Category Archives: pork

Vitamin D In Pastured Pork

Posted on by under pork

** Joys in Life —————- As I write this, the smell of bacon cooking is filling the house. Mat has been experimenting with smoking the side pork from the half hogs we get each Spring and Fall. The smell of bacon is hard to beat, but I can think of so many other favorites and many of them around here now incorporate healthy fats like lard. Here are a few of my favorites: pie (with a lard crust), pork chops, cookies, biscuits, bread, and sausage. Another favorite of mine is learning about nutrition and taking steps to increase the quality for our family. I love being able to give my boys food I know that will increase their health and give them a boost when other factors, such as sickness or Halloween candy, comes our way. My most recent find is vitamin D in pastured pork! Pork fat and lard are one of the top ways to increase essential vitamin D intake during the long Minnesota winter. Keep reading…

** Why Pastured Pork? —————- Did you know that pastured hog lard is a good source of vitamin D? You won’t get it in the conventional stuff though. Not all pork is created equal. Pastured, sun soaked pork is among the top twenty foods rich in naturally occurring vitamin D. Lard is also a source of good cholesterol and good fats you need to nourish your body. Plus the fat is heat stable. When you cook or bake with it, it’s not only tasty (sorry it doesn’t taste like bacon – it’s more of a neutral nourishing texture thing) but it’s not going to create excess free radicals when heated reducing the risk of cell damage in your body. There are many sources to be found on the benefits of pastured pork.

Scientific journals are a bit hard to read sometimes, so here some more down-to-earth reading on pastured pork:

  1. http://www.cheeseslave.com/top-10-best-sources-of-vitamin-d/
  2. https://nourishedkitchen.com/pasture-raised-pork/
  3. For more specifics on our own pork, here’s our webpage link: * https://righteousoaksfarm.com/about/pastured-pork/

Benefits of pastured pork from Righteous Oaks Farm:

  • Pastured hogs are happy hogs raised in fresh air and sunshine
  • Our pastures are bumpier, but have shown better production because of them.
  • No yucky run-off into our water.
  • The right quality of fats and good cholesterol.
  • No antibiotics or added growth hormones.
  • Omega-3 ratio is better in pastured animals.
  • More nutrient dense.
  • Tasty!

** Convinced now that pastured pork is the way to go? Give us a call today to talk it over. We’d love to provide some nourishing food for you and your family.

Prepared

Posted on by under chicken, Farm, pork

Now’s the time to start planning what seasonal goods you’ll need for the year. In MN that’s almost everything, including chicken.

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In this picture we have some zucchini brownies and some spaghetti ready to be quickly made. We have grown to love okra in our tomato sauce. I freeze it whole (super easy) and then blend it into cold sauce when making a recipe. It adds a touch of flavor and makes a thicker, less watery sauce. Our okra has started to produce already and we hope to have plenty to bring to market this year.

You’ll also see our Italian sausage links. Having meat in the freezer and available has put my mind at ease and helped me to avoid shopping, a task I do not enjoy. I always have something available for a quick meal. That’s especially helpful in the busy or overwhelming seasons of the year which for us coincides with planting, weeding and preparing for markets throughout the summer.

We hope you will be able to stop by one of our markets to say hi. We plan to be at the Aitkin Historical Society’s Depot Museum (right next to the Holiday gas station) on Fridays throughout the summer. This Friday we will be there from 9:30 am – 12:30 pm.  Hope to see you there.

Here’s one last reminder. This week is the week to order chicken and turkey for the year! Also, if you’re wanting pork, we have it available by the pound now or halves and whole in the fall. Give us a call this week and we’ll get you all set up for convenient meals all year long.

You can also still order beef and pork to be processed closer to November and December. Send us an email at righteousoaksfarm@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you.

Printable order form: Click here!

$15 off from Righteous Oaks Farm

Posted on by under chicken, Farm, pork

Who doesn’t like a good deal? And giveaways don’t get tastier than this! Now through December 11th, we have a giveaway on our Facebook and Instagram pages (just click the links to see), plus we’d like to share another deal with you for sharing our product with others, keep reading —>

New customers! We’d like to give you $15 worth of pork or chicken with your purchase of $125 or more.

