Sorry, we forgot a couple of important things.

1. We have gift certificates available on our website.  We can send them to the buyer, or if you let us know in the notes section, we’ll send them directly to the recipient. Healthy wonderful food is way more interesting than a sweater…     Just look at the column on the right side of the page.

2. We have a holiday market in Carrboro on Thursday, 2-5pm. Our store will be open 2-6 on Thursday, and we’ll be at the Carrboro market on Saturday, Dec 31. (not on Christmas eve).

3. No more holiday hams available, but lots of prosciutto, bacon, roasts, etc.

4. Have a great holiday!

We hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! Christmas is just around the corner but by the looks of things here you’d wonder if it was springtime—babies are everywhere. We have an abundance of piglets, with more on the way and so far five lambs on the ground with another dozen or more expected soon. Animals are being shuffled around the farm into their winter quarters and everyone seems happy with their new digs.

Our hams are hanging in the smokehouse, so if you want one for Christmas or New Year’s email us and reserve one.  We are not doing Paypal on hams like we did for turkeys, just a first come first serve via email. They will be available for pick-up at the Carborro Holiday Market on the 17th (there will not be a Christmas Eve market in Carrboro) or come to our Farm Store on the 22nd (or the 29th).  Send us an email and we will hold one for you. The hams are 5-7lbs @ $9/lb. We will also be coming to Greensboro’s market on the 10th and the 17th of this month. And we’re planning on being at the Dec. 31 market in Carrboro.

Also it’s time to order 1/4 cow if you are interested, as we are about to take a break from beef for a while—our last five beeves (yes, that’s a word) are heading to Matkins as I write, so now’s the time to speak up if you want to stock up on some beef for the winter. As always we will have plenty of pork available in all your favorite cuts.  We have prosciutto and sweet potato pate for those upcoming parties. We’re currently making guanciale, bacon, smoked hams. This week and next we will also have beautiful pure-bred ossabaw cuts (chops, shoulder pieces, racks, bellies, ribs).

Thanks and have wonderful holidays if we miss any of you in the next month

Cane Creekers

Besides the hubbub of the wedding, and aside from the usual hectic happenings, there is the excitement of baby animals—lambs and calves arriving daily, pigs expected next month. Our downsized staff is settling in to new roles and we are lean and mean for the coming winter.

Which brings us to the next and most important topic: SALE! Thanks to the huge success and appreciation of our last sale we are doing it again, SATURDAY November 12th 12-5.

We are clearing out our freezer just in time for you to stock yours for the winter. Beef and pork will have minor and major markdowns, plus we will have chicken and prosciutto at regular prices. So, bring your coolers, bring your cameras, bring your friends and bring your money (we still don’t take credit cards—check and cash only!)
The farm looks great, our staff is sassy and there are awesome deals to be had. Come join us for refreshments 12-5 Saturday the 12th of November at the Farm Store.

With the purchase of our new property (we bought the land up the drive from the house) comes the opportunity for another garden. We will be plowing and planting garlic and onions soon. And in the meantime have been picking, and will have on hand through the holiday, chard, collards, broccoli, potatoes and sweet potatoes.

As an alternative to turkey for Thanksgiving—which if you still want one we have a few, which you can order on our website—are fresh hams. We will have smoked hams later this year for Christmas. But, if you are looking for an alternative to, or supplemental protein for, your Thanksgiving crowd, think about a ham. Of course we’ll still have beef primals (if you want them bone-in, let us know) and pork export racks.

We hope to see everyone at our sale on Nov 12th. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving if we don’t see you. Enjoy the rest of Fall!

Cane Creekers

PRODUCT-

1. Turkeys: we’re taking orders for turkeys. We only have so many at different sizes, so if you’re adament about getting the right size turkey, please sign up soon. Our website has the info about our birds. We have no broad-breasted birds this year, only heritage breed Bourbon Reds and Narragansetts. This means that the birds will be smaller, cook faster, have darker and more flavorful meat, and less breast meat. We think these are all advantages, but to each their own. The birds will be available fresh the Saturday before Thanksgiving (at Carrboro’s market, at farm store, or at Greensboro), and at Carrboro’s Thanksgiving market (Tuesday Nov 22, 3-6) and all birds are $7.50/lb. Below is the link where you can reserve a turkey, and all other info.

http://www.canecreekfarm.us/2011/09/lets-talk-turkey-reserve-yours-today2/

2. Prosciutto: We’re continuing to pull down our 15 month Ossabaw ham and shoulder prosciutto. For those that don’t know, our Ossabaw pigs came from Ossabaw Island off the coast of Georgia, left behind from Spanish explorers 500 years ago. Therefore they are direct descendants of the Iberian hog, which makes the famed prosciutto from Spain. Our Ossabaws are bred separately, finished separately, and take nearly twice as long to raise as our other pigs. Then we dry cure our hams for 15 months. Having said all that, we think it’s worth the wait and the work- we’re pretty thrilled about the prosciutto that we’re cutting. Come check us out the a market and pick some up.

