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When most store-bought ice cream is filled with junk, you can turn to your small farmer, shop wisely, or make your own!
A heat wave is coming, and you know what that means. Finding ways to beat the heat. One of my all-time favorite ways to cool down is ice cream!
Here’s the big problem. Store bought ice creams, even ones advertised as “healthy”, are filled with all kinds of junk.
Emulsifiers, artificial flavors, artificial colors, mono and diglycerides, sugar alcohols and artificial sweeteners, and conventional non-organic dairy. All of these highly processed ingredients can disrupt your gut microbiology and, in large amounts, lead to disease.
If you’re reading this email, then I know that nutrition and health is of utmost importance to you. And, I know what you’re thinking. Ice cream has sugar, and there’s no way to make that “healthy”.
I won’t deny it. Sugar is one of the most over-consumed foods in the American diet. But, for someone who (mostly) eats a clean healthy diet, including his/her ice cream choices, a nice treat should be enjoyed from time to time. So, we’ll just keep the word “healthy” in quotes.
Of course, getting homemade ice cream from your small grass-fed farmer would be the absolute best option (we currently have vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry in stock). However, life is short, and I know you might shop at the store sometimes.
Here are three things to look for in a “healthy” ice cream:
If you want to take it a step farther for a truly decadent dessert, try making your own ice cream with farm fresh ingredients! Albeit a bit time consuming, my favorite vanilla ice cream recipe is pretty simple:
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INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
Heat 3 cups half & half and 1 cup heavy cream in a saucepan and slowly bring to a simmer.
Temper in a smooth mixture of 8 large beaten egg yolks and 9 ounces of sugar. Heat to 170-175 F, stirring frequently. Using a thermometer is ideal, and the batter should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Put in a glass bowl, let sit for 30 minutes, and then stir in 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.
Let cool to room temperature, cover, and refrigerate for 4-8 hours, until it reaches 40 F.
Pour into an ice cream maker and follow the machine’s instructions to finish.
Eat immediately for soft serve, or put in the freezer overnight for hard ice cream. Serve alone or with pie. At this time of year, warm strawberry rhubarb pie a la mode sounds amazing.
An affordable and nutrient packed addition to any meal that’s easy to prepare and serve.
I had the honor of camping on the farm for four days this week – in a heat wave. Given that it’s an Amish farm, we had to find more old fashioned ways of beating the 101 F heat in between chores. We ate ice cream at nearly every meal, splashed in icy cold spring water, and drank fresh green icy smoothies.
For every meal, the farmer’s wife always had an awesome spread with plenty of fixings. Even in the heat, she knew what to do.
She loaded the table with easy foods that could be served cold – thick slices of homemade bread, radishes, fermented beets, onions, honey, sweet beef bologna, lettuce, salad with yogurt dressing, chunks of cheese, drinkable yogurt, milk with ice cubes, raisin cookies, ice cream... and beef heart.
The last one made me a bit nervous.
Knowing the nutritional benefits, I always look for ways to incorporate organ meats into my family’s meals. However, given the tendency to have odd flavors and textures, I always get a bit panicky when trying new organs for the first time.
I piled some slices of beef heart onto my plate and was quite surprised to find it delicious.
It was dense yet mild, tasting like a deep-flavored earthy roast beef. I immediately knew it was something I wanted to incorporate into my weekly meal plans.
Like other cuts of steak, beef heart is a muscle. Unlike other cuts of meat, it is extremely dense and has a greater amount of protein and nutrients.
Beef heart contains all essential amino acids, zinc, selenium and phosphorus. Compared to other cuts of meat, it has more than double the elastin and collagen. It is a highly concentrated source of coenzyme Q10. And, when 100% grass-fed, it has higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids.
It gets better. Beef heart lunch meat is extremely easy to make.
Boil a whole beef heart in water for 3 hours. Let cool. Slice thinly. It can be stored in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.
