Beef and Tomato Skillet

Beef and Tomato Skillet

This one makes me so hungry! Serve this over some big egg noodles with a side of crusty bread…. or maybe just serve it entirely over a big hunk of crusty bread!

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What We Chose for Packaging Materials & Why

What We Chose for Packaging Materials & Why

At C&F Farms, sustainability is more than just a buzzword – it’s a commitment we live by every day. From our farming practices to our packaging choices, we strive to reduce our environmental impact while delivering the highest quality products to your doorstep.  You can read it on our shirts, we strive every day to “Leave it Better Than We Found It!” When taking on the addition of a shipping program, we did a lot of research to find sustainable packaging. And when it comes to shipping frozen goods around the country, that can be a challenge!  Today, we want to share with you the eco-friendly packaging materials we use in our shipping program and why they matter. And first I should mention, we didn’t do this alone! We believe you have to know your strengths and know when to stay in your lane, so we have worked closely with Morissette Packaging to work through the best options for us. Let’s jump in! Cardboard Boxes: Strong, Recyclable, and Eco-Friendly Our journey for packaging begins with our cardboard boxes. Made from recycled materials, these sturdy boxes are designed to protect your farm-fresh products during transit.  While we wanted to be as environmentally friendly as we could, strength was a huge concern here as well because keeping your investment safe in transit had to be a priority.  And of course, cardboard is fully recyclable and biodegradable, ensuring that even when you’re done with them, they continue to have other uses and environmentally friendly ways to be recycled or reused.  Fiber Liners: Insulation with a Conscience Let’s be honest though…the boxes were the easy part of keeping the footprint low on this one!  Keeping your products frozen in transit is pretty much the crux of it all right!?  This is where the homework, and due diligence really came into things. There are a ton of sustainable, eco-friendly, recyclable packaging materials out there…but they’re also so dang expensive unless you order 100,000 units at a time that we just couldn’t make that work!  Again, working closely with our friends at Morrissette we were able to find something that came pretty darn close to perfect….without breaking the bank!  These liners are made from a post-industrial, recycled natural fiber blend, all wrapped in a perforated recyclable plastic film, basically providing excellent thermal protection without the need for harmful plastic foam.  You might need to separate the natural fiber from the plastic wrap, but so far every piece of this package is recyclable! Back to the issue of keeping your products frozen, these liners are pharmaceutical grade. Meaning they are manufactured to such a high tolerance they are most commonly used in the shipping and transport of sensitive pharmaceutical items. Reusable Ice Blankets: A Cool Solution for a Sustainable Future The last piece to the puzzle is of course what helps keep the temperature low inside of all that packaging?! To ensure your products arrive at the perfect temperature, we utilize reusable ice blankets in our packaging.  These ice blankets are designed to be used multiple times, reducing the need for single-use ice packs or costly and wasteful dry ice.  Simply refreeze them and use them again for your own needs, whether it’s for a picnic, a road trip, or another delivery. By choosing reusable options, we’re taking another step towards minimizing waste. Why It Matters Choosing sustainable packaging materials is an important part of our commitment to the environment and to you, our valued customers. By using recyclable, compostable, and reusable materials, we’re reducing our carbon footprint.  We’re only a small piece of this world, but we believe that every small step towards sustainability makes a big difference, and we’re proud to have you join us on this journey. Thank you for supporting our efforts to deliver fresh, high-quality products in an eco-friendly way. We’re always looking for new ways to improve and appreciate your feedback. If you have any questions or suggestions about our packaging, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Jared

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We Made the News....In a Good Way!!

We Made the News....In a Good Way!!

Recently, Neesy Payne with one of the local news stations came out to the farm to do a quick interview for the stations “Grown Here at Home” segment. Having only been on TV once before, I was a bit nervous! Well, that quick interview turned into over 2 hours!! It turned out to be a lot of fun, Neesy is great to talk to and really puts you at ease. She set up the camera and just started asking questions and we just chatted about all thing’s life and farm! Started with a few hurdles, she thought she had lost the mic’s battery pack which would have been a little hampering to the whole thing! Then the cows would not cooperate and come out of the shade to be filmed! All in all, it was a blast to be able to tell part of the farms story and I’m glad I had the opportunity to do it. I invited Neesy back anytime she’d like to check things out again! (maybe next time we’ll do a cooler day!) Here’s a link to the video if you’re interested, I hope you enjoy it! Check out the full video here!

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Is Our Chicken The Same As Grocery Store?

Is Our Chicken The Same As Grocery Store?

