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

we spent our first day back on a farm yesterday. we went to a farm outside of boston that we will be working on through the winter. they are a non-certified organic veggie farm with over 40 acres in cultivation. we have been hired to introduce livestock to their acreage in the coming year. chickens and pigs most likely. we spent the morning talking cover crops and local predators (a coyote mother who likes to watch them garden from the compost pile). we talked winter shelters for chickens. we talked heat sources and found a great solution from a woodstove in an old green house.

it felt good to talk shop again. it felt less good to spend 5 hours bent over in the hot sun harvesting arugula and kale and potatoes and cilantro. but we had to put in some solid time with their college-infused garden crew. show we aren’t the bitter and wizened 27/28 year olds that we appear to be.

and so today, we are headed over to the berkshires. to begin our fall apprenticeship in the hippy hills of western massachusetts. where we will sing a lot of songs. and make a lot of farmer’s cheese. and bake a lot of bread. and have general merriment and be generally productive. and be reunited with my rag tag flock of animals.

we don’t have internet at this new farm. so i will do my best to communicate to you our goings ons. but a fair warning, that you may be in for a more heavily loaded iphone picture blog in the close future.

wish me luck.

in iphone photos of a friend’s farm:
1. happily colored honey bees. doing their job. in their little honey bee village.
2. flowers picked for nick’s sister.
3. out of focus photo of ants devouring a melon. 
4. pop-corn.  

i don’t know that there are many physical feelings of relief greater than that one i had today, in the open field of the turkey pen. panting under the hot sun as i labored with the bird’s water trough. after 3 straight days of 100°s and going higher. after lying naked and restless everynight with no air conditioning and no wind in the night skies. after covering myself in sweat and mud and stench from an early morning in the pig pen….

i was just finished with using a pail, i held it in my left hand and i heard a drop hit it. and then another. i looked above me and saw a dark, cartoon, rain cloud hovering there. well, that would be nice i thought to myself and the cartoon cloud obliged and let loose its contents. it poured. poured. for nearly 15 minutes straight. and we all stood there. all humans, birds, pigs alike. everywhere on the farm. and thanked the heavens for their mercy.

the skies cleared and the sun got right back down to his task at hand. as though the rain had been a temporary slip and would prefer you didn’t mention it. and so we are back to Sweat, Mud, and Stench. back to packing. back to chores. back to canning. back to cleaning.

photos: 
1. linens are washed and folded and shuttered into boxes to be sent north.
2. i am the inefficient packer. the one that likes to pack things in millions of little boxes and cases.
3. nick made a winter’s ration of tomato sauce.
4. the rugs are sunning themselves, preparing for their sentence of an indefinite storage.
5. the succulents are posing an issue. how do you pack a prickly plant?