Farmhand Foods

This week, some of Farmhand Foods’ staff had the privilege of participating in NC Choices’ Carolina  Meat Institute in Silk Hope in Chatham County.  We spent the first day with Kari Underly of Range, Inc.  as she broke down a whole side of beef.  If you’ve never seen a master butcher take a hindquarter and
turn it into distinct whole muscle and individual steak cuts, it is something to behold.  Part science, part art, part brute strength, the craft of butchery never ceases to amaze.  Kari was ably assisted by Karen Fowler, head butcher at The Chop Shop in Asheville.  Together, they demonstrated the latest techniques for adding value to a beef carcass.

  Day two belonged to Craig Deihl of Cypress Restaurant in Charleston.  He demonstrated how to fabricate   half a pig and create a wide range of charcuterie, including bacon, lardo, head cheese, cured ham,      culatella, pancetta and salami.   Working at a slow but steady pace, Craig made it look easy, all the while   sharing recipes and tips for chefs aspiring to create value-added products from whole hogs.

Big thanks to NC Choices for hosting the event and to Kari and Craig, both of whom are James Beard Award finalists this year!

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 As we grow our business at Farmhand Foods, we continue to increase  the number of farmers        involved in our producer network.  We look for a lot of things when evaluating potential producers  – experience managing pastures, finishing animals for wholesale markets, and raising healthy  animals using humane practices.  We are particularly excited to find farmers who are interested in  learning new practices and techniques.  Late last year, Judy Frank, one of our  local beef  producers, attended a hands-on workshop for “Women Cattle Producers” sponsored by  NC State &  the NC Cattlemen’s Association focused on cattle handling, pasture management, and cattle  health and calving.  The group was limited to 30 women so everyone got to move animals through a chute and practice giving vaccinations.  Here’s what Judy had to say about the experience.

“As a farm owner, I feel like I intuitively know a lot about working calmly with our animals. And I’m familiar with the techniques described by Temple Grandin, who has done so much research about low stress cattle handling. But I was thrilled to learn about an entirely new and very simple tool to use with cattle, which I can only describe as a “cow pacifier.”  Even when a cow is confined by a head gate, for instance for vaccinating or ear-tagging, it will calmly suck on this giant J shaped bar with a ball on the end.  Somehow, the cow focuses on that, rather than anything else.  I can’t wait to try that on our farm!  (Some of you may recognize this tool or have it around the house for trigger point massage!). 

I also learned about a simple forage testing tool, which can be borrowed from our local extension service. It’s a tube that can be inserted into hay bales to extract core samples, which can then be evaluated (like a soil sample) for protein and minerals. Then there are pretty straightforward calculations to determine how much and which grasses and hays from your farm are most appropriate to feed during the winter.

I’d recommend the workshop to any woman involved in raising or selling beef.  We each went home with a large notebook of information to use for reference.  It’s not quite an NC State degree in Animal Science, but maybe the next best thing!”

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 We’d like to start off the New Year by appreciating our customers – some of NC’s finest  local chefs and retailers dedicated to sourcing pasture-raised meats from local  farmers.  This month, we’re profiling a particularly committed customer — Jeff Barney,  owner of the Saxapahaw General Store and The Eddy Pub & Restaurant in  Saxapahaw.

Jeff got his start in the food world early, after high school, when he turned a summer  “clean up” job into an apprenticeship at a neighborhood butcher shop in Flint, Michigan.  Jeff learned to break down animal halves and quarters and carve them into sub-primals and retail-ready cuts.  Says Jeff, “It’s a physically demanding job–long, cold, wet hours that are hard on your hands.”  His skills as a butcher took him to North Carolina where he managed retail meat cases at several large-scale grocery stores, including Lowe’s Foods and Whole Foods Market where he advanced to Meat Team Leader.

While he’d spent years working as a butcher, his passion for the craft came alive when he joined a team of chefs at Fowler’s Gourmet Café (formerly in Durham).  Recalls Jeff, “I was surrounded by some serious culinary talent and it inspired me to really branch out and make a wide range of sausages and other value-added products.  I began to see the important connection between the creation of value-added products, which enables the profitable use of whole animals on a small scale, and sourcing from local farmers.”

When Jeff opened Saxapahaw General Store, he did so with an eye to sourcing as much food as possible from local farmers.  Last year, the store (which includes a café) and The Eddy combined, spent $250,000 on local produce and meat.  Virtually all of the prepared foods are made with locally-sourced ingredients and pasture-raised meats, including a wide selection of beef, pork, lamb, goat and poultry.  In addition to Farmhand Foods, Jeff sources meat from Cane Creek Farm, Nooherooka Beef, and Cozi Farm.  Jeff has some exciting future plans, including launching a catering business and possibly a food truck for nearby festivals and special events.

