Mini-store is open and advanced ordering starting soon!

Pete and Jen at Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Well, Jen and I are finally back after our long anticipated winter vacation. Needless to say we had an amazing trip and to make it even better we now see just an inkling of what a horrible winter it was for the rest of you! Pity we have, but glad we are to have missed it all!

The mini-store is now open, though it’s a bit icy and hazardous in the parking area near the entrance. So if you stop by BE CAREFUL! We have lots of pork including bacon and some sausage and hams. We also have plenty of stewing hens which are still great for soups and stews. The soup made with these hens is to die for – so rich and yellow with the perfect amount of georgeous fat!

EGGS? Coming next week! Look for the smaller pullet eggs to appear in the fridge by mid-week. Our new flock will be arriving next week! Though the pasture is still buried we are busy building a second movable coop to accomodate all the new birds…as we are expanding our flock! This year we’ll have 600 birds on pasture. Once the birds start laying we hope to never run out again. We know many of you came to the mini-store and left emptyhanded at the end of last season. This was tough for everyone so we hope to avoid that this season with the addition of many new birds. At this time of year the yolks won’t be deep orange quite yet, but we have asked our feed company to include organic alfalfa into the feed ration to help with nutrient content and color. As soon as the pasture returns the birds will be out on the fields!

PRE-ORDERING for 2012? Yes yes, coming very very soon! We are wrapping up dates and details for our product offerings this season. Just wait a couple of more days! Thanks for your patience!

WAYLAND WINTER MARKET – Jen will be attending and selling our goodies at the wayland winter market this saturday and next. Stop by and say hi!

Cambodia

Just finished five days in siem reap visiting temples. Off to
Battambang tomorrow!

Vietnam

Arrived safely in Vietnam and heading to Hanoi tonite after two weeks of traveling thru Saigon, the Mekong delta, the central highlands, and coastal beaches. Pictures and details to follow!

Great little blog

Check out this brief blog about our mini-store…at the “Local in Season” site.

CAFO, the book

For those interested in learning more about Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO), there is a new and powerful book detailing the atrocities.


If you buy from us you are already doing the right thing by the animals and enviornment.

Here is a list of “What you can do” according to the website…

The Healthy Table
•Refine, reduce, and replace animal products.
•Consider eating smaller amounts of animal food products. Carefully seek out grass-fed and grass-finished beef and dairy products and pasture-raised pork, poultry, and egg products for those you do buy.
•Learn about vegetarian cooking. Consider “Meatless Mondays,” as advocated for by the Johns Hopkins University Center for a Livable Future, or avoid factory-farmed animal products altogether by switching to a plant-based diet.
•Purchase meat, eggs, and dairy products from local farmers on the farm or at farmers’ markets, or by buying a share from a local farmer as part of a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program or local buyers’ group.
•Read labels. Does the product contain artificial growth hormones or genetically engineered ingredients? Eggs that are merely labeled “cage-free” or “free-range” but not certified by a third party may not necessarily be ensuring the hens’ welfare.
•Choose meats from animals that were not given “non-therapeutic” antibiotics—indicated by labels such as “USDA Certified Organic” or “no antibiotic use.” Look for the Humane Farm Animal Care label. Foods with this label come from humane sources that are inspected annually. Select certified organic meats, eggs, and dairy and those clearly labeled as using only vegetarian animal feed.
•Honor where your food comes from. Consider spending a little more on better sources and better qualities of meat and animal products, a little less often. Learn as much as you can about bringing the most flavor out of your cooking. Be creative with leftovers.
•Don’t support companies that don’t care about animal rights.
•Ask your local grocers and restaurants to offer humanely raised foods and fresh, locally grown products from small producers.

Smokin’ good grub!

mini-store freezer is full!

After another long haul to the smokehouse in Vermont, we are happy to have returned with a trailer full of tasty smokiness!
Our tasty nitrite-free bacon is back! And so are the beer brats and the “new for us” chorizo and smoked Polish kielbasa! And did we mention the smoked jowl hunks of smokey, creamy, fatty goodness? Quantities of most items are limited, so it won’t last long. Come and get it while it’s hot (and smoky).
Jen and I enjoyed a very decadent grilled cheese sandwich yesterday with three cheeses and a nice serving of chorizo slices mixed in. Wow. Fat is good!

