Pork is BACK! 6/17/16

These French recipes are from a French cookbook called La Cuisine: Guide Practique de la Ménagère by Chef R. Blondeau. This book was passed down to me from my great-grandmother, who was from Alsace, a North-eastern region on the Rhine river plain in France. It was published in 1930 as a guide for cooks hired to cook for a family.

I am translating the recipes from French, testing them out with home-grown or raised food, and re-writing them in a modern format, with notes about what worked for me in the kitchen. One thing that I like about these recipes is that they are food for every-day folks - they make the most out of things, and are generally simple and easy to prepare, but the flavors are rich and complex and feature fresh vegetables and herbs, good meat, rich broths, cream, egg yolks and butter. Click on the below links to view:
http://foxgrapefarm.blogspot.com/2016/05/potage-aux-quenelles-soup-with-dumplings.html
http://foxgrapefarm.blogspot.com/2016/03/coeur-de-boeuf-beef-heart-stew.html
http://foxgrapefarm.blogspot.com/2016/03/pot-au-feu-french-beef-stew.html

Half and whole beeves are available again, some soon and some later. If ready now let me know at thisisidennis@windstream.net and we will get the ball rolling.

Our pet food works! Actually it rocks! Read the below testimonial from one of our long time customers and try it at home when faced with adversity in your gut. Also if you have old sour milk around drink some of that too if you ever get food poisoning. Our friend Mike once stopped and got some fast food that he regretted BIG time and got so sick he was about to go to the emergency room when as a last ditch effort he drank some very old milk he was keeping for fertilizer. Bingo!!........ the food poisoning was gone in 30 minutes!
“Good broth resurrects the dead.”
--South American proverb

(From Nourishing Traditions)
Thought you might enjoy hearing how your broth helped rescue our dogs. We have two vizslas, and they had gotten into something that gave both of them food poisoning. Neither was interested in food of any kind and both had severe diarrhea. The vet gave them each a shot and suggested broth as a good choice to restore their damaged gut lining. We tried a boxed variety that we had in the pantry, but they turned up their noses at it. Fortunately, I found that I had one last quart of your pork broth in the freezer. They finished it with enthusiasm! I then tried the most expensive brand of broth I could find at Publix …not interested. Peanut butter? No. Dog treats? No. Rice with butter? No. So I then bought a fryer last night and made broth per the Nourishing Traditions recipe including the last of the chicken heads and feet from you, letting it cook all night. Started feeding it to them this morning and by noon they had had the full gallon!!
More, please, they say!
Actually, I think they’ll be back to eating solid foods soon, but if not, I’ve got several quarts of your broth showing up on Thursday.
Thanks for all you do!

A must see movie screening in Gainesville: Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things. Below is the link to reserve tickets in advance. Tickets must be reserved by July 10th in order for the movie to remain on that night's schedule. The showing is scheduled for July 25th at 7:30 pm at the movie theatre on Newberry Road in Gainesville.
Link to buy tickets
https://gathr.us/screening/15388
Here is the link to the film's trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Co1Iptd4p4

Farm to Table Dinner at Full Circle Farm, June 25th: Our daughter Stella would love to serve you at our first ever Farm to Table Event. It will be a casual affair with good food, fellowship and a farm tour afterwards for those who are interested. The event will be open to the first 20 people who buy a ticket.

Pork Highlights

My name is Ben Fisk and I'm happy to be part of the Full Circle Team. I have been trained by Brian and Angela since December to take over their pork enterprise here alongside Dennis and the family. Dennis agreed to help me get started, by funding all expenses for a while, while I do most of the grunt work. I very much appreciated Brian's training, and mentoring as i helped him finish his last 3 batches of pigs. And I also am appreciating all the infrastructure that Brian and Dennis built up here in the the Full Circle Farm in the Pine Forest leased land where we raise pigs. I have 70 acres all divided into paddocks, and I am continuing Brian's practice of rotating the pigs once per week to fresh ground, allowing them to forage, and providing them with non-GMO verified feed, to supplement their natural foraging habits. I've been learning a lot, and I'm happy to announce that the new Dennis/Ben partnership recently butchered our first group of 8 hogs. They grew fast since January and were taken to the butcher June 6th. They will be entirely devoted to restocking our depleted pork supplies in our walk-in cooler, to sell to you!! We will have all the same pork cuts as before, including all the sausages, roasts, bacon, pork-chops, etc. (only chorizo sausage will still be out-of-stock for a few months). So please take advantage and order pork online.

And also I am excited to announce that we are re-opening the whole-pig and half-pig ordering options. If you want to order a whole or half-pig, please note that it will come from my next batch of pigs which will be butchered in late July, making the product available around August 8. This date is approximate, and may be altered up or down a few weeks depending on the growth rate of the pigs. There will be a total of 4 pigs available for whole and half orders, and they will be reserved on a first come, first served basis. If you want to reserve now, then select "Whole Pig Deposit" ($400.00) or "Half Pig Deposit" (200.00) on your next order and then I will email you to explain the next steps including how to write up your personal cut-sheet. The final pricing will be the same as before, with half pigs costing $6.00 per lb based on hanging weight (coming out to between $530 and $600), and whole pigs costing $5.50 per lb based on hanging weight (coming out to between $980 and $1100) As compared with buying all cuts from us individually, you will save approximately 21% buying a half pig, and approximately 28% buying a whole pig. To learn more about what cuts you would get you may read the product description online for whole and half pig deposit, and for any other question please email me at bfisk@westmont.edu

Dennis and Alicia and the FCF team,
AND some of the best things we share come from our readers:
http://capwiz.com/a-champ/utr/2/?a=72380626&i=134482033&c