Broth Thyme

The weather outside is starting to get frightful, but you can make your kitchen delightful with a big batch of broth!  Chicken and beef broth are a staple in any kitchen, and so easy to make at home.  Add extra flavor to any savory recipe by adding broth in place of water.  Bone broth is great for your immune system because it heals your gut and aids in the absorption of nutrients from the food you eat.  It is also beneficial for your hair, skin and nails because of all the gelatin in the bones.  Here is a great article about the health benefits of bone broth from Wellness Mama.  We go through a lot of broth in our house so I feel really lucky to have a steady, reliable and healthy source for both chicken and beef bones.  We sell them right on the Farm in our store!  We have soup chickens, whole roasters, and 8 piece cut-up chickens, as well as beef knuckles, joints, neck bones and marrow bones.  Check out our R-Farm products page for prices and availability.

There are many great recipes out there for stock and broth.  You can use a stockpot or your slow cooker.  You can cook it  for as little as four hours for stock, or let it go as long as 48 hours for a super rich, nutritious bone broth.  The key is finding a flavor profile you love and using bones from a reliable source.  You want bones that come from animals raised without antibiotics or hormones, fed a diet free from harmful fertilizers and pesticides and preferably grass-based.  For beef, you want to look for joints, knuckles, neck bones and marrow bones.  These will have minimal meat but maximum flavor.  For chicken, I recommend saving the carcass after a meal.  Just pop it in a freezer bag after dinner and throw it in the freezer.  When you have two or three saved you are ready to make some broth!  You can also use whole soup chickens.  If making stock, boil the entire bird with all your other ingredients and pick the meat off when your stock is finished.  Use it in soup right away or freeze it for later.  For bone broth, you will want to roast the bird whole, pick the meat off and then make your broth.  When your broth is finished, put it quart sized jars and freeze it, can it, or pour some into ice cube trays for individual size portions.  I usually make about six quarts at a time because we fly through it.  Sometimes I don't even get a chance to freeze or can it because I use it in EVERYTHING!

Photo courtesy of Barefoot Contessa

Here are some of my favorite recipes for chicken stock and beef bone broth.  The chicken recipe is easy to turn into bone broth by using the bones you saved and increasing the cooking time to about 8 hours (or longer if you want).  Also, don't be afraid to save your veggie scraps for your stock!  The middle of the celery stalk, the bits of onion leftover when you only need half, and the ends of carrots and parsnips can all be frozen and saved for stock.  They might look a bit mushy after freezing, but your broth won't care, I promise!

Experiment with different herbs and veggies until you find a flavor combination that you love.  Have fun and happy cooking!

SPECIAL EXTENDED HOURS FOR EARTH DAY!

Saturday is EARTH DAY and what better way to celebrate than to come visit your favorite local farm?  We will be open an extra three hours, from 9am to 3pm with fully stocked freezers!  We offer grass-fed beef, pork, pasture raised chickens, eggs and local maple syrup.  We also have small square hay bales available.
Come and talk to us about food and farming while you shop for delicious meats.  While you're here, feel free to take a look around and see all the animals.  We are happy to answer any questions you have about our operation.  See you at the Farm!

Hogs!

We have hogs scheduled to be butchered on January 19th, 2017.  We currently have one whole hog or two half hogs available for sale.  If you are interested, please contact us to place an order.  If you have any questions on the process, be sure to check out our Bulk Ordering page or send us an email and we will be happy to help.  Happy New Year!

Beef!

We will have bulk beef available right away starting in December and through winter.  Our epic calf season two years ago is yielding very short wait times.  Take advantage of the short butcher list!  This doesn't happen very often!  Please call or email if you are interested in a 1/4, 1/2 or whole steer for winter.  We will also be fully stocked at our farm store, open every Saturday from 9am to Noon. 

Pigs

We will be butchering several hogs over the next month or so and are currently taking orders for half and whole hogs.  Everything is butchered at Northen Trails Meats, so please check out their website to view the different options available for processing.  If you are interested in purchasing a half or whole hog please contact us as soon as possible to reserve your animal.

R-Farm Contact Information
mackayrr@hotmail.com
Nicole Riemenschneider  (262)-949-1363

BEEF

We picked up the steer we had butchered and are well stocked on beef!  We will be open tomorrow from 9am to Noon.  Ring Bologna, Wieners and Summer Sausage will be available for sale next week.  Please check out our products page for a complete list of everything we have available.  Thank you for your patience and see you at the Farm!

Beef Butcher Date

We have a butcher date scheduled for June 9th for beef!  We will be restocking all your favorites including ground beef, ground round, steaks, roasts, wieners and ring bologna!  The meet should be available for sale the following week, June 18th.  I will update our product list here and on Facebook when I have a pick-up date.  Thanks to all of our customers for your patience! 
In the meantime, we will be open this Saturday from 9am to Noon with all your pork and chicken favorites including brats, italians, pork steaks, shoulder roasts, breakfast links, chicken pieces, whole chickens and eggs!  Hope to see you at the Farm!