph above is from Ancestors and Descendants of Henry Gregory, comp. by Grant Gregory. Publ. 1938.

It is nearing Thanksgiving and time to reflect back on family, memories and reasons to be thankful.  I have (put a deposit down on) a sow who will have piglets at the end of January/beginning of February. I have two of the most inquisitive and smart little boys that a mother could ever want. It is about a week before we process this years turkeys for Thanksgiving and distribute the main course for fifty-two tables of hungry diners.  And we have our health.  All is well on the farm despite the last few days of torrential rain.

As the temperature drops and the blustery winds cut through our clothes and chill us to the bone, we are eagerly building and reconstructing animal housing for some new additions to the Wells Tavern Farm animal collection.

I have researched (to death) pig breeds, and chosen for temperament and taste (in the opposite order), the Berkshire Pig was the winner! We have a trio of pigs coming next week: a Tamworth Sow, a Berkshire Sow and a Tamworth Boar.  They will be added to our Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs, and the Red Wattle/Large Black crosses.  These pigs represent a hefty investment  in purchase price and commitment to feed through the winter – but, we anticipate that they will not only provide us with hours of fun porcine landscaping, and some wonderfully tasty pork products in Fall 2010.

We have also committed to purchase two grass-fed Belted Galloway steers.  One is a lovely nearly full-grown, very spirited steer who has a sixth sense for when an electric fence is alive, and the other is incredibly long-bodied yearling steer.  They will be added to the pasture in early December.

The final purchase is a drop dead gorgeous late spring heifer calf  (a female) who is a Murray Grey. The Murray Grey breed is unfortunately, not a heritage breed.  As faithful readers know, we attempt to raise mostly heritage breeds.  We try to do this whenever it is feasible.   Backstory: There is nothing technically wrong with the Belted Galloways that we graze.  They are a slow-growing, compact and tough little beef animal. Murray Greys are quicker growing, friendly, hornless, medium-framed (larger than Galloways)  and produce more tender meat [Murray Greys produce marbled beef carcass without excess subcutaneous or inter-muscular seam fat of the type that is preferred in Japan and other Asian markets.] Not that we have any reach into the Japan or Asian markets, but that marbling and tenderness sounds intriguing.  So, the plan for this calf, is to grow her out, breed her to either our White Galloway Bull, or to another Murray Grey (artificially) and then raise her calves.  So we won’t be able to see if the marbling and carcass quality is what the scientists say that it is for about three-four years:  raise her and breeding her at 22 months old, nine months gestation, and then a couple of years to raise her calf.

Yes, I have created calendars that tell me which animals we will be “processing” during which months for the next three years.  It takes an awful lot of forethought to accomplish meat in the freezer for sale.  The way that I control the quality of the finished product is by starting with quality stock, raising it on grass and high quality feed (for the non-beef animals on the farm) and then raising it for months and months and months, and then taking it to the right slaughterhouse where animals are treated humanely (they have prohibited the use  of electric prods, and allow an acclimation time for an animal to calm down after transport for a few hours before processing, while offering them hay and water) and we know that the meat that we transport back to the farm, is the meat form our animals.  It is not “mystery meat” that perhaps came from someone else’s animals  — it is, without a doubt, our animal that comes home with us.

The process of farming is long — the long view needs to be taken at all times.  When we pay for three hundred dollars of grain a week at the feed store, we need to take some deep breaths and take the long view.  It is not every week that we hit three hundred dollars — just seasonally when the turkeys are at their largest and closest to processing.  Similarly, it is not everyday that we invest in nearly three thousand dollars of animal acquisitions.  Long view.  We plan to be here to see how it all pans out in three years 

Sorry.

All of my turkeys are reserved. If you have not received my email with recipes and a photograph of our turkeys, than you did not make the list.  We have had phone calls, emails, people stopping on the road — all manner of reservations, and I have been so busy with keeping track of them.

If you are interested in getting on the mailing list for next year, than please contact me at your convenience. Let me stress that there is really no time that is considered ‘Too Early’ to get onto a list for the following year.  Even though our turkeys are all reserved for 2009, you might be able to get a local turkey from Diemand Farm in Wendell  – they don’t have a website, but you might give them a phone call and see if they have any left.

Boy, the farmer gathering last night at Leyden Glen Farm was great.  Many thanks to Julia, Kristin and Mark for hosting a lovely little dinner party.  The leg of lamb was wonderful, as was the Coyote Hill Farm mashed  Gilfeather Turnip and (whole) Brussels Sprout dish topped with Parmesan Cheese, the Severance Maple Farm Baked Beans, Linda’s Applesauce, and we got many compliments for our sausage and cheese meatball appetizers.  We had a wonderful time eating our harvest.

Here is a recipe that I unearthed in my search for a quick and simple sausage recipe to share at the party last night.  I did not make it for sharing last evening, but it sure sounds like one to try!

