Heading into Fall on Our Tiny Farm

Currently we have five donkeys on Our Tiny Farm. Two of them, Chester and Meadow, are ours. The other three are visitors.  We have Faith, the mother,  Hope,  her yearling daughter,  and Corey Love, her son who was born just a few months ago. They make for a very happy,  and entertaining little herd.

We have Black Angus steer on the farm again. These two aren't ours. They belong to a friend,  but I missed having the big boys on the pasture so we are happy to give them a home.

We grew a small garden this year, mostly for the family. We have enjoyed delicious summer squash, lots of tomatoes, a wide variety of peppers, eggplant, sweet corn, and peas.

In late June,  for the first time, we had hay from our pasture cut and baled. We are very pleased with the quality and it will make for a good savings for us this winter. We plan to do a second cutting in October.

In May we received about 21 inches of rain in a two to three week period. This was bad timing for our garlic crops. We lost all of the elephant garlic. The hard necked garlics survived but the bulbs are small. We cured them and they taste good,  but because their quality is not what we like to provide to others.

We did have a great honey crop this year. Most of it was sold at the Obermiller Strawberry Farm nearby during their strawberry and blueberry seasons.

Thanks for checking in with Our Tiny Farm. And as always, you can buy a copy of my book at local and online book sellers.  Thanks! Jeanine

We're bringing pasture-raised beef and herbs to the farmers market

It is garlic scape season and we have an abundance to share with our customers at the Mills River Farmers Market tomorrow. We are selling them in bunches of about ten scapes each. Our daughter has been cooking with them all week and froze a bunch to enjoy later in the year. Buy these now because they will only be available for a week or two.

We will also have bunches of fresh herbs for sale. I cut lemon balm, rosemary, and oregano. Cooking with fresh herbs is fun and adds a bright taste to food.

The ground beef and liver sales have gone really well at the market, so this week we are expanding our selection of retail cuts of our pasture-raised Black Angus beef. We will have steaks, roasts, stew meat, liver, and ground beef for sale. Our prices are very competitive with others in our region. So bring a cooler so you can stock up.

We will also have some of my crocheted and knitted bags, hats, bowls, scarves, and booties for sale. And Shannon promised to provide some of her handmade pottery. There will be lots of other good things for sale at this week's market including baked goods, eggs, trout, lettuce, kale, crafts,and fresh roasted coffee beans. So start your holiday out right with a visit to our market. See you there!

Buy Our Beef at Mills River Farmers Market on May 21

After many requests from our customers, we decided to try selling some of our beef retail (in the past we have ONLY sold our beef by the quarter). On May 14th, we set up our booth at the Mills River Farmers Market (at its new location in the parking lot of Mills River Elementary School). Our offerings were rather slim because we weren't really prepared for spring market sales. We had ground beef by the pound, Jeanine's Fiber Art Originals, and my book, Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals. We had concerns about whether we would be able to sell enough to make it worth our while being there all morning. What a wonderful surprise we had!!!

People really wanted to buy locally grown, pastured-raised ground beef! So much so that Glen had to run back to the farm to bring more to the market. I was impressed that almost every customer asked us to explain how we grew our beef. We told our story over and over again. And I was so pleased at how many young families were able to use their EBT/SNAP funds to buy good quality meat for their families. They got a real sweet deal because right now there is a 2 for 1 special for EBT/SNAP customers. For every EBT dollar they spend, they get two dollars worth of food. That is good for as long as the grant and gifts funding that program last. We also sold a quarter of beef that we delivered to the customer this morning.

So, we will be at the market again on Saturday, May 21 from 8 am to noon selling frozen ground beef in vacuum-sealed one pound packages. The retail prices at the market are 1 lb for $7.50, 5 lb ($7.25/lb) for $36.25, 10 lb ($7.10/lb), and 20 lb ($6.90/lb) for $138.00. Tax is already included in the price. This week we will also bring liver for $2.55 per pound. There are two quarters left for sale, too. They are $8 per pound plus 2% tax, so the average quarter costs a total of $726.

I will also bring a few knitted and crocheted bags, hats, booties, and bowls to sell and my artist daughter might include some of her pottery Shannonmade.com  .

If sales are as brisk as they were last week, May 21st will be our last day to sell beef at the market because our quantities are limited (we only raise a few steers at a time). We will be back later in the season with garlic, honey, and heirloom popcorn.

The 2 for 1 EBT/SNAP program is a wonderful thing. The Mills River Farmers Market is the only farmers market in the county who takes EBT/SNAP. I LOVE that we are able to offer this fresh, locally grown food to these families. It also gives us an opportunity to talk to them about nutrition, food quality, and how to prepare good food quickly and easily. If you are interested in making a donation so we can continue to offer the 2 for 1 deal for the whole growing season, please contact Joe or Linda Brittain at 828-891-3332.

