Happenings on the Ranch

Wow, has this been a warm spring so far.  This has helped the plants get a real jump on the season … of course, the weeds are enjoying it too.  If our crops grew as quickly as the weeds I’d be one well-fed girl!

The spinach is coming in nicely, along with lettuces, radishes and green onions.  The rhubarb is huge already and some are already starting to turn that beautiful shade of red.  Cabbage is growing strong and it’s almost time to put the tomatoe plants in the ground.  With as nice as the weather has been I’ve been tempted to do it early but don’t want to run the risk of temperatures dropping too low at night.  I’ll probably get them in by the end of the week and have a row cover handy just in case.  The peppers may need to wait another week but I’m hoping to get sweet corn and green bean seeds in the ground in the next day or two.

This season is a stark contrast to the last few years, especially last year which was very cold and wet.  The only thing that delayed planting this year was the excessive amount of rain we had