Kickstarter

Hi Folks -I'll be directly emailing all the recipients, but a big shipment of just over 100 rewards for $100 backers went out today! Actually, the ones on the West Coast shipped yesterday, and the ones closer to us went today. All should arrive by Wednesday or Thursday.

A quick note - we will be posting a video of how best to serve the meat up (open and present it since its vacuum sealed) sometime Thursday. Also, some of the Lonzino was replaced with Culatello, which is sooo good, its a deboned ham and resembles prosciutto. Some of the lomo was replaced with coppa, a similar cure, but from the shoulder instead of the loin.

We'll post some more pictures soon, but with this, our aging room is nearly depleted of inventory, so enjoy the meat for the holidays!

Happy Holidays to all of our supporters!

Brooks, Anna, Kaj, and Leila

Just to make it clear - the $100 rewards are the only ones NOT yet sent out in full. I'm looking for responses from any NON-$100 reward backers to make sure they receive their reward, as they should have by now, barring mistakes and missed surveys.

The remaining $100s will be scheduled in the next 2 days and emails about ETAs will then be issued.

Please email directly if you are a $5, $10, $25, $50, $250, or $500 backer who has yet to receive something.

Thanks!

Brooks

Hi folks - this is a heads up that all of the $250 and $500 rewards have now shipped. This means everything but about 100 of the $100 rewards are out. So if you are anything up to $100, or $250 or $500, it means either you didn't fill out the survey at the end of the project, or something got lost in the mail. We have had a few things returned/lost, so please contact us if you think that may be the case. We have been emailing folks directly as their rewards ship, and it should be there within 2 days.

We'll get some more photos up of the inside of the aging room, and some slicing for the remaining $100 rewards. I'll be filtering out the last of the $100s to try to ship all of them by Christmas. Tomorrow I will be going through the remainders and sorting to send out expected delivery dates, as we can get out about 30 per week. 

All of our turkeys are processed, delivered, and hopefully eaten, our broilers are all done until March, and we only have a few ducks left. Most of our animals are in their winter homes, which means lots of bedding, greenhouses, and hay. Although today it was 70 degrees here in central PA, so the greenhouses feel a bit like overkill and everything is a mudfest. We'll be looking forward to sending out the final rewards this month!

Thanks for your patience and support,

Brooks and Anna

Hi folks - we're right in the midst of Sandy here on the farm. Our shelters are all pinned to the ground, and we've used more hay and straw in the last 24 hours than in the last several months! We went to bed last night with all animals in their shelters and plenty of dry bedding to last through the night. Here's hoping they're all comfy.

So far we've lost power briefly a few times, which has gotten me thinking I really need a generator for our walk in cooler and freezer! But, for those of you in urban areas where a generator may not be an option, it got me thinking about how to deal with extended power outages. Especially since we heard so many horror stories of DC area customers having to throw out meat this summer! The old school solution for a lack of refrigeration, especially this time of year, is salt. Quick and easy. So, here are some simple instructions on preserving your meat the old-fashioned way, which is our preferred method of preparation for turkeys and sometimes chicken: the brine. Luckily it works on all meat! Some of you may recognize this from our turkey handouts, and if not, you'll see it this year when your Thanksgiving turkey comes.

Science of the Brine (adapted from Harold McGee)
In addition to killing spoilage bacteria on meat, salt does a number of things when in solution. Salt disrupts the structure of muscle filaments, which makes meat more tender. A 3% solution dissolves the filaments that hold the muscle fibers together, and 6% will partially dissolve muscle fibers themselves. The salt-protein reaction creates a greater water holding capacity, which means that the turkey will take on any flavor that is in the brine. Hence the spices, aromatics, and things like wine and stock in most brine recipes. Sugar is usually added to balance the harshness of the salt, although with a brief rinse, the turkey will simply be pleasantly salty with the following technique, making sugar optional.

