Kale and Chard

Farmer Friday at the Catawba Valley Brewing Company in Morganton tomorrow, Friday 3/30, from 5:00-6:30pm.

Look for our pastured pork, chicken, eggs, and some vegetables.

Kale and chard are the stars of the show! We like to sauté onions and chard and use it in our lovely quiche recipe

Kale makes an easy supper of Hearty Kale and Sausage over Rice. I don’t use a recipe but I use the following “cooking under pressure” techniques … Chop an onion and cook it with our Italian sausage over medium heat until the sausage is still a little pink. Add chopped kale (tear out stems and chop leaves in 1 inch by 1 inch pieces), diced canned tomatoes, and fresh garlic, to the pan and cover with a lid. Cook for about 5 more minutes together until the greens have wilted and cooked. The sausage should be done and all of the flavors blended together. Serve over rice. Voila…It’s time to eat the wonderful farm inspired dinner!

It’s egg season. Think about Easter traditions. Wonder why eggs show up during the Easter season? Because the hens are laying. Eggs are almost as seasonal as some vegetables…different way of thinking about it, huh?! Our dinner tonight was leftover garden peas and roasted potatoes, refried and then incorporated into a farm fresh egg frittata. Simple, quick, and meatless idea, but you still get healthy protein in your meal.

See you tomorrow

Farmer Fridays are back at the Brewery!

The new hen coop..."The Chicken Palace", house on wheels

Spring fever is upon us here at Bluebird Farm! How about you?

Well, we’ll be back for weekly Farmer Fridays starting this Friday March 23^rd…Tomorrow, from 5-6:30pm you can stop by the Catawba Valley Brewing Company to stock up on farm fresh free-range eggs, pastured pork, and pastured chicken.

We’ll also have limited amounts of vegetables…over-wintered kale, chard, and parsley from our garden. Ready for some greens? How about some Swiss chard in a locally ingredient quiche?

Did you know that hens lay the most eggs in the spring? Think of Easter and eggs, because eggs are really in season right now. Buy a few dozen and make some delicious egg salad, quiche, or deviled eggs. Remember to let our super fresh eggs “rest” in the fridge for about 1 week before making boiled eggs for easier shell peeling.

See you tomorrow at the Catawba Valley Brewery in beautiful downtown Morganton.

Check out the photos of the new "Chicken Palace," a hen coop on wheels, our hens are living in style!

The inside of the "Chicken Palace" before the hens move in

The Chicken Palace is in the pasture and the hens have moved in!

Faithful chicken and sheep guard dogs; Tazi, a shorthaired Akbash and Clyde, a longhaired Great Pyrenees

Bluebird Farm Online Store

It's time for the March order of Bluebird Farm pastured pork, chicken, and eggs. Yes! Our chickens are laying again due to the increased day length.

We have farm fresh eggs again for you!

Now accepting March orders

Drop off locations:

• Catawba Valley Brewing Company, Morganton, Friday March 9th 5-7 pm,
• Conover Hardware, Saturday, March 10th, 10-11 am
• Hickory (the Hickory Depot parking lot near the railroad tracks) Saturday March 10th, noon-1pm

Bluebird Farm Online Store

Pastured Pork, Chicken, and Free-Range Eggs

Place an order on our online store. Select pork cuts, our whole pastured chicken, and eggs.

You will not receive a total invoice because all prices are per pound and your total will vary with actual weights. We are not accepting credit cards at this time. Payment is due in check or cash at time of delivery.

Big Oak Farms beef in Conover

In Conover we will be partnering with Big Oak Farm. They are taking orders for their beef for drop off at the same time in Conover. For beef information contact Dawn Smith atdawnsmith1209@yahoo.com Check out their website to see pictures and info about their farm, Big Oak Farm.

1/2 Hog Orders:
Please email or call if interested and we will put together your order with you.

Bluebird Farm Online Store

William loving on Sweet Petunia (our big farm guard dog) with happy little Okra dog looking on.

Misty the horse loves her sheep friends.

Okra the little dog plays dead after being caught stealing Petunia's dog food.

Bluebird Farm Online Store

Bluebird Farm Meat orders

Hello all,

Don't forget to make your order in our new online store for pick up this weekend!

In case you needed another reason to choose our anti-biotic free pasture raised chickens they have now found arsenic in industrial chickens! Arsenic is highly poisonous to almost all animals-including chickens. You may be wondering how in the world did arsenic get into our chickens? A good question with a simple answer-arsenic is intentionally fed to the chickens to help suppress some of the many diseases the chickens get when raised in such crowded unsanitary conditions. The companies claim that the arsenic fed to the chickens could not possibly enter the meat. As you may imagine it turns out that what animals eat is typically found in their body, including their meat. Recently the FDA finally got the nerve to actually test some chicken meat and surprise, surprise, found arsenic present. You can read more about it here: http://www.grist.org/food-safety/2011-06-08-fda-admits-supermarket-chickens-test-positive-for-arsenic

You can order our chicken or pork on our new online store:

http://bluebirdfarmnc.csasignup.com/store/all

You will not receive an invoice total because all prices are per pound. Totals will vary with the actually weight of your meat. During check out you will also select your pick up location:

Catawba Valley Brewery Moganton tomorrow Friday 13th 5-6:30pm

Conover Hardware Store Saturday 14th 10-11 am

Hickory at the old train depot and restaurant parking lot noon-1pm.

Hope to see you there!

Bluebird Farm online store now open

We are excited to try a new online ordering program.

Now accepting January special orders with drop off locations in

• Catawba Valley Brewing Company, Morganton Friday Jan 13 5-7 pm,
• Conover Hardware Saturday January 14th 10-11 am
• Hickory 2010 farmers market location (the Hickory Depot parking lot) Saturday Jan 14th noon-1pm.

We are testing a new online ordering program. You can now make orders in our online store. You will not receive a total invoice because all prices are per pound and your total will vary with actual weights. We are not accepting credit cards at this time. Payment is due in check or cash at time of delivery. We want feed back on this new set up. Please let us know what you think of it.

Click below to enter our online store.

Bluebird Farm Online Store

Bluebird Farm Sausage at nature's Bounty!

We are excited to announce that Bluebird Farm Sausage is now available at Nature's Bounty in downtown Morganton. You can visit their website for store hours and location at http://www.naturesbountync.com

Bluebird Farm’s pastured pigs are raised without the use of antibiotics. They spend their entire lives outdoors rooting and enjoying fresh grain, leafy forage, roots, grass, and hay.

The pastured pigs are a valuable part of Bluebird Farm’s ecosystem. In warm weather their pigs help convert forest to a pasture and in winter pigs and layer hens till up garden areas and turn deep hay bedding into valuable compost for the farm’s vegetable fields.

Last regular Farmer Friday

Hello all,

Tomorrow Friday 12/9 will be our last regularly scheduled farmer Friday at the brewery 5-7 pm. The end of the vegetables has finally come. We'll have:

Napa Cabbage, great for cole slaw or stir fries. The cabbage will last bagged in your fridge for several weeks (you may have to peel off the outer leaves before cooking)

Swiss Chard

Kale

Head Lettuce

Beets

Arugula is back!

Cilantro

Kale, chard, and lettuce will all keep a week to 10 days bagged in a fridge.

We will have a full selection of pork and chicken-shoulder roasts and ham roasts are back! Our sausage or salami makes a great gift to the food lover you know.

Unfortunately, we will not have any eggs this week.

See you tomorrow!