“Is that snow?” Vermont got snow Friday. We were there.

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.

 

Happy Thanksgiving

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.

 

At Least We Didn’t Get Snow. Oink, Oink.

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.

 

Peas & Pork

Last night for dinner, the family sat down to a yummy feast featuring our own heritage breed Gloucestershire Old Spots meat, which has more fat than modern industrial hybrid pig breeds (which are bred to be very lean) the meat was able to be baked longer and to a greater degree of doneness and was still moist and flavorful, owing to the natural fat content of the meat. It was a tenderloin roast, and it was WONDERFUL – flavorful, moist, not too textured or stringy — just perfect.

• On the peas front, I have been somewhat negligent in the garden lately. What seems like an awfully long time ago, we were still getting frosts, and I was spending a n awful lot of time each day covering and uncovering my peas in the large garden. This was after I planted some peas that I had found that I had forgotten to plant two years ago – so I planted them with much closer spacing than is recommended, as I assumed that half of the peas that I planted would be “duds”. They weren’t. I have a hugely long double row of peas coming up, and now I will have to spend more time putting up a fence for them to climb.

• What we should be spending time fencing is new pastures for the young chickens and turkeys — not peas, but alas…

• Gringot the milking Jersey is proving to be a wonderful addition to the farm. She and her four, horned, just under two year old (and pregnant) herdmates look beautiful in the pasture with the Belted Galloways. Someday soon, which is the plan, the Jerseys will be moving to the barn across the road, where the milking facility is easier to house the five of them at a time.

• The baby turkeys and ducks are still hatching out every week from the cabinet incubator, and I am still amazed that they grow so fast!

• The Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs are pregnant. One of them is probably a month and a half along (which leaves her two months to go) and the other one is probably a month behind her. I will try to snap some pics to show the little tummy that is developing on the pig who is further along.

 

Visit Us at the Green Fair This Weekend!

• It is going to be a great green weekend in Greenfield this weekend!

Join us at the 6th annual Greenfield Green Fair! Vsitors will tour lots of environmental displays, presentations, demonstrations, kids activities, and learn about environmentally friendly products and services. Attendees will have the opportunity to purchase Wells Tavern Farm free range chicken eggs, Grassfed Belted Galloway Beef and Gloucestershire Old Spots Pork products.  While you learn about reducing your impact on the Earth, reducing your food miles, reusing and recycling, think ahead to your Thanksgiving and green it up by eating alocally raised, heritage Turkey from Wells Tavern Farm.  We will be accepting reservations for Thanksgiving Turkeys at the Green Fair this weekend. 

Attend Saturday or Sunday, from 10 to 5 each day.  Attend informational workshops and browse local vendors’ wares.  You can see details here.

• Farm News: The heirloom tomato seeds are beginning to sprout.  The Light Brahma Chicks are hatching.  The Goslings are growing faster than the New England weeds this spring!  Our new farm banner will be traveling with us to the Green Fair this weekend.
• If anyone is interested in local DUCK meat, (whole) please express your interest soon.  We will have a limited amount of duck available in a few weeks.  Call or email for duck.
• Compost is in limited quanitites. Delivery up to 25 miles, at $35 a cubic yard.

Say hi this weekend.  See you!

 

Turkey, Please!

‘Tis the season for my personal, farmer life to cross paths with my professional life: WFCR (National Public Radio news and music for Western New England) radio announcer. The program on our radiowaves currently is called Living On Earth, an environmental news program, and is featuring a story about Kate Stillman and heritage turkeys. What a great story. Listen to the story, or read the transcript, and plug in our names and Wells Tavern Farm, and you have a pretty good idea about what our farm sounds like, and raises! LIVING ON EARTH STORY LINK

From the story (this is very true) – Don Schrider from the Heritage Breeds Conservancy says: “If people eat heritage turkeys, then more breeding stock is maintained, and then the next season more heritage turkeys can be produced and it actually gives them a job and the population grows.”

