January Newsletter

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View this email in your browser "If you have a good diet, of what use is a doctor? And, if you don't have a good diet, of what use is a doctor? -saying from Ayurveda, an ancient tradition of medical practice from India Wow, that's a strong statement! But what if we took it seriously? Could we make the leap to see our food as our medicine? I know this is something that I struggle with, even though I have been considering it for quite some time. So many of our food choices are the result of the traditions we were brought up in, the choices we were offered as children, and the incessant marketing for food products we are exposed to on a daily basis. So many choices, and so many temptations, full of sugar, refined flour, and unhealthy fat!  I just spent four days away at a retreat center where I was offered only whole, unprocessed food, homemade food. It was so easy to make good choices in this environment, where there were no potato chips, chocolate, and ice cream. Most of us can't give up these things completely, but one useful piece of advice I received was to follow the 70-30 rule. Eat well 70% of the time, and indulge in what you need to satifsy your food yearnings 30% of the time. (Or 80-20, if you are feeling more ambitious.) So, try to eat local, organic, unprocessed food for the bulk of your food, and happily enjoy your bag of cheetos now and then, if that's what makes you happy. (Dieffenbach's potato chips are my guilty pleasure.) Here on the farm we are doing our best to raise the most healthy food possible, working to build up our soil so that everything we produce - meat, eggs, mushrooms, fruit, vegetables - will be as nutrient dense as possible. Healthy soil leads to healthy plants, which leads to healthy animals and healthy people. If the kinds of food we eat are the building blocks of our body, mind and soul...what are you building? -Kay For us, medicine and nutrition begin in the garden. We try to eat as much as possible from the vegetables and storage crops we grow right here. As we increase the fertility and health of our soil, the nutrition of our vegetables will grow and our health along with it.   What we're cookin' here on the farm... Bone broth! This is a great time of year to fill your freezer with bone broth. Making broth in the winter makes the house smell great, and heats up the kitchen on these frigid days! Bone broth is so nutritious, and can form the basis for so many soups and stews, and is healthful to just drink when winter weather or illness depletes us. It is important also to honor the animals by using all of the parts they provide, and the bones are especially valuable in the nutrients they give. We especially like Shannon Hayes' recipe for Meat broth, and she gives a very thorough description of how to make it, and the many health benefitshere. But we often don't have time to follow her beautiful recipe, so we just use our crockpot to make broth with leftover bones from whatever we ate that day. Adding some vinegar to the bones and water is a good idea to help release the nutrients. We let chicken bones cook for 12 to 24 hours, and beef, pork or lamb bones cook for 24 to 48 hours. Then just strain and freeze, with the fat, or skimming the fat off after it cools, to use separately.  We have beef, pork and lamb bones for sale in our farm store, if you would like to try this!   SPRING CSA IS HERE!   Its time for the Spring CSA (I know, its still pretty cold out there)! We have beef, pork, and lamb meat shares starting in mid February as well as egg shares starting in early March. The CSA will run through May (4 monthly pickups for meat and biweekly pickups for eggs). For all of the information check out the CSA page on our website. Email or call us with orders or any questions you might have, thanks! BEEF SHARE - 5lbs per pickup - $195 GROUND BEEF SHARE - 3 lbs per pickup - $85 BEEF BONE - 6 lbs total - $20 BEEF FAT - 5 lbs total - $10 LARGE PORK - 6 lbs per pickup - $195 SMALL PORK - 4 lbs per pickup - $140 SAUSAGE - 2 lbs per pickup - $60 PORK BONE - 5 lbs total - $15 PORK FAT - 6 lbs totatl - $12 PORK ODDS AND ENDS - 6 lbs total - $20 LARGE LAMB - 5 lbs per pickup - $215 SMALL LAMB - 3 lbs per pickup - $140 MUTTON - 4 lbs per pickup - $150 BONES - 5 lbs total - $20 ORGANS - 4 lbs total - $20 LARGE EGG - $60 (2 dz per biweekly pickup - 12 dz total) SMALL EGG - $30 (1 dz per biweekly pickup - 6 dz total) CSA PICKUP DATES (Tuesdays 5 - 6:30) MEAT - Feb. 11 - Mar 10 - Apr 7 - May 5 EGGS - Mar 10 - Mar 24 - Apr 7 - Apr 21 - May 5 - May 19 UPCOMING EVENTS We don't have any upcoming events in the near future but we are busy planning our year with open farm days, workshops, tree planting parties, along with all of the farm work and plans. There will be plenty to get involved in this coming year so stay tuned. Also, we will be at the PASA Conference Feb. 5-8 learning, networking, and even helping to teach one class on Ecological Design for Small Farms with Ben Weiss (Susquehanna Sustainable Enterprises) and Robyn Mello (Edenspore). It's a great place to learn about food systems, regenerative farming, and more. And, it's in Lancaster! For more info check out pasafarming.org. Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*