Pasture-Raised Black Angus Beef: .50 Off Per Pound!

We are getting rave reviews on our beef, so we are offering our customers another opportunity to buy it at a reduced price. Order now, and we will take 50 cents off per pound.

The sale prices are:

Quarters (average weight of 89 lbs) for $8.00 per pound

20 lbs of ground beef (1 lb packages) for $6.75 per pound

Liver for $2.50 per pound

(plus 2% sales tax)

The quarters are sold by finished, packaged weight and do not include dog bones, soup bones, or ribs (so more meat!). An average quarter contains 6 ribeye steaks, 8 NY strip steaks, 6 filets, 1 round steak, 1 sirloin steak, 2 sirloin tip roasts, 1 London broil, 2 chuck roasts, 2 arm roasts, 6 stew beef (1 lb pkgs), and 50 ground beef (1 lb pkgs). The ground beef is vacuum-sealed in one pound packages.

We raise a few Black Angus steers at a time on Our Tiny Farm in Etowah, NC. They eat the grass on their pastures and locally grown hay in the winter. The steers were harvested late last fall; dry-aged for two weeks, butchered, vacuum-packed and frozen at a local USDA inspected facility. The beef is boxed and being held in commercial deep freezers at a local facility.

For more information or to order email jeaninedavisnc@gmail.com or visit our BEEF PAGE. You can pick up at the farm or we will meet you in Hendersonville or the Asheville Airport area.

Spring Sale on Our Pasture Raised Black Angus Beef!

Our steers were gently raised on Our Tiny Farm in Etowah, NC. They lived on our pastures for two years eating the fresh grass growing there. In the winter we also fed them locally grown hay, carefully selected to not contain persistent herbicides. The meat was dry-aged for several weeks, butchered, vacuumed packed, and frozen at a USDA inspected facility in Forest City, NC. The beef is boxed and being held in deep freezers at a local commercial packing house.

These steers were harvested late last fall, but because of family health issues, we had to halt our beef sales this past winter, so now we are offering the following spring specials:
Quarters (average weight of 89 lbs) for $8.50 per pound
20 lbs of ground beef (1 lb packages) for $7.25 per pound
Liver for $3 per pound
(plus 2% sales tax)

New York Strip Steak

We sell our meat as finished, packaged weight; just like you would buy meat in a butcher shop or supermarket. (Many farmers sell their beef as "hanging weight" which includes the bone and excess fat. The way we sell it, you know exactly how much meat you are getting). An average quarter contains 6 ribeye steaks, 8 NY strip steaks, 6 filets, 1 round steak, 1 sirloin steak, 2 sirloin tip roasts, 1 London broil, 2 chuck roasts, 2 arm roasts, 6 stew beef (1 lb pkgs), and 50 ground beef (1 lb pkgs)  (this will, of course, vary slightly from quarter to quarter). We don't sell a front or back quarter but make an even assortment for each. We do not include soup bones or ribs in our quarters, i.e., you get more meat and less bone.

If 89 pounds of beef sounds like a lot, you can always split it with another family, but it also holds in a home freezer for a very long time. We are still eating some of our beef from November 2013 that we store in a chest freezer and it tastes as fresh and juicy as it did over two years ago. The vacuum packaging is what does it. If you plan to store the meat for a long time, to maintain the best quality we recommend you store it in a chest or upright freezer and not in the freezer compartment of your refrigerator. We also like the vacuum packaging because you can quickly thaw ground beef, stew beef, and steaks by putting them in a sink full of water for 20 to 30 minutes. We do not recommend thawing pasture raised or grass-fed beef in the microwave.

A quarter of beef takes up about 5 to 6 cubic feet of freezer space.  Our small chest freezer will hold a quarter with room to spare. The meat will be frozen solid and packed in two sturdy boxes. Please come prepared to transport frozen meat. If you don't have far to travel, you can just wrap blankets around the boxes. But if you have to travel for an hour or so, bring some large coolers or something to keep your beef frozen solid.

Why don't we call our beef "grass-fed"?  The term "grass-fed" is a legal term for beef that has ONLY been fed fresh grass and hay. Fresh grass and locally grown hay make up more than 99% of our steers' diet, but we do give them a cupful of sweet feed (grain and molasses) once in awhile to keep them "trained to a bucket". That means if they ever get out of the fenced pasture, they will come running to us when they hear us shake the buckets. So technically, we can't call our steers "grass-fed". We do not feed our steers hormones or antibiotics. We do not fertilize or spray herbicides on our pastures and we use fly predators (tiny wasps) as the basis for our fly control program. We are NC licensed meat handlers and are certified Appalachian Grown by ASAP.

