Greetings from the snow-covered mountains of Virginia. Here on the farm, we are having an old-fashioned Winter with lots of cold, wind, and snow. Amazingly, the cows don’t seem to mind the cold weather until the real feel temperature falls below 20 degrees.
We would like to thank everyone for supporting us this year. We have been blessed in many ways and hope our abundance of healthy foods can faithfully be shared with you and your families and friends. Our animals are healthy and thriving. Our farmers, their families, and employees are healthy and thriving. Our topsoil has gotten another year of rich manure to feed the microbes and nourish our pastures. And, after being in business for our 4th year, we are finally operating in the black. We have the collaboration between you - our customers, us - the farmers, and God to thank. We wish you a joyful Christmas and pray for peace on earth. Phoenix and the Simply Grassfed Families Reminder: We will not be shipping this week or next week due to Christmas and the New Year holidays. All orders we receive before January 3rd will be shipped on the 6th and will arrive to you by Friday January 9th.Product UpdatesSoy-Free Chicken Back in Stock We have soy-free and corn-free whole chicken and chicken cuts in stock. We will have chicken broth and turkey broth available shortly.Soy-Free, Pastured Pork Available now We have soy-free pork cuts in stock including organs and our popular beef bacon burgers. Taking orders for 100% Grass Fed, Clean Bulk Beef We are taking orders now for 1/8, ¼, 1/2 and Whole Beefs. These bulk beef orders are 100% medication-free and lived on our grasses at Burke’s Garden Farm their whole lives. We will be processing them in January and ready to pick up or ship to you in February. 50% down reserves your order. Click here and email us for details.100% Grass Fed Beef Cuts in Stock Most all of our 100% Grass fed beef cuts are back in stock to in our Ground Beef Ancestral Blend ground with organs. Our beef have never been fed any grain or soy, never given any antibiotics, or hormones, no mRNA vaccinations, however, they might have received Black Leg medication as new born calves from their previous owners. This meat is washed at the butcher only in apple cider vinegar and never chlorine, lactic acid, or citric acid. We hope to have these beef phased out by Summer and offer 100% medication-free beef like our beef bundles for all our cuts going forward. Chemical-Free 100% Grass Fed Lamb Coming Soon We will be butchering lamb in January and ready to purchase in January. Stay tuned as our lamb as never received any medications and eaten only grass for their entire lives.
Feels like Winter this week with 6-inches of snow at Burke’s Garden. The kids couldn’t wait to get out of school to go sledding down the hill. On the farm, this means the animals eat more food to stay warm and water troughs need to have ice broken each day.
Mama cows with their babies often live in grass environments but many of them are fed supplemental grain. And, most beef landing on dinner plates comes from cattle kept in huge confinement systems and fed only grain while they live in dust and dirt. The catch words that define beef from Simply Grassfed are “grass finished”.
John and crew have been scrambling to get the barn renovations completed, shoring up the posts and beams, pouring new footers and concrete slabs, and replacing the 100-year-old siding and gates. Fencing and watering system repairs are getting attention.
John and Alvin Fisher grew up milking and caring for the cows on their father’s farm in the 1980’s. Currently, Alvin operates the farm with forty-eight A2 Jersey cows that are rotationally grazed on chemical-free pastures and milked twice daily.
