Listen to the full broadcast of The State of Things with Frank Stacio

Frank Stacio asked about the consumer movement toward smaller conscientious farms, the market for sustainable and naturally raised meats, and how things have changed or moved along since he last interviewed Eliza in September of 2007. Here is what Eliza had to say about it:  “Demand has increased, as we expected that it would. And I’m glad that it has and more and more farmers have come to the area. More and more people are producing more than just for their own families on their smaller pieces of land. Jeff (Barney) is a great aggregator of those people too… of those who don’t do the farmers markets like I do. More Farmers markets have come up in the last few years. I don’t think the market is saturated but you have to keep you eye on the ball to stay in this business. It’s still not easy. None if us would do it if we didn’t feel some immense pride in it.  You cant work this hard and and make this little money unless you love every moment of it…. I remember talking with you four years ago about the critical mass thing. We’re getting there but I don’t think we’re yet there. There are still lots and lot of consumers who need to be brought into it and room for more producers. We need to collaborate.”

Listen to the full broadcast of The State of Things with Frank Stacio

(L-R Chef Jeff Barney of the Saxapahaw General Store & The Eddy Pub, farmer V. Mac Baldwin of Baldwin Beef, farmer Suzanne Nelson of Cozi Farm, filmmaker Graham Meriwether, farmer Johnny Glosson of Glosson Farm, farmer Eliza MacLean of Cane Creek Farm, farmer Kim Griffin, and Casey McKissick of NC Choices. Photo courtesy of Sarah at LuckPhotography.com)

What an enjoyable evening of food, film and fellowship. It was great to see so many community members come out in support of a new documentary (American Meat) exploring meat production in America and the movement toward smaller family farms raising happy healthy animals on pasture. Cane Creek Farm’s Eliza MacLean was invited to join the post-film Panel Discussion. Thank you for allowing us to share in this important conversation.

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

Before the nitty-gritty, let me attempt to unplug you. The not-enough-food myth is similar to the myth that we need a $660 billion military to keep our country safe. The industrial food complex is not fueled by the will to feed people. Likewise the military industrial complex doesn’t primarily want to keep us safe. Both simply want to make money and in both cases making money doesn’t usually lead to fulfilling either safety or food production. Instead both have discovered that insecurity and hunger fuel the need for their existence. Keeping us afraid of invasion and hunger furthers their mission, making us want to spend hundreds of billions of tax money to keep military and industrial food corporations alive. This analogy is not proof that small farms can do it, but it should be enough to make you suspect the notions you already have regarding food production.

According to the FAO the world currently produces enough food to feed everyone. In fact, we produce 17% more food than we need right now.  However, starvation and malnutrition is happening in developed and developing countries. Thus the problem lies not in production, but in distribution and access to food. It is an economic problem whereby the poorest people in the world don’t have the resources to obtain adequate nutrition. In addition, if food production were the underlying factor, if you think that we produce all this excess now because of the big corps, “The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) estimates that, even accounting for the energy value of the meat produced, the loss of calories that result from  feeding cereals to animals instead of using cereals directly as human food represents the annual calorie need for more than 3.5 billion people.” (UN Report) In other words, we could feed half the world simply by not feeding grain to animals (corn to cows, pigs and chickens). Many small farms do feed grain, but the more sustainable ones don’t and don’t have to (buy 100% grass-fed beef for the love of God!).

Finally, “only by supporting small producers can we help break the vicious cycle that leads from rural poverty to the expansion of urban slums, in which poverty breeds more poverty.” (UN Report) The poorest people in the world, the ones that are starving, are FARMERS. Supporting localized, sustainable food systems around the world means  funneling money towards the people that need it in order to buy food. You might think it strange that farmers don’t have access to food, but many of these farmers don’t actually own the food they grow. They work for corporations, which own the crop that is barely edible anyway for people (feed grade corn is not the sweet corn of late summer). If we buy more food from small farmers we empower them to grow a more diverse crop, increase their profit and our money comes back through the local economy in the form of jobs (construction, labor, mechanics, trucking).

Feeding the masses means getting money into the pockets of the world’s poorest people. It requires the redistribution of wealth from the few to the many. It requires the re-education of two generations of non-farmers and the establishment of a supportive farm economy. It requires the support of friends and family, community, to keep the few struggling farms we have. Go to your farmers markets, buy food from farmers you know and help feed the world’s hungry, improve the local economy and feed yourself real, healthy food. Not only that, but you will feel awesome too.

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

We need to clear some space in our freezer which means tomorrow is your lucky day. 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.

What you can expect to be discounted (10-40%): We’re offering great discounts to you all in order to free up some freezer space.

• Beef: a huge selection of beef including high-end steaks (ribeye, strip), whole primals (filet, strip, ribeye), roasts, other steaks, ground beef, and more
• Pork: pork chops, shanks, jowls, export racks, shoulder, belly, and more
• Lamb & Goat: assortment of roasts and of ground
• Turkeys: 6-8lbs birds
• Dog Food: assortment of older beef and pork cuts

This is a great chance to buy large roasts for special occasions. Or if you’ve been nervous that you’ll mess up a cut, here’s a good chance ease that pressure. So bulk up on some meat to get you through winter and spring. We’ll have some food and we’ll be happy to take people around the farm. Hope to see you Saturday, 10-4.