Polar Vortex Returns

We, like many of you, felt the Polar Vortex lift off for a few days, only to return again in earnest. But the cold brings with it several benefits that you in the city or suburbs can't appreciate. The first is that freezing temperatures discourage the hatching of flies. We had only five consecutive days when the thermometer read above freezing - 43 being the highest it soared - and the effect on the latent in-house fly population was immediate. I decided to kill and then count the fly carcasses from just one average size window in this house (although I must admit it is in the running for most productive) and the results were unsavory. After just three warm days I had confirmation of more than 162 flies dead and stopped counting. That is just one window downstairs. We are not even talking about my upstairs studio. I get all crunchy inside, killing so many flies and witnessing the futility of my actions. I know there will be 50 more to contend with the next time I look. Arden, on the other hand, has just become sensitive to the miracle that flies are. She likes to reach and touch them as they walk up the living room window, and in a sharp twist of character I find myself assisting her - holding her up to see them, gently nudging them towards her open fingers. At least someone's enjoying them.

The few days of sustained warmth had other obvious effects here, namely the thaw en masse of vast amounts of accumulated snowfall. I was nursing Arden on the couch in the late afternoon when I heard something shift - a subtle elevation in white noise - and I looked behind me just in time to see this begin.

The stream had inches of ice on its surface which had been covered by around 18 inches of snow. I presume the wind helped this along by blowing more into the hollow of the stream bed. On one of the warmest days we sustained heavy rains and Garth and I were waiting to see what would come of it. We got our answer in the above image. An ice dam somewhere upstream must have cracked under the pressure and sent this dark and frothing 'frosty' hurling. I have never seen such a thing. It kept up for around an hour.



This is the aftermath. You can see where the water plowed the edges of the stream's snow bank.



And thankfully now the Polar Vortex has returned, which is no surprise to you, reading this, as you are, in your blanket and hat. It left long enough to give us a taste of what's to come, and I'd be lying if I said we didn't like it. But the upside is that the flies are less enthusiastic (although still coming by the handful daily). At the very least you now have proof that we don't spray for flies or use other insecticides, apart from our own hands.

Lastly, I am grateful that Garth takes Arden to do the afternoon chores, regardless of the Vortex's whereabouts. She doesn't complain, and if it is really blowing we do keep her in. 

- Alanna

Deep Freeze: Farmhouse Fallout

This morning Garth and I were up early, as is customary these days - 4:30 or so - and I noticed that the pressure from the tap was low on both the hot and the cold. Nothing in the house was running, like a toilet or shower, that would have caused that. It has been VERY cold here for weeks and we don't have much snow cover, so Garth suspected that the buried line from the well to the pressure tank had frozen. He switched the well pump off at the breaker so that the motor wouldn't die trying to pull water that it couldn't have, and put a heater on in the basement. 

There had been ground hog invasion down there during the late summer. They dug under the porch and hollowed out an area of the foundation, pushing a lot of new rocks and dirt up around the pressure tank. One of the upsides of summer is that there is no reason to go to the basement. We wouldn't have known they had burrowed in if they hadn't also happened upon a decade old empty bag of dogfood and begun making a raucous. My mother-in-law, Dorothy, first heard it - a loud plastic rustle, too loud to be a mouse or even a large rat. I later saw the red bag lurch to the base of the stairs making the same telltale sound. Groundhog, surely. Garth bravely went to investigate and found the basement as I described it. Their having exposed the pipe from the well to the pressure tank had no doubt contributed to the freeze. Garth and I considered the pros and the cons of our situation over the next few hours.

Con - The well pipe is frozen. We don't know if that heater will solve it.

Pro - At least we have a stream where we can fetch water.

Con - There is 4 inches of ice over the surface.

Pro - We have an axe, a few buckets, and Garth is a strapping and motivated man.

Con - It's -12 out.

Pro - Yeah, but now we will really be pioneers!

Con - It's still -12 out. 

Pro - We have a Berkey water filter, so drinking stream water will be A-okay. 

Con - I am cloth diapering and this is going to get messier than it already is.

Pro - It's meant to get up to 34 here in four days.

Con - That's four days away and it might not be warm enough to thaw the water line. 

This went on. 