If you are interested in buying or want to learn more, use the contact form on the right sidebar (if you are on a smartphone or tablet and don't see a sidebar, scroll to the bottom of this page and click on "View Web Version" and it will show up). You can make an appointment to pick up the beef at our farm in Etowah or we can arrange to meet you near the Asheville airport. We accept cash and credit cards or you can pay through Paypal.

Helping Another Local Farm Sell Their Beef!

Several of our customers have asked if we have beef for sale yet. We won't have any of our pasture raised Black Angus beef for sale until late spring or early summer. BUT, another local farm does!

Janet helped me sell our beef last time so I would like to promote what she has available starting next week. From Janet Peterson at Cloud 9 Farm in Fletcher, NC:

Know where your beef comes from!

Bulk Sales for the best price. Order now. Beef will be here week of February 9^th, 2015

Cloud 9 Black Angus Beef are raised here from birth with TLC and rotated on green pastures of fescue, orchard grass and clover. They drink fresh well water in fountains and freely choose to lick a winter mineral protein supplement. They are offered a scoop of mixed grains routinely. This keeps them tame so we can handle them in the barn. There is no need for antibiotics or hormones because they are unstressed and we let them grow naturally. The beef is processed at a NC USDA facility, aged for 2 weeks without preservatives or additives and vacuumed sealed in see-through wrap that lasts up to 2 years. It’s the way we like it.  

Cloud 9 has meat of one and a half steers for sale. It will be on a first come, first served basis. They will inform you about pick up at 137 Bob Barnwell Rd. closer to pick up day. Make checks to “Cloud 9 Farm.”

Some of the details:

20 lbs Beef by the Box ECONOMY Cuts $140 = $7/lb

6 lbs Steaks:Sirloin, Round, Flat Iron, Hanger, Sirloin tips, Cubed Round

6 lbs Roasts and 1 stew package: assorted: London Broil, Chuck, Rump, Shoulder, Arm, Eye of Round, Bottom Round; Shank or Stew (meaty marrow bones or beef stew)

8 lbs Ground Beef

20 lbs Beef by the Box –PRIME Cuts $170 = $8.50/lb

6 lbs of Steak: Filet Mignon, NY Strip, Ribeye (1” thick), Sirloin

6 lbs Roasts and 1 stew package assorted: London Broil, Chuck, Rump, Shoulder, Arm, Eye of Round, Bottom Round; Shank or Stew (meaty marrow bones or beef stew)

8 lbs Ground Beef

8 lbs of GROUND BEEF $52 = $6.50/lb comes in 1 lb vacuum sealed cylinders

60 lbs Beef by the Box Sampling of Each Quarter (Prime Cuts and Variety) $480 = $8.00/lb

18 lbs of Steak: (Will put in a variety) Filet Mignon, NY Strip, Ribeye, Sirloin, Eye of Round, Flat Iron, Flank, Hanger

18 lbs of Roasts: London Broil, Chuck, Shoulder, Rump, Sirloin Tip, Kabob plus (meaty marrow bones or beef stew)

24 lbs of Ground Beef

____________________________

60 lbs is about 1/8 Beef needing 3 ½ cubic feet freezer space

20 lbs is a taste of various cuts 

Other parts upon request: (at half or less than $3/lb) Liver, Tongue, Heart, Kidney

Or Buy by the piece AFTER our Bulk Sale

Per pound prices

$7.00                    Ground Beef                              

$19.00                   Filet Mignon

$15.00                   New York Strip or Ribeye Steak

$12.00                   Sirloin Steak

$11.00                   Flat Iron Steak 

$9.00                     Hanger Steak

$8.00                     London Broil or Kabobs

$7.50                     Roasts; Bottom Round Roast, Rump, Arm, Sirloin Tip Roast

$7.00                     Brisket, Cubed steak, Chuck Roast (bone in), Stew Beef

$6.50                     Round Steak

$4.00                     Marrow Bones/Shank, Neck Bones with meat, Ox tail

$3.50                     Heart whole

$3.00                     Liver, Kidney

$1.75                     Fat for Tallow

Other Sale items  (Call for a complete list!)

Freezer Beef from 2014 (vacuum sealed and in fine condition) 15% off 

Whole and Half Cornish Cross Chickens $3.75/lb

Whole and Half Stew Chicken $2-3/lb)

Chestnuts (frozen fresh from fall harvest) 

Mixed Peppers (frozen sweet) red, green, yellow