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!

Stock Your Freezer with Locally-Raised Beef for the Summer Grilling Season!

Stock your freezers with juicy, tasty, locally grown, pasture raised Black Angus beef at a great price.

Quarters (average weight of 89 lbs) for $8.00 per pound (with tax, that's $726). 20 lbs of ground beef (1 lb packages) for $6.75 per pound (with tax, that's $138). Liver for $2.50 per pound (plus 2% sales tax)

These are great prices. The lowest price for grass-fed/pasture-raised ground beef at Ingles this week was $9.28/lb.

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 are a very small farm and only raise a few steers at a time. These 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. You can pick up at the farm or we will meet you in Hendersonville or the Asheville Airport area. For more information, check our dedicated beef page.

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.

Read the Labels When You Buy Ground Beef!

A woman contacted me today about our ad for pasture-raised, Black Angus ground beef. She said that my prices were too high and that she found the same product in Ingles for much cheaper. I found that hard to believe so I got the details from her and last night I paid a visit to my local Ingles. What I found was a large selection of "high-end" ground beef in one pound vacuum-sealed packages with fancy labels. Prices ranged from $5.48 to $9.98 per pound. Upon closer examination, however, I found there were big differences. The least expensive ground beef for $5.48 was corn-fed Black Angus. The most expensive ground beef for $9.98 was local grass-fed beef; a good product from a well known local name, but the steers are raised on a number of farms so you don't know the breed or which farm the meat actually came from. For some of our customers, those last two points are important. Our beef is all Black Angus. The steers were raised only on our farm. They ate grass in our pasture which was supplemented in the winter with locally grown hay. We say our steers were "pasture raised" not "grass-fed" because once in awhile we gave them a handful of sweet feed to keep them trained to come running to the sound of us shaking a bucket with feed in it (just in case they got out of the pasture somehow; like when the tree fell during a storm and broke down the fence). So, at $7.25 per pound, I think we are offering our ground beef at a very fair price for the customer that allows us to also make a small profit. For information on how you can get Our Tiny Farm beef, visit this page

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.

The New Year and Running a Tiny Farm

I just had to share this picture.  This is the scene that awaited me when I walked out the door on New Year's Day morning.  I took this as an omen that 2012 is going to be a good year for my family.  We are looking forward to sharing our year with you and yours!

Our first venture into raising pasture fed Black Angus was a success in terms of the quality and quantity of the beef we produced and our ability to sell it.  We have someone driving over to pick up a quarter this afternoon which leaves one more that we plan to sell.  Two of our customers asked to be notified when we were down to the last quarter; so that one might be gone soon, too. **BEEF IS SOLD** The beef is so tasty that we are keeping a side all for ourselves.  Many people have asked when we will have beef for sale again.  First we have to finish "crunching all the numbers" to determine if we made any kind of profit from it. If we did, we will raise more.  Because we are such a small farm and we don't want to put too much pressure on our pastures, we can only raise two or three steers at a time.  That means it will be another 18 months before we would have beef for sale again.  We are also considering raising meat goats.  Please let us know if you would be interested in goat meat. 

What do we have for sale right now?  We have honey from our 2010 and 2011 harvests.  This is 100% real, natural, raw, unfiltered, mixed wildflower honey.  Glen describes the taste as "a rich floral".  We are selling it in one pint mason jars.  They weigh over a pound (most beekeepers sell their honey in one pound jars).  The 2011 harvest is $8 a jar and the 2010 harvest is $7 a jar.  We have happy bees on Our Tiny Farm and plan to increase the number of hives this year.

We also have a few ristras (strings) of dried cayenne peppers for sale.  The peppers are from the 2011 harvest.  The strings are approximately two feet long and have more than 40 peppers each.  You can eat these or use them for decorations.  We use them for both.  These are for sale for $12 per string.

Our beef and honey customers usually come to the farm to pick up their orders and so many of them say "we want to do what you are doing" and "you are living an idyllic life" and "it would be fun to have a few cows, chickens, and horses".  We DO think we are living "an idyllic life" on a little farm just like one of those highlighted in Mother Earth News magazine.  But before you get your chickens and try to do this for yourselves, I urge you to spend some time visiting with some folks who are already doing it.  It's a great life, but there is more work to it than most people realize.  Remember, a farm is not a part-time effort; it is something you have to tend to every single day.

 It was a cold morning today, so I gave the girls some hot oatmeal in that little black tray

Let's just use our morning chores as an example.  Every morning, 365 days of the year, regardless of the weather, we have to venture outside shortly after daybreak, or earlier if our schedules demand it.  We move the chicken tractor, open the coop, check the nests, and give the girls food and water.  Then we clean (muck) the barn, give the equines their morning rations, fill the mangers with hay, top off the water trough, and take a wheelbarrow load of manure to the compost pile.  When we had cows in the pasture, we had to check on them, too.  All this has to get done every morning in addition to all the other morning chores we all have to do, e.g., feeding cats and dogs, showering, dressing, eating breakfast, etc.  Usually I love doing the outside morning chores. It's my quiet time with the animals, it's good exercise, and I get to see many beautiful sunrises.  But when it is pouring down rain, or sleeting, or 9 degrees outside, it's not much fun. So, just think about that before you get your own chickens and horses. Most small farmers like to show people what they are doing and we are no exception.  If you would like to schedule a farm visit, just drop us an email.