I went outside to get more wood as the light crept into the cobalt world. There were turkeys gobbling and hens clucking in the distance. What? Why now? Two deer were standing and looking at me on the porch from Don's field. That's when I heard Garth say, 'Did you hear that!?' from the basement. It's bad when you can discern your husband's voice from the basement while you stand on the front porch. This farm house wasn't insulated well now, was it? The turkeys' calls were consuming the silence, and so I had to step inside to hear more from Garth. He had flipped the breaker again and the hydrogen peroxide pump spontaneously began cycling. The hand-dug, 15' well for the farmhouse is sulfurous and pumping hydrogen peroxide into the pressure tank dissipates the odor. It works some of the time. Anyway, this meant we had water flowing from the well again. The heat had worked its magic!

I've had moments when I've wished everything in my life were different, and today it was so nice when everything remained the same. 

Just think; if those ground hogs hadn't excavated that pipe, we couldn't have delivered the heat where it was most needed. We'll thank them later. Maybe I'll buy some new dog food and hurl it down the stairs. 

I still don't know why those turkeys were talking so loudly. I guess sometimes it's just as well not to know what the animals are up to. 

- Alanna

Farming Futures

So, this is about as much of the farm as I see on a day to day basis: Arden in the foreground with Garth heading out to do chores as the backdrop. I can't complain. It was -17 degrees out this morning and Garth gives me a full report when he stops in again to deliver an egg or two, or an armload of wood. And it's more of the farm than either Ed or Normandy get to see lately. They are spending their last winter away, as Normandy will complete her masters degree in ceramics come Spring. Thankfully, their absence is primarily physical. Edmund seems to be constantly thinking of the farm and the next season specifically. Hardly a day passes without an e-mail or three from Edmund on various farm related topics. And what's stranger still is that his thoughts track with Garth's in real time. I sent Ed an e-mail asking if Garth had shared his latest idea for using excess whey, (which was mixing in barn lime to neutralize the it and then applying that to our pastures as fertilizer) and Ed's response was that he was about to send us the very same idea. So the farm evolves, despite our limited man power at the moment. There is water running beneath the frozen surface of the stream, so to speak.

.

And where does that take us? Who knows, but here are a few of our ideas.

We loved raising heritage turkeys on pasture last year, and judging from the feedback we got from those of you who bought one or two of them, the results were good too. Wonderful even! We are aiming to do roughly the same thing this year. Our heritage turkeys (probably Standard Bronze again), will be given free range on pasture and offered organic grains. The only difference in our management of them from last year is that this year we intend to raise pigs (PIGS!) and our feeding system for them might benefit the turkeys in one way or another. We hope to source whey to feed our pastured pigs as an energy source. Whey is a waste product from butter and cheese making and there is still a lot of nutrition to be had in there, but it's mostly lactose in a probiotic slurry. The grass and other forages they'll eat will provide them with protein and fiber primarily, and they'll need some carbohydrate to balance that all out. If we do find a reliable whey source, there is a chance the turkeys will get to pick through the solids at the bottom of the tank, if they are interested. I imagine we may also seek out un-sellable vegetables and other food waste from local organic growers to offer our pigs, and we'll inevitably produce a fair amount of that ourselves with the reliable abundance of our growing season. 


At any rate, this is all to say that we would like to offer you heritage turkeys raised in this manner at the price/pound we did last year ($9.00 delivered, $8.00 locally) and may even get to reduce the price further if our feed costs come in well below what they were. (Last year grain prices were hugely inflated because of the previous year's widespread drought and dire corn yield. Story has it, the world saw an unprecedented bumper crop this last summer, and perhaps we will see the effects of that in the marketplace this year. That is yet to be seen.) We will raise as many turkeys as there are buyers, and will place an order for poults with these numbers in mind soon. If you would like a turkey from us, or have questions about any part of the process, please send us an email:

cairncrestfarm@gmail.com

I let the cat out of the bag earlier by saying we were intending to raise pigs this summer. If you are interested in buying our pork, you can also send the farm an e-mail at the address above and we will put you on our list to receive updates about the products we have on offer as the time approaches. I am sure you will get to read about the pitfalls and successes here on our blog as the events unfold. 

This spring we will see the first grass-fed Angus/Kerry crosses out of our new bull, Mr. Winchester. It will be a few years before we arrive at a verdict on them (better than purebred Kerry alone?) but it will be fun to see how they behave on pasture. We will be sending a few steers at some point this summer, so again, please e-mail the farm if you would like updates on the availability of our beef and are not on the list already.  

Thank you for your ongoing support and your enthusiasm for what we produce. We were so happy to deliver actual goods to you last year. Garth said he finally felt like a farmer, rather than someone who obsessively moves cows around as a hobby. We excited to have more to offer this year. 

Spread the word. Spread the love! We're farming!

