Lau Family Farm, LLC grass-fed meats available on April 18
Lori Anne Lau
LAU FAMILY FARM, LLC
Grass-Fed and Finished * No Antibiotics * No Hormone Implants
We are planning to meet our Logan area customers at Crumb Brothers Bakery (approx 300 S and 300 W) on April 18 from 9:30 to 10:30 am. Our second stop will be at Old Town Pocatello’s Office at 420 N Main, Pocatello, from 1:30 to 2 pm. The final stop will be at DC Natural Foods (159 S Corner Street, Idaho Falls) from 4 to 5 pm.
We plan to attend the Cache Valley Gardner’s Market on May 16th, and will probably make a quick trip down to SLC and Ogden that day. On the 23rd we’ll be at the Idaho Falls farmers market and make a stop in Pocatello.
§ April 18th special: Leg of lamb and shoulder boneless roasts 10% off. (Leg of Lamb for $9/lb and Shoulder Rst $7.20/lb)
§ We have gift certificates available, for an amount of your choosing!
§ We have 4 beef bundles and 3 lamb bundles available currently. The beef bundles have recently been revised (see below).
§ We have a couple of types of lamb sausages available- garlic and rosemary, and merguez as well as lamb salami. We have uncased packages of many of the lamb sausage varieties for those who are trying to avoid pork.
§ We also have beef andouille, and beef bratwurst sausages. We hope to have a full array of flavors soon! Here’s a great way to stretch our Italian sausages… http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Italian-Sausage-Soup/?prop31=9
§ We have quite a few lamb hearts, kidneys and livers available. We also have a good supply of beef fat at the moment.
Revised Bit of Everything bundle- Approx $180 after 10% discount
2 lbs Grilling Steaks (New York Strip, T-bone, or Rib Eye) (approx 1.75 to 2.5 lbs)
1-3 Oven Roasts (Top Sirloin, Sirloin Tip, London Broil or Tri-Tip) approx 4 to 5 lbs
1-3 Slow Cooking Roast (Chuck Roast, Eye of Round, or Brisket) approx 4 to 5 lb
3-4 lb Marinating/Moderately Tender Steaks (Petite Sirloin, Top Sirloin, Flank, Skirt, Ranch, Chuck, or Cube Steaks)
1-3 lbs Convenience Cuts or Bone-in Cuts (Stew Cubes, Kabob Cubes, Boneless Short Ribs or Steak (stir fry) Strips, Meaty Soup Bones aka sliced shanks or Ribs)
10 pkgs Ground Beef (Ten approx 1 lb packages of our standard 90% lean burger, or patties)
Revised Slow Cooking Bundle-Approx $100 after 10% discount
1-3 Slow Cooking Roasts (Chuck Roast, Eye of Round or Brisket) approx 4 to 5 lbs
3-4 lb Marinating/Moderately Tender Steaks (Petite Sirloin, Top Sirloin, Flank, Skirt, Ranch, Chuck, or Cube Steaks)
2 pkgs Convenience Cuts or Bone-in Cuts (Stew Cubes, Kabob Cubes, Boneless Short Ribs or Steak (stir-fry) Strips, Meaty Soup Bones, Ribs) approx 1.8 to 2.2 lbs
5 pkgs Ground Beef (Five approx 1 lb packages of our standard 90% lean burger)
Revised Grill Lovers Bundle-Approx 115 after 10% discount
2 lbs Grilling Steaks (New York Strip, T-bone, or Rib Eye) (approx 1.75 to 2.5 lbs)
1-2.5 lbs Steaks (Flank, Skirt, Hanging Tender, Flat Iron or Top Sirloin steaks)
1-3 Oven Roasts (Top Siroloin, Sirloin Tip, London Broil, or Tri-Tip) approx 4 to 5 lbs
5 pkgs Ground Beef (Five approx 1 lb packages of our standard 90% lean burger or patties).
