Bluebird CSA

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Winter Special Order for Hickory

Warm up with our pork and chicken!

Check out the Honey Roasted Pork Chops with Apples and Onions recipe below. It's one of our favorites, and it's easy!

Order now!
Pickup this Saturday, January 17th in Hickory.

Pickup at Youssef 242 Restuarant, 11-noon.

Order by this Friday, 1/16, at noon for pickup this Saturday,1/17,  11-noon.

     Chicken selection: Boneless chicken breasts, leg quarters and wings, whole chickens, chicken backbones, necks, and liver.
     We have pork tenderloin (1 pound) and boneless pork loin roasts again! Enjoy all our pork sausages: chorizo, sweet Italian, country, fresh ground, Bratwurst, Cajun. We also have thick pork chops, fresh hams, pork belly, side meat, and shoulder roasts.
     Order as little as 1 pound of sausage, or 1 pack of chickens breasts, or as much as a 1/2 hog.
Check out our Family Pork Packs; we have 20 lb and 40 lb packs to stock your freezer with.


Apple and pork is one of my favorite combination of flavors.  Here is a fail proof way to make the juiciest, sweetest chops you have ever tasted.  I often double or triple the amounts to cook for more people or to insure a tasty lunch the next day.  Use fresh sage if you have it, just finely chop and increase to 2 tablespoons. Another amazing recipe from The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook, by Shannon Hayes. 

Honey-Roasted Pork Chops with Apples and Onions
 
"A homey dinner for two, this is a nice way to enjoy a fall harvest of apples and onions.  It takes only 10 minutes to prepare, then fills your kitchen with sweet scents while you relax as the chops cook." -Shannon Hayes
 
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 teaspoons rubbed sage
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 pork chops (rib, shoulder, loin, and country ribs are all okay to use)
1/3 cup apple cider or juice   (I sometimes substitute for 1/4 cup water and extra honey)
1 tart, firm apple, cored and cut into thick slices, but not peeled
1 small onion, thinly sliced into rings
1/4 cup raisins
2 tablespoons honey
 
Preheat oven to 350 F.
 
Combine the salt, pepper, and sage; rub into the meat.
 
Pour the olive oil into a heated oven-proof skillet, and sear the chops over medium heat, minute per side or until browned.  Remove from heat, add the cider, sliced apples, onion, and raisins. Drizzle with honey, cover and roast for 1 1/2 hours or until fork-tender.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

CSA sign ups are now open! Vegetable, chicken, egg, and pork shares

Share our harvest with Community Supported Agriculture!
Vegetable, egg, chicken, and pork shares. 


Eat delicious, local farm food in 2015.

Vegetable share members receive a “Farmer’s Pick” assortment of season, fresh vegetables, and herbs weekly for 20 weeks from m id-May to the end of September. Our vegetable share members receive weekly newsletters about the farm with special seasonal recipes.

Our chicken, egg, and pork shares complete the  delicious variety of our farm’s bounty throughout the growing season. 

Happy New Year all!
       2014 was a big year for us here at Bluebird Farm.  After a freezing winter last year we enjoyed a mild growing season with regular rain and bursting with vegetables in rich organic soils. Our vegetables were more beautiful and tastier that ever, with our soil getting better with every year of organic management. An end of year cold snap in November shocked us all with a few nights close to 10 degrees.  But most of our vegetables survived and the fall season finished with a bounty of roots, greens, and broccoli.
    The year was filled with a few escape artists.  We had a flock of marauding sheep running back and forth down a farm road like a plane taxiing,a fence jumping sow, and a pig breakout parade the day after Thanksgiving!  The livestock like to keep us on our toes.  We work and think hard to keep the animals rotating over the farm to maintain robust, beautiful animals and improving pastures and fields. The fall also included butchering the first hogs we farrowed (birthed) here at Bluebird Farm.  The sow and piglet operation is an exciting new addition that will help us grow more tasty, healthy, organic fed pastured pork.  
       Right now we are enjoying the slower pace of work as we turn our thoughts to 2015's season.  We might not be in the field, but we are spending days in the office crunching numbers, looking over plans and catalogs, and dreaming of the bounty of delicious organic vegetables.  We hope you will join us for another great year of local agriculture!  


Vegetable, egg, chicken, and pork shares.
You can join our vegetable CSA and add-on protein shares.
You can also join our Meat CSA or "Protein-only".

Vegetable Share: weekly, mid May-end of September
Egg Share: weekly or every other week, mid May-end of September
Chicken Share: every 5 weeks, mid May-end of September
Small pork share: Feb and May pickups. Large pork share: Feb and May and July.

We have CSA pickups at the following locations:
Bluebird Farm
Morganton Natural Foods
Wednesday Hickory Farmers' Market
Saturday Charlotte Regional Farmers' Market


Taste the difference in our farm food!

Our free-range, pasture meat chickens and pigs are fed certified organic grains.  Our free-range, pasture hens are fed non-medicated grains with flax seed and alfalfa.  We rotate the livestock to different pastures, fields, woods, and deep bedded hoop barns around the farm depending on the season. We work (and think) hard to meet our high standards of pastured animal husbandry and welfare at Bluebird Farm. 

Our fresh vegetables are raised in living soils without the use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, fungcides, or insecticides. We use compost, cover crops, organic amendments, and lots of brain and work power to grow our vegetables.  Our vegetables glow with fresh color and flavor!