I made my sandwich with homemade buttered bread made with local Einkorn flour, beef heart, sweet beef bologna, sliced onions and radishes, and lettuce. Yum! I accompanied it with a cold shredded salad of lettuce, carrots, onions, cheese, and hard-boiled eggs with yogurt ranch dressing. And, of course, ice cream with fresh blueberries for dessert. An easy, cold, quick dinner.
On my recent farm visit, I was schooled by the farm staff on how to make fresh dairy products. I watched them make everything – many varieties of yogurt, kefir, cottage cheese, sour cream, butter, pudding, and more!
The one product that I found most interesting was buttermilk. By coincidence, a member just suggested this as a newsletter topic. So here we go…
Buttermilk is a fermented milk that is sour and tangy and so very versatile.
Drink it by the glassful (it’s an acquired taste) or use it as an ingredient in endless recipes.
The farmer swears by buttermilk as a remedy for a sour throat.
It’s also a great tenderizing marinade for meat. Tenderizing is especially important when you choose 100% pastured meats fed a natural diet, which are much tougher than grain-fed sedentary animals.
Buttermilk is a byproduct of making dairy products. It’s most notable for being a byproduct of butter. However, buttermilk can come from many different dairy processes.
Miller’s Bio Farm makes three different buttermilks:
Buttermilk, Byproduct of Butter: This is the real deal buttermilk. To make butter you need cream. Cream is the fatty part of the milk. You churn the cream, and the fat separates from the milk. The leftover milk – buttermilk – is a thin brown tangy low-fat milk with clumps of fat. Those clumps of fat are admittedly odd, but a great sign that the buttermilk was actually made through churning.
Buttermilk, Byproduct of Cultured Butter: To make cultured butter, you add a sour cream culture to warm cream. The cultured cream is then churned into butter. The leftover buttermilk is similar to the byproduct of fresh butter, but has a greater quantity and variety of cultures in it.
Buttermilk, Made with Sour Cream: This is the readily available stuff that’s found in stores. It’s not a “true buttermilk”, but it’s what’s expected by most modern American consumers. A dollop of live sour cream is dropped into fresh milk and let culture for 24 hours. What you get is a thick, tangy milk.
When it comes to nutrition and healing, buttermilk is near miraculous!
Buttermilk is high is protein, low in fat, and has about 100 calories per cup.
Much of the lactose is converted into acid, which is a big plus for folks with dairy sensitivity.
Buttermilk is probiotic and contains a wide range of essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, zinc, and riboflavin.
Buttermilk has been shown to help fight off cancer cells and reduce inflammation, reduce blood pressure, help lower cholesterol, and aid in irritable bowel syndrome. And, as noted earlier, the farmer’s family uses it to treat sore throats!
Buttermilk can be used in all kinds of cooking and baking, lending a unique flavor to each recipe. However, to keep all nutritional benefits of buttermilk, you need to consume it raw.
I like to make simple buttermilk dressing, which can be taken in so many flavor directions.
In a small bowl, whisk together ½ cup buttermilk, ¼ cup mayonnaise, 1 tsp lemon juice, ½ tsp salt, and ½ tsp black pepper.
It’s great on salads and also makes a nice dipping sauce for vegetables or hot chicken wings.
You can spice it up in so many ways. Mix in 2 Tbs. of chopped fresh herbs. Make it garlicky by adding 1 minced clove of garlic. Spice it up with some Sriracha. Make a lovely blue cheese dressing by stirring in some blue-cheese crumbles to taste.
If you’ve perused our website or store, you may have noticed that we don’t use the word “organic” anywhere. This is intentional.
Since we are not a “certified organic” farm, we cannot legally use the word “organic” to describe our food… even though it’s probably the best word in modern American culture to use.
One of the top questions I get from current and prospective customers is, “Are you organic?” I wish I could simply say, “Yes,” but my answer is more complex.
First, I explain that we are not “certified organic” but do follow most of the requirements plus some. ALL of our food is:
Then, I let folks know that the process to become certified is expensive and time consuming, especially for a small farm. We would need a full-time staff member just for the paperwork!
The farmer wants to spend time farming, not doing mindless paperwork.
