We were fortunate this week to get a few mostly dry days to cut and bale another crop of large round hay bales before the big rains hit today. We usually feed out almost 1,000 bales per winter between the beef and dairy herds so we will definitely be making more hay as the summer progresses. Hopefully these frequent rains will continue so the pastures and hayfields keep growing as we get into the heat of the summer.
As mentioned last week, we are hosting a pasture walk this Friday, June 19th from 1 PM - 4 PM at our Elkhorn Farm (one hour north of our Dundee Farm). We still have plenty of room on the hay wagon for more attendees. If you have been buying our grass-fed beef this is a great opportunity to see how it is raised. Weather looks perfect for a day on the farm!
Sponsored by Farmers Rising and This Old Farm, we will tour our beef grazing operation, demonstrate how we move the herd up to 4x/per day, and see a paddock before and after grazing. Also learn about typical beef carcass yields and cuts from Matthew Sims of This Old Farm, one of our beef processing partners. For those interested in our organic pasture-raised laying hens/Hen Pen we can drive across the street at the end of the beef talk to see the hens free-ranging on the newly-cut hay fields. Register here for the pasture walk.
And we processed another batch of pasture-raised chickens today (Wednesday) so we will again have fresh whole chicken in the store this week from Thursday through Sunday. We are also parting out about half of this batch so there will be plenty of boneless/skinless breasts, thighs, and ground chicken in the store as well. And ;with Father's Day coming up on Sunday all whole chickens are 15% off, along with a few other items for the grill (see below).
“MEET THE MAKER” EVENTS THIS MONTH
Saturday June 20th – Olga Boldyreva, founder of Mion Artisan Soaps and lotions will be showing off all of her natural skin care products. 10 AM - 1 PM.
Sunday June 28th – Rob Hermany, founder of Kaleido Greens will be at the store sampling a variety of his micro-green medleys. 10 AM - 1 PM.
FARM STORE UPDATE
To celebrate Father's Day on Sunday, we are putting some of our grilling favorites on sale, with 15% off on bone-in pork chops, pork spare ribs, the delicious chopped steak patties, and beef short ribs. And all whole chickens as noted above. The Father's Day sale begins Friday and runs through Sunday.
Fresh organically-grown produce in the store from our on-site gardens: Red/Green Lettuce, Chard, Parsley, Mint, Lacinato Kale, Green Curly Kale, Celery, Carrots, Bok Choy, Scallions, Turnips, Rhubarb, Sugar Snap Peas, and Broccolini. Plus local Microgreens and Fresh Mushrooms Oyster, Lions Mane, and Shiitake
Fresh produce from our network of downstate Illinois farms: Green Cabbage, Green Beans, Slicing Cucumbers, Black Currants, Red Beets, Red slicing Tomatoes, Sweet Potatoes, and Garlic.
Other organic produce in the store includes: Pomelos, Eureka Lemons, Mexican Limes, Oranges, Mandarins, Avocados, Red, Gold and Russet potatoes, Red & Yellow onions, Garlic, Fuji & Honey Crisp apples, Ginger, and Young Thai Coconuts.
Join our Saturday farm tour to see all of our farm animals up close. Every week at 1:00 PM through Thanksgiving. This is a 75-90 minute guided tour around the farm on a hay wagon, with stops to visit all the different animals we raise. Reserve your seats on our website or purchase tickets in the farm store.
That's it for this week, we look forward to seeing some of you Friday at the pasture walk. Please remember to bring us your leftover shopping bags and egg cartons so we can recycle them!
Cliff, Anna and the Farm Team