-Alanna

Thanksgiving Delivery

This is just a reminder that we will be delivering our heritage turkeys to Bryn Athyn on Tuesday, the 26th, along with our 100% grass-fed and finished beef. We have a fair amount of ground beef still unspoken for, but only a few individual cuts left. If you haven't yet ordered any and would like to please send an e-mail to cairncrestfarm@gmail.com. We will respond to your personally with all the details you'll need. Cheers!

-Alanna

Dry Aging

There is one other significant difference between our beef and the stuff available in groceries.  It is not exclusive to grass-feeding as it has to do with post slaughter treatment of the carcass.  Traditionally beef carcasses were chilled and then "dry aged"  for 14 to 21 days (sometimes even longer) between slaughter and butchering.  The butcher we use to process our cattle still does this as it results in a superior final product. Aging gives naturally present enzymes time to work on muscle tissue and develop flavors to their fullest.  It also dehydrates the meat which means we sell more meat and less water per pound of meat.  The large meat packers moved away from aging during the 1960s because most consumers didn't complain or shift their buying habits when they bought more water, while the extra water weight in each cut contributed to the packers' bottom line. This is true across all cuts, but is most readily apparent in a side-by-side ground meat cook-off. A pound of Cairncrest beef will release less water into the frying pan than a comparable package from the local grocery. Next time you cook ground meat from a store take note how much water comes out.

In the interest of science here is my try at demonstrating it.  I cooked the same amount of meat from ourown steer and a package from the grocery store.

Here is a photo of the two meats prior to cooking. Guess which is which. (I did adjust the color balance a little bit in this photo because I struggled to get the light to cooperate while cooking dinner. But I did my best to get the shades of meat true to reality.)

I did a poor job of photographing the liquid that come off, but as you can see the grocery meat released more liquid. I'm actually surprised there wasn't more of a difference, but what is shown represents approximately one ounce out of a one pound package so ~ around 5%, which is in line with what I've read occurs in a two week aging.

I didn't take a picture of the cooked meat because the color discrepancy was much less dramatic and probably wouldn't have shown up on a computer screen, though it was still apparent in person.

I found both the flavor and texture of our beef to be more enjoyable.

-Edmund

Grass-fed and Finished

This week we get to go to the fun stuff.

I arrived early enough to catch them in bed! One year old steer in the foreground.  This year's calf, a cow, and our bull, Mr. Winchester in are in the back.

Grass-fed meat is all the rage right now, and for good reason.  I read recently the grass-fed segment of the beef market is booming while the rest of the beef market stagnates.  The authors of the article attribute the consumer popularity of grass-fed to concerns about the wholesomeness of the meat fed in big feedlots, as well as for animal welfare and the environment.  I believe in my heart of hearts that grass-fed meat can be the best on all fronts - healthy meat, contented animals, and more fertile soils.  But as with grain finishing, just because something can be a certain way doesn't mean it is that way all the time.

The term grass-fed encompasses a huge spread of management intensivities.  Some producers put a perimeter fence around a piece of land and turn the herd loose.  Some producers have a few large paddocks they slowly rotate the their cattle through every few months.  Others, like us, use both perimeter and portable electric fencing to allocate a small amount of pasture at a time and then move the herd onto fresh grass every day or so (see photos below).  Daily moving allows adequate rest periods for the grass to recover between grazing events, thus the more palatable species of plants are not munched to death by hovering grazers.  It promotes taller and healthier pasture plants that can tap deeper nutrients in the sub-soil.  It supposedly sequesters carbon into the soil as organic matter much faster than say forests or ungrazed grass.  It keeps the herd clear of its own waste until enough time has elapsed for the manure to reincorporate into the soil.  It reduces erosion since the grass sward is denser and more vigorous, and there is no plowing for the finishing feeds.  It reduces the need for fossil fuels since growing grain requires a lot of diesel for tractors, combines, and trucks for hauling the harvest.

Frequent (more than once per week) moves generally allow for a higher average plane of nutrition in the paddocks the herd has access to every day.  Better nutrition allows cattle to express their genes fully and those that are suitable for grass finishing come to the fore.  Good genes under good management makes for exceptional meat.  Good genes under lax management e.g. turning the herd loose for the entire year in a single large pasture, does not.  Cattle unsuited to grass production will never grow great beef, even under the best management regime.  Management can help the marginally suitable animal achieve full health, and therefore be reasonably tasty on the table.