We were quite pleased to be able to get two new shearers to come take care of our ewes last Saturday. It is a tremendous relief to have that taken care of. Shearers have to have quite a bit of skill to be able to quickly remove the fleece while only making one pass per section of skin, all while not cutting the sheep. While some nicks are nearly inevitable, the skill of the sheerer is quickly evident. Ideally, the shearer is able to give the sheep a very close and even shearing. The value of the wool is greatly reduced if it is cut unevenly, since short lengths of wool are very difficult to spin and make unsightly lumps in the yarn. John arranged to borrow a hydraulic wool press so we won’t have to hand (actually foot) tromp the wool into the bag. The wool has to be highly compressed into the burlap bags, so much that the bags have nearly no give when stacked. It has been a while since we had a less than a 4 man crew here to sheer the sheep, so it will be a slower paced but longer process than we’ve adjusted to.
Many of our neighbors are “making dust” or more precisely preparing the seed bed in their fields. With such an odd spring no one is quite sure when we should plant. The soil is workable (dry enough) and moist enough to sprout seeds, but the risk of killing frosts is still terribly high (statistically at least since we can’t predict this year’s weather). Everyone is afraid that if we wait to plant till the frost risks are lower, that there won’t be sufficient soil moisture to grow a good crop. Those with irrigation systems have a greater likelihood of getting a crop to grow, but no less risk of frost killing the young plants. We are putting in feed crops-hay and things to be grazed this season-on a relatively small percentage of our land. We are replacing old hay crops, trying to create extra feed in some pastures etc. I don’t envy the grain farmers who have their entire acreage to plant every year.
John and I went to a soil school in late March, which we found quite interesting. The soil scientist presenting is trying to get farmers to develop a whole new set of paradigms. He believes we must pay much more attention to the microbial, and other, life in our soils, and that many of the current practices employed by farmers reduce the amount of organisms in our soils. He believes that land should always have something planted on it to serve as physical protection from the force of rain drops and wind, and to feed the critters in the soil. He also thinks that tilling the soil (whether roto-tilling our gardens or disking our fields) does far more harm than good. He is a strong supporter of highly diverse planting mixes (10-15 different seeds in a pasture mix or cover crop) or when that is not possible at least varying the monocultures that are grown via a rotation of crops. Interestingly, he thinks that using herbicides to kill unwanted plants is a far better option than using tillage to destroy them. But he did say the best option was to graze between crops to control unwanted plants and to shorten the decomposition process by having the animal process the plant material first. Several years ago I had tried a “weedless” gardening method and the author of that book was totally anti tillage. The gardening method depended heavily on clean top dressings of mulch. I had some success with the method, though the rhizomatous grass was not well controlled. Now that I pretty much given up on the veggie garden I have a pretty good patch of grass where my veggies are supposed to be!
Over the years we have gone to a variety of classes/trainings/seminars and there are definitely getting to be some commonalities among what they suggest. There seems to be a realization that we have to pay more attention to the condition of our soil, and the organisms within it. Also the benefits of well executed grazing are being increasingly recognized. Also there seems to be a positive relationship between figuring out how to keep animals on green feed for more of the year, farm profitability, and, perhaps surprisingly, soil health. The animals, the financial bottom line, and soil all benefit when we plant diverse mixtures, keep something utilizing every ray of sunshine and thus have roots feeding soil life.
Since I’m on a philosophical tact I’ve been thinking about a question I was recently asked. The potential customer asked “are your animals confined”. You would think this would be an easy question to answer, but in my unique way of making even simple things complex I found myself stuttering about our animals being in large pastures, the customer’s eyes glazed over, and then I saw the customer go purchase from another vendor. I guess the challenge for me, is what did that person mean by confined? Many of the terms we all throw around have different meanings and often there are nuances that a lay person isn’t aware of. If they were asking are they confined to a feedlot the answer is NO! But they are confined within our fences-we don’t want them playing chicken with the semi’s going down the highway. During the winter months when the pastures are protected by snow cover we give the animals huge areas and spread where we feed in an effort to spread their manure relatively evenly over the fields. This time of year we have our animals confined is smaller portions of our farm so that they don’t graze every blade of grass when it is only 1” tall. (We’d have far less summer feed if we allowed free grazing all spring). They still have a lot of room to do their thing, aren’t in mud and feces up to their bellies, but they are confined. Is this what the customer was asking about? Is this management technique considered inappropriate to some? Using high stock density (more mouths per unit area) is a proven technique for getting even utilization of forage (not letting them only eat the very best tasting plants) and for preventing early re-grazing of plants that are recovering being grazed. When we do this we give the animals access to new areas every 1-3 days but they are definitely confined, even if it is only behind 1 strand of electric fence. We confine our ewes for 24 hrs or so after they lamb in 4 by 6 ft pens-does this disqualify us from saying we don’t confine our animals? I suspect that what we all want to avoid is confinement of animals in areas, and for lengths of time, that cause them stress and that don’t allow them to exhibit their natural behaviors like grazing and playing. I think that we all want the animals to have as good a life as possible, right up until the time it ends at the time of harvest.