3. Beef: We are going to significantly reduce the amount of beef that we sell retail. Instead we are going to continue to sell 1/4, 1/2, and whole cows directly to customers. We just found this to be, in addition to selling wholesale to restaurants, the most effective way to sell entire cows. Below is a link with more information about bulk beef purchasing.

http://www.canecreekfarm.us/2009/10/october-beef-sale-100-grass-fed-beef/

4. Sale: We will be having another sale at our farm store on November 12. Our last one in January was a huge success, and our freezers are filling up again. We will send out another newsletter with what discounts to expect.

5. Vegetables: We’ll have greens, squash, sweet potatoes, and a few other things this fall. Eggs will be slowing down (they’re molting), so come early to market if you want some.

FARM-

The pastures are looking sharp out there, and the result is that our cows are gaining plenty of weight and looking wonderful, as is the beef. We just purchased some more land (the land “above” Eliza’s house) and the sheep have been happily eating down their new paddock. We should have some lamb later this fall. The turkeys are perched everywhere except where they’re supposed to be- from where i sit i can see them on my truck, circling the house, and sitting on patio furniture. the downsides of free range….

FINDING US-

As always our farm store is open on Thursdays 2-6 and Saturdays 10-4. We’ll be happy to show you around. We’re selling product at the General Store in Saxapahaw, Chatham Marketplace, and Company shops in Burlington, as well as the Wednesday and Saturday (beginning Oct 29, 9am-12pm) markets in Carrboro, and every other week at the Curb market in Greensboro (not this Saturday). We’re currently on menus at Panciuto in Hillsborough: Acme, Il Palio, Vimala’s Curryblossom Cafe, and Glasshalfull in Carrboro; the Eddy Pub and General Store in Saxapahaw; Six Plates and Greer Street in Durham; and Elliott’s on Linden in Pinehurst.

(Greensboro folks- we’ll be skipping the market at the coliseum this weekend, but will be coming Oct 22, nov 5, and nov 19. Look for Patty to be set up in our corner. We’re also bringing less to markets now, so be sure to email if you want something special.)

NO FALL BANQUET-

Some of you have asked if we’re again doing our themed fall banquet out at the farm. The gal who put those on, Eliza Sydnor, decided instead to get married on the farm this fall. I’m sure many of you know her and her fiancee Jon Romm, so wish them the best if you see them! We are thinking instead of doing an event in May, but we’ll be sure to let folks know about that later.

Thanks All

Cane Creekers

Personel- First off, Nick and Kate have left us to do some farming up in New England. We wish them happy days and happy farming. We’ll let you know if Kate continues her blog up north. And if you’re thinking that Eliza or Ross will keep the cane creek blog going… ain’t noooo way. We have had a few volunteers join us to help motor through this hot growing season. Molly has been working her tail off this summer, so if we ever let her off the farm, come say hi to her at market. On top of that, we have new neighbors, and we couldn’t be more thrilled (partly cause we’ve had some real yahoos live there…). Anyhoot, Eric and Lisa Henry moved next door. They’ll be helping us with our garden (which is planted in their yard… pretty sweet neighbors, huh?). Eric is an owner of TS Design, and if you’ve lived in the Piedmont for longer than 15 minutes, I’m sure he’s introduced himself to you. Both Eric and Lisa have been instrumental in getting the Company Shops Coop open in Burlington. If you live near by, make sure to check it out, it’s fantastic.

Animals- We’re pretty sure that the beef coming off the farm right now is some of the best we’ve ever produced.  While it has been a dry summer, we actually have received more rain than is the case some years. We are also seeing some of the benefits of our “mob grazing,” which is a new grazing technique that we’ve implemented over the past year during summer. In any case, it’s making some wonderful beef.

The pigs like to take a summer vacation from “growing,” instead deciding to take it easy in their wallows while debating among themselves which is the coolest heritage breed. But our pigs are finally getting up there in size and we will have lots of pork all through the fall.

We’ve had a pretty great year in gardens. Our tomatoes are still thriving, and both they and the melons have at least two more weeks in them. So if you want to do some canning/freezing/juicing/saucing, it’s not too late for some heirlooms. And we’re getting ready for our fall garden, which will include some more tomatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash, cabbage, brussels, cauliflower, and assorted greens.  Don’t forget the heirloom okra, eggplant and peppers in abundance now and through frost.