The take away lesson here is this - the term "grass-fed" does not guarantee a great steak.  In fact, there are plenty of average and even sub-par grass-fed products chasing the price premium it offers.  The best tasting is always grass-fed though, and when one factors in the social, environmental, and animal welfare components of grass vs grain it becomes a no brainer.

Grass farm pastures should not look like golf course fairways.  If they do the animals and the pasture are not going to express their full potential.  Depending on the time of year and most recent cut, hayfields can have a fairly uniform even appearance.

It is hard to judge distances in the photo, but this first image shows one day's worth of grazing.  Look closely and you can see white pigtail posts on both sides of the picture.  This is early morning and I've just moved the cattle into their fresh "break" of grass.  To the left of the herd you can see the effect that 24 hours of animal impact has on a patch of pasture.

The camera flattens the topography.  Here I'm looking up a moderately steep hill toward the cattle.

Getting closer, and a better look at the portable electric fence used to contain the cattle.

Here is another image of impact. We're looking at the ground in the area the animals just finished. Note the mat of grass pushed against the soil, this protects from erosion and feeds worms and microbes.

Here is pasture after roughly a week of regrowth.  That shaggy look is a good thing when it comes to pasture.

Finally, don't forget water.  We buried a line in this pasture and use gravity to pull water where we need it.  That's a 40 gallon plastic tank that is light enough for one person to move easily.

That's it for this week.  I have a little more to say about beef, but I'm going to wrap up in the next week or two.

-Edmund

Grain Finishing

Last week we went through a sort of general overview of a steer's life.  This week we go into a little more detail about finishing on grain.

Grain finishing rations for steers are mostly corn and beans, but they include all kinds of other stuff too. I've seen footage of a feedlot mixing waste candy, wrappers and all, into a wagon to feed.  Until the mad-cow scare of the 90s it was legal to feed protein sources from slaughterhouses.  In some places it is still common to put chickenhouse waste (chicken poop) into cattle rations because the rumen bugs can use the nitrogen in it to make proteins.  Nevermind that a cow would never eat chickenshit given a choice in the matter, or the fact that it can impart a fecal smell to the carcass itself.  The bovine digestive system is a beautiful thing, designed to process large amounts of low quality feed into parts and pieces of life.  It is easily overwhelmed by concentrated sources of calories like corn and bean meal.  An out of whack digestive system pushes problems into the rest of the organism and they get really fat really quickly.  They're fed antibiotics and other growth promotants to push their growth rate up ever higher.  Most receive an ear implant of hormones to goose their growth beyond the pale.  All these things would be fatal in short order for even the most rugged steer, but the cattle go to slaughter before the wear and tear of pharmacology, unhygenic living conditions, and an unatural diet can exact their ultimate toll.

Most consumers only ever meet their meat on the dinner plate.  So what does grain finishing this way do to the final product?  It makes for a higher percentage of soft meat (this is the one desirable outcome of this style of finishing).  Standing around waiting to be fed doesn't promote connective tissue development the way walking a hill in search of a tasty bite of grass does.  This allows some cuts of a grain finished steer to be softer on average than a properly finished grass-fed beefer.  I'm thinking specifically of round and sirloin tip steaks...  But the classic steak cuts from the rib and loin should be tender, no matter the production model.  If they're not, something is out of whack.  Grain finishing changes the fat profile in the meat.   Grain finishing allows for slaughter at a younger age as we discussed previously.  I believe there is a rough correlation between age at slaughter and flavor.  All other things being equal younger animals are milder in the flavor department.  And many people are now used to bland beef because that's all they've ever been exposed to.  Grain based rations also dampen the flavor compared to the diverse diet of self-fed cow.  Our pasture has at least 70 species of plants, and the cattle eat most of them.  On a mixed ration cattle get all their sustenance from just a few plant seeds, and the majority of it is corn.

Most grain finishing occurs on huge, huge feed lots in the mid-west.  These massive manure factories foist their odors and water contamination on all the neighbors within several miles, but just because most operations move with disregard for the social and environmental externalities they impose on their communities doesn't mean grain finishing must be that way.  There are smaller organic feedlots that do a much better job of keeping their animals healthy and clean.  And there are many small farms like ours that have a beef herd and sell meat directly to consumers after finishing the cattle on grain themselves.  So if you prefer the flavor and texture of grain finished beef, it is possible to find farmers who do it as well as it can be done.

Next week we get to the fun stuff that really makes us different - grass finishing.

We don't feed our cattle any grain so I can't show a picture of it, but since photos are fun here's one with some cows and two calves from this year.

-Edmund