Stoneyfield's Winter Meats

A lot of what I do in my free time now is farm related. Someday I will get back to my quilt, photos, and other hobbies (I hope), and I'm fine with that for now. I would rather do business work here than work on my quilt in town any day! With that said, this week we sent out a newsletter about our winter meats. For those interested, here it is:


Happy Thanksgiving from Stoneyfield Farm!

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving and that you were able to reflect on the blessings from the year. We have been blessed so much on the farm this past year through friends and family. We were glad to be able to spend the holiday with our families and happy to share a Stoneyfield ham on Thanksgiving Day with so many who have helped us.

With more holiday parties coming up and people looking for a gift for that person who has everything, I thought I would take a minute to share with you what we will have available this winter for meat. Right now we have 3 different options with our pork: sampler packages, individual pork cuts / sampler add ons, and orders for wholes and halves.

As always, our hogs are raised according to the same standards as Niman Ranch. They are kept outside free of confinement houses and have been allowed to live the way pigs were designed to live - rooting up the ground, wallowing in the mud, and relaxing in the sun. They have not been given or fed any antibiotics or hormones, and their custom rations contain no animal proteins.

~+~ Wholes and Halves ~+~
We are now taking orders for our winter pork that will be sold as halves and wholes. Our processing date is scheduled for January 14 with the pork being ready around the last week of January. The price per pound hanging weight to Stoneyfield Farm is $1.85. There will also be a locker fee of around $0.60 - $0.65, depending on the types of cuts chosen. We have attached a locker worksheet showing the various cut options.

~+~ Mix and Match Pork Sampler Packages ~+~
Our Mix and Match Pork Sampler Packages are still available while supplies last. Although we currently have a variety of choices, we do only have one package left for a couple of our sampler package options. A comparison chart of our sampler packages is attached and prices for packages are as follows:

Sampler 1 $25 (~6 – 6.5 lbs)
Loin End Roast, Sandwich Ham, Bacon, Cottage Bacon, Breakfast Sausage

Sampler 2 $25 (~5.5 – 6 lbs)
Butterfly Chops (2), Ham Steak, Bacon, Breakfast Sausage, Ham Hock

Sampler 3 $30 (~7.5 – 8 lbs)
Loin End Roast, Ham Roast, Cottage Bacon, Italian Sausage, Soup Bone

Sampler 4 $30 (~7.5 – 8 lbs)
Iowa Chops (2), Ribs, Ham Steak, Bacon, Italian Sausage

Sampler 5 $35 (~7 – 7.5 lbs)
Tenderloin (2 unbreaded), Sandwich Ham, Shoulder Roast, Bacon, Ground Pork, Soup Bone

Sampler 6 $40 (~9 – 9.5 lbs)
Butterfly Chops (2), Ham Steak, Shoulder Roast, Bacon, Italian Sausage, Ground Pork, Ham Hock

~+~ Individual Pork Cuts / Sampler Add Ons ~+~
Our Individual Pork Cuts / Sampler Add Ons are new and will be available as supplies last. If you found a sampler package you like but want just a bit more, you can buy individual cuts of pork by the pound. These cuts are also available without purchasing a sampler package if you just want to give our pork a try. Prices for individual cuts are as follows:

~ Ham Cuts ~
Sandwich Ham - $5.50/lb
Ham Steaks - $5.50/lb
Ham Roasts - $5.50/lb

~ Bacon Cuts ~
Cottage Bacon - $5.50/lb
Traditional Bacon - $5.50/lb

~ Loin Cuts ~
Iowa Chops - $4.00/lb
Butterfly Chops - $4.25/lb
Tenderloin (unbreaded) - $2.25/quarter lb

~ Roasts ~
Shoulder Roast - $3.50/lb
Loin Roasts - $4.00/lb

~ Ground ~
Ground Pork - $3.00/lb
Breakfast Sausage - $3.25/lb
Italian Sausage - $3.50/lb

~ Ribs ~
Ribs - $3.25/lb

~ Soup Bones ~
Soup Bones - $1.50/lb
Ham Hocks - $2.50/lb

~+~ Pork Delivery ~+~
The Mix and Match Pork Sampler Packages and Pork Sampler Add Ons / Individual Cuts can both be purchased from our farm. We are also able to deliver into Knoxville most days and can deliver to drop off locations in Pella, Des Moines, and Cedar Falls when we gather enough orders for a trip. We will consider other delivery locations if there is enough interest.

