Sausage Done Right

Since we started our farm, we have always tried to give our customers as many choices as possible.  For example, cured bacon or fresh side/belly?  Cured ham or fresh leg roast? And then the question we didn't like to ask... Ground pork or breakfast sausage?  The reason we didn't like to ask it was because the sausage seasoning the butcher was using had preservatives like MSG, BHA, and BHT in it.  Despite our numerous requests for an alternative recipe, our butcher did not feel there was enough demand to justify the change.  We felt that the preservatives were unnecessary and didn't reflect the values of our farm.  One of our goals has always been to provide delicious food that is clean, simple, and healthy.

As we announced previously, we switched butchers a couple of months ago.  Our new butcher, Springville Meat Co. offers better services like vacuum packaging and custom labeling.  Additionally, they are a little bit more flexible to work with.  After we switched, we started talking about their sausage recipes only to find that they too used MSG, BHA, and BHT.  While this was frustrating, they were open to explore other recipes.  Finally, I went to Colosimo's and together we came up with some delicious sausage seasonings free of MSG, BHA, and BHT.  We then took these seasonings back to Sprinville Meat Co who is now making our own custom line of sausages using our delicious pork and our customized Colosimo's seasoning.

We are now pleased to offer our gourmet line of Bratwurst style sausages.  These sausages are stuffed in natural casings in 1/4 lb links.  We have packaged 6 links per pack making each package 1.5 lbs.  We are currently offering the following flavors: Jalapeno w/Monterrey Jack Cheese, Sundried Tomato w/Basil, and German Bratwurst.  These sausages are delicious!!!  The casings are very easy to bite into, the sausage is not overly salty, and you can actually tasted the pork as well as the seasoning flavors.  We are very pleased with the results and are proud to put our name on it.  These are so good that my brother has offered to come work a couple days on our farm in return for all he can eat bratwursts.

We are also just finalizing on our new Breakfast Sausage that pending USDA approval we will be calling Maple Kissed Sage.  Again we are teaming up with Colisimo's for a customized breakfast sausage recipe that is free of MSG, BHA, and BHT.  We are then using Coombs Family Farms in Vermont who will be providing us with pure, organic, Vermont grown Maple Sugar.  This sausage will be add just enough sweetness to your morning meal.

Anxious to try our new sausage line? Stop by one of our delivery points on March 24th or call and arrange to stop by our farm.

Pasture Raised Chickens for 2012

Our chickens on pasture after a snowstorm.

For those who have been buying from our farm the last few years you may recall that we used to offer chickens.  You may also recall that we were forced to cease our chickens sales by the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF).  It is a long story that can be somewhat summarized here.  In a nutshell, we received permission to process poultry at our farm under a small farm exemption.  We did this for most of the year only to have the UDAF come back and inform us that they had "reinterpreted" the regulations and that we could no longer process chickens on our farm unless we built a full blown inspected processing facility.  While we had the USDA's blessing we did not have the the UDAF's blessing.  In fact we were threatened with a Class C misdemeanor if we continued.  Last year, we missed out on a significant source of farm revenue that we had banked on when we expanded and built our new farm the year before.  This year however, we have made arrangements to lease a small poultry processing facility that was recently built by another farm.

We are pleased to announce that we will once again be offering our mouth watering pasture raised chicken!  We anticipate having our first chicken harvest ready around the end of April.  You can read more about our chickens and place your chicken order here.  As always please feel free to contact us with any questions.

New for 2012

Vacuum Packaging and preservative free sausages!  Read below.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  It is hard to believe that we are already starting a new year.  The last few months have been crazy as we have tried to keep up with getting everyone their orders for the holidays.  Our little farm continues to grow.  We are grateful for the support we continue to receive both from our customers and the media.  This past year we stayed busy building our new, larger farm.

