Friday Night Dinner: Live Music & All-American Cookout!

Join us to celebrate the birth of our great nation!  We're so excited about our Patriotic Dinner on the Deck.

• July 3rd, 5 pm - 8 pm
• Live Music, All-American Cookout & our Green Market

What's more American than coming to the farm for Fourth of July Cookout?  An acoustic Banjo and Guitar Duo will be performing all your favorites.  They'll be playing toe tappin' sounds, new renditions of patriotic numbers, and all-time folk favorites from the likes of John Denver, Kenny Rogers, and the Kingston Trio.  

We'll have all the traditional favorites for our cookout - our own grass-fed burgers, portobello burgers for those preferring a non-meat option, organic and locally made brats, all-beef hot dogs, baked beans with a house made secret bar-b-que sauce, coleslaw with sunflower seeds, cabbage, red onions, carrots, and apples in our Chef's special dressing. We'll top it all off with a homemade All-American Chocolate Chip Cookie.  It'll be the food from your childhood with a Trader's Point Twist - all organic, good for you and the environment and extra yummy! It would be almost un-American to miss this one!  

Kids Option: Organic, Grass-fed, All-Beef Hot Dogs with baked beans, coleslaw, and chocolate chip cookie

Beverages: Choice of ice tea, lemonade, water

Adults $15      Kids $7

***Specialty Beers and Wines available for purchase***

So good, we can't wait the extra day...Join us on JULY 3 for music, food and fun!

Grass-Fed Beef - You Are What You Eat!

Many of us remember being told as a small child "you are what you eat".  Well, the same maxim applies to cows - those that graze naturally (we call this "grass-fed") have a nutritional profile that is different from their factory-made, grain-fed breathren. 

The grass-fed cows end up producing meat that has about ONE-THIRD THE FAT of the same cut of beef on a grain-fed cow.  Pound for pound fat has more calories than protein or carbohydrates.  This means fewer calories in the grass-fed piece of meat than a grain-fed piece of meat.  For example, a 6 oz. steak from a grass-fed cow will have about 100 fewer calories than the same 6 oz. steak from a grain-fed cow. 

Not only do you get less fat, but the fat you get in grass-fed beef is different.  Most of us have learned that beef is high in fat that is bad for you.  This is true for grain-fed beef.  But the fat from grass-fed beef is high in omega-3 fatty acids - the good-for-you fats that help chase away the nasty fats that are associated with things like heart disease.  Additionally, grass-fed beef contains congugated linoleic acid (or CLA), which is thought to be instrumental in helping to ward off cancer and boosting our immune systems.  

So, if you think about it, eating grass-fed beef is only one step removed from going out to your yard and grazing on the green stuff that's growing out there!  Maybe it's time to re-think the bad rap that beef has been given - as long as we're talking about grass-fed beef!

For more nutritional information on grass-fed beef, see www.americangrassfedbeef.com/grass-fed-natural-beef.asp, www.eatwild.com/healthbenefits.htm, and www.csuchico.edu/agr/grassfedbeef/health-benefits/ for a review of the scientific literature on grass-fed beef.

Farmer's Market

Create Your Holiday Cookout from Our Farmer's Market

Whether your Independence Day meal will be vegan, meaty, or something
in between, our vendors have everything you need for your 4th of July
weekend. Find your grillable beef and pork products at Phelps Family
Farm or your ready-to-fry chicken parts at Seven Springs. Life Farm,
New Leaf Farm, Redwine Farms, and Seldom Seen Farm will have every
type of produce you may need for salads, appetizer platters or grilled
veggies. Country Mouse City Mouse has sauces and dips to enhance all
your meat and veggie dishes. Serve your cookout guests an
unforgettable dessert with Swiss Connection ice cream, Feast
Catering's fresh picked blueberries, and Valentine Hill Farm's lemon
pound cake or buttery spritz cookies.

Customers, please note that Harvest Cafe Coffee Company, Farming for
Life, and Zen Sheep Farm will not be attending market this week.