Existing customers! We’d like to give you $15 off your next order of pork or chicken of $125 or more for finding us a new customer.

Please share this deal with those that might enjoy some high quality, nutrient dense pastured pork and chicken. As always, we are use non-GMO and soy free feed with our animals. Take care and many blessings to you this Christmas season.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Frighteousoaksfarm%2Fposts%2F1950436075206865&width=500&show_text=true&height=678&appId

Deal good through the end of December, 2017.

Contest open to anyone willing to meet us in our drop off locations: Twin Cities area, Brainerd, Aitkin, Duluth, and Fergus Falls. We often deliver along highways 210, 169, 47 and 65 as well. If you don’t meet that requirement, prize may be gifted to someone who does.

Contest closes Monday, December 11, 2017 at 11:59 pm. $15 off must be ordered by January 1, 2018.

For the contest, we will compile the names and email addresses of all commenters who enter into a spreadsheet. We assign each commenter a number, and check to remove any duplicate entries – such as when someone adds a note to their own comment, replies to someone else’s comment, or inadvertently enters twice. Then we ask random.org to choose a number from the amount of entrants and whatever number is picked, that’s our winner.

Fall Update and Great News

Posted on by under chicken, Farm, pork

IMG_4390Wonderful news. We have been given a great gift and long-awaited happiness in our lives. On September 21, Asher George Nix was born to us. Asher is the first Hebrew word of the Psalms and one of Jacob’s sons in the Bible. The word means Blessed or Happy! George is Mathew’s amazing dad and the name also means farmer, rather appropriate huh? Please rejoice with us.

In farm news, we are still plodding along and continue to enjoy the fall harvest. Today was our first big frost with the temperature last night reaching 23 degrees F. With the high tunnel, we still have a bit of a growing season, but most of our produce is done. We’re also stocking up on hay for winter so the cows and pigs have plenty to enjoy.

Available products on the farm still include pork and chicken. We will also have tomatoes, spaghetti squash, peppers, watermelon, possibly purple potatoes, and tallow

lotion until they are all sold or the high tunnel gets too cold. Spaghetti squash is a wonderful keeper. The seeds we planted this year were from a squash I cut up in March that was still good from the 2016 harvest. Small are $1.50 and large are $3. Our tomatoes are down to $.75 per pound for seconds and $1.75 per pound for unblemished tomatoes. I highly recommend my favorite green zebra tomatoes. Our peppers are Marconi and $0.50. They are long and a lot like a green pepper, but without the belly ache that some people get from green peppers. Tallow lotion is great for winter skin and only $2 for a 4 ounce jar.

IMG_4249We ordered more chickens than were sold, so we still have some chicken in the freezer. On farm purchase of chicken is $4.00 per pound. Delivered to the Twin Cities is $4.25 per pound. USDA inspected chicken is $4.50 per pound.

Pork! We still have six hogs available for October and IMG_3488November butcher dates, mainly because our main marketing person recently had a baby… We sell in half or whole hogs. Some people have ordered with a friend and split up half a hog. Hogs are normally around 200 pounds. We charge $3 per pound hanging carcass weight plus the butcher fees which varies with your custom order of ham, bacon, pork belly, sausage, pork chops, roasts, etc. As with chicken, we also have USDA inspected pork in 1-4 pound packages for $6.50 per pound. There are still some tasty pork chops, roasts, ground pork and side pork. Small hams are available for $7 per pound and 1 lb. bacon packages are $8 per pound.

As always, our chickens and hogs are pastured and moved regularly. They are fed non-GMO feed and are soy free. We grind the grain ourselves and source much of it from within 30 miles. That also means the grain is fresh increasing the nutrient quality of the food given our animals.

Thanks for being part of our farm family. Without your supporting local, sustainable agriculture, we couldn’t strive to exercise careful dominion over the resources that have been entrusted to us.

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Enjoying the heat? – plus a recipe link!