~+~ Grass Fed Dexter Beef ~+~
We have been getting quite a few inquiries about our Grass Fed Dexter Beef. Since we are building up our herd right now, we are not yet selling by the whole and half. We are hoping to have sampler packages available on a limited basis this winter. All we are waiting on now is making some additional room in our freezer (by selling a few more pork sampler packages) or by acquiring another freezer. We are currently taking names to be put on our waiting list for our beef. Our waiting list is getting quite long, but we will work our way down the list as soon as we have beef available.


If you have any questions about our grass fed beef or naturally raised pork sampler packages, individual cuts, or wholes and halves, please feel free to contact us. May your blessings continue to be evident as we move into the advent season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was very enjoyable. Not only did we get to get away for 2 family parties, but we also celebrated our daughters 4th birthday, which fell on Thanksgiving day this year. She is growing up so quickly, and loves playing mommy. Most of the day she is found walking around the house with a purse or two and pretending. This year I made her a purse cake. :)

As I mentioned before, this last year has been a bit overwhelming at times, but it has also been filled with blessings. I think sometimes it takes seeing how great your needs are to see how great your blessings are. We have had countless blessings throughout the year through friends, family, and even people we are just getting to meet. When we got home last night from our second Thanksgiving party, I was reminded again of the Lord's provision and the blessings He sends through others.

To back track a bit, Wednesday night Ethan was going to come home from work and get ready to leave early Thursday morning for our time away. Getting ready to leave meant unloading 3000 lbs of pig feed from our trailer, getting the chores done to be gone for 2 days, and then heading to the woods to cut firewood - of which we had just enough left for a small fire to warm the house that night. All to be done before the winter sun set.

Well, when there are nights like this things never go as planned, and this held true on Wednesday. Before Ethan even got home there was a pig emergency. (Hopefully there will be a post on this later in the week.) Ethan spent the rest of the evening with a sow. By the time he got things squared away with her to be able to leave for two days the sun was well gone. We went to bed that night with chores done to last 2 days but no new firewood for when we got back or feed unloaded.

Thankfully, my dad has wood so while we were visiting we squeezed in a nights worth into our over packed van. We could burn that the night we got home, and then Ethan could gather a bit the next day to get us through until he could really go cut again.

Well, when we pulled into our drive last night we were greeted with a surprise. We hadn't let anyone know we were out of wood, but while we were gone someone had dropped off a pile of logs. So today Ethan just had to cut some of it to size and can focus on some of the bigger priorities around here. (Funny thing how wood to keep warm turns into a small priority on the farm, but that's the way it goes sometimes.)

Hopefully next year we will be able to start the winter with a woodpile. Like I said though, sometimes when you have bigger needs you see how great your blessings are. I hope that your blessings are evident as well this Thanksgiving!

Has it really been a year?

It was about a month before Isaac was born that when we finally moved into our house, and now we have just celebrated Isaac's first birthday. Just like Caleb and Hannah, Isaac loves the farm. His first word was "Oooff" (or Woof). Whenever he is held or in his seat, he looks out the windows for our oooffs. His love for our dogs started this fall when he sat outside in his stroller or highchair and the dogs licked his feet. Not only do the dogs captivate him, but watching the pigs, cows, and chickens is almost as much fun. So for Isaac's first cake, I pulled out everything but a cake pan (corningware dishes, a mini bread pan and a cupcake pan), and I put together a dog cake for him.