The last two months were challenging as we incurred new difficulties with our butcher.  The butcher went through a USDA inspection audit that left them scrambling to jump through some ridiculous hoops.  The audit found no issues with sanitation or anything of the like.  The issues were related to paper work, record keeping, and marking weights on each package of meat.  Because they didn't have weights marked on the packages of meat, the butcher was forced to temporarily forego the USDA inspection and instead operate under Custom Exempt status.  So some of our customers may have noticed that the USDA stamps were crossed out with marker and that the labels were stamped "Not for Sale".  This simply means that the meat cannot be sold to somebody who is going to retail the meat.  Sales direct from the farm are still legal.  Our butcher shop is owned by an older couple who doesn't accept change very easily.  Rather than jump through the hoops the USDA was requiring, they informed me that they would no longer be USDA inspected.    Additionally, that let us know that they were increasing their prices by 20%.  This was unacceptable to us as an ever increasing portion of our pork is sold to retailers.  Instead, we went to another USDA butcher shop and made arrangements with them.  This shop is actually the shop that does all the curing of hams and bacon for our now former butcher.  They do a fantastic job and are very easy to work with.  The reasons we haven't used them in the past is that they don't have a kill floor and they have typically been more expensive.  However with the other butcher raising their prices, they are now slightly cheaper with better services.

The bottom line is that we are still incurring a significant increase in our butchering costs.  We are simply passing this cost on without any additional markup.  Our whole pig price is now $3.75/lb on the hanging weight and half pig price is now $3.95/lb on the hanging weight.  The good news is that we will be able to offer our customers an overall better product.  The new price will include vacuum packaging which will allow the meats to stay fresher much longer than with the paper wrapping of the past.  We will also be able to offer a wider variety of sausages some of which will include preservative free recipes.  Sausage flavors include: Breakfast, Italian, Monterrey Jack, Monterrey Jack with Jalapeno, Bratwurst and possibly a few others.  We are waiting to hear which ones will be available without preservatives.  We hope eventually to offer all sausages without preservatives.

The butchering industry in Utah still leaves much to be desired, but given our options, we believe that this will offer the best that is available.

For those who aren't aware, our pork is now available by the cut at Caputo's Deli (downtown location) as well as Liberty Heights Fresh.

We wish you all a Happy New Year and look forward to supplying you with the best pork and beef Utah has to offer!

We Now Ship Farm Fresh Lard

Due to a surprising number of emails asking us to ship our Farm Fresh Lard, we have now set up to ship our lard anywhere in the country!  In the past we have simply encouraged these people to find a local source.  However, the majority have responded that it simply isn't available.  We are sure this will change as more and more people discover the health benefits of cooking with pasture raised, non-hydrogenated, preservative free lard.  In the meantime, we have decided to offer our Farm Fresh Lard to anybody interested.  Details regarding shipping can be found on our website here.

A great article was recently published in Slate about the benefits of cooking with lard.  You can view it here.

We use our Farm Fresh Lard in much of our cooking.  In recipes of baked goods calling for shortening or butter, we have simply replaced those items with lard.  The textures and cooking properties are amazing!  Our cookies stay chewy and pie crusts and biscuits are delightfully flaky.  Give it a try!

Barn Raising Event

For those who are familiar with Jacob's Cove in Orem, you already know about their amazing produce especially their heirloom tomatoes.  You may also recall last winter when a snow storm collapsed one of their greenhouses.  For a small farm, tragedies like this can sink a family run farm.  But not the Allreds!  They have cleaned up the mess and are now rebuilding.  On Monday, October 17th everybody is invited out to help the Allred's in their barn (greenhouse) raising event.  There will be food, live music, and projects to help out with.  Pizzeria 712 will once again be out showing their support for local family operated farms by cooking up their delicious pizzas.  Bring the family and come lend a hand, donate what you can, eat delicious food, and have a great evening supporting this amazing family and their farm.

Click on the logo below to link to their website.

New Heritage Breeds

Large Black Pigs

When we decided to start raising pigs, we researched the different pig breeds to find a breed that would work well for our needs.  We recognized that we live in a climate that can be hard on animals.  (Hot sunny summers and cold, windy winters.)  From previous experience, we knew that light colored pigs had a tendancy to sunburn.  We also found that some pigs had little resilience to disease and that others had virtually no mothering ability.  That was when we stumbled across the Berkshire pig.  Being a black pig, it didn't sunburn, it thrived outdoors, and was very hearty.  Everything we read about them said that they had great mothering instincts.  We didn't find this to be entirely accurate but over time we were able to selectively bred mothering instincts back into our pigs.  Berkshire pork is well known for being superior to commercial breeds of pork partly because of its well marbled, red colored, deeper flavored meat. 