For those of you who haven’t had the chance to visit Saxapahaw, it is well worth the trip.  Jeff’s culinary exploits and entrepreneurial spirit are at the heart of this small town’s revival.

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Farmhand Foods is one of 10 early stage businesses accepted into the SJF Cleantech Mentorship Program.  This unique program is offered to cleantech entrepreneurs who are committed to accelerating their company’s growth.  “Cleantech” is an umbrella term commonly used in venture capital circles to refer to businesses that focus on clean energy, environmental and/or sustainable products and services.  Hosting the program is the SJF Institute, a non-profit based in Durham that connects, inspires and accelerates positive impact entrepreneurs.   We’re excited to be a part of this top-notch program and to learn from its network of mentors as we grow Farmhand Foods.

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Beef Producer Meeting

That’s not a question we ask in vain at Farmhand.  Indeed, providing our customers with a steady supply of fresh, North Carolina-grown, high-quality, pasture-raised beef is not a casual exercise.  It requires a lot of advance planning and on-going communication with the farmers in our network.  Last week, we met with our beef producers at Bull City Burger and Brewery, where we delved into business matters over house-made burgers (made with none other than our farmers’ beef!).

Top of the list was a discussion of the marketing strategies we’ve used this past year, including social media and the company’s new website, which profiles each producer and provides our customers with ready access to information about how and where their beef was raised.  We reviewed our list of beef customers and discussed the ways in which different markets and restaurant partners support using all parts of each animal we source.  We reviewed our traceability procedures and began mapping out the delivery schedule for next year.

We bid farewell to Bette and Doan Larsen of Goose River Farm who will be selling us their last beeves next week and then retiring after many satisfying years in the beef business.  And we welcomed three new farmers to our network — Cheryl Pryor, Eric Deal, and Kimberly Harry – each of whom does a great job raising cattle on pasture.   We’re excited to be expanding the network and are poised for another year of growth together.

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Wondering how to round out your holiday meal with great-tasting LOCAL meat? Try one of Farmhand Foods’ City Hams, sourced from our remarkable network of North Carolina hog producers, all of whom raise their animals humanely, on pasture, without feeding antibiotics or animal-by products. You can order your ham now through one of our awesome retail partners: A Southern Season, Reliable Cheese, or the Raleigh Wine Shop. Our hams are ready-to-eat, and their mild smoky flavor makes them perfect for warming & slicing as-is or topping with your favorite glaze. Available in 3 sizes: ~1.5 lbs, 3-5 lbs, and 7-10 lbs. Place your order today and feel good about feeding your friends and family some delicious local pork and supporting North Carolina farmers this holiday season!

Orders received by November 10^th are delivered in time for Thanksgiving.

Orders delivered by December 15^th are delivered in time for December holidays.

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The Slow Money National Gathering was a wonderful mix of things important to fulfilling our mission here at Farmhand Foods. It was rich with inspirational new ways of thinking about food and money. And a hot bed of practical tools and relationships useful to us as we think about how to grow our business. The conference was kicked off by Slow Money Founder Woody Tasch asking us to envision a world in which investments are driven by biophilia. “Biophilia” literally means “love of life or living systems”. Woody described it as the instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems. Then, later in the conference, Kiva Co-Founder Matt Flannery talked about social change as being inherently social. Both of these thoughts have lingered with me, and I think are very linked to the success that we’ve had at Farmhand to date. The Triangle area has an amazing community of people who care about where their food comes from, and want their food dollars to go towards supporting a vital and sustainable local food systems that allows our state’s family farmers to make a living as stewards of their land. Without this community and all the great work that they do, there would be no place for a business like ours. Instead we are privileged to play a role in connecting farmers, chefs, and consumers around tasty local meat each and every week.

One of the things that I love about Slow Money is the way in which they celebrate entrepreneurs. It was amazing to be a part of the group of food systems entrepreneurs who were highlighted in their Entrepreneur Showcase. So many inspired people doing great work all around the country. Check out their cool businesses via the links provided here: http://www.slowmoney.org/national-gathering/showcase.php

I hope to cross paths with many of them again, and can’t wait to hear about their continued successes. Thanks again to all of you that voted for us in Slow Money’s Favorite Businesses competition. We wouldn’t have made it to this inspired gathering without you all!

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Thanks to a cost-share grant made available by the NC Market Ready, our pork processor, Acre Station Meat Farm, will soon be equipped with a live animal scale and digital camera to assist with pork carcass quality evaluations.  Most of our hog producers cannot afford to have their own live animals scales.  Joined by the NC Natural Hog Growers Association and Whole Foods Market, Farmhand Foods worked with Acre Station on the grant so that all of our pork producers will be able to receive consistent feedback on quality, including loin size and overall yield (e.g., the difference between the live and carcass weight of an animal).   Acre Station was one of four processors in the state to receive cost-share assistance.

For more information, click here.

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