Vendor list for July 3:

* Aboubakar Allal-handmade silver, leather and wooden works, as well as
traditional drums from Niger, Africa
* Bluffwood Creek Honey-honey sticks, hand cream, lipbalm, honey candy,
bee pollen and honey
* Country Mouse City Mouse-condiments, dips, soups and dressings made
from generational recipes; organic orange-lavender lemonade and
hibiscus-blackberry tea served in biodegradeable cups
* Daina's Petite Pies-single serving dinner and dessert pies made with
premium local meats and vegetables
* Feast Catering-a variety of tamales, sweets, salsas, granola, BLUEBERRIES
* Fields of Agape-chemical-free grains (Omega III golden flax, hard red
wheat berries, hard white wheat berries); free flour grinding while you
wait
* Flower Child Aromatherapy-handmade soaps, sachets, incense, and
perfumes
* Kelsey's Cultured Foods-cultured organic vegetables
* Life Farm-certified organic produce. This week's features are cherry
tomatoes, broccolli, potatoes, squash, american slicing cucumbers,
sweet white onions,leeks
* Literally Divine Toffee and Truffles-chocolate and vegan truffles
(made with organic ingredients) and almond toffee (both vegan and
organic), coffee toffee made with Harvest Cafe Coffee's beans
* New Leaf Farm- pledge-organic produce, including squash, zucs, and
cucumbers
* Pet Lover's Organic Bakery-handmade pet treats from organic
ingredients. 50% of profits benefit the Humane Society
* Phelps Family Farm-a variety of beef and pork meats, sausages and eggs
* Redwine Farm- fresh produce, hot pepper sauces and ground shakers,
beef, eggs and wild black raspberries
* Seldom Seen Farm-transitional organic produce. This week's features
are gourmet lettuce mix, carrots, burpless cucumbers, various greens and
pea shoots
* Seven Springs Farm-beef, chicken (whole and parts), lamb, eggs,
popcorn
* The Swiss Connection-unique (and delicious) cheeses, meats (including
beef sausage products) and ice cream, plus a variety of pet products
* Trader's Point Creamery-organic milk, ice cream, pourable yogurt,
artisan cheeses, eggs, and ground beef
* Valentine Hill Farm- variety of whole grain breads, English muffins,
pasta, European style lemon pound cake, spritz cookies, and croutons
(all made with Certified Organic Ingredients)

Please be prepared as most of the vendors accept only cash and check for payment.

Recipe of the Week - The Perfect Burger!

All-American Grass-fed Beef Burgers

Why a recipe for burgers?  Cooking a burger is as American as apple pie!  Many of you are probably expert burger grillers...BUT, grass-fed beef is a little different than the grain-fed beef that most of us had been using.  Grass-fed beef is leaner and the fat it does have is rich in omega-3 fatty acids.  This means grass-fed burgers are much healthier than grain-fed, but require a little extra TLC when cooking.  We've gathered some tips for cooking the perfect grass-fed burger:

• Watch out for overcooking!  Because grass-fed beef is extremely low in fat, it will be tough and dry if cooked like grain-fed beef. Dial back both the heat and the temperature - experiment to find the perfect combination.  If you like a well-done burger, you might want to cook at a very low temperature and add some sauce to keep your burger moist.
• Temperature - reduce by about 50 degrees from what you would use to cook a grain-fed burger.
• Time - reduce cooking time by about 30% of what you would use to cook a grain-fed burger. 
• To seal in moisture, try searing your burger quickly on higher heat and then reducing the heat for the rest of the cooking process. 
• Bring meat to room temperature before cooking...do not cook it straight from a refrigerator.
  
• Pre-heat the grill or pan before placing your burger on it.  In fact, we'd recommend heating that grill a little hotter than needed and doing a quick "sear" on both sides of the burger to seal in the juices.  Be sure to turn the heat down as soon as you put that burger on the grill, so that the "sear" doesn't turn into over-cooking. 
• You may want to coat your burger, grill, and/or pan with a little bit of oil.  We like a nice garlic-flavored oil!
• Add caramelized onions, olives, roasted peppers, or Trader's Point Creamery cheese to your burgers while they cook will help add some moisture (and more yumminess) to the burgers while they cook.
• Remove the burgers from the heat source about 10 degrees before they reach the desired temperature (this may be hard to gauge for burgers, so just remember to pull them before you think they'd be done).
• If practical, use a thermometer to test for doneness.  Since grass fed beef cooks quickly, your burger can go from perfect to overcooked in less than a minute!
  
• Use tongs for turning the burgers - a fork can piece the meat and release precious juices.
• After cooking, remove burgers from the heat souce and let them sit covered in a warm place for 5-7 minutes to let the juices redistribute.
  
  

Pick up a pound of grass-fed beef at our Farm Store and enjoy a healthy (and delicious) burger more often! 

Quote of the Week

Only he can understand what a farm is, what a country is, who shall have sacrificed part of himself to his farm or country, fought to save it, struggled to make it beautiful.  Only then will the love of farm or country fill his heart.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 18th Century writer (The Little Prince)