Posted on by under chicken, Farm, goat, Maple Syrup, pork

Do you enjoy the heat of summer or would you rather sit in mosquito-free air-conditioning? This heat can be wonderful and joyful for little boys who love to frolic in water. However, constantly feeling 80 – 90 humid degrees for us full-blooded Minnesotans can become an exercise in endurance. I think that’s why so many enjoy pulling out Christmas songs and dwelling on the coolness of the Minnesota winter during the month of July.
For those of you who enjoy farm fresh food and supporting small farms, now is also the time to think about what foods you’ll want to have through the winter. Being small and seasonal we produce most of our meat when the weather is warm and the pasture is flourishing with extra nutrition for our animals. Are you going to want a ham or roast chicken for your holiday meals?
IMG_3488     Now is the best time to order your half or whole hog. We normally sell out. I am very proud of the pastured pork we produce and can say these are the best pork chops I’ve ever had. If half is too much for you (80-100 pounds of meat), some people get friends together and split it up between themselves.IMG_8795
You can also still get your broiler chickens and maple syrup, while the supply lasts. Though our beef is sold out for the year, we have some grass-fed goat available still. The meat is an excellent source of essential nutrients for your family and we have some by the pound if you wanted to give it a try before your buy a whole animal.

IMG_3486     The farmer’s market has been a big part of our summer schedule this year. We’d love to see you if you’re in Aitkin on a Saturday morning. We’ll have pork and goat by the pound, whole broilers, our maple syrup and lots of veggies to enjoy. You can also order tomatoes for your canning needs, so give us a call, set up a time to visit the farm, or send us a message by email, Facebook or Instagram. We look forward to hearing from you.

Flashback Recipe idea: Grill up some Maple Mustard Chicken!

Delicious Pastured Pork

Posted on by under Farm, pork, Recipes

I can’t tell you how much I have appreciated having a freezer full of meat. It’s like having a convenience store right next door. It reduces stress about what to feed my family and it reduces the amount of trips I take to the grocery store. Time saving – yes!

Having a whole hog wrapped and ready has also increased the health factor in our meals. We have been able to choose how our meat is processed and what ingredients go into our food. It has also led to a few fun new recipes.

Yesterday we tried roasting a slab of side pork and boy was it delicious! side pork
Crispy, meaty, satisfying. Bacon, I’m never coming back. And now we have leftovers that I’m excited to try in an Asian stir fry tomorrow night. I’m not a big fan of cooking, but when I can produce results like this, it gets me excited!

The meat of pastured pigs is a different product than the conventional raised meat you would find in the grocery store. Here’s a little health information I found comparing wild boars (completely pasture raised) and conventionally raised animals (in a large barn with cement floors).

“Because pigs are monogastric animals (single stomach), they have the ability to convert vegetable and plant 18 carbon fatty acids (ALA) to the 20 and 22 carbon fatty acids (EPA and DHA) which reduce inflammation, reduce cardiovascular disease and promote good health for us all when we eat pork. Free ranging pork contains higher concentrations of these beneficial fatty acids than are found in their feed lot produced counterparts.”1

We continue to provide a non-GMO and soy free diet for our hogs as well as hay throughout the winter. They run and enjoy themselves by producing all sorts of havoc on our farm. Trust me, they’ve found lots of good forage as they’ve roamed past their boundaries this winter. Which leads me to make sure they don’t outgrow their welcome around here…

We still have a few half and whole hogs available for our spring butcher dates (March and April). $3 per pound hanging weight. Give us a call and we’ll tell you more: 218..927..1425.

You’ll definitely have to try this recipe with your next order!

Roasted Side Pork

  • Servings: 10-15
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

2-3 pound side pork
For Rub:
1 Tablespoon cracked peppercorns
1 Tablespoon salt (we use Real Salt brand)
1 Tablespoon granulated garlic
1 Tablespoon Chinese five spice powder, or spice of your choiceMix together rub ingredients. Rub generously and completely around the side pork slab. At this point, I recommend placing in the fridge for up to a day to let the seasoning do it’s work.
Once your slab has rested for a time (1 hour to 1 day), place the meat onto a “cooling rack” or other slotted roasting pan on top of a large baking sheet with the fattiest side up. Make sure there are raised sides on the baking sheet so the liquid fat does not drip into the oven. Roast at 325° F for 90 minutes or until the internal temperature is 145° F.  Cool slightly, slice and serve.

1 Cordain, Loren. http://thepaleodiet.com/bacon-anything-left-to-discuss/ June 16, 2014