So here we are. A whole year on the farm. It seems like we've been here forever, and then it feels like we have hardly started. I think of the list of things that I wanted to get done this past year and realize that very little of it has actually been crossed off. Then I remember what we started with - a field of CRP grasses with no development whatsoever except for a colony of gargantuan ant hills - and I am amazed at where we are and so grateful for the community of friends, family, and church members who have helped us get this far.

Hmmm. A whole year here. Kind of crazy.

Blender Woes

When Ethan and I got engaged 9 years ago we ran around Target with a gun - scanning things to put on our registry. The way we scanned was the way I would have shopped, getting the most economical option available. One of these things scanned was a Hamilton Beach blender. And for 8 1/2 years of our marriage, it has blended well on a low demand basis.

Recently, however, I have been a little more demanding on our blender. This fall I have been blending up sugar pie pumpkins that Caleb grew and apples that my parents blessed us with from their place. We don't have all of either done, but we have a decent amount of pumpkin and a good start of apples. While working on these, I noticed that my blender was not too happy with me for asking a little more of it.

Last night I was working on apples again, and my blender finally had enough. I no longer have a working blender . . . or even a blender that will pretend to work.

Since I already had apples cooked down and ready to blend, I finished the night by just canning apple slices. (If you notice, I like to leave the skins on. You can't tell when they are blended up, and it adds in nutrients and also a pretty color.) I'll use these apple slices in our oatmeal, but I still would like to make some more apple sauce.

So now I am thinking about blenders. I really haven't looked at them much since the day 9 years ago when we walked around Target, giddy with our little scanner gun.

What do you think? Do any of you have any suggestions for a blender that can put up with a farm wife who hopes to fill the pantry with fall produce? I'd love to hear your suggestions!

Stoneyfield Snapshots: Fall Sunrise

Yesterday morning I watched this sunrise. It was a beautiful one! (You can click on the pictures to enlarge them and see how brilliant the colors were.) There are so many reminders out here of God's faithfulness. His mercies are new every morning . . .

Fall Cleanup

If you have noticed that Ethan and I continue to be strangers a bit on our blogs, it is because we are working hard to knock off our to do list before winter. Right now we are in "priorities first" mode, because it just isn't going to be possible to get the list completed. Thankfully, we have some extra help though.

Our calves and heifers have been a bit of help over the last few weeks. They get to wander freely around our yard, and we have put up an electric wire across our drive to keep them on our property. (The heifers are separate from the rest of the herd, and the calves can still walk under the single wire fence.) They spend most of their days now mowing our yard, eating down the sweet corn stalks, and eating up our corn stalk decorations from our front porch. (Which is okay because now I don't have to take them down.) Just watch your step if you are in our yard. :)

This year Caleb grew our gourds, and boy did he have a bountiful harvest! We didn't even get get around to harvesting them all. Since they are in the garden for next year, however, they do have to be taken care of. This week we finally figured out what to do with them, and Caleb and Hannah have been tossing them to the pigs who are more than happy to help us with the job.

Today is going to be a beautiful day, temperatures in the 70's, so we are going to continue trying to get this place ready for the snow to fly!

Pressure Canning Trouble Shooting

I have decided that I like to can with a pressure canner that has a weighted gauge rather than a dial. I'll admit that I've never tried a dial gauge, but with young kids and a short attention span, I would probably forget to keep an eye on the dial. If I hear noise every once in a while I don't forget that I'm canning.

I have run into a problem though with my canner. I tend to over pressurize things, which leads to some overflow. I think I have figured out that the problem is that my stove burners aren't level which in turn throws off the weighted gauge.

To attempt to solve this problem, I am trying to level out my burners by putting coins underneath the plate. This helps a bit, but I don't think that I have just the right adjustment yet. I will keep fidling with it and hopefully get it figured out within the next couple of batches. If all else fails, I'll start canning some water with food coloring to check for overflow.

I just don't think I can bring myself to using a dial though. Any thoughts?