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Backyard Birds Winter Update January 2010 |
 In this Issue...
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Backyard Blog!We are attempting to get with the social media program and we will do our best to keep current. Follow us on... Twitter
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Aid to Haitian Farmer
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A farmer from Haiti participating in the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (Jen's nonprofit project), was deeply affected by the recent Earthquake. Adisson Toussaint, who farms over an acre at a New Entry training site in Dracut, lost his mother and his family home in Port-au-Prince. Several of his other family members are seriously injured and are still struggling to get adequate medical care. New Entry started a collection for Adisson's family and raised over $2,200 to help fly him home to provide aid to his family in the recovery process. If you would like to contribute to the efforts, please make a tax deductible contribution and know that 100% of your funds will go directly to Haiti, please email Jen for more information. For a short video of Adisson expressing his appreciation for the first check presented to him on Friday, Jan 21, click here. We will continue to raise funds for him to send a container of supplies (stay tuned for more info on what durable goods would be useful to donate) to Haiti upon his return on February 8th.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to date!
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Greetings!
Happy New Year and a joyful 2010! Pete and I have been enjoying the winter and it seems to be flying by this year - we hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season and enjoyed delicious meals and good times with family and friends! We are keeping busy on the farm with all of our rabbits, laying hens, sows, and our 8 new Poland China/Berkshire piglets (see photo below). The pace is a bit slower, and we have time to catch up on some "winter projects." Pictured above is our winter headquarters where everyone is warm, dry, and content and we can consolidate our winter chores (including keeping everyone's water from freezing!).
Some Winter Updates from the Farm:
- Egg Extravaganza: Once fall hits, it's that time of year
 when our egg production "sinks or swims." Around the holidays, everyone is stocking up on fresh eggs for baking, guests, lavish dinners, and bountiful brunches. This is also the time of year when the birds "hunker down" for winter and lay less often (they are photosensitive and lay less with decreasing daylight). You may have been frustrated when you arrived at the egg fridge and we were sold out of eggs. We're always sorry about that! Now we have the opposite challenge...daylight is increasing again and our happy hens are keeping warm and productive in the sunny greenhouse. Rate of lay is up and people traffic is weather-dependent, so these days we are flush with eggs! Come and get them! This is the time of year when, in addition to our fridge at the mini-store, you can find our eggs at Deborah's Natural Gourmet and Verrill Farm so we can keep our abundant eggs fresh and moving every day. You might also notice that our egg yolks are not as deeply colored as they are for most of the year. The reason? It may seem obvious - but it is winter! The birds are in the sunny greenhouse with access to fresh hay and veggies scraps, but their winter diet will never match that of lush green fields of forage. We supplement their Certified Organic Grain with 5% alfalfa pellets to provide additional "color." Even in winter, though paler yolks you may discover, our eggs continue to be fresh and tasty - so bon appétit!
- 2010 Order Form: Wondering when we plan to
 post our 2010 Order form so you can reserve our famously tasty chickens? We are currently researching a new online ordering system to help us streamline the ordering and deposit tracking process. Stay tuned - we hope to have our order form available before March 1st. Due to our limited (and labor intensive!) production, we will again give priority chicken ordering to: (a) donors to the MPPU project, (b) volunteers who process chickens on the MPPU, and (c) existing customers. After that, the free-for-all begins! To meet demand, Jen is doing her best to train more poultry farmers to legally process their birds through the New Entry MPPU training project.
- Book Learning & Winter Conferences: Pete and I are "studying up" with a 10-week farm business planning class called "Tilling the Soil" through the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources. Nothing like a structured class to help us with some necessary strategic planning for the future! We also taught a Pig Raising workshop at the NOFA Winter Conference and we are heading to the PASA Conference in early February. This time of year, we deepen our knowledge of farming, make plans to try new things, and get organized for another great season ahead. No rest for the weary!
- Improved Breeding: No, not us (not yet!)...but in an effort to be able to produce the kind of high-quality pork we pride ourselves in raising, we want to have piglets from our own
 breeding stock here on the farm. Many small farms like us struggle with the decision to keep a boar for the few times per year you need their "services." An option is to use AI or artificial insemination, but to be successful, you need to get everything right and we don't want to risk that in our small operation. So, we acquired a Certified Organic, Registered Tamworth Boar, Wolfgang, from Kingbird Farm in NY, so we can now breed Fern and Nutmeg whenever they are ready - the good old-fashioned natural way. Welcome to Wolfgang - we hope he does his job well!
