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Farming and How To’s
How to Cook the Perfect Roast – Every time!
Everyone needs to know how to cook a roast to perfection - EVERY TIME - with their eyes closed. Here's a very basic recipe and I've included some of the steps people usually leave out and why it's not a good idea to do so. If you've ever had a roast turn out tough or...
Rump Roast with Green Olives and Raisins
Shredded Rump Roast With Olives and Raisins This is not your ordinary pot roast recipe. Ever since my friend, Liz, made me this roast some thirty years ago, my mouth waters, Pavlovian-style, when I think of it. This makes the most amazing Argentinian empanadas and the...
Carnitas
Carnitas What are carnitas? Done right, carnitas are ultra-rich, soft pork meat with slightly crisp edges. Pork butt is the perfect meat for this recipe but the picnic works great too. This is a very simple recipe for an outstanding, authentic dish. 4 lb...
Very Basic Meatloaf
Basic Meatloaf I LOVE meatloaf and it seems like I never make it the same twice, which is why I LOVE meatloaf. It's a perfect "whatever you happen to have on hand" type of recipe. I've had families drop by unexpectedly and I'll throw a couple of pounds of...
Slow Cooked Rump Roast
Slow Cooked Rump Roast Coming home after a long hard day on the farm, this is what I want to smell. A tender, flavorful rump roast with all the trimmings! 1 3-4 lb rump roast1 onion1 tbsp black pepper1 tbsp paprika (smoked if possible)2 tsp chili powder.5 tsp...
Roasting a Duck 101 – Bon Appétit
The biggest issue causing the US to trail woefully behind France in duck consumption is the fact that recipes like Duck A L'orange and Duck Confit, while exotic sounding and quite delicious, are also intimidating. Don't forget that, just like Bruce Dickinson barking...
Tagine De Souris D’Agneau (Lamb Shank Tagine)
Lamb shank tagine to make your mouth water and your kitchen smell like heaven. You can never go wrong with a recipe from David Lebovitz and your can’t every go wrong with a recipe that utilizes grass fed lamb, cinnamon and smoked paprika!
Rosemary and Maple Syrup Roasted Chicken
I came across this recipe comes in my favorite (and only) subscription magazine, Saveur, which highlighted this wonderful and simple roasted chicken recipe using my favorite roasting technique, high heat with just a few rich, savory ingredients. This recipe comes from...
Pulled Pork Sandwiches
This recipe is adapted from the Williams-Sonoma Pulled Pork recipe and it just can't be beat! It's a no-fail recipe that can be made with a myriad of sauces depending on your cravings and on your stores. Serve these hearty sandwiches with homemade or...
How to Roast a Duck
There's a world of intense flavor to be discovered when you choose to roast a duck instead of taking the tried-and-true path with chicken. Yet many cooks find duck intimidating. The reason, in a word, is fat. Ducks wear a thick coat of it, and fatty skin is not a...
Beauty Interrupted
Beauty, in all its manifestations, has always been important to me but the older I get the more it has become a faith, a yearning, and a guiding principle for my life. My great fortune is that the farm puts all this in crystal clear perspective, day after day. This...
Wisdom From Wendell Berry
Our Work Starts with You. With the gentle caressing of another rainfall, chores done, cows milked, bread rising and most of the gardening put on hold, I’ve filled the French press with coffee and grabbed my morning reading for some further edification from Wendell...
What a Difference a Year Makes
I've just come in from my pasture inspection and I just couldn't help but remember what things were like on the farm one year ago. Baby Indi was just born (yesterday was his birthday) and Baby Michi was born in several inches of snow (today he is one year old). Both...
A Fleeting Glimpse of Beauty
A fleeting glimpse of Beauty The other day while I was alone on the farm I found a little surprise up on the hill by Narnia; a sprite little bull calf from Sweetie Pie our Ayrshire cow. He is SO cute and has such a funny personality, even then at the ripe old age of 2...