The mini-store freezer is packed so stop by and check it out. And don’t forget to smile for the cameras!

Bondir is open!

Pete, Jen and Jason at Bondir

Our friend and Chef Jason Bond opens his new restaurant tonight on Broadway in Cambridge. Bondir opens tonight and features (surprise, surprise) lots of Pete and Jens Backyard Birds meats! We delivered a whole pig to the restaurant this week, as well as stewing hens and lots of tasty chicken giblets (livers, feet, etc.). Last evening we were invited to a “sneak peek” and meal at the restaurant and Jason did not disappoint. From the freshly made pasta noodles, to the beautiful beet salad and tasty pork loin, Bondir is awesome and is worth repeating over and over again! The restaurant is a small, 24-seat space which is tastefully done – both sophisticated and a cozy place to enjoy dinner with friends. We will be back soon! Help support Jason and his new venture by visiting Bondir soon!

These little piggies to market

The last of the piggies headed off for harvest today. It is always a sad day on the farm when most of the pigs leave. We know it’s their destiny, but it never does make it any easier. I miss their spirit, their spunkiness, and their enduring curiosity.

These last few weeks have been especially interesting since we moved them to the orchard in Stow. We’ve developed a set of portable systems which allow us to keep pigs in pretty much any environment with minimal daily management. But this definitely does not mean things always go according to plan! We had a few mishaps these last few weeks but overall the “pigs in the orchard” experiment seems to be a success. The pigs successfully rooted up lots of brambles and weeds in the canopy understory and all the apple drops were completely cleared. We won’t know for sure until next season the full impact of the heavy rooting, but we all have our fingers crossed that there will be some improvement. I’ll be spreading white clover seed this weekend in the hopes that the clover will get established and flourish in the early spring.

And for the mishaps. Hmm. We will be addressing this soon once I get the newspaper articles scanned. I’ll leave it at that for now!

Some of the piggies we sent in for harvest today were born here on the farm in May. Nutmeg, daughter of Fern, farrowed on May 18th in a field of rye. Some photos below are of Nutmeg with her litter, the same pigs yesterday on a dry run loading them into the trailer, and some other pig pics from the orchard.

Look for tasty cuts of pork in our mini-store by late next week. Also, in the coming weeks we’ll have more of our amazing nitrite-free bacon, smoked hocks, ham steaks, beer brats, chorizo, smoked kielbasa and more!

Nutmeg with piglets

four days, six pigs

water tank in orchard and fence line

trailer in orchard, note impact on either side of trailer

Chicken soup anyone?

With winter coming ever closer isn’t it time for a nice bowl of chicken soup? We think so. Jen has come down with a nasty cold and was craving for a big bowl of cold-kicking tastiness. So in a quick 15 minutes – courtesy of our pressure cooker – we whipped up a very tasty bowl of soup with one 2.5lb organic pasture-raised hen, some fresh carrots, leeks and onions, a bit of parsley and thyme and there you go! Best of all, it tastes like chicken!

This weekend we processed a large group of 2 year old laying hens which make for perfect soup. The hens are awesome because they’ve been living in the fresh air and munching on lush pasture for two years! All that goodness gets into every little nook and cranny! Add a few giblets (feet, necks, gizzards….) and the soup get’s even better! Stewing hens and giblets available fresh now, frozen in a couple of days and available in our mini-store. Inquire about bulk purchases of giblets for the winter…discounts available! Get yours today! The exclamation points are free!!!!!!!

Orchard pigs!

This past weekend we moved our remaining tamworth pigs to Derby Ridge orchard in Stow. We’ve been hoping to partner with a local orchard for years and we are so happy that Linda has invited us to use her orchard for a testing ground! Our hope is that the pigs will help clear the apple drops and remove pests while lightly rennovating the land under the trees to reduce weed and bramble pressure. With the ultimate goal of a healthier orchard and tastier pork! Sustainable agriculture at it’s finest.

So far so good! The pigs are quite busy rooting and munching away! They are actually making quick work of the first area we put them in. By this weekend we will expand their area and begin opening up new areas for them to explore. Enjoy the photos!