Last, I reassure people that, if they have any specific questions about our farming practices, to just let me know. We are an open book. The farmer will go above and beyond to answer very specific questions.
We are, in many ways, beyond organic. Our farmer’s standards go beyond what is required.
Miller’s Bio Farm is a zero-waste facility, feeds its animals a natural diet, uses homeopathic and herbal remedies, and just does so many things beyond what a “certified organic” farm is required to do.
The farmer doesn’t want to be held back. He wants to respond quickly.
When you are certified organic, you need to have a very specific plan approved by the USDA for basically everything you do, from farming to making products to labeling. After you spend hours drafting a plan, the USDA takes months to approve it.
Our farmer would rather have the freedom to adjust to the needs of his members, animals, soil, and staff. As a really basic example, our members complained that the drinkable yogurt was too sweet. So, the next week, the farmer made it with less maple syrup.
The certification process institutionalizes farming, but farming is innately natural. They are polar opposites. Listen, if you shop at the supermarket, those labels are important! But, if you are sourcing food from a small farmer like ours, maybe the “certified organic” label could be a detriment. What’s most important always is knowing your farmer.
Cow milk is undoubtedly the most common type of milk in America. However, if you consider milk consumption globally, goat milk comes out on top. Why?
The reasons are multifaceted. Here are four reasons why goat milk is better than cow milk. Some apply to us, and some don’t.
1. Goat milk is less allergenic.
In the US, the most common allergy for kids under three is cow milk. Why? It has to do with the protein content. Human milk contains 100% A2 beta-casein protein. Due to genetic mutation, most cow milk has a high concentration of A1 beta-casein protein, which is not fully digestible by the human body.
Goat milk naturally has 89% less A1 beta-casein protein content than cow milk. In fact, in a study of infants allergic to cow milk, 93% of them could tolerate goat milk.
Now, in the case of Miller’s Biodiversity Farm, this point it moot. Our cows produce milk with 100% A2 protein.
2. Goat milk is naturally homogenized.
What happens when you leave your gallon of fresh unprocessed cow milk sit? The cream rises to the top, and the skim milk sinks to the bottom. It is not homogenized.
Mainstream Americans tend to like things tidy and standardized. The modern industrialized dairy industry homogenizes milk to make one nice consistency and a predictable fat content.
The process of homogenization forces the milk through a tiny hole. It breaks down the fat globules and allows it to stay homogenous, with the fat suspended evenly in the skim milk.
The problem with homogenization is that it releases free radicals into the milk. Free radicals cause a host of problems from DNA mutations to cancer!
The fat in goat milk is naturally smaller. It allows the fat to stay evenly distributed in the skim milk without any scientific intervention. It’s naturally homogenized.
3. Goat milk is easier to digest.
Goat milk has smaller fat globules and higher levels of medium chain fatty acids. This means that there’s a larger surface to volume ratio, resulting in easier and quicker digestion.
Milk denatures and creates curds in the stomach. Goat curds are softer than cow curds. Your body can digest goat curds more smoothly and completely.
4. Goat milk rarely causes lactose intolerance.
All milk contains lactose (AKA “milk sugar”). Our bodies produce a special enzyme called lactase, which breaks down lactose. Without enough lactose, you can’t digest milk.
As babies, we produce ample amounts of lactase. Babies are meant to live on their mother’s milk. But, as we get older, our bodies naturally produce less. For an unnerving number of Americans, they don’t produce nearly enough lactase – this is called lactose intolerance.
Goat milk contains about 10% less lactose than cow milk. Although this difference is meager, it makes a difference. There are many people who can tolerate goat milk but cannot tolerate cow milk.
It’s also important to note that raw milk – no matter what mammal it comes from – contains live lactase. It’s full of exactly what you need to digest it!
Goat milk is creamy and sweet. It can be consumed just as you would any milk – by the glass and in countless recipes. Our goat milk comes fresh, directly from the farmer’s cousin.
As you probably heard, Dewayne Johnson won a huge case against Monsanto this week. Woo hoo! It is now proven that glyphosate (in the popular weed killer Round Up) led to Dewayne’s terminal cancer, and he will be awarded $289 million.
