December News from the farm. Holiday Turkeys and Hams for sale!

Greetings friends and pastured-meat eaters,

We hope that you enjoyed your turkeys and that you and your families are staying warm and healthy!

Winter and the holiday season is upon us once again. This is coming into a difficult time of the year for farming, where we work in mud and ice. It is also a wonderful time of year for us as farmers - December and January are our "break" months where we have a much lower workload with no poultry on the farm, no employees, no CSA deliveries, and hopefully some much needed time for rest, recovery, and reflection (in theory!). More often than not, we have had to push through and get going on projects and planning, with barely a day off.

This year, we have the best intentions to have a more peaceful and relaxing holiday season, and are trying our hardest to limit busy-ness to the most essential. Yet as all of you know, real life pressures abound, with or without the farm. There is the usual whirlwind of family holiday activities with kids, along with traveling to visit family, parties and gatherings of all sorts. We are also doing a construction project on our old farmhouse: closing in the back porch to turn it into a mudroom/laundry-room/bathroom. This is VERY exciting for Anna, as it means that more of the farm dirt will stay out on the farm and not come into the house.

There are lots of pigs out here now. Our friend and fellow pastured-pig grower Adam has recently moved and had to get rid of his herd of about 70 young pigs, which are now in our care, along with the 150 or so that we had to start. We are still trying to finish our sow house, as there are about 20 sows who will have litters of piglets here this winter.

December deliveries - holiday hams and turkeys available

There are a small number of frozen pasture-raised, organically fed turkeys available for Christmas. We also have pasture-raised, naturally cured smoked hams. These are made with Himalayan sea salt, unrefined cane sugar, and no nitrates. They are hot-smoked, meaning cooked through and ready to eat. For holiday use, we recommend roasting them at 350 for about 3 hours and glaze before serving. We have two types - cured, smoked and dried (more like country ham), and cured and smoked (call it a city cure). If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email!

Please reserve your turkeys and hams through our website, no down payment required. All turkeys are between 18 and 20 lbs.

Other items will be available for purchase at the pickup sites, and you do not have to place an order to reserve: bacon, eggs, and an assortment of sausages including breakfast links and lincolnshire.

Silver Spring, MD - Sunday Dec. 13

Bloomingdale, D.C. - Sunday Dec. 13

Camp Hill, PA - Thursday, Dec. 17 5-6pm

Broad Street Market Harrisburg, PA - Thursday, Dec. 17 3pm, Friday Dec. 18 7am-4, Sat Dec.18 8am-4pm

Visit our Turkey info page for details about how the turkeys are raised.

Thank you as always for supporting locally grown food.

Have a great weekend, and a happy holiday season!

~Brooks Miller and Anna Santini