Reserve Your Spot

Farm Tour: We're looking forward to the farm tour May 1! We're going to keep it down to 25 people so you will need to reserve your spot here if you'd like to attend. Children are welcome! You'll just need to enter in how many will be coming so we can plan accordingly. We don't have all the details worked out yet but we're thinking of starting at 10 a.m. with lunch at 12. Activities will include a hay ride around the farm and we'll be feeding the animals and showing you how we do what we do! We'll also be cooking you a home-cooked meal featuring our delicious, pasture-raised meat products. Can't wait! We're looking forward to hosting our 1st Farm Tour and Meal event. Weather permitting we are planning on hosting this on May 1, 2021. Due to limited availability, we'll be keeping it down to 25 people or fewer. See you here on the farm! One of the things I love about spring are the Purple Martins! They are so much fun to watch and listen to. I've also been enjoying being serenaded by the Blue Birds every morning about 6:15. Beef We've got some of our out of stock beef products back in stock including liver and broth bones. We're still sold out of our popular steak cuts like ribeyes and new york steaks. We've got a lot of fine looking animals getting close to ready for processing. Our first beef processing date is scheduled for April 26. We have some older cows that we have processed and they make great ground beef but we get our premium steak cuts out of our younger steers and heifers. Thanks and have a great day, Craig Update (3 hours later) Several people have alerted me that they have tried to sign up for the farm tour but were unable to do so. I'm sorry for my oversight. You'll need to change your pickup location to New Grass Farms. To do so: Go to account.My account.Default location needs to be New Grass Farms. This is a free event. Also, when you add the tour to your cart and check out, ignore the automated email you'll get stating the pickup date. The farm tour is May 1. Thanks, and definitely let me know if you have any other questions or problems reserving your place. Craig

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Mark Your Calendar

Farm Tour:If everything goes as planned, we're planning our 1st Farm Tour and Meal event for May 1. That's the first Saturday of May.Space will be limited so I'll be sending out another email shortly with a sign-up page and we'll go from there. I'm really looking forward to it!Make A Wish:Not everyone will agree with me, but I think Dandelions are amazing! Some people insist on spraying their yards and pastures to keep them perfectly clean and free from such "unwanted" weeds but did you know that the cows and sheep love to eat them?Healthy SoilThese beautiful, spring days I can hardly force myself to do much more than just spend time out in the pastures watching the animals tear out big mouthfuls of grass, watch the birds and just soak up the sun!I love pulling up grass by its roots and seeing the earthworms wriggling around. The more earthworms I see, the happier I am!Laying HensI barely got some modifications made to our eggmobile and got it situated in a different pasture when my new batch of pullets arrived.We even found one egg in the chicken crates as we were unloading them! It shouldn't be too long before we have eggs available again.As always, we welcome any questions or comments you may have.If you haven't already done so, we'd love it if you'd share a Google review about your buying experience with New Grass Farms.Thanks and have a great day, Craig

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'21 Model Calves Are Here

Don't you love daffodils? They are just amazing to me. The ones pictured below are just growing out in one of our pastures and are so pretty!BeefThe cows have started calving! I love seeing the newborn calves wobbling around and starting out in life. I'm not as involved with the cows as I was since my Dad and brother-in-law are taking care of them, but as often as I can I like to go check up on them. I don't know if I wrote about our recent change with our cows or not. I'm now buying the weaned calves from my Dad and Dwayne, (my brother-in-law) and finishing them out and taking them to the processor. It was hard to let go of the momma cows but it certainly frees up some time for me.BroilersWe finally have broiler chicks again! That means that in 6-8 weeks we'll have whole, dressed chickens for you to enjoy. They are doing great and enjoying their Chick Dorm that I built for them.Let's see... What other tidbits would you like to hear about?Laying hens. I've been selling our laying hens and getting ready for a fresh batch of pullets. I should have them by this Saturday.As soon as they start laying we'll have more eggs than we know what to do with.I think that's all the news I have for this week. Have a great day,Craig

