River Cottage Farm
Update
Our Customers – The best in the world
Last week, after my rant about organic chicken, I couldn’t believe how many notes I received from customers expressing their thankfulness in knowing that they can trust us completely when they purchase food for us. I heard many comments about the days when the words “AND grass-finished?” became a familiar part of their questioning, week after week, farmer after farmer.
One recurring theme was how hard it was for some people to ask the questions they felt necessary to make informed decisions about their food purchases. As a farmer, let me assure you that farmer’s LOVE to answer these types of questions. It gives us the chance to brag on things that don’t usually come up in conversations. It absolutely makes my day when a newly reforming vegan asks questions about how my animals are butchered and I can tell them how we never take in one animal a at time, even if one gets back on the truck to return home. I hardly ever get to talk about that!
We want to share the farm with you, lock stock, and barrel. Brayden and I talk about this every week at our farm meeting. We want you to know everything about our farming practices, especially since transparency is such a fading commodity.
If you don’t know the questions to ask, the Cornucopia Institute is a great place to start. They have lists of questions for everything from the toothpaste companies to the dairy farmers who sell you your milk.
100% Grass fed (and finished)
Our Meats
RECIPE RANT
This week I would like to share some thoughts about my recipe sections.
My New Year’s resolution is to stop finding recipes online. This has come out of serious frustration with recipe bloggers, even my most beloved bloggers.
I’ve watched recipe bloggers rapidly change from sharing recipes to making money. I don’t fault anyone for making money doing the things they love but it seems that recipe blogs have completely gone off the deep end. When a single ad placement on a recipe blog can fetch $5000 per placement I can see that everyone would want to get on this bandwagon. But, for me, things have gone too far.
Where you used to get a nice explanation of how the recipe came about and then the actual recipe, now there are 15 different sections reiterating the same things over and over just to allow more space for ads. Add to that the product placement in their recipes of products that can only be purchased (I’m thinking of meatloaf with Moon Cheese inside) and you’ve ruined recipe blogs for me completely.
So, I am going to revamp my recipe section in order to make recipes easier to find on my site. If you’re at all like me in your frustrations with out of control ads on recipe blogs please let me know how I can make the recipe section better and easier to use.
From now on, all the recipes will come from my favorite cookbooks. I let you know the cookbook, author, and how the recipe looks in the end.
Beef
Once again, other than ribeyes, we’re good to go on all things beef! We’ll be taking 4 steers in to the butcher on Thursday so if you would like any special cut, just let us know.
Poultry
Our final batch of chickens for the season will be taken to our Amish butcher on Monday. If you would like fresh chicken, please let us know and we’ll set some aside.
Pork
Everything looks really good with the pork supply. We got our Applewood Smoked Bacon and Ginger, Apple, Sage breakfast sausage back from Smoking Goose – Yippee! They didn’t have our lard packaged up yet but they sent it by Fed Ex and we should get it today so I’ll put it on the website for ordering.
Dairy
The milk is flowing and everyone can get all the milk they need this week. I’m making yogurt as I write this.
Bread
I’ve had a few people ask me about making a batch or two of bread for the deliveries and I’m completely up for that. If you’d like a loaf or two of my freshly ground, whole wheat and honey bread, just click on the baked goods tab and order. I’ll be making the bread tomorrow afternoon so please order as soon as possible so I’ll know how many batches to bake.
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Grass Fed- Grass Finished
Pan Frying 101
Pan-frying, or “shallow frying” is a quick cooking method for small, tender cuts using an uncovered pan on the stove.
- Use a heavy-based frying pan, sauté pan or wok.
- For best results, use only a small quantity of oil or butter.
- Ensure that the oil is hot before adding your preferred beef or lamb cuts.
- Sear each side quickly to seal in juices and retain succulence.
- Only turn your steaks once during cooking; leaving them to cook untouched will produce juicier results.
- If you use a griddle pan add a little oil on both sides of your steaks, chops or cutlets and ensure the dry pan is really hot before frying.
We Raise Food For You
Beef Pan Frying Times
| Beef | Cooking Time |
| Cube Steak | For each side allow: 1-2 minutes |
| Fillet steak 1 inch thick |
For each side allow: Rare: 3-4 minutes Medium: 4-5 minutes Well-done: 6-7 minutes |
| Sirloin, rump, rib-eye, minute, 1 inch thick |
For each side allow: Rare: 2½ minutes Medium: 4 minutes Well-done: 6 minutes |
| Burgers 1 inch thick | 3-5 minutes per side, only flip once and don’t press down |
| Ground | 4-6 minutes – In a good heavy based pan fry ground, either dry or with a little oil |
Produce
Lettuce mix $3
Asian greens (stir-fry mix) $3
Napa cabbage $3
Carrots $4
Baby beets w/ greens $3
Radish $2
Spinach $3
Swiss chard $3
Scallions $2
Sweet potatoes $2.00
CSA box: Lettuce, Asian greens, napa cabbage, carrots, scallions, sweet potatoes, onions
Find Us
Wednesday Delivery
Friends’ Meeting House
11:30 – Noon
530 26th Avenue North
Nashville, TN 37209
Visit Us in Franklin
Visit us at the Franklin Farmer’s Market every Saturday 9 – Noon
230 Franklin Rd
Franklin, TN 37064
Visit Us in Bowling Green
Visit us at Community Farmer’s Market every Saturday 8 – 1
5199 Nashville Rd,
Bowling Green, KY 4210
Pick up in Hermitage TN
We’re setting up a new delivery site in Hermitage. Shoot me an email at hello@rivercottagefarm.net and I’ll give you all the details.