We Ate a Rib-eye for Dessert!

In my last post I explained that we recently harvested our first two pasture-raised Black Angus steer. They lived on our lush, green pasture year round, eating grass and clover during the growing season and locally-produced hay in the winter.  They also got a handful of sweet feed in a bucket every day.  We did that so we could easily entice them back if they ever got out of the fence, which they did only once.  All we had to do was shake a bucket with little sweet feed in it and they came running! Because not everyone likes 100% grassfed beef, or even knows how to cook it properly, we finished our beef with a little grain.  That meant that during the last month we fed the steers a one to two pounds of grain each day.  This added some internal fat to the meat, making it naturally tender and juicy.

The steers were processed at Wells, Jenkins, Wells Meats (USDA inspected) in Forest City, NC.  They were such nice people to work with!  There the carcass was aged for two weeks; another secret to ensuring tender, flavorful meat.  Supermarket meat is rarely aged anymore because it is too costly a process.  Our meat was then butchered, vacuum packed, and frozen.

Today we sold our first two quarter-sides of beef.  I was envious that our customers were probably going to enjoy our beef before we did!  We already had a spaghetti dinner planned for the evening, so we ate that, but then celebrated our first sales by grilling a ribeye steak for dessert.  That's a picture of it above.  Oh my!  THAT was a good steak.  A very good steak.  It was juicy, flavorful, tender, and fragrant.  It was the best steak I have eaten in a very, very long time.  It was so good that we decided then and there to have steak for Thanksgiving dinner.  Now I can't wait to sample a roast and the ground beef.

We still have quarters for sale.  If you are interested, please read the post from October 19th for details or just email us at davis2722@bellsouth.net.

Our Locally-Grown, Grass Fed Black Angus Now for Sale!

A recent picture of one of the two steer.

Grass-Fed Angus Beef For Sale
UPDATE 5/24/2012 THIS BEEF IS ALL SOLD

                This is our first year participating in the adventure of locally-produced food, so please join us.  Know where and how your meat was cared for!   We obtained our calves from a large, well-known WNC farm operation which were then gently raised on our small family farm in Etowah, NC.  Our cattle are Black Angus steers, the best for high-quality beef.  They are grass-fed, with no hormones or antibiotics, supplemented with locally-grown hay during the winter and a grain finish (to improve taste and marbling).   The steers are 2 years old and in their prime.

The cattle will be handled at a local USDA-inspected processing facility.  After slaughter, the meat will be hung for two weeks -to age and tenderize before processing.  You won’t get meat from a half-dozen cows from different sources…everything you get will be from one steer.

We are selling by the quarter, but you can buy a quarter, a half or a whole steer!  All cuts will be vacuum-packed and frozen and will be available approximately mid-November for pickup.  We have a typical package (see below), but if you contact us right away (before the actual processing happens) we can have the cuts customized to your wishes.

Typical ¼ steer package:

• 1” steaks-2 round,  4 Sirloin,  8 T-bone (more or less),  8 Rib-eye,  8 pieces of cube steak
• Roasts-2 Sirloin tip,  1 shoulder,  2 chuck (center-cut)
• Other cuts-12 strips of short ribs,  10lbs. of stew meat,  28-30 lbs. of ground beef

Weights prior to butchering are estimates, but the steers should yield at least 100 lb. of meat per ¼.

Many other farms sell by “Hanging Weight” which means what the carcass weighs prior to butchering.  There is always waste, but average recovery of finished meat is about 60% of hanging weight.  So a lower price looks good, but when the waste is figured in, the real price per pound is much greater.  We sell per finished product, so you can better judge what you are paying for.  Since we do not know what the carcass weighs until it is butchered, you may get 100 lbs. or you may get more.  You pay per pound of what your quarter yields, but you only pay for what you get!

Here are some typical meat prices (including sale prices) taken from a local grocery store chain on October 1.  PLEASE NOTE:  This is for “Beef”-NOT for locally-produced, grass-fed Angus beef without hormones and antibiotics and other chemicals used to raise cattle in commercial feed-lots.  We believe that OUR beef is far better than typical commercial beef:

Sirloin steak- $4.78/lb., Rib-eye steak- $10.98/lb., T-bone steak-$12.98/lb., Top round steak $4.78/lb., Cube Steak $4.38/lb.,  Chuck roast- $4.98/lb., Sirloin tip roast- $3.49/lb., Stew Beef $4.28/lb.  

For  our  100% natural, locally-raised, grass-fed,  Black Angus Beef we are asking only  $5.25/lb  for everything!  Steaks, Roasts, Stew meat, ribs and ground meat.   

How to contact us:  
Glen and Jeanine Davis   (828) 243-0806 

Email:  davis2722@bellsouth.net