This case gives huge precedent for more cases to follow. And, having my food choices validated in the conventional arena feels pretty good.
But, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Glyphosate is not the only chemical that is abundantly sprayed or added to our American food. And, the truth is, we don’t even have the right to know what’s in our food.
Let me tell you a short story about our farm.
A couple months ago, the farmer tried a new USDA certified meat processor. Despite relaying our all-natural approach to food, we discovered two questionable ingredients in the regular bacon – “Honey Powder (Refinery Syrup, Honey)” and “Natural Spice”. What are those exactly?
Members wanted to know more about what these lab-produced ingredients actually contain. And, rightly so! So, I reached out to the processor.
After weeks of emails and phone calls back and forth, I finally got a definitive response. It wasn’t good.
“The supplier isn't required to tell them what is in there. And in turn we aren't required to tell you which you probably already know.”
And there it is. We legally don’t have the right to know. Neither does the farmer. These are the rules of the USDA.
In our situation, it’s not that bad. The pigs were raised healthfully on a natural diet in the forest. They were processed with care. It got messed up at the very last step with two questionable ingredients in very small amounts in one of our products. My body can likely handle it.
But, in the situation of a conventional American diet – OMG. Glyphosate and so many other chemicals are found in everything. Everything. And then think of the chemicals in modern American healthcare. A person’s body can’t handle that. That is a BIG deal.
So, what can we do?
We continue to diligently read ingredients and source food from small farmers. We support farmers who are willing to go the extra mile to ensure our food is free of any “junk” sprayed on fields, injected into animals, or added to food while it’s being made. We hope to avoid chronic illness like that of Dewayne Johnson.
And, what can our farmer do?
Our farmer will obviously not allow the processor to use the regular bacon recipe again. Our farmer has learned to review the recipes used in processing before sending his animals out.
There is so much more to this issue than I can write in one letter. Why hasn’t glyphosate been banned despite the known carcinogenic properties? What is actually in powdered honey and natural spice? What do synthetic ingredients do to my body?
Please keep reading each week for more about what’s in our food.
What’s your definition of food perfection?
There are so many crazy diet trends, confusing labels, and chronic digestive and autoimmune issues. This makes it even harder to figure out what the “perfect” foods are.
Members share their questions and concerns with me all the time. Why are the dairy goats given grain? Why was the butter a bit sour this week? Why aren’t the eggs and meat fresher? Why are your shipping prices so high?
When it comes down to it, people are looking for three things from any product: high quality, speed, and low cost. You can usually get two but not all three.
The modern industrial food system aims to give you all three.
In the modern industrial food system, it seems that high quality equals standardization. Companies strive to produce products with the same flavor and texture every time.
With industrialized agriculture, cost can be eerily low. This is due to government subsidies and fillers and mass production.
And, factory produced products can last a strangely long time.
In the small farming world, you are getting high quality, speed sometimes, and always higher food prices.
Compared to big food companies, high quality means something completely different to most small farmers. It means that the animals were raised with care and processed “junk” isn’t added to food. Animals are fed a natural diet and have a high quality of life, with plenty of access to nature. In return, they give us nutrient-dense foods.
For small farmers, freshness matters, too. However, this can be difficult, especially when you’re trying to maintain a zero-waste facility (a marked difference from our extremely wasteful supermarkets). Supply and demand are hard to predict. This means you may get eggs close to the sell by date or meat that’s been frozen for longer than expected.
Speed is a must for small farmers. Their products aren’t highly processed and therefore have a shorter shelf life. Although this can be tricky, as most farm foods can be preserved for longer times. Think cheese or bread crumbs.
Low cost is simply not an option for a small farmer. First, they put more into raising food. Second, they don’t have the purchasing power of large companies. To be honest, the average consumer should spend way more on their food. In the long term, they will save on healthcare costs.
I’ve come to appreciate the inconsistencies in small farm food. This is blatantly obvious with a CSA. You never know what veggies you’re going to get! This is subtler with small batch made-to-order dairy products like ours. The flavors change with the cows’ diet and production conditions.