Product- We’re gonna wait until at least September before we start taking reservations for turkeys. So look for turkey talk in our next newsletter.

We are pulling down some of our 15-month prosciutto and will be bringing this to future markets. We’ve tried it and it’s awesome. We even have labels for it, so no more sketchy, under the table salted pork transactions. While beef and pork will be going strong for a while to come, we’re waiting on our lambs and goats until at least mid-fall. Lastly, if you didn’t get our last newsletter (we forgot to send it to many folks) and are possibly interested in purchasing a quarter cow, please email us and we’ll give you the rub. We’ve sold a number of quarter cows lately and all feedback has been really positive.

Few loose ends- Diane Daniel has written a book  called Farm Fresh North Carolina. The books covers different farms, vineyards, farmers markets, etc. It’s a great book and nice resource on your next road trip. www.farmfreshnc.com

-We’ll be at Greensboro this Saturday, and again on Saturday August 27th. We’ll be at Carrboro all Saturdays and Wednesdays besides Saturday the 13th. And we’ll attend Saxapahaw markets as much as possible, but we’ll most definitely be there to see the Lizzy Ross Band play on Aug 20th. If you haven’t been to one of the concerts/farmer’s markets in Saxapahaw, come on out before the summer’s over. Lastly, we have a farm dinner at Glasshalfull in Carrboro later this month, Wednesday, august 31st, so check that out.

Find yourself a good swimming hole

Cane Creekers

Photos Courtesy of Luck Photography

Happy Solstice and Happy Birth of our Nation to all our favorite customers. It’s just about hot enough to melt eggs and flowers and humans alike here on the farm but we are working hard and to keep everyone cool and watered down.

We have a full summer crew right now at Cane Creek, having imported some friends from California and from the North. Having so many people on deck has helped tremendously with harvesting, chores, market, and fetching us lemonade while we sit back on the veranda playing cards (that’s for you, Ross (on a never-ending vacation) ).

We have baby birds chirping out of every corner of the barn right now. Little baby guineas (keets), baby turkeys (polts), ducklings and of course your standard baby chick. Right along with these baby fluff balls we have six house piglets. These are piglets that would have died otherwise in the field (too small, too injured, too cute). It must be a record number of house piglets but they are all so adorable so we all put up with their squeals.

Everyone else is growing fast and strong. We are hoping to have some more lamb next month, and goats this month. Our pigs are coping much better than we are in the heat. Spending most of their day in the wallows or under the shade and growing at an astounding rate.

Our steers are looking better than they ever have right now. Eliza and Charles want to take at least one steer every week to market. The weights are great for this time of year and we seem to be weathering the dry ground better than ever (finally!). We want to sell this beef fresh or frozen as soon as is possible so we do not have to rotate meat through coolers (less handling is better for the meat). We also want to educate our customers on cuts that one might presume to be less desirable, but are in fact not. Lesser known cuts like london broils and flat irons are as flavorful as our high end ribeyes and tenderloins. If you buy in bulk, its like you’re getting everything for the price of ground beef. Pretty good deal.

So, we encourage you all to adopt the same strategy as some of our customers who have waited all spring for 95-100 pound quarter cows for their family freezer. If you have the space, buying in bulk makes the most sense. It saves you money, time, guarantees you cuts you may not be able to get at market, and is ultimately the most convenient for everyone. It also helps us. The cash flow makes much more sense and we would allow us to afford the processing and get more cows to market. To give a brief summary a quarter cow is 85 or more of pounds for about $650.00 of beef. To find a more detailed breakdown of these options you can visit http://www.canecreekfarm.us/2009/10/october-beef-sale-100-grass-fed-beef/ or email us for more information.

We hope you all have a raucous and safe Fourth tomorrow. Try not to spend the day in the blazing heat. And make sure you bring some Cane Creek dogs or burgers to whichever cookout you are attending. Shameless plug!

Come visit us sometime soon!

Love,

the Cane Creekers

All is swell out here on the farm. We’ve seemed to have had a lot of visitors in the recent weeks. Keep it coming, we love it. (Store hours are still Thursdays 2-6, Saturdays 10-4). If you have been out, you know how green and alive everything seems to be. This is an exciting time of the year- from baby goats, to waist-high grass, to the incredible smells of flowers- everything just seems to be alive and full of potential.

Pork: Barbecue season has started, and we’ve been selling a number of whole hogs for it. Over the next few weeks the boys will be smoking pigs for two events on the farm (they can be hired, for a fee of bourbon). But if you’re feeling a little less ambitious, our supply of fresh shoulder, ribs, and chops will be abundant through the rest of the summer. So get the grill a rockin

Beef: We are now processing one big beautiful cow a week, so fresh beef should be a regular thing at our markets.