With the addition of chicken we’re getting tons of questions about our chicken and how it compares to other chicken you can buy, which we love!  Recently, someone was telling me they had been buying organic chicken from the grocery store, and now were going to be buying our chicken. They asked about pricing and the comparison between our prices and grocery prices. They asked, “your chicken isn’t really different than organic chicken in the store right?” Whoa. Hold on! Now to be fair, I’m pretty sure they meant it as a compliment that our chicken was on the level of something with organic certification. We’ve covered before how many loopholes there are in food labeling, and some of the misleading statements….and you’ll be shocked to know that organic certification has its own set of loopholes. Of course, in order for any product to be labeled as certified organic, it must adhere to the rules put in place by the USDA. Certified organic guidelines for all meat production require that the animals are fed 100% organic and non-GMO feed and forage (yes that means organic beef isn’t necessarily grass-finished beef), not given any growth hormones or antibiotics and have the ability to graze on organic pasture. Before I go much further, all of this information is available on the USDA’s website – there’s a ton of information there. This handbook from the USDA is a good place to get started if you want to dig into it! NOP Handbook | Agricultural Marketing Service (usda.gov) Back to certified organic – according to the guidelines, it turns out that chicken is exempt from the requirement that they graze on pasture. Per the USDA, “maintaining vegetation cover is a challenge” when it comes to raising poultry. So, is organic chicken required to be raised outside on pasture? Not according to what I’m reading! Organic chicken is supposed to have “access to the outdoors and direct sunlight”. Remember what we found with the misleading label of “free-range” chicken? What’s that mean? It means industrially raised birds are still raised inside large barns and are only provided access to the outdoors, sometimes in the form of just a “pop hole”….so they can’t even get their whole body outside.  So, if organic chicken is required only to have “access” to the outdoors, are they falling into the same loophole as free-range and only have to be able to poke their head out if they want? Based on those basic guidelines… - Fed organic & non-GMO feed- Not given any growth hormones & antibiotics- And only have “access” to the outdoors & sunlight How easy would it be to produce chicken in large quantities, in a big industrial barn, and still be able to label it as certified organic? Still with me? I’m sure this one has ruffled some feathers (sorry couldn’t help that pun!). I know lots of people who live and die by the organic label. And let me be clear, I’m not slamming organic labeled food. There are some great local farms doing organic right. (Here's a great place to search for them Home Page - Real Organic Project) So, what’s the purpose of even writing this email? Labels are misleading. Claims are misleading. Even certifications can be worked around with the loopholes out there. Find out where your food comes from! Talk to the farmer. Ask questions and be comfortable with the answers before you decide you want to purchase those products. That’s part of why I’m always encouraging you to email with questions, or just corner me at the farmers market! I want you to be 100% comfortable and excited about the products you buy from us. No, we’re not certified organic. But we do work really hard to raise and produce the cleanest, healthiest meats that we possibly can – and we’re very open about our practices, so you always know where your food is coming from and how it was produced. If certified organic is important to you, I think that’s great. A quick google search will help you find any certified meat or vegetable producers in our area…find them, and go talk to them. If they’re a small farm like us, they’re probably doing it right. But don’t take my word for it, go ask them and get comfortable with where your food is coming from! Okay, putting my soapbox away for now!

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The Superpowers of Pasture Raised Organ Meat

The Superpowers of Pasture Raised Organ Meat

Organ meats have been touted as the best parts to consume from animals since humans began eating meat! Even before technology allowed us to measure the nutritional benefits of organ meat, Native Americans knew they held benefits and were good for their health and wellbeing.

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Why is Our Meat Frozen?

Why is Our Meat Frozen?

One thing that I’ve heard from folks at the various venues before and was mentioned a couple of times in the survey was our meat being frozen instead of thawed. So, let’s dig into that a little more this week and explain some of the logistics of our operation and compare that to the meat you could (because you don’t right?!) buy ‘thawed’ at the grocery store. We’ve talked previously about food labeling laws and the loopholes that exist to allow imported meat to be labeled as “Product of the USA” – and if you missed those emails, I made them into blog posts so you can find them here. But the key to that is that a lot of meat is being imported into the US. According to a report done by Reuters in early November the US is on track to import a record 3.7 billion pounds of beef by the end of 2023….and if trends continue that will reach 4.2 billion pounds in 2024! And that’s just the beef! Now, is that meat in the grocery store really fresh? Australia is one of the largest suppliers of beef to the United States, a journey that takes anywhere from 4-6 weeks depending on the port of entry to the US. I did some digging online and depending on which import company you look at some claim to be ‘wet aging’ the beef in large containers kept extremely cold during the journey and others will freeze the large primal cuts of meat and pack them tightly into those containers and let the crammed in meat help to keep it all frozen until arrival. Once in the states whether frozen or not, that meat is taken out and then processed down into the final cuts of steaks, roasts, and ground that you would get at the grocery store. Then is has to been shipped to a distribution center that then ships it out to grocery stores across the country. I mean if you like well travel meat, there ya go! That ground beef has seen some things! And all of those steps are done without freezing the meat? I don’t think so! That’s anywhere from 8-10 weeks from slaughter to showing up in the meat case at the grocery store. And you have no idea where it came from? Our process is a little shorter…just a little! For instance, as this message hits your inbox we’re on our way to the processor to drop off another load of cows. That same day those animals will be cut into large primal sections and then hung in a cooler for 14 days to dry age. And if you’re curious about dry aging, check out this link (Dry Aged Beef: What Is It and How Does It Work? – Robb Report) it’s one of the best explanations I’ve read about the process. On the 14th day those primal cuts are taken out, all the ‘aged’ meat on the outside is trimmed off and the large cuts are then cut down into individual steaks, roasts, etc. Once everything is cut, it is packaged, loaded into boxes and placed into one of their large walk-in freezers. We receive a call that day or the next that it’s ready to pickup – we’ll drive down and get the product and bring it back to the farm ready to sell to all of you! So, when you’re buying from us or another similar local farm you are truly getting some of the freshest meat possible! If we were to keep all the meat unfrozen we would need to get it sold extremely quickly…1 cow will typically produce over 400 pounds of fresh meat. Let’s just say on average a pound of beef is good for 3 days when kept in the typical fridge, we would need to get rid of all 400 plus pounds in less than a week! And as much as I wish we were selling 300-400 pounds every 3 or 4 days….well we’re not there quite yet! We really are trying our best to get all of you the freshest, highest quality meats we possibly can. And while several of you commented in the survey that while you wish you could get thawed out meat, you also said, it’s more important that you know where it came from and how it was raised. Hopefully that helps you some with knowing why our meats are available how they are, and while that may not be exactly what you had in mind it’s one of the freshest options available when buying individual cuts! As always thank you for reading and continuing on this journey with us! Jared

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