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This Month's Special

Wow! Spring has arrived in full force! It's awesome to be able to drive around out in the pastures and not be splashing around in the mud. I appreciated all the feedback from last weeks newsletter. Makes me feel like my time sitting at the computer isn't all in vain.Just a note on the stubborn cow: she got reunited with the rest of the cows yesterday when I moved the herd back across the creek. She never did cross! Beef The cows think they've got it made in the shade! They're really enjoying a salad bar of oats, clover, vetch, radish and more. This months special is Beef Short Ribs. They're on sale while supplies last. Pork & Lard I mentioned a week or two ago that we were going to be rendering some more pork lard. I did one small batch and then a larger batch. The small batch turned out good but unfortunately the large pot didn't turn out. So, we have a grand total of 4 pint jars of lard. Order yours while you can. Broilers We should have our first batch of broiler chicks in later this week! That's exciting to get all those cute little chicks in again. I've been trying to finish up the brooder barn where we'll start them out for the first 3 weeks before they go out on pasture. I still have some finish work to to on it but this is what it's looking like at the moment. Well, I think that's all I have for this week. All the best and see you soon.Craig

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Life Lessons Learned

Sometimes working with animals a person learns some valuable lessons that can be applied to everyday life.I don't know how well you can see all the cows in the picture above, but the cow in the foreground has been teaching me a few things that I'll share with you today.Lesson #1: Don't lean on your own understanding - taken from the familiar verse out of Proverbs 3:5.Lesson #2: The value of letting go of the hurtful things that happen in life.Here's how it all started:A week or so ago when we had that awful, cold, icy weather, I went to the back of our farm to feed the pigs. I had the cows in the shelter of some trees back there and had to go through their midst, cross over a concrete low water crossing, open the gates into the back pasture to get to the pigs.Well, the cows were thinking it was time for something more to eat and they could see the green grass across the creek were I was headed. They thought surely I would let them go into the pasture but I wasn't ready for that just yet. I never called them but they followed me across that crossing that was all iced over.It didn't work out so great for them. Some made it across ok, but some slipped and fell on the ice and it left a bad impression on them.A week or so later, I was ready to let them start grazing the back pasture and called them and they happily followed me down our pond levees. By this time the crossing was high and dry and they all ran across and started tearing into the fresh, green grass and having the time of their lives. All but one cow.The cow pictured above came to the crossing, remembered the painful experience she'd had last time and refused to take another chance. Now in one way she's just being smart, but she's leaning on her own understanding and not willing to let go of the past.I know that the crossing is perfectly safe, that there is lots of good grass on the other side and that all her companions are there but she WILL NOT budge in her position. I worked for quite a while one evening trying to get her to go across but to no avail. She'll look across the creek and call out to her fellow cows but she's not going to go across herself.Sunday afternoon when I moved the rest of the cows I took part of a bale of hay and set it down right on the crossing thinking maybe that would draw her across but, Oh No! Not her. So, while the rest of the cows are enjoying plenty of grass and hay she's picking through the leftovers from their previous stay.That's all for this week. Take care,Craig

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Makes Everything Look Better!

It's amazing what some warm sunshine will do to lift a persons spirits!I'm glad we have last week behind us and looking forward to warmer days ahead. I do feel really bad for those who were really adversely affected by the amazing winter storm we had.The animals are doing great. We've lost a few lambs, some due to the weather, some due to their mamas not taking care of them but overall, there's a really nice bunch of lambs frisking and running around.I love going out there and watching the lambs play chase! Pastured Pork: Now some of you may think pigs are, well, how shall we say? Kind of dirty and stinky maybe? I think they're really cute (and I love the bacon they produce.) They are definitely different than cows and sheep but I like to watch them rooting around, mostly taking it easy.Pictured below are several that will be ready for processing in a couple of months. We also have some sows that look like before long we'll have more piglets running around.If you'd like me hold a half or whole hog for you, reserve it here. Beef supply: I took some cows in yesterday for processing. We're sold out on our ribeye and NY strip steaks but we should have a pretty good supply of ground beef and roast cuts. We have several halves spoken for already. If you think you'd like a half, let me know so we can try to get it scheduled with the processor. I spoke with one processor yesterday who is booked up till '22. Farm tour: We haven't forgotten about the farm tour event. Still working at figuring out the details and date but we're looking forward to it sometime late spring.I think that's all for this week. Enjoy the warmer weather,CraigP.S. We're also rendering more pork lard. We'll let you know when it's available.

