Filet's last day.

After a day of watching the fog roll in and then a drizzly morning I found out that even when you have a hate/love relationship with a beef cow they are just on the farm too long not to build some bond with.  Eddie from Barstow Custom Butchering came by and dropped off pork so I was busy organizing it in the freezer and could not be down in "livestock central" as Eddie began his job.  When I finally arrived there was nothing but a hanging piece of meat and that was fine.  I took the liver up to cut, the ox tail and the heart and tongue.  He showed me the marbling that I had attained that would be determined choice due to fat content...perfect.  Our goal is grass fed with just a touch of marbling that we add with the six weeks of grain.  Of course those of you who chose grass fed only will just be fed a little longer to attain some marbling with age versus grain.  He also invited us to come out when the cutting was done after the two weeks of aging so that we can understand all the cut choices better and relay this information to our customers in aiding them in making their choices.  A bittersweet day, but at the same time I thank the Lord for providing us with the beef with the awesome protein and amino acids that feeds my muscles that I so need to complete my daily chores.  Amen!!

Eggs and Giant Radishes!!

The girls took a nice long rest and boy did they come back strong!! They are laying at 98%!! We are making angel food cake, scrambles, omelettes, frittatas, cookies, Texas sheet cake and lots more!! Meyers lemons have been a terrific price from Glen Cairn so we made lemon curd, drizzled it on the angel food cake and added a dollop of whipped cream!! See why I have to work so hard in the fields...I like to eat good food!! We will have our first Moonstruck beef soon and I cannot wait!! Believe it or not it is the hamburger I am looking forward to the most. I could not believe how good hamburger could taste after I tried the Bashaws!! Tonight we are enjoying a Italian Sausage Soup with just harvested spinach...yes we have lots and lots of spinach!! The radishes are huge too!! Finally all the hard work is starting to show. We have been taking the time to monitor the greenhouse temperatures and humidity and soil testing every row and all the observations are starting to pay off! I was opening the greenhouses too early and losing precious humidity. The West field is planted with sugar snap, snow peas, fava beans and shelling peas....we lost one row to a rabbit break in, but I think I have locked them out again!! Plain Jane salad mix (speckled bibb, romaine, buttercrunch and spinach) has been a big hit right along with Moonstruck salad mix. The tomatoes are about 18 inches and I can't wait to see how early we can have this year, but I know now from my monitoring that I can push it one month earlier next year. Moonstruck signing out...see ya all soon!!

Say Hello Everybody!

These guys arrived today and not without a little excitement. The trailer was backed up beautifully to the corral so I only had to stand in a very small space that they could go through, but then they came running all at once, and Filet did not know what to make of it so she took off and tried to jump the other end of the corral...luckily she did not make it, but the corral does not look the same anymore to say the least. She is about four weeks from harvest so she is about 800-1000 lbs. These little guys just left the Cherry Valley hills where their Momma's are and were weaned onto alfalfa before coming here. Tony kept them in a corral for about a month before coming here so they are somewhat used to it, and trust me they are much calmer than Filet was, but they are also younger. Filet got to work right away bossing them around and eating almost all the food I put out for them....she will be making weight sooner than I thought!! You could see who the leader was out of the little guys right away, one very curious steer walked all the way up to me and Filet when I was feeding her her grain (by hand in a bucket so they could not get to it) ...need a good name for that guy!! The routine we establish will be that these guys will take a year or so to come to weight...grass fed a little longer so the earliest we will restock will be late Spring 2013. We have two sides still available. Just email me if you are interested.