Those small farm variations convince me that the food is high quality. I want to know that the food is changing, just like nature does. And, when you get that fantastic batch of super heavy cream, it’s heaven! Like a fine wine that can’t be reproduced.
Here’s to the ever-changing nature of “perfect” small farm food!
Farm Day is next weekend, and I am so looking forward to it.
Farm Day is an annual event, where the farmer invites members to tour the farm and see exactly where their food comes from and how it’s made.
As usual, the farmer will have a bountiful spread of food prepared by the farmer’s wife, hay wagon rides, and pony cart rides.
For the first time, the farmer is also offering four educational workshops to members:
1. Butter Making
The farm staff will demonstrate how to churn cream into butter from scratch. Tastes of the product in process are encouraged. It will be the freshest butter you could possibly taste.
2. Milk a Cow
During the day’s regular milking, the farmer will pull friendly cows aside for hand milking. Have you ever squirted warm milk directly from a teat? Here’s your chance!
3. A Taste of Gardening
The farmer’s wife and farm staff will give you a tour of the garden. They’ll show you what’s growing late in the season and give you some helpful tasks to complete.
4. Bottle Feed a Calf
Just after milking, the sweet little calves need to be fed warm milk from their mother. Help bottle feed the calves.
A workshop schedule will be posted on the day of the event. Please look for the information table to find out where and when to meet for the workshops.
Please note that Farm Day is for members only, and members need to purchase tickets to attend.
We are managing the event through Eventbrite. If you’re a member, you should have received at least one invitation at this point.
Please let me know if you have any questions. And, I hope to see you there!
In need of gumption for nutritious school lunches? I am! So... I went back into the newsletter archives and pulled this gem from the same week last year (if you've been reading for a while, I hope you enjoy the replay).
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My 5-year-old son reports that, as his average middle-class public school, he is in the minority of kids who bring a homemade lunch. Most kids buy lunch from the cafeteria. And, unsurprisingly, my 5-year-old son has cafeteria envy (and it’s only his second week of school… ever). He said to me, “Oh, good, your packing carrots. You know, I can buy dip for those in the cafeteria.”
The cafeteria at my son’s school has pretty good meals. They’re “kids meals”. You know… whole grain chicken nuggets, classic cheese pizza, whole grain French toast sticks, nachos fun lunch (whatever that is). Each meal comes with a veggie, a fruit, and a low-fat milk. At face value, these meals follow dated nutritional data. More importantly, it’s processed and dead food, void of any living microbiology and concealing chemical fertilizers, preservatives, leavening agents, emulsifiers, and fillers.
I get it. Time is an absolute premium in the modern lifestyle. Outsourcing and mechanizing food preparation may seem like a winning time-saving solution. But, at what cost? In many ways, we do not know yet. But, we do know that there are links between eating processed food and weakened immune systems, neurological issues, obesity, and overall quality of life. I believe in the health benefits of eating the old-fashioned way, of preparing my family’s food from real ingredients by hand, of welcoming live cultures and enzymes into my body
Ultimately, I am making a lifestyle choice. I am choosing to slow my food process down. I place and pick up my Miller’s order every week, shop for seasonal produce at the farmer’s market, and drive to specific stores for specific ingredients. I make time during my day to prepare food and eat it, too. I would have it no other way.
For lunch, my son has been enjoying an assortment of farm foods like sweet bologna and mayonnaise sandwiches, cubes of swiss or cheddar cheese, diced roasted chicken, fermented pickles, chopped mild beef stix, hard boiled eggs, potato chips fried in lard, applesauce, and some other goodies. He loves squeeze pouches, so I just bought some re-usable ones to fill with yogurt and other yummy squishy foods.
I’d like to apologize to anyone who I did not respond to immediately this week. I’m dealing with a family emergency and am simply not at my normal capacity this week. While we’re on the topic, here’s a heads up. The farmer is marching toward Amish wedding season (everyone gets married in the fall), which means staffing will be tricky. To boot, the fall is usually the season with the biggest orders. Between CSAs ending and the fall harvest spirit, it’s a great time for cooking indoors.
