Farm Musings

I've been experimenting with slow smoked chicken wings and drumsticks and I LOVE the results. I'd like your feedback and ideas. EDIT: We now have plain salted drumsticks and wings available in many of our packages. Please read for cooking tips and provide more feedback and recipe ideas.

Here's a quick post to just watch a cute duckling/chick video -- happy spring!

We're thrilled to have our pork selected for the annual Slow Food MN forage dinner: Where the Wild Things Are. We've attended these in the past and they are a lot of fun with some AMAZING food. We'll also be speaking about our farm and philosophy at the event. Hope you can join us - May 22nd

We will be participating in the annual Eat Local Farm Tour organized by the local cooperatives -- save the date!

When we were sampling our pork at Lakewinds, everyone was asking for the recipe of the carnitas we were serving. The deli department made up the recipe, so I didn't know it... but I decided to tinker and make up my own adding a few twists -- turned out AMAZING!

We'll be at the Seward Co-Op's Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Fair this Saturday, April 16th from 11am - 2pm. This is your chance to learn about all sorts of great local CSAs. If you (or your friends) have some questions you'd like to ask Farmer Jack, there's never been a better time!

We're really excited about a couple of changes here on the farm. One of the most obvious ones is our name. We've shortened it a little. But that's the ONLY shortcut we take! We're STILL raising and delivering grass-fed, pasture-raised meats raised from heritage breeds with no GMOs and fed organic or transition to organic grains. We are now TC Farm!

The top 9 Easter Egg and hen photos! Our favorite images of eggs and our pasture raised hens... Bonus: The best egg RECIPES!

I love watching new calves hit the ground... they are so amazing and fast at getting up and nursing. Here is a photo of our latest bull calf who's first time mother did a great job bringing him into the world.

A newly published study tallies the hidden cost of something we've been watching for years: The packaging commonly used in meats may be causing serious health problems. This report finds the chemicals used in meat packaging may conservatively cause over 1.5 BILLION dollars of damage every year in the European Union. And that is just focusing on two diseases which may be associated with them.

A lot of new members (and even people who have been with us for a while) have questions about our 'traditional foods' What are you supposed to -do- with 'suet' anyway?? In this article we'll talk about how to render suet and make some fantastic things. This is a really rewarding way for many of our members to take things to the next level!

We're super excited to announce the locations for our 2016 Meet the Chicks event. Living in the city, it’s not every day you get to see baby chicks! There will be baby chicks at several of our pickup sites on Friday March 18th through Monday, March 21st. This is always a really popular event for parents with children.

For those of you on the fence about signing up for an organic meat CSA or an organic veggie CSA, here's some new research you might find interesting. I can't tell you how amazingly different local organic produce is. The best thing in the world is fresh Minnesota Spinach. Even just drinking some basic chicken broth from our pasture raised organic fed chickens, I can tell how much more nourishing it is for my body than stuff I could buy out of a can.

We've learned a lot over the years on how to prepare tender juicy pork -- not that dry cardboard stuff you might remember. A well prepared organic pork chop can rival any steak, give it a shot!

Congratulations to the city of Minneapolis for making a great change and easing restrictions on raising chickens within the city. We would love to share some tips we've learned along the way for all the aspiring urban chicken farmers out there!