A new blog series!
I want to introduce a new series of blog posts, which I hope you will find practical and useful. This series will detail how my family of 3 uses our monthly meat CSA share in an honest fashion. This series won't contain much about spirituality like many of my other posts, but it's there underlying all the time because we are trying to eat as mindfully and locally as we can. Those aspects remain very close to my heart, but how better to talk about by showing you how we apply them to our daily lives?
Today I want to quickly give you a profile of the farm where I obtain my meat CSA as well as my eggs (which are separate from the share), and then I will show you what I actually got in my cooler for the month! Then, in later posts, I will talk about what I'm making with each cut of meat, and how long it lasts my family. I will link to any recipes I use that are not my own, and if it is my own, I will give the instructions, of course!
We've been getting our meat CSA from Shady Pine Farm, which is located in New Braintree, MA for around 2 and a half years now. I first found out about them when my local farmers market started three years ago. I had been getting meat through another local farm, Chestnut Farms, based in Hardwick, MA, when I see them in another town, but because I can walk to my town's market, I switched. The meat quality is just as wonderful; the animals are pastured and fed organically otherwise, and they are happy, as I was able to see on a recent visit to their farm. I've been thrilled to get to know Julie and her family, too. Her grandson and my daughter will play together if we're both selling at the Market that day (my husband vends as an artisan). They are a small family business, and while they have their good and hard times, their CSA subscriptions are full, which is fantastic. They don't necessarily want to get bigger than their land can handle, either, which shows me their determination and integrity to their animals and clientele.
Currently, we receive about 15 pounds of meats, generally cuts of beef, chicken, and pork, but sometimes we get lamb in there as well. Shady Pine also offers hams and turkeys for Easter and Thanksgiving, respectively, but those are separate from the CSA share, as they should be. So I bet you're curious about what we got this month!
Here's the haul:
· Chicken
Boneless thighs - 2lbs,5.8 oz
Boneless breast-13.8 oz
Boneless breast - 13.4 oz
· Beef
Ground - 15.9 oz
Ground- 1 lb .5 oz
Shank (soup bone) 1lb3.5 oz
London broil steak (shoulder) 1 lb 4.7 oz
Porterhouse steak 1lb 4.7 oz
· Pork
Ground- 1lb .7 oz
Tenderloin 1lb .8oz
Loin chops - 1lb 2.5 oz
Loin chops-13.4 oz
Breakfast sausage 0 1lb .8oz
Stay tuned for the next posts where I start taking meat from the share and show you what I end up doing with it. I hope that by showing how I work with what I get from my farm, it will stimulate and inspire you to get your own share!
I want to introduce a new series of blog posts, which I hope you will find practical and useful. This series will detail how my family of 3 uses our monthly meat CSA share in an honest fashion. This series won't contain much about spirituality like many of my other posts, but it's there underlying all the time because we are trying to eat as mindfully and locally as we can. Those aspects remain very close to my heart, but how better to talk about by showing you how we apply them to our daily lives?
Today I want to quickly give you a profile of the farm where I obtain my meat CSA as well as my eggs (which are separate from the share), and then I will show you what I actually got in my cooler for the month! Then, in later posts, I will talk about what I'm making with each cut of meat, and how long it lasts my family. I will link to any recipes I use that are not my own, and if it is my own, I will give the instructions, of course!
We've been getting our meat CSA from Shady Pine Farm, which is located in New Braintree, MA for around 2 and a half years now. I first found out about them when my local farmers market started three years ago. I had been getting meat through another local farm, Chestnut Farms, based in Hardwick, MA, when I see them in another town, but because I can walk to my town's market, I switched. The meat quality is just as wonderful; the animals are pastured and fed organically otherwise, and they are happy, as I was able to see on a recent visit to their farm. I've been thrilled to get to know Julie and her family, too. Her grandson and my daughter will play together if we're both selling at the Market that day (my husband vends as an artisan). They are a small family business, and while they have their good and hard times, their CSA subscriptions are full, which is fantastic. They don't necessarily want to get bigger than their land can handle, either, which shows me their determination and integrity to their animals and clientele.
Currently, we receive about 15 pounds of meats, generally cuts of beef, chicken, and pork, but sometimes we get lamb in there as well. Shady Pine also offers hams and turkeys for Easter and Thanksgiving, respectively, but those are separate from the CSA share, as they should be. So I bet you're curious about what we got this month!
Here's the haul:
· Chicken
Boneless thighs - 2lbs,5.8 oz
Boneless breast-13.8 oz
Boneless breast - 13.4 oz
· Beef
Ground - 15.9 oz
Ground- 1 lb .5 oz
Shank (soup bone) 1lb3.5 oz
London broil steak (shoulder) 1 lb 4.7 oz
Porterhouse steak 1lb 4.7 oz
· Pork
Ground- 1lb .7 oz
Tenderloin 1lb .8oz
Loin chops - 1lb 2.5 oz
Loin chops-13.4 oz
Breakfast sausage 0 1lb .8oz
Stay tuned for the next posts where I start taking meat from the share and show you what I end up doing with it. I hope that by showing how I work with what I get from my farm, it will stimulate and inspire you to get your own share!