I guess I should take this opportunity to explain how the farm works. All the farm staff that work on the farm are Amish. They handle all the farm chores. They milk the cows every morning and night. They move the cows to fresh pasture three times each day. They make all of our fresh cow dairy products from scratch every week. They caught 100 turkeys last week. And they weed the garden, feed the chickens and turkeys, haul skim milk up to the pigs, pack the orders, bale the hay, and so on. It’s a lot of manual arduous work. It’s an all-consuming lifestyle.
Although they do use electricity in various ways, like keeping the milk cool and the meat frozen and lighting their work areas, they do not have a computer or mobile phones. The farmer has a small outbuilding that houses an old-fashioned landline phone with big buttons and a curly coiled cord that attaches it to the base. He also has an answering machine. His connection to the English world is through his phone and his printing company, which delivers printed emails and email attachments to him one or two times per day.
Our web developer and me are the only “English” (non-Amish) people who are employed by the farmer. We are the farm’s computer, the farm’s digital presence. We handle keeping the website working and up to date, sending order reports to the farm staff, answering customer questions, being active on social media, and so on. We are here to communicate with the farmer for you when the farmer cannot. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you need anything!
Amish or not, we all lead busy lives. When life gets hectic, especially in the fall with the back-to-school rush and seemingly endless celebration of holidays, I turn to my freezer for support. This coming week, I am kicking it into high gear and making freezer meals in mass. Think Paleo sweet potato chili and vegan black bean burgers and chicken soup. In the end, I will have 12 pre-made meals ready for the slow cooker or a simple reheat.
Days are getting shorter, the weather is getting cooler. The leaves are just starting to turn. And, the cows are loving this weather.
Cows produce the most in the spring and the fall, when the weather is cool and the grass is growing. Right now, the cows are eating fresh alfalfa grass, which is an awesomely nutritious food source for our (mostly) heritage breed cows. However, starting in late November, the farmer extends the fresh grass season by growing quick crops of oat grass. This means that our cows can continue grazing on fresh grass through December and sometimes into January.
Just like our cows, I tend to eat locally and seasonally. This means that my diet changes in the fall, too. I feed my family apples, pears, or dried fruit. Vegetables change to cool season plants like broccoli, spinach, and potatoes and winter squash and root vegetables of all sorts. Meat goes into the oven or slow cooker, with plenty of tender melt-in-your-mouth stews all winter.
I am a simple home cook. I like to let the ingredients speak for themselves. One of my family’s favorite fall dishes is a good pot roast. I like to use a nice grass fed & finished roast, a more affordable cut of meat (our farm sells a variety of roasts for $8.00-13.95 per pound).
A roast can come from any part of a steer. The more tender - and expensive - roasts from from the parts that move the least (think rib roast and tenderloin). Conversely, the tougher roasts that take best to braising come from the areas that get the most exercise, like the round. Generally, fattier cuts come from the front end.
Especially for the tougher cuts, a roast is a great candidate for slow cooking at low temperatures. Cooking low and slow breaks down the connective tissues in the meat, liquefying the collagen and making it so tender it falls apart with the touch of your fork.
To make a pot roast, I use a Dutch oven or a slow cooker, depending on my mood. I can start it in the morning and dinner is magically ready at the busiest time of our day – after school.
Here’s how I do it. First, I generously salt and pepper a roast (if I have time, I will sear all sides to add some complex flavors to the dish). Then, I chop big pieces of onions, carrots, turnips, celeriac, and any other root veggies I have around. I place half of the veggies at the bottom of the pot with a bay leaf and a few sprigs of rosemary or thyme. I place the roast on top and cover with the rest of the veggies. Then, I pour about 2-3 cups of bone broth on top. I cook it at 225 F for 8 hours. Remove from the oven and serve with dumplings or a hearty piece of sourdough bread.
Gobble gobble. I know it’s only early October, but for a farm-to-table Thanksgiving, it’s time to start thinking about THE TURKEY.
