Category Archives: Pastured pride

Sharing our love for healthy, sustainable agriculture practices.

Ambrosia a.k.a Sweet Roast

Posted on by under Pastured pride, pork, Recipes

I know, I should be talking about how to use leftover turkey in a hotdish right now, being that the week after Thanksgiving every meal consists of turkey. However, we are sending the last of our fall butcher hogs to be processed on Tuesday (yes, we have 1/2 left if you get your order in soon!), so I still have pork on my mind.

We also have 3 and 3/4 Scottish Highland beef steers to send in this fall/winter if you’re looking for some grass-fed and grass-finished beef for your freezer. A full steer weighs about 400 pounds, so 1/4 would be about 100 pounds hanging weight and probably close to 75 pounds finished. So if you’re looking for some great roasts, hamburger, etc, that’s a great place to start.

Now onto the recipe. As a world famous travel writer, Mat’s aunt Stacey knows good food. I heard about the following recipe because she made this for Mat’s mom, Dena, and Dena raved about it. Of course, I had to ask for the recipe. And of course, I had to share it with you! It’s made for a beef chuck roast, but also works well with pork.

Here’s a super easy meal to help you recover from all the rushing about this holiday season. Enjoy!

  1. Ambrosia a.k.a. Sweet Roast

    • Servings: 6-8
    • Difficulty: easy
    • Print
    3-4 pounds beef chuck roast or pork shoulder roast
    oil/lard
    1 onion, chopped
    10 3/4 oz. cream of chicken/mushroom soup
    1/2 cup water or chicken stock
    1/4 cup sugar
    1/4 cup vinegar
    2 tsp. salt
    1 tsp. prepared mustard
    1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
    1. Brown meat in oil on both sides in saucepan. Put in slow cooker.
    2. Blend together remaining ingredients. Pour over meat.
    3. Cover. Cook on Low 12-16 hours.

Pork Chops and new series of posts

Posted on by under Farm, Pastured pride, pork, Recipes

As I mentioned on Tuesday, a new goal I have is to help make ordering and using a whole hog more user-friendly by providing recipes and information.

Here’s bit of info from our Pastured Pork page:

“When ordering a half or whole hog, here are the options you’ll choose from when calling the butcher:

  • Pork chops (about 23-26, 1 inch or you can ask for 2 inch cuts) – other options for chops include making them into baby back ribs (deboned chops), boneless tenderloin, ground or roasts
  • Shoulder Roasts (2) or Steaks (4-6) or Cottage Bacon (similar to ham in taste)
  • Loin Roasts (2) or Steaks (4-6)
  • Ground pork (6-12 lb of trim)
  • Ribs (2 lb)
  • Smoked Ham or Ham Roasts (can be halved or quartered)
  • Smoked Hocks or Fresh Hocks (2)
  • Side Pork (pork belly) or Smoked Bacon – thick or thin sliced (about 6-10 lbs)
  • Pork fat for rendering lard (we suggest you pay the small fee to have it ground, it renders more efficiently)
  • All meat cuts have other options like being ground or deboned if there is a cut you do not prefer”

Some of these things, like bacon and ground pork, have an endless number of recipes to choose from and are quickly used up. Others are a little more challenging depending on your background.

In the following weeks, I hope to add some links and various ideas on how to use the above cuts. Today I would like to start with pork chops!

Pork chops

  • Chops are excellent grilled. Typically I will sear them by starting the grill on high heat and then after each side has been browned for a few minutes, I will turn the temperature down to low. Be sure to watch them closely so the flame does not burn them up once the fat starts dripping.
  • Chops are also wonderful pan seared and then baked when grilling season is not an option (such as in January in Minnesota).
  • The spices I prefer to sprinkle on chops are as follows for 4 chops:
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper combined and rubbed into the meat before cooking
    • Your favorite bbq rub (I really like Penzey’s spices, but there are many good all purpose bbq rubs out there).
    • Here’s a more involved bbq mix to try. This is a guess because I don’t have a specific recipe: 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, 1/8 teaspoon allspice, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, 1/16 teaspoon cayenne, 1/16 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/16 teaspoon thyme, 1/16 teaspoon ginger
  • The way my mom made pork chops was super easy and tasty too. Basically, sear four pork chops and place in a 9 by 13 inch glassware dish. Pour some cream of chicken soup over the top (if it’s too thick, thin it with 1/2 cup of milk). We make our own. Here’s a recipe similar to ours: Pinch of Yum. Sprinkle with paprika and black pepper. Mix up some stuffing (the amount from a 6 ounce box should be enough). Place stuffing on top. Cover in foil and bake for 45 minutes. Take foil off and bake another 15 minutes or until the internal temperature is 145 Fahrenheit. It’s a hearty, heavy meal… pure comfort food.
  • Tips:
    • Our pork chops come from a part Mangalista hog. The Mangalista breed of pig has a bit more back fat on it due to it’s excellent amount of vitamin rich lard. If you don’t enjoy eating this fat straight up, I recommend trimming the fat and then rendering it (melting it slowly then filtering it) to be used later for frying eggs or adding to recipes instead of butter or oil. It’s a great way to add Vitamin D to your diet this winter!
    • When cooking a pork chop. Melt some lard in the bottom of a pan on high heat. Set the chops in the pan for about a minute until slightly brown then turn the heat to low or transfer to a baking dish if you will be putting them in the oven. Searing and then cooking on low heat produces a juicier chop instead of a dry one.