Over the last few decades as agriculture has progressed, farmers moved production indoors in order to be more efficient.  I am sure most know how the story goes.  Consumers wanted leaner pork and lower prices.  In the process, the Berkshire sort of got left behind as it has more fat (aka flavor and juiciness), doesn't produce as large of litters and is slower growing.  As commercial breeds were developed to be leaner and more efficient, the pork grew less flavorful and somewhat mushy (a result of only having an average living space of 6.8 ft2).  Another unintended consequence was the potential for mass breakouts of antibiotic resistant superbugs; a result of pigs having subtherapeutic antibiotics mixed into their daily feed and water.  This is the basic state of today's pork and for many the pendulum has swung too far opening up opportunities for our family farm and many others popping up all over the country.

Over the last few years, we have stayed busy raising purebred Berkshire pigs on pasture where pigs have an average living space of 2100 ft2.  (Commercially you could raise 300 pigs in the same space that one of our pigs enjoys.)  We have dedicated ourselves to raising our pigs humanely meaning gentle handling and herding of the pigs, no tail docking, teeth clipping, or nose rings, etc...  We also believe in raising our animals naturally meaning no antibiotics, growth promoters/hormones, and only feeding our pigs a 100% vegetarian diet of Utah grown grains in addition to the pastures they graze.  We believe that by adhering to these practices, we produce some of the best tasting and healthiest pork available.  That said, we are excited to announce that we will be taking it up another notch by introducing two additional heritage breeds to our farm.

The heritage breeds of pigs that are black in color all have similar meat quality.  The similarities are a deeper red colored pork that has more pronounced flavor as well as better marbling.  They also have a higher quality of fat for rendering lard.  The similarities are due to the fact that they share the same ancestry hundreds of years back.  These characteristics are the reason that pork from these black heritage breeds are considered gourmet quality.

We have recently acquired two Large Black sows and two Mulefoot sows.  The Large Black is known for having a shorter muscle fiber that makes the pork very tender.  The Large Black can nearly support itself on pasture alone.  The Mulefoot is perhaps the rarest breed in the country and was nearly extinct just a few years ago.  It is now making a rather strong comeback thanks to it being named the best tasting pork in a blind taste test of the heritage breed pork.  The Mulefoot pig is named for its unique hoof.  Unlike all other breeds of pigs that have a split hoof, the Mulefoot pig has a solid horseshoe like hoof.  We are excited to add the unique attributes of these pigs to the pork we are offering.

Here you can see the solid hoof of a Mulefoot

Like other heritage breeds there are some "inefficiencies" with the breeds.  Both breeds are relatively slow growing which also means that they consume more feed to reach a butcher weight than the commercial breeds.  The Mulefoot also has rather small litters averaging only 5-6 piglets per litter.  That said, we have witnessed firsthand their excellent mothering abilities, hardiness, and natural instinct to roam and graze on pasture.  Besides, we have never approached our farm with the attitude of being the most efficient.  Our goal has always been the to raise the finest quality, ethically and sustainably, and keep prices affordable for as many families as possible.  We hope that you will continue to enjoy our pork as we seek to take it up another notch by embracing these heritage breeds of pigs.

A Little Publicity

Fall is in the air!  The low for today is 48 F.  It is a welcome change from the warm nights and a good reminder that we need to start gearing up for the winter months. 


Our farm has been blessed to be getting a little publicity lately.  We thought it would be fun to share it with you.


Read about our farm in this month's Catalyst Magazine.  Great article about buying all natural, locally raised meats.  http://catalystmagazine.net/component/k2/item/1761-wheres-the-beef-and-lamb-poultry-pork?


Also, on the 15th of September at 8:00am I have been invited to be a guest speak on the X96 Radio From Hell morning show (96.3 FM in SLC).  The segment will be called "Ask a Hog Farmer".  We will post a link to the audio after it airs.


Last weekend we were filmed in a pilot show that will be aired on the Animal Planet.  The show is about a family who calls themselves "Preppers".  They were interested in purchasing a live pig and butchering the pig themselves. They called us and had us deliver a pig to them.  I don't know if we will even make the final cut, but it was fun to at least be a part of it.  It should air in February and we will post more info as we get closer to that time frame.


We hope these opportunities will create a little buzz as we have lots of pigs that will be ready in the next month or two.  If you haven't tried our pork yet, this Fall we are finishing our pigs on locally grown apples.  The apple/grain/pasture diet help create some amazing tasting pork.  You can pre-order here.