On a totally different note, I was really pleased that my Father-in-law, maybe for the first time ever, told a doctor “no thanks”. He decided that since he’d had two bothersome skin cancers removed from his hand, and the rest of his spots were not annoying him he didn’t want any further biopsies. The man could have been a walking advertisement for bandaids, and we’d have been burning up the roads between Soda and Logan every two weeks if he’d gone ahead. He says it takes him 2 days to recover from one our trips to the doctor. At 86 the suspected slow growing disfiguring skin cancers are most likely the least of his problems and there was little point in being in pain and having to treat a ton of spots while they healed. From what I can gather Grant has pretty much done what the doctor told him to, or just ignored the advice and never gone back, but has never taken an active role in determining if something was worth doing. I’m glad he spoke up and said “No thanks” this time.
My dad is safely back in Soda and I’ve noticed a few signs that indicate he’s altering his diet and activity level after his heart scare. He’s planning to treat the whole family to a weeklong trip this summer. It will be fun to get to see my brother’s and their families, and to explore the Lake Tahoe area with the kids. Tom guilt tripped us into doing something for spring break this year, and I think we are all glad we did (well, except maybe the budget). We were able to find a farm sitter and so we took about 60 hours and went down to SLC. We checked out the Hill Air Force Base museum, the zoo, This is the Place, Fort Douglas, planetarium and Leonardo Museum and a couple of malls. A friend told us about a pass that helps you save quite a bit on the entrance fees, and suggested using TRAX to get around the downtown area. We splurged on a couple of meals that were new experiences for the kids. The bucket of crawfish place and Brazilian grill both got rave reviews and introduced the kids to some new styles of service and food. (If you like shrimp, crab etc and don’t mind eating with your hands the kids highly recommend Bucket of Crawfish!). Becca was pleasantly fascinated by the history museums, while Tom was most enthralled by the aerospace museum.
Tom will soon go thru his confirmation-when he says he, as an adult, wants to be Catholic. He seems most excited about not having to go to Sunday school in the future. This week is attending his first FFA state convention too. Becca has her first track meet soon, as well as some cheerleading performance events. April is going to be a busy month, but aren’t they all!
I wasn’t totally happy with my beef pot roast trial in the pressure cooker-turned out a bit dry and with less flavor than I expected. I found a pressure cooker recipe book in SLC so I’m going to see if I can improve the results. From my superficial examination of the book I think I may have reduced the juiciness of the roast by quickly depressurizing the pot.
Thank you for your support!
Lau Family Farm, LLC
Grass Fed Beef, Lamb & Wool...A Natural Choice
PO Box 337
Soda Springs, ID 83276
208-709-4981 (cell)
Figure 1 patches and her sister, spot, recently came to live at the meadow. Patches is head mouse catcher and spot is head hider.
Figure 2 no plates or forks just shell fish, plastic coverings and lots of paper towels=messy fun
Figure 3 Some seriously big planes at Hill Air force base and very cool exhibits as well!
Figure 1 Couple of colored ewes being shorn-last group of the day
Figure 2 two of our Suffolk cross sheep being shorn. They are shorn after all the white wool breed animals are done, since their wool is lower quality and shouldn’t be mixed in with the true white wool.