The Process
Find a non-reactive container into which your meats will fit - a 5 gallon bucket is perfect. Pull out any meat you wish to brine, Jane Grigson of nose to tail cooking recommends the following for any respectable English housewife's brine crock: "A 5 lb pork loin, A boned leg of pork and a hock, A 2lb piece of belly, A shifting population of trotters, ears, tails, and pieces of skin - anything the butcher throws in for a copper or two"

But for you meat eaters, that means anything but ground meat: steaks, chuck roasts, shoulder roasts, legs of lamb, chicken, etc., will all do! Use enough cuts to fill the container you're using pretty well. The less space, the less salt you'll end up using.

6% Salt translates to 1 c per gallon of liquid. We usually use Celtic or Himalayan sea salt for nutrition and flavor, but any salt will do. Stir the salt to dissolve, and throw the meat in and place it in a cool spot. This is the equivalent of brine-curing, and will fully cure roasts in a couple days, which means they're preserved. Keep them in the brine in a cool area until the power comes back on, and when you cook the meats, give them a brief rinse in cool water and proceed as usual. You could also put the rinsed meat in large ziploc bags and refrigerate or re-freeze with no issues.

Good luck, and feel free to email with any questions!

Brooks and Anna

Hi folks -
We thank you for your patience as we continue to slice away, and pack boxes to ship. The $100 rewards have been tallied so we know what some of you are getting to replace salami. Thanks again for your flexibility! They will be packed and shipped on the next few Mondays/Tuesdays so the meat does not arrive or travel over the weekend.

New on the farm:
The pigs have been transitioned to a whey and whey-soaked grain diet to save on feed costs. The cost of our locally grown hog mash (finely ground corn, wheat, and soybeans) increased by about 40% this summer due to change in commodity prices with the drought in the midwest, so we started looking for more economical ways to feed 150 pigs. Whey from a local cheese plant is proving to do the job well, in addition to whey-soaked barley, pasture, and woods forage (acorns are dropping like crazy!).

As promised, here are a few more pictures of the butcher shop you all helped to finish. They are a bit out of order from the last update - I couldn't find some of the earlier ones and the realized I had taken them with my phone, so they're a bit more poor quality, but you can see what we started with!

November 2011: Anna and Leila in the doorway of the garage, soon to become the shop.

Kaj getting ready to backfill the floor drains.

Interior of the concrete block garage, dirt floors. Inspector ensuring proper drop in drain lines and all connections properly sealed. Laser level on the right for setting concrete pour.

Friend Brad with his Dingo so we could maneuver stone into place to get 4" basae before adding concrete (also 4")

November 2011: Brad making final run of drain pipe out to blood tank. All wastewater is reapplied to fields - no solid waste, only small amounts of blood and wash-down water.

And in here would be all the photos from last update - concrete pouring, etc.
After the concrete was poured, I reframed the roof with trusses so it could hold the building together and handle snow loads, and framed out the interior. Then I ran electric, and then the front wall was framed out and insulated. Finally, the interior and exterior walls were finished for full wash-down capability.

March 2012: Messy interior with OSB walls - soon to be covered with FRB. Ceiling is roofing tin with all gaps sealed so that it can be washed down.

April 2012: Front walls framed out, insulated, ready for roofing tin. South-facing windows provide lots of natural light and a nice working environment. We can watch our pigs while we work!

West end of shop with the walk-in attached. We've since brought the barn parking lot up 4" to meet with the base of the concrete pad.

June 2012: Finished exterior with log flower beds.

Finished exterior - right side door is entrance for kill room (notice the feathers), middle windows are processing room, left door is packing and walk-in.

July 2012: Shop interior - eviscerating and sausage table in foreground (with a hole for viscera), 200 lb grinder-mixer on right, processing table in back with sink and storage.

Same shot, but you can see the wash-down lights, floor drains, and the entrance to the packing room and walk-in.

Quite a transformation! We'll have some more interior shots to come - of the kill room and more. Let us know what else you'd like to see. We'll also have some photos of the interior of the current drying room, and the excavation for the new drying room.

Thanks for your support!

Brooks and Anna