- Expanding our Product line: Check out our feature below
 about our latest new product - Backyard Buddies. We also have great new varieties of Backyard Bubbles. This summer, we will also have Pete and Jen's custom apparel. Our friend Jess (of Backyard Bubble fame) is a very talented artist who is creating some whimsical designs for our T-shirts and greeting cards. Stay tuned for those this summer! What's up in the Mini-Store?
Below are other Pete and Jen product updates on current offerings at our mini-store - please stop by this winter to stock up! Our mini-store which operates on the self-serve, Honor system is always open - 24-7-365. We have plenty of rabbits, lard, smoked pork products, soaps, and chicken giblets (necks, hearts, and gizzards) just waiting to fill your belly with tasty, tasty goodness.
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Pork - fresh from smokehouse! 
We picked up our last load of pork from Green Mountain Smokehouse in Vermont, so we are flush with delicious maple-cured and hickory-smoked bacon (all nitrite free), smoked ham steaks, smoked hocks, smoked shoulder roasts, and more! This joins our already delicious pork chops (going fast!), regular hocks, jowls, feet, organs, backfat/lard, and more. Stop by to perk up your after-holiday meals today! No soup is complete without some smoked porky flavor...delicious!
PS - Pete and I had a smoked ham steak last night for dinner, and can we say - MOIST AND JUICY!!! We had our hams brined and smoked whole before slicing, so they retained all of the yummy flavor and the intramuscular fat makes them extremely moist and flavorful. Leftovers last night were enjoyed this morning in our fresh-egg omlette! Yum! |
Fresh Rabbits! 
We continue to process our rabbits every few weeks, so you are always guaranteed a fresh rabbit, perfect for stews, braising, frying, roasting, or making sausage! We made a delicious rabbit sausage with our pork backfat and it is tasty (sorry, we can't legally sell you that)! Our rabbit herd is tucked in our sunny greenhouse for the winter and enjoys the cacophony of our laying hens and the occasional pig snorts and squeals from our happy sows and new piglets. |
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Lard - fat is back! 
We have been enjoying the interest and enthusiasm for our fresh pork lard. Pastry chefs, avid bakers, and hoardes of Sally Fallon-ites have found the lard from our pasture-raised and happy pigs to be delicious and have come back for more. Lard that you can feel good about (not the  hydrogenated, bleached and deodorized stuff from the grocery store) is hard to come by. We use the wet, low-temperature rendering process recommended for the highest quality product. It keeps for up to 5-6 months in the refrigerator, longer if frozen. Get yours today - available in quarts ($12), pints ($6), and half-pints ($3). We will ship frozen lard in a flat-rate box for either $10.95 (medium box) or $13.95 (large box). |
Introducing Backyard Buddies
Gourmet Dog & Cat Treats...yum
Farmers try to make the most use of all of their products - we work hard to raise quality animals and want to respect their contributions to keeping us well-nourished. Why not share the bounty with your pet? We understand that "variety meats" are not in everyone's repertoire of Nose-to-Tail eating, so we always have extra organs from our pigs and chickens. We are putting them to work for you to share with Fido, Fi-Fi, or your favorite feline. We have small bite-sized nibs of pure, unadulterated (no preservatives or additives) dehydrated pork liver, hearts, kidney and chicken gizzards to share with your favorite companion. We "test marketed" the goods on a neighbor's dog, and now she is Pete's new best friend (she follows him all over the farm, hoping for more). |
Backyard Bubbles -new scents! 
We have several new soaps in our "Backyard Bubbles" line, all hand made by our good friend (and farm sitter), Jess Myles. Jess is heading off to spread her wings and travel the country, hoping to land on a West Coast farm, so we will miss her and her creativity in the soap line. It has been wonderful knowing that our animal fats are being put to such good use. Jess has been busy the past few months providing us with an abundance of soaps to keep us well stocked. We wish her the best in her new adventures!
Fresh scents for 2010!
Citrus ~ Mint ~ Milk & Honey ~ Clay & Kelp
Joining our other great scents which include:
Gardener's Delight (w/ scrubbing pumice) ~ Cinnamon Citrus ~ Lavendar Protein ~ Rustic Red ~ Sweet Strawberry & Lemongrass | |
Thanks so much again for supporting our farm. Until the next edition, we are very gratefully your local source for delicious goodies and your very humble farmers....
Pete and Jen
Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds, Concord, MA |
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