Our turkeys are a traditional "white" breed. They are free roaming turkeys that run around the pasture and forage for bugs A LOT. They are fed an organic soy-free turkey feed, which contains a specially formulated blend of corn, wheat, peas, barley, fishmeal, flax seed, kelp, and a nutri-balancer which has kelp, vitamins, and minerals.
Our turkeys come fresh, vacuum sealed and never frozen, processed within one week of delivery. They are all-natural - no antibiotics, no hormones, no artificial flavors, no colors, no synthetic ingredients, no preservatives.... nothing added (and, woah, can you believe that much stuff goes into other turkeys?).
It’s been a tough year for raising turkeys. The weather in the farmer’s area has been either super hot and sunny or really, really wet. This are not good conditions for producing large turkeys. They will still be tasty and nutrient-dense but likely on the small side.
The farmer wants to give you a heads up that we won’t know how big the turkeys will be until the beginning on November. Although we are taking orders for turkeys up to 18 lb, they may not reach that size.
If you do order a large turkey and the farmer cannot provide it, the farmer will personally give you a call to discuss the options. Perhaps you’d prefer the largest bird possible or two smaller birds.
We have officially opened turkey sales! Turkey orders are due before November 4 at midnight.
Our turkeys are $6.20 per pound and come in 3 size groups: 8-10 lbs, 11-13 lbs, and 14-18 lbs.
How do you figure out how big of a turkey you need? A good rule of thumb is 1 lb per person, or 1.5 lbs per person if you want leftovers. You can even buy two smaller turkeys. Serve one at Thanksgiving dinner, and roast the second one for leftovers!
To order a turkey, all you need to do is add your Whole Fresh Turkey to your next order. We will partially charge the order and charge you for the rest once we know the exact weight of your turkey.
Chicken bone broth is not a magical pharmaceutical pill that masks symptoms and likely stresses your body. Instead, it is a nourishing food that naturally allows your body to heal itself more quickly, especially from viral infections like colds and flus.
There are two big reasons for this:
1. Chicken bone broth is packed with essential nutrients and healing ingredients.
Chicken bone broth contains over 19 easy-to-absorb, essential and non-essential amino acids - the building blocks of proteins. It’s high in potassium, magnesium, and phosphorous. Bone broth also contains generous amount of gelatin/collagen, which is great for the digestive system, which can be compromised when fighting infection.
Of course, the nutrient density and quality will be dependent on the quality of chickens used. Make sure to source your chicken bone broth from reputable farmers who raise pastured, soy-free chickens without anything synthetic.
2. Chicken bone broth is easy to digest and gifts your body extra energy for healing.
When you eat food, your body has the taxing job of breaking down the food. Your body then uses the useful parts for energy and healing.
When you consume bone broth, your body expends no energy to break it down. It’s gifted a smorgasbord of nutrients. Your body can eliminate the stressful digesting process and focus solely on healing.
Chicken bone broth is different than regular chicken broth.
Regular chicken broth is boiled for just a few hours. It’s made to draw the chicken flavor into the water for taste (and I won’t even start on the fact that many store bought chicken broths aren’t even real and are made with lab-produced meat flavors).
Chicken bone broth is cooked for 24 hours or more and draws all the nutrients out of the bones.
When my kids are sick, the easiest way to serve them chicken bone broth is with a mug full of warm “chicken tea”.
I season the chicken bone broth with salt to taste. If I feel like an extra boost is needed, I add a couple pinches of turmeric.
Chicken bone broth is a great base for easy soup.
Basically, get the broth boiling, add ingredients, season with salt and pepper, and serve with a grain. Here’s an idea list of fall ingredients you can add to a soup:
Although the time for simmering is quite long, bone broth is quite easy to make with minimal labor required.
First, fill a pot with 4 quarts water, 1⁄2 cup apple cider vinegar, and about 3-6 pounds of bones. Let it sit for an hour so the apple cider vinegar can leach minerals out of the bones. Add 3 onions, 3 carrots, and 3 celery stalks, largely chopped. Add water to cover everything. Bring to a low simmer, cover, and let cook for 24-72 hours.