Last year, I wrote an article titled The Greenwashing of the Organic Food Movement.Click here if you missed it, wish to read it again, or to listen to my podcast with Holistic Hilda. I share many valuable resources that you may want to access.For many years, humans and animals have lived quite robustly without disease, strong and happy on unadulterated animal products and plants in their most natural state. A hundred years ago, there was no such thing as organic because most farms and food were organic.Nowadays, finding food or growing food without chemicals is nearly impossible. We are at war with governments, corporations, media propaganda, and peer pressure. Cancer, auto-immune disease, weak bones, mental disorder, autism, dental cavities, SIDS, Downs-Syndrome, eczema, allergies, depression, diabetes, heart disease, ADHD are epidemic. Every year the AMA announces some new, unnamed unique disease. We have a hard time walking a block, yet alone reproducing.The health of our society and most importantly our children is failing. Disease is epidemic and humans and animals have become dependent on artificial life support from drugs, surgeries, and machines.Click here to listen to my latest podcast with the Appropriate Omnivore. Listen to the Podcast Here I spotlight the allowable exemptions in the USDA organic standards that include chemicals, de-beaking, and irradiation as well as standard practices in the organic produce, grain, meat processing, fishing, and honey bee industry.Did you know that if your organic grains and potatoes won’t sprout, they were likely irradiated?Towards the end, I discuss the current USDA mandated vaccination policy of our American wildlife, the laws in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho that require the vaccination of ALL cattle heifers, and the current air-drop vaccination programs across the U.S. How are shellfish treated? Click Here to watch how our shellfish are “Depurated” ie. sterilized both chemically and with radiation to protect us from harmful microbes. They are bathed in chlorinated, anti-microbial water for 2-3 days and irradiated to kill the bacteria before they ship to your grocery store to ensure we get sanitary, bacteria-free food. What they don’t disclose is that the microbes are there to decompose the toxic chemicals from industry in our waterways. And, their depuration process does NOT remove any heavy metals, petroleum, or chemicals from the shellfish. Thus, it is more likely that if someone was to get sick from seafood, it is from eating the chemical pollutants, not from the fish or the microbes. Scallops without any additives are called "dry-packed", while scallops that are treated with sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) are called "wet-packed". STPP causes the scallops to absorb moisture prior to the freezing process, thereby increasing their weight. So, buy shellfish directly from the fisher or dry- packed, and don't eat from the Gulf of Mexico, near big cities, or toxic waste dumps like the James River in VA or New Jersey or Boston. Best to procure from PEI, Maine, NC, and a few select places in the Pacific Northwest.Currently, oysters are NOT depurated. So, go with oysters over clams, scallops, or mollusks.Clean food and healthy children or going extinct, however, I’m an “apocaloptimist”. It doesn’t look good, but in the long run, good will prevail.It takes vision, perseverance, courage, and hard work to find and grow food that is actually food.Are you down for the challenge? A healthy future for our children, aligned with the wisdom of nature, depends on us. If you want clean food, Burke’s Garden Farm and Alpine Heritage Creamery are both “Beyond Organic”. All our animals are outdoors getting fresh grass, haylage, grubs, sunshine, fresh air, and fresh water from the creeks and springs in a high-elevation circular valley surrounded by mountains, protected from city or industrial pollution. Simply Grassfed animals DO NOT eat GMO feeds or receive Growth Hormones. All our dairy cows are tested A2/A2 Beta-CaseinAll our cheeses are made with NON-GMO-Pfizer rennets. Click Here to read moreAll our cheeses are raw, never exceeding 102 degrees.Our butcher cleans our meat with either apple cider vinegar or water.We ship our products in biodegradable or recyclable cardboard insulated boxes in the Winter and ship with dry-ice when we can to minimize the plastic gel packs filling up the landfill. Click Here for an updated Healthy Products Resource List. In Optimal Health,Phoenix
This Spring has been bountiful with rain and our pastures are lush! This means our animals are also flourishing on green orchard grass, red clover, white clover, fescue, blue grass, dandelion, nettle, violets, burdock, thistle and more!!! Our meat will be as nutrient-dense as ever this year. And, we predict a good hay season to stock up for the Winter.
Thanks to a warm and wet Spring, our animals are back to rotational grazing on our delicious dark green pastures of orchard grass, clover, dandelion, blue grass, thistle, and other nutritious grasses, legumes, and herbs.
John Fisher gave a presentation at the annual Grazer's Conference in Lancaster last week. I thought I'd share it with you here. If you don't know him and his brother Alvin Fisher, this will give you a good idea about what they have been up to the last 2 1/2 decades.
We had a break in the weather this week which melted the snow. The creek waters rose, the animals nibbled on some new sprouting greens, and we enjoyed the tease of Spring. I’m happy to report that of the two downed milk cows from the brutal cold last month, one of them, Dilly, we were able to get back on her feet with physical therapy and massage and save her life.
Two cows went down. One did not make it. We are trying to nurse the other back. Besides the regular milking, bottling, feeding, and making butter, the daily routine now includes feeding the animals behind wind breaks, breaking ice in watering troughs, bringing many into the shelters, especially the sheep whose lambs are more susceptible to predators at nighttime.