These are some of our favorites, but I’d love to hear some of yours!! Please leave a comment and let us know your favorite recipes for pork chops.

We’ve Got Goat Meat!

Posted on by under Farm, goat, Pastured pride, Recipes

Last week nearly two hundred pounds of goat meat arrived in our freezer. We were able to get it USDA inspected at a newer local facility in Sturgeon Lake, MN that we really enjoy. Of course we took out a package right away and Mathew cooked up a rack of goat ribs. It was savory and satisfying!

img_1501We found our recipe at mymidlifekitchen.com. With only five ingredients, it was simple,  quick to prepare and warmed the house nicely since it cooked for three hours. Perfect for a winter day in Minnesota!

Ingredients

Check out mymidlifekitchen.com for the full recipe and how to prepare it.

Goat meat is a great source of lean protein, B-12 vitamin and iron. It is also quite versatile if you enjoy a variety of tastes and flavors. According to a Universiy of California blog post, “What is the world’s most popular meat?” goat meat is actually the most commonly consumed meat in the world, with 63% of the world’s population eating it. This article also has a nutritional comparison of various meats, see below. We look forward to trying Indonesian, South American, French, Asian, Middle Eastern and African recipes. Each has their own special spices to add. Please share your favorite recipes with us so we can share them with the world!

Nutrient composition of goat and other types of meat1, 2
Nutrient Goat Chicken Beef Pork Lamb
Calories 122 162 179 180 175
Fat (g) 2.6 6.3 7.9 8.2 8.1
Saturated Fat (g) 0.79 1.7 3.0 2.9 2.9
Protein (g) 23 25 25 25 24
Cholesterol (mg) 63.8 76.0 73.1 73.1 78.2
1 Per 3 oz. of cooked meat
2 USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 14 (2001)

Harper, John M. “What is the world’s most popular meat?” http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=3679. November 3, 2010.

Give us a call or send us an email to order some today. We’d love to deliver some Goat Chops, Goat Shoulder Roast, Goat Leg Roast, neck or ground meat. direct to you. Our current price is $10.00 per pound.

Half A Hog Available

Posted on by under Pastured pride

Unexpectedly, we have half a hog still available. It will be brought to Glen Meats on December 7th and ready to be delivered to you (Minnesota) around December 20th. If you or anyone you know are wanting some Christmas ham or wanting a great gift for a highly cherished family member, please let us know.

Until then, our hogs will be happily running about the pasture and eating non-gmo and soy-free feed to their hearts delight. They will also likely put on a little bit of lard that would make an excellent pie crust and lardons. We are so proud of the finished product and very happy with the way our animals our treated. Please consider half a hog today.

Homemade Sausage

Righteous Oaks News

Posted on by under Family, Farm, Garden, Homeschooling, Hospitality, Maple Syrup, Pastured pride, Picture posts
Broccoli and Peas Should Be Ready Beginning of June
Young Appretices 4/3-4/6
1st Bottle Baby
Finishing School Strong
12 Piglets Born 4/11
Dairy Heifer Arrives 4/12

This is the time of year to be on the farm. There is so much excitement and so many new babies to see. Here’s our highlights from this month so far:

  • April started strong with sap flowing full swing. We’re still collecting and will likely continue until Wednesday with our final boil down Thursday and Friday.
  • We had two amazing visitors. Jaeden has been here three times now and this time brought along her friend Olive. We met Jaeden during  J(une)-Term 2015 through AFSA high school. She and eight others came for a whole week of farm experiences. Her second visit was this last fall when she helped us harvest honey, harvest garden veggies and make jelly. April 3-6, her and Olive enjoyed lots of newborn baby goats, feeding our lone bottle baby, collecting sap, planting onions in the high tunnel, and playing games with our boys. We enjoyed our time with them and hope we didn’t work them too hard.
  • Our first new experience this April is our little bottle baby, Prancer. The boys run, jump, and frolic in the yard with him each day and he stays close to our farm dog Ruby at nights. We’re hoping to bring him out to pasture once he’s on two feedings a day. Right now he is 15 days old.
  • Peter turned 10 years old this month, yes double digits. He’s an amazing boy and becoming quite the farmer himself.
  • Home school continues. My boys are motivated to get our studies done before summer arrives.
  • Our second batch of piglets were born yesterday! Mat counted twelve that seem to be thriving. One didn’t survive and one is half the size of the others. Peter can’t wait until they get big enough to ride.
  • Our second new adventure arrived on the farm today. She is a Dexter-Jersey heifer calf. Even though she isn’t a year old, she’s likely over 400 pounds. We’re hoping to breed her and have a calf and fresh cow milk next summer. Silas cannot wait. It will be fun to get to know this new addition over the next months. Please comment with any name ideas, for she doesn’t have one yet.

Not even half done and we’ve had lots of excitement. We’re excited for more goats babies, more visitors, more planting, and lots of action as the month continues.

A Month Gone By

Posted on by under Bees, Family, Farm, Honey, Maple Syrup, Pastured pride
Sweetie is not my milking goat, but I just couldn't resist sharing this picture

Sweetie is not my milking goat, but I just couldn’t resist sharing this picture

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I’ve updated you all on farm living. Some new developments have us excited.

  • Our newest increase is that we will be getting a female Great Pyrenees today and hope that she and our male will do well to guard our growing goat herd. We also hope to offer livestock guardian puppies in the future. We’ll let you know if Furry and Juniper (Juni) get along well together.
  • Another cause for elation is that we have chicks hatching today. Yesterday, Moe and Fiesty were born. Last month, we had seven born in our incubator. This has been such a fun process for us and we hope to get some good laying hens for future egg production for our own use. Last months chicks; Hawk, Big Goldie, Little Pepper, Cookie, Little Goldie and Speckled Head, are doing well and love following me around the yard.
  • I have also taken up the challenge of milking our Alpine goat, Ivy. She has been providing us with over a quart of nutritious raw goat milk each day. In early June, we will likely start milking twice a day (a whole new challenge). This weekend, we may even make goat milk ice cream. We have enjoyed the flavor and our many guests have enjoyed a little taste too.
  • Mat’s new chicken tractor design is complete. As a result, moving our pastured chickens twice a day is now enjoyable. A smaller number of chickens has resulted in cleaner, healthier birds so far. If a chicken can be beautiful, I have to say that these are. I have actually said it to them more than once as I’ve seen them this year. Maybe I’ve been on the farm too long.
  • Our pigs are growing strong enough and big enough for our youngest boys to ride them. These two boys have become more daring with age.
  • I don’t think we’ve mentioned that we have three bull calves born last month. They were a surprise since we were told our Scottish Highland cows were bred to give birth in June. We are happy with our healthy and fluffy and soon to be steers. They are growing fast.
  • Mat split one healthy bee hive yesterday and has another out there. Hopefully, this will be the year to brag about when we actually get honey to market.
  • Lastly, our maple syrup season went well. We weren’t so sure at first and it was hard work. At $.25 an hour, Mat doesn’t get paid much for his time with this product, but we enjoy the stuff so much that it’s worth it.

That’s it for now I suppose. Hope you enjoyed hearing about our busy lives. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I guess you’ll just have to visit and pick up some fresh food from the farm if you want to see this stuff for yourselves.

Nursery in the Pasture

Posted on by under Pastured pride
These sweet brothers and sisters are keeping plenty warm in the sun this March

These sweet brothers and sisters are keeping plenty warm in the sun this March

On March 23 we had our first triplets on the farm. Thirteen Boer-Fainting goat kids were born within the next two weeks. We sadly lost two; both from triplet sets, one of those having been born with bowed legs. Now we have eleven frolicking kids roaming the pasture.

Our Maremma Akbash dog has been an excellent midwife and nursery attendent. With our first arrivals, he jumped back and forth with excitement to tell us the news. Each time new babies have been born, he is right there to keep watch and nudge the kids toward their mom when they are lost. He has stayed close to the napping kids while the moms are on the other side of the large pasture and kept watch for golden eagles prowling the skies.

We have had sweet success with all of our Boer Goat Mamas this year

We have had sweet success with all of our Boer Goat Mamas this year

What excitement we have had this year with our new arrivals. We have a few restaurants that have asked us about our goats so far and have a few friends from African and South East Asian countries that will be happy to have chevon (sometimes called mutton) for their next holiday meal. Finally we have hopes of keeping our customers satisfied.

One last note to say that you are missing out if you can’t come see this youngsters this summer. They are a beautiful creation.