3 days without my Farming Partners
I am so thankful that my children choose to spend their vacations (and their money) moving a family from under piles of cardboard (or if they're lucky, a couple of ping pong tables) and into a new 12x20 home they build together over a week. I know that every year...
Narnia, here at River Cottage Farm
It takes more than four straight days of rain to keep me from my pasture walks in the mornings. I pull on my Wellies, step out onto the patio and with the deepest breath I can muster I bask in the beauty of our farm. Balancing my piping hot cup of tea as I unhook...
A Lesson in Cow Watching
To the untrained eye this is a picture of a cow, beautiful, healthy and perfect in every way. But to the trained cow watcher this is a cow with a secret. Her posture is saying, “There’s nothing here to see, just me in Narnia, minding my own business” but I’ve seen...
Reaping the Rewards of Quiet
I must admit that no matter how hard I try to obey my children and stay in bed until 5:30 am, every once in a while I just can’t take the waiting and quietly tip toe out into the dark, still house already anticipating the coming hours. It’s absolutely, hands down, my...
Seeing Through the Eyes of Beauty
Every now and again I hear a sentence that makes me shudder, in a good way. Like when I read "He is the breath inside the breath” and had to put my book down while I caught my breath. My soul loves that kind of talk. I feel as though a layer of something unseen has...
Spring Comes to River Cottage Farm
After a crazy week of getting for ready a very early spring I sat down and made a mental list of things accomplished during the past week and it was stunning, even to me! Here is a look at the to-do list for last week at River Cottage Farm. Sheep to be sheared set up...
How to Cook the Perfect Roast – Every time!
Everyone needs to know how to cook a roast to perfection - EVERY TIME - with their eyes closed. Here's a very basic recipe and I've included some of the steps people usually leave out and why it's not a good idea to do so. If you've ever had a roast turn out tough or...
Our Chickens – How they Grow
Day 1 at RCF This year Brayden will raise about 1500 chickens. If the weather keeps up it's warm and cold spells he may even be able to go year-round and up that number by about 400. The bottom line is that we sell a boat-load of chicken. I thought I would...
Bone Broth, Back in Fashion
I figure that I spend about three quarters of my life out of fashion and that's ok with me. I must admit though, that the three quarters spent "left behind" keeps me humble when I'm in or maybe even ahead of the curve. So, although I may still be wearing boot cut...
Catching a pup in the act!
Keeping an eye on the sheep watcher There are so many times I sit down to write this newsletter wishing you all were here with me, witnessing the amazing scenes of the farm. There's no doubt that being a farmer is incredibly hard work and when the day doesn’t usually...
Thank you, Johns Hopkins!
One comment we've both heard and uttered over the many years we've milked cows without grain inputs usually went something like this, "if someone would just do some serious lab testing on 100% grass-fed dairy ..." Well, now, according to new research published in the...
Roasting a Duck 101 – Bon Appétit
The biggest issue causing the US to trail woefully behind France in duck consumption is the fact that recipes like Duck A L'orange and Duck Confit, while exotic sounding and quite delicious, are also intimidating. Don't forget that, just like Bruce Dickinson barking...
What a Difference a Year Makes
I've just come in from my pasture inspection and I just couldn't help but remember what things were like on the farm one year ago. Baby Indi was just born (yesterday was his birthday) and Baby Michi was born in several inches of snow (today he is one year old). Both...
The Blessing of the Bees
As an Orthodox Christian I am blessed to have centuries of ancient prayers to recall for almost every act on our farm. Monks pray as they bring their cows or goats in for milking; they pray as they collect eggs from chickens asking blessings on them for their...
Is Organic Farming “Easier”?
Last week I went out to the Aveda school in Brentwood for a haircut and the woman getting her haircut next to me mentioned about how she was trying to eat organically but didn't know where to go to find good, healthy food. Of course I piped up and told her I was...
The Making of a Great Cow
It never, ever fails! Whenever there's historical storm a baby will be born on River Cottage Farm and with a full moon to boot this baby had no choice but to be born in the snow. So, after a week overdue according to our records, baby Michi Storm was born last night...