Your house will smell amazing. The longer it cooks, the more nutrient-rich your broth will be. Cool it, strain it, and add sea salt to taste. You know you have a nice broth if it is very gelatinous, almost not pourable when cool. The broth will keep for about a week in the fridge or 6 months in the freezer.
If you are reading this, then there’s a good chance that you already know about the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF).
The WAPF’s goal is to provide accurate, scientifically-backed information about health and nutrition. Its philosophy is that you can heal your body and maintain good health by sourcing quality, properly-raised, nourishing, traditional foods from small farmers.
Dr. Weston A. Price (1870-1948) was a dentist. In the search for the cause of tooth decay, he studied people who had nearly perfect teeth - isolated non-industrialized people. This ultimately led to a worldwide intensive study of nutrition and lifestyle.
Dr. Price found that a traditional nutrient-dense diet gives the body everything it needs to thrive. In today’s world, these are foods sourced from small farmers, that are naturally raised and properly produced. These whole foods date back thousands of years - raw cultured dairy, grass-fed meat, healthy animal fats, fermented foods, and properly prepared grains and beans.
If you’d like to learn more about the WAPF, you can certainly visit the WAPF website.
Better yet, you can attend their upcoming 2018 Wise Traditions Conference in Baltimore from November 16-18. You can meet the farmer, two on-farm staff, and myself there!
I attended the Wise Traditions Conference last year in Minneapolis. It exceeded my expectations for what a conference could be.
First, the food was absolutely amazing - all sourced from small farms and prepared by professional chefs. I’m talking raw cheesecake, organ meatloaf, raw panna cotta, varieties of raw cheese, juicy roasts, and seasonal veggies. Our farmer donated A LOT of food to this year’s conference.
Second, the seminars were conducted by people with incredible backgrounds. They went in depth on topics like disrupting the trend of chronic disorders, healing cancer naturally, aging gracefully, surviving in a toxic world, glyphosate, vaccines, and childhood disease. In comparison to reading books and online articles, you can ask questions directly to the source of the info, and you can converse with like-minded folks afterwards.
Third, the vendors were everything I would actually buy. From tallow balm to infrared saunas to pork rinds to quality books to grass-fed gelatin. Lots of things to sample, and you can most likely talk to the actual farmer or producer in person.
I hope you can make it to the conference. It’s not too late to sign up. If you can’t make it, you can watch for the newsletter follow-up after the event.
Imagine you are a cow, and it’s a chilly fall night. You look around and see a steaming pile of fresh manure. What would you do? You’d sit down and squoosh your udders into that soft warm pillow and fall fast asleep.
This is why, when the cows go in for the 5am milking, their teats are filthy!
An average farmer simply coats the teats in iodine and leisurely wipes them with a paper towel.
Our farmer is beyond average. He’s exceptional.
Our farmer is constantly improving his farming practices. Our farmer used to do what almost every farmer does that clean teats quickly as described above. But, over the years, he has become more educated so he can provide the highest quality products to members.
If you’ve been a member and drinking Miller’s milk for years, you likely noticed the change. The milk tastes fresher and lasts longer.
Our farmer now understands that, in order to truly produce clean milk, the teats AND the udders need to be completely and udderly clean.
Every time a cow comes in for milking, the farm staff clean its whole udder with iodine-coated rags, washing all dirt and manure off the cow’s belly. If they pee or poop… well, it gets cleaned again.
Then, just before the milker is attached, each teat is cleaned with iodine. The teats often have an indent at the tip, so the farmer takes special care to point the tip towards him and clean manure from the crevice.
The farmer evens go so far as to remove the cows' long thick udder hairs. Udder hairs trap dried mud and manure on the cows' underbelly.
You can be assured that the milk from Miller’s Biodiversity Farm is manure free. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the average farm, and this includes conventional, organic, small, and big farmers.
If you source milk from farms other than Miller’s, I recommend talking to the farmer about his sanitation practices during milking. It’s so important to drink clean unprocessed milk.
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