Sausage Cake

1 lb. Sweet Italian sausage
1 cup cold black coffee
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cup self rising flour
1 cup chopped nuts of choice
1 cup raisins

Add sausage and coffee and mix in a big bowl. Add granulated sugar and dark brown sugar, mix well. Beat in eggs. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and salt, mix all ingredients well. Add flour, mix well. Add chopped nuts and raisins, mix well.   Do not grease the pan!

Pour in angel food cake pan and bake in 325 degree oven for about 1 hour or until inserted knife comes out clean.

During the holidays it is commonplace to soak a cotton dish towel in Rum and wrap it around the cake and put it in the refrigerator for about two weeks. Cake may also be decorated for any holiday.

What happens when a bunch of farmers get together for a Saturday night out, together? I am not sure, but my husband and I will find out tonight, as we have been invited over to Leyden Glen Farm for a get-together with the farms and farmers who faithfully participated in the rain and wind blown Tuesday Farmers Markets through the summer and into the fall in Bernardston. This is just a little seasonal social wrap-up, as I understand it. The great part, though, is that we are all bringing a dish to share. It had to be a dish that features a product that you grow (raise, etc.) Now, if you are a veggie farmer, I can see bringing a potato or squash (storage veggie) dish — seasonally appropriate and all of that, and if you make maple syrup, I can see a wider variety of possibilities: a pie, cookies, even a meat dish — who knows… and then there is us. We sell meat. Tasty meat from grassfed beef, lambs, pigs, turkeys, chickens, goats, and eggs… all of the proteins on the farm, really. So, when I decided to feature SAUSAGE for the “dish to share” I thought that the playing field was wide-open.

Do you know how many sausage recipes there are out there that are truly horrible? It was astounding. I read through countless cookbooks (good thing that I collect them!) before I found a couple of recipes that were real contenders. I thought that I had decided on The Recipe for about twenty-four hours, and then changed my mind yesterday morning… so out went the Fennel Shallot Sweet Italian Sausage Quiche (though I will share the recipe here, another day) and in came two much simpler recipes.

We’ll see how the vegetable farmers like what we bring for sausage dishes!

The kids are not coming to the dinner, we have secured them with grandparents for the evening. The four year old will not be listening to A Prairie Home Companion on the radio this evening because of that — is it strange for a four year old to watch television, namely “Between The Lions” on PBS, and say:” Mommy! Look! It’s Mister Fred Newman from the radio!”

Is there something sweet about that statement happening in 2009?

I thought so.

Well, at least we didn’t get the snow that was possible last night. It was another cold night nonetheless.
How do we begin our mornings on the farm? Get up, pour a cup of coffee, and look out the window and see where the turkeys are in the yard. I am serious. Recently, our shortened daylight hours are spent herding the flock of turkeys back from the road and the neighbor’s lawn, and the vehicles in the driveway, and any other shiny object that the birds find interesting.  One turkey will get it in their head that they want to explore something and go.  The bird closest to it will wonder what the first bird is doing, and follow.  Next thing you know, you have a flash mob of turkeys doing something that you wouldn’t necessarily want them to do in a very public and inconvenient place.

Herding turkeys is a bit like herding cats. There are submissive females who you can talk to using turkey calls, and they will follow you to the ends of the earth without any fuss, but the associated tom turkeys with the females are a bit of a problem. They are alpha males and a little bit aggressive – more so if you are short and tentative – like my four-year old son. So some of the birds need to be led (the hens: a la Pied Piper) and the toms need to be herded (a la cats). It is a full-time job to simply keep the birds safe during the day.

Nights are another story, for another day…

Speaking of turkey, the “Great Turkey Countdown” is on!  We have some Heritage Pastured (really a misnomer — they are Free Ranging in the very most Free sense of the word!) Turkeys available both as Fresh and Frozen, for Thanksgiving 2009.  Still $4.50 a pound. (Still a great deal) Vegetarian fed, never fed scary byproducts, meat products or medications.  The varieties that we have are Lilac, Standard Bronze and Bourbon Red, all heritage (heirloom) varieties.

Additionally, we still raise a Tasty Pork Product. For Bacon Lovers there is the Thick Cut Maple Syrup Cured Hickory Smoked Bacon – $8 a pound.  Wonderfully Flavorful (when was the last time you have a flavorful chop?) and Tender Pork Chops – assorted cuts – assorted prices.   Kid-friendly (my kids love it!) Sweet Italian Sausage (without casings! Bulk, ground) is just $8 a pound.  And then there is my favorite sausage, the Breakfast Sausage, also $8 a pound.   Our pigs are raised in pastures (they actually, usually stay in the pasture fencing) and fed vegetarian diets which include New England processed grains, vegetables and milk from our Registered Jersey cows (very high butterfat, deep cream line, tasty milk).  The pigs are all Heritage Varieties – if they were vegetables, they would be call Heirloom varieties – Tamworth, Gloucestershire Old Spots, Large Black and Red Wattle.