Vegetables: We’ve decided to scale our garden ambitions a bit this year, and the result has been great so far. We have onions and greens right now, and count on more greens, tomatoes, melons, okra, potatoes, and eggplant through the rest of the year.

News in the Community: Our “Saturdays in Saxapahaw” started this past week with a bang. If you’ve never been, it’s a farmer’s market and music festival every Saturday. May 7th was the Haw River Festival, and included the soft opening of the beautiful ballroom in Sax (gorgeous!!). The grand opening will be Friday May 27, come join.
The Company Shops Coop in Burlington is getting ever closer to opening. It looks amazing and we’re excited about local and healthy food being more accessible in Burlington. The farm’s involvement with the Coop is tbd, but as a board member, Doc has been instrumental is getting the coop up and going and we’re proud of all involved.

Markets: Besides our Sax Saturday markets (5pm), we’re still at Carrboro every Wednesday (3:30-6:30) and Saturday (7-12). As for Greensboro, we’ll be slowing down, coming instead every first Saturday of the month. We’ll bring lots of great fresh meat, so hopefully folks can stock up then.

We’re looking forward to some interns arriving in May (ie fresh legs), so we’ll have some new faces to greet you at markets. We’ll keep all posted about future events on the farm. Happy Spring

Cane Creekers

The aminals: We’ve hatched some baby ducks, and should have some lambs and baby pigs coming this spring. Our layers are kicking out eggs right and left, and it should only get better as the days get longer. We also have a new dog! Nick and Kate brought home a great pyrenees pup this week. Hopefully this guy, unlike the other 11 dogs out here (that’s the actual number- willow, ajax, rudy, red-eye gravy, clyde, amos, hank, tipsy, siler, taco, huck- just in case you didn’t believe me), will hopefully serve a purpose. We’re hoping he’ll guard and herd sheep and goats. For the moment, he’s just adorable. We do however, need help on a name-zeus and wilbur have been floated, ross wants seger (not like pete either, you bunch of hippies), so send us some suggestions. The cows are back entirely on hay, the pigs are like whatev

The Land: We had warm enough weather on Monday to start planting our onions for the year, and we’re starting to plan our gardens. At this point, all we know for sure is that there will be an ungodly amount of tomatoes… The pastures are showing signs of life but it’s still pretty brown out here.

The products: We’re taking 288lbs of pork belly to be made into bacon today, which means 1. you’re not eating enough fresh pork belly  2. everyone needs to buy a serious amount of bacon. We’re also making more sweet potato liverwurst. We will not have much beef until late spring, but we do have a lot of pork and will continue to have it through the spring. We’re trying to cut bellies, shoulders, and export racks into smaller packages, so keep those in mind at markets

The markets: Carrboro is every Saturday, 9-12. Wednesdays start up in April. Greensboro Curb market is every other week, including this weekend, 7-12. If you are a Greensboro person, and would like to be notified of which week We’re coming and what we can bring, let us know.

The restaurants: You can find our meat at Six Plates in Durham. Vimila’s Curryblossom, Glasshalfull, Neals, Acme, Il Palio in Chapel/Carrboro. Saxapahaw General Store and The Eddy in Saxapahaw. Elliot’s on Linden and Sly Fox in Southern Pines. And Panciuto in Hillsborough. Speaking of which… Panciuto’s chef Aaron Vandermark is up for a best-new-southeast-chef-thing. We’ve all voted for him because, and we have to be careful how we word this, Panciuto is a favorite of much of the staff here. So if you agree, give a vote on http://eatocracy.cnn.com/foodandwine/ .  More importantly, if you haven’t eaten there, do yourself and your loved one a favor and get on up to hillsborough

Events this spring/summer: First up, no farm tour. The boys “accidently” scheduled a fishing trip that weekend, and honestly, we need a year off. But remember, our store is open every Thursday 2-6 and Saturday 10-4, so we can show you around the farm any week, so come pay a visit.

We’re also planning on having more events out on the farm. We had 3 weddings this past year, and we’re getting the hang of it. Contact Eliza Sydnor (elizasydnor@gmail.com) if you have any event ideas/desires.