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Fight for Survival!

Mama said there'd be days like these, she just didn't say how many!Needless to say, these aren't good conditions for having livestock. I spent a good while out in the cold yesterday trying to get the animals as comfortable as possible. The biggest challenge is with the sheep.Cattle can take a lot but it's really tough on newborn lambs to be out in these kind of elements.I was able to get them moved into a corral where I put down hay for bedding and they'll be fine in there till the worst of the cold passes.Well, stay warm, stay safe, enjoy time with family and drink lots of coffee or tea or whatever your specialty is.We've been enjoying having our wood fireplace going. We don't normally run it but it makes for some warm, cozy times.We even enjoyed some homemade doughnuts last evening. (so much for my diet)Till next week,Craig

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Mary Had a Little Lamb

There's not many farm animals cuter than a baby lamb. (except maybe a baby goat)The other day the children and I went to check on the sheep and lambs. We've been getting quite a few new babies these days and we noticed one off by itself.We picked it up and took it over to where the rest of the sheep were, but it wanted to follow Ava back to the Gator.I tried putting it down, jumped in the Gator and took off but it came running after us for all it was worth! I finally said, "Ok, you win." We took it home with us and put it in our empty chicken coop for now and the children have been having fun bottle feeding it. Really Good Chili Recipe: There's nothing like a hot bowl of chili on these cold, winter evenings. Today I'd like to share a really good recipe for you to try. Hope you enjoy! Killer Chili 8 oz. bacon, cut in 1/2 " pieces3 lb. beef roast, cut in cubes1 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt3/4 tsp. coarse black pepper1 med. onion, chopped6 garlic cloves, finely chopped​2 jalapeños, seeded and chopped1-2 T. cumin1 T. chili powder1 T. ground ancho chili powder4 c. water2 (14 oz.) cans diced tomatoes1 (12 oz.) can Coke2 bay leaves2 cans pinto beans, rinsed2 T. cornmealSour cream and lime wedges In a Dutch oven, cook bacon until browned. Remove bacon. Reserve 2 T. bacon fat. Discard the rest.In a large bowl combine beef, Kosher salt and pepper. Brown meat in the 2 T. bacon fat. Add onion, jalapenos and garlic and cook until tender.Stir in cumin and chili powders. Add tomatoes, Coke, bay leaves, bacon and water. Heat to boil. Cover and put in 300* oven for 2 hours. Add beans and cornmeal.Cook uncovered 30-60 min. until the beef is very tender. Serve with sour cream and lime wedges. Recipe by Calvin Koehn Here's to a really good week and hopefully Spring is just around the corner! Take care, Craig

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Chicks Are Ordered

Some of you have asked about our broilers. The bad news is we're sold out. The GOOD news is we have several batches ordered! We like to wait until the weather warms up and it isn't so horribly wet to start raising our pastured broilers. Once we get them, we raise them indoors for three weeks and then out on pasture for another 4 - 5 weeks. In the mean time, be thinking of how many you'd like to order this year and that will help us know how many batches to do.Yesterday I dumped about 80,000 catfish fingerlings into my pond and hope to get the rest of our fish ponds stocked this week. That's always exciting and also scary dumping all those fish out there. Hoping for a good fish year!That's all for this week,Craig

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Something Fun & Exciting in the Making

In the midst of all this staying cooped up at home, wouldn't a day out in the country be refreshing?We don't think it's right that we should be the only ones to enjoy our quiet, country setting and are thinking and planning a farm tour complete with a home-cooked meal featuring our delicious, pasture raised meat products.You'll definitely want to stayed tuned for more info on that in future emails.Baby Lambs Arriving:To date we've had 5 lambs born! It's a little early for such but we're glad to see them.Pecan Pie:Well, maybe not exactly pecan pie, but the pigs sure did enjoy these pecans.A customer brought some pecans over that had been sitting in their garage for several years.After cracking a few of them and sampling them we decided they weren't worth cracking and shelling so I took them out to the pigs.That's all for this week,Craig

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