We’re focused on grass-fed and pastured meat production. Why? Three reasons:
- It’s healthy for our customers. Grass-fed and pastured meats have a healthier fat profile. Jo Robinson lays out the benefits of grass-fed on her website here.
- It healthy for our animals. Fresh air and sunshine are always better for the animals. Don’t believe anyone that tells you they keep their animals inside for safety reasons or to protect them from the weather. At certain times of the year, our animals have a choice about whether they are inside or outside, and it amazes me sometimes, the weather that they will choose to be out in. Here’s a short video showing our ducks out waddling in the snow.
- It’s healthy for the planet. Permanent pasture-based agriculture is part of the solution to our carbon emissions. Here’s an article in Time that lays out the arguments .
All the meat we raise is in a pasture-based system for as much of the year as is practical. We believe in fresh air, sunshine and grass for all our animals. Because of the pasture, our meat will have a healthier ratio of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids and our eggs will have a much higher beta-carotene content.
We raise White Park cattle – an endangered breed that we’re working to rebuild in Canada. Click here for more information on the White Park. Because our primary goal is to rebuild the numbers of White Parks, our beef offering is only sometimes White Park. We also have a herd of Simmental and Angus cross cattle that supply our beef.
Our pork is primarily from Berkshire and Berkshire cross hogs. This endangered breed was found to have the best flavour of any pork in a taste test conducted by Ontario Pork (the marketing board for Ontario pork producers). But, it has black hair so none of the big packers want it, so you won’t find it in the supermarkets.
The primary marketing channel for our meats is through our meat CSA. This is an excellent way to get white cloth restaurant quality meat at an affordable price. Click here for more information on our meat CSA.
Otherwise, you can catch us at the Wychwood Farmer’s market on the last Saturday of the month. It’s best to sign up for our newsletter to get notice of when we’re going to be there and what we’ll have (and to reserve some for yourself as we often sell out very quickly). Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