Miscellaneous: Now that the gift-giving season is over, we have gift certificates available. What better gift than good, healthy, sustainable food? Everyone needs food, unlike that new breadmaker your spouse will probably never use…

And the Core Sound folks are taking orders again for this spring. We’ve yapped about them before, but if you live in the triangle and want sustainably caught, fresh seafood, check out http://www.coresoundseafood.org

Besides that, keep it real. Pay us a visit, buy a pork chop, pray that the weather stays like this, eat at panciuto, and give us a name for the new dog. That’s the take home message

Thanks
Cane Creekers

ps, if this is your first newsletter, sorry, we just found a bunch of names being signed up on our website. You’re on now! As for the monthly newsletters, they’re not normally this long, but they are normally this late

Farm Update

We still have some turkeys on the ground, which will become our breeding stock for next year. We may let some more go if y’all are interested. In addition, we’ll have some ducks this spring, which are incubating now. We have a number of pigs farrowing at the moment and they’re all doing very well in this cold weather. And of course, the piglets are adorable. We also have some fresh lamb and goat this week.

Cows

We are still recovering from the terrible drought. We started mob grazing this year, and although it worked well, it needs to be implemented for 3-5 years to really pay off. We hope that with continued mob grazing, we’ll be able to better withstand the most certain future drought. Having said that, we have made a decision to give some of our growing stock cows feed called Forage Extender. It contains fish oil and corn, and we give the cows only a limited quantity every day in addition to their hay and pasture.

This isn’t a decision we made lightly, but it is one that we thought necessary to make our growing stock healthy through the winter. We are obviously proponents of grass-fed beef, but unfortunately the realities of caring for animals has led us to make this decision. We will only have 5-15 cows this year that will be finished on the feed. Otherwise we will not harvest any cows until they have been put onto a completely grass diet for a good amount of time. This may mean that you’ll notice a difference in flavor for the next few cows we harvest. Having said that, the cows look great, they’re gaining some weight and their coats look good. As we said- we continue to believe grass is what is best for cows, and we’ll get our cows onto a 100% grass-fed diet as soon as we possibly can.

However we’ve had to feed this small group, the breeding stock and new borns are still on 100% grass. To reiterate, only a small group of steers, 5-15, will be finished on feed and the rest will only be getting a much needed calorie boost to get through the winter. Thus, we won’t have much beef this Winter, but should have a lot of beautiful meat in the Spring.

Cane Creek Farm Stock Your Freezer Sale

Alright, we NEED to clear some of our goods from the freezer. So we’re planning a big sale at the farm for Saturday January 8th. We will be heavily discounting many of our products. This is a great opportunity to fill up your freezer and feed your family wonderful and healthy meals through the winter, all for a great price. We’ll make some apple cider and hot cocoa, some chili, perhaps a few beers, and we’ll be at the farm ready to load you up. So, at 10am on Saturday January 8th until 4 in the afternoon, come visit the farm and bring a cooler along. In addition, we will have plenty of farm swag for sale too; t-shirts, tote bags and stickers. As always, you’ll be able to look around the farm, which, if the weather is descent, can be absolutely beautiful in the winter.

We will be making a delivery of product on Wednesday afternoon in Carrboro, so email us if you would like anything. Otherwise our store is open Thursday the 23rd and 30th, 2-6. Carrboro market will be open January 1st, but we are uncertain if we’ll be there. We will certainly return to both Carrboro and Greensboro markets on January 8th.

We hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday season. Hope to see everyone on the 8th, come out and visit if nothing else!

Cane Creekers

*Snowy farm photos courtesy of Kate MacLean

Our big shindig: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, on October 16th.
“Step back in time for a lively evening hosted by Mark Twain featuring his characters, live entertainment and a locally prepared and grown feast.”
Chris and Austin McKinley (Boxcarr Farms) will be cooking up this farm feast, Fullsteam Brewery will provide the beer, our hay shed overlooking the farm will be the venue, and we’ll be raising money for a good cause. Please email Eliza (elizasydnor@gmail.com) asap if you would like to attend.  Check out   http://www.canecreekfarm.us/2010/09/join-us-for-mark-twain-a-themed-final-banquet-of-the-summer-on-oct-16th-2010/ for more details.

Turkeys: Please sign up for turkey reservations on our website: http://www.canecreekfarm.us/2010/09/lets-talk-turkey-reserve-yours-today/
Face it, the mashed potatoes are always the same, the Lions are gonna lose (badly), so shake it up this year with a glorious bird.

Besides that, it’s been dry as can be out here. Because of that, we’ve had to get rid of a number of cows. They’ve all gone to good homes, and for a descent price, but nevertheless we’ve had to scale down our herd this year. In more exciting news, we’ll have lamb, ducks, and chickens this next week at markets.

We hope that everyone is enjoying this beautiful time of year. We’d love to see you this next Saturday for our party, or any other Saturday for that matter (store hours are 10-4).

Cane Creekers