* * *

From the Daily Green, some cooking tips for Heritage Turkeys:

Cooking Tips For Heritage Turkeys

* Regardless of breed, heritage turkeys take much longer than Broad Breasted Whites to reach slaughter weight, and most of them are free range. As a result they have more flavor, which takes time to develop and is enhanced by freedom of movement. But age and activity are not great promoters of tenderness. Heritage turkeys need not be tough — in fact they shouldn’t be — but they will be chewier than the industrial model, especially in the legs.

* Heritage breeds have a larger proportion of bone to meat than Broad Breasted Whites. Allow 1 pound per serving if you don’t want leftovers, rather more if you do. The bigger the bird, the more meat in proportion to bone but also (see above) the greater likelihood that said meat will be tough. If you need a lot of turkey two 12 to 14-pound birds are a better bet than one 24-pounder.

* Heritage turkeys are leaner than the standard brand, so they dry out fast if they are even slightly overcooked. To avoid this:

• Be sure to take the bird out of the fridge long enough ahead of time. The meat will cook through much faster and more evenly if it is at room temperature before you start roasting. This is widely advised against because of the danger of bacterial growth. But you are planning to cook the turkey well enough to be sure it’s safe, so although there’s no point in pushing it — don’t leave the thing out all day — there’s no reason to be paranoid.
• Stuffing slows down cooking time, increasing the chances of dried out meat. If you can bear it, just put a few flavorings (herbs, celery, garlic, citrus slices) inside the bird and bake the stuffing in a separate pan. (Resist the temptation to brine. It will make the turkey juicier but it will also mute the flavor you’re paying large dollars to enjoy.)
• aim for an internal temperature of 150, measured at the thickest part of the thigh (temperature will rise at least 5 degrees, probably more, while the turkey stands for 20 minutes in a warm place to reabsorb juices before you carve it, a step that should not be omitted.) This is hot enough to destroy bacteria without destroying the turkey. Even the USDA, home of obscenely overcooked, utterly butt-coveringly safe meat, has lowered its target temperature from 180 to 165.

* Don’t expect brittle, crisp, crackly skin; age and leanness conspire against. Sliding slices of frozen butter between the skin and the meat improves both but doesn’t work miracles.

* No matter how careful you are, results will vary depending on the individual bird. Heritage turkeys are not interchangeable widgets; the farmers who raise them are still learning and the revival is still new — there hasn’t been time for breed re-improvement. Many of these rarities were only kept going by poultry fanciers raising them as show birds, so no attention was paid to preserving traits that once endeared them to farmers and consumers. Considerable progress has already been made, but it’s going to take a while for these breeds to regain (and build on) their full potential.

Find this article here (link)

* * *

 

They are All Gone. Sold Out.

Thank you all for inquiring, and especially thank you to those of you who have reserved — all of the turkeys are sold out for Thanksgiving.

 

We are offering Bacon, Sweet Sausage, Ham Steaks, Lard, Roasts, etc, for sale now.  Call or email to inquire.

Cut		Price Per Lb
Rib End Roast		$8.50
Boneless Pork Butt		$7.50
Boneless Shoulder Roast		$7.00
Spareribs		$4.50
Smoked, Cured Bacon		$6.00
Smoked Ham Steak		$8.00
Smoked Ham Butt		$7.50
Smoked Ham Shank		$7.50
Smoked Ham Shoulder		$7.00
Sweet Italian Sausage		$6.00
Pork Neck Bones for Stock		$2.50
Fatback		$2.75
Kidney		$4.00
Leaf Lard		$3.75
Pork Tail		$2.75

George, our 7/8 Boer Buck is for sale as well. Call for more information.

 

And then there were five turkeys left…

We have five turkeys left, as of 7 p.m. November 1st.  $3.50 a pound. Heritage Pastured Lilac. Beautiful and Tasty!

Pastured GOS Pork- earthy and clean tasting — now available. See previous post for price list. Lots of medium cut cured and smoked bacon available!

 

The Turkey Countdown Is On!

The yearly countdown has begun.  We raised a heritage variety of turkey from eggs that we hatched on the farm this spring — and after what has seemed like a long spring and summer — it is finally fall and Thanksgiving is coming upon us fast.  There are a limited number of birds still available, and when they are gone, they’re gone.

Our turkeys have dined on vegetables, grass, all the little buggies and worms that they sought out while foraging in their pastures, along with an antibiotic-free Vermont-based grain mix. These guys have never, ever eaten anything with hormone supplements, or other creepy-additives.  The turkeys will be available for $3.50 a pound until we are sold out.  I’d suggest that if you are interested, that you reserve early, rather than wait and be disappointed.  The flavor and smell of a fresh heritage turkey will knock your socks off.

Duck eggs.  I had never tasted a duck egg until a week ago.  WOW! They are SO different from chicken eggs– a clean, rich taste and a lovely mouth-feel.   Slightly more cholesterol than a chicken egg, but totally out-of-this-world.  We have some available for sale, occasionally, so if you are interested, call and see if we have any fresh ones available.  Our ducks are heritage breeds for the most part: Silver Appleyards, Saxony’s a few Rouen, a Magpie or two.  My husband is the duck-specialist; I was pregnant when we discussed which ducks to get, and then Holderread ran out of the breed that we especially wanted, and we accepted a partial substitution — and then I had a baby, and I can’t remember anything anymore.  I do know that we bought the bulk of the flock of ducks from Holderread Waterfowl Farm, in Oregon, as day old ducklings in the spring.

We have a beautiful high percentage Boer buck goat from the UMass Amherst farm available for either stud service and/or sale. He is beautiful and has sired some lovely and extremely healthy kids for the past two seasons on our farm.  Call for more information.  He will only leave our farm if you are offering the right life and situation for him.

Any day now, we will be getting our two Gloustershire Old spots Pigs back, um, in little USDA labeled vacuum sealed packages of heritage piggy goodness.

The Belted Galloways, goose, remaining GOS pigs, goat herd, and flocks of birds: chickens, turkeys, etc, are all enjoying dining on extra vegetables like squash, green beans, wheatgrass, leaf lettuce and other yummy morsels.

See some relevant websites for information related to the activities that we conduct on our farm:

• From the New York Times: Well-Bred Birds
• Elizabeth Hurley and GOS Pigs
• The Future of Meat is Goat!
• Livestock Auctions and the Next Generation

 

Come to the Market! Tuesday “After Work”

• We are very excited to participate in the Guiding Star Grange Farmers Market on Chapman Street in Greenfield, MA on Tuesday from 3 to 6 p.m.  It will be a good time for you to stop in and say “hi,” buy a dozen eggs from us, and perhaps grab a nifty handcrafted item, or some local produce. This market runs through October, 2008.  So… I hope you’ll say HI on Tuesday, from 3 to 6… I’ll be at 401 Chapman Street, Greenfield at the Farmers Market at Guiding Star Grange.
• Very exciting — our home-hatched heritage breed Delaware chickens (the ones we hatched in November and December) have layed their first two eggs.  One was a brown pullet-sized egg (little) and one was a larger brown egg.
• We have our flock of Delaware Chickens and one rooster (who were the mommies and daddies) of the Delawares that JUST began laying today, for sale. We have had a few inquiries and are waiting to complete the transaction.  We have also offered the young Delawares (that just began laying) to a small farmer in Williamsburg, and we hope that she will begin to enjoy them in a few weeks.
• My Americaunas should begin to lay blue/green eggs soon, as they are the same age as the young Delawares.
• We are continuing to hatch heritage breed Lilac turkey poults… three last night, and more on the way! Remember that the goal is 30 turkeys for “finishing” in time for Thanksgiving.  Get your order and reservation in now!  We sold out last year, and were getting late requests for fresh heritage turkeys that we felt really bad about not being able to fill — so– plan ahead! Fresh, succulent, pastured  heritage breed turkeys for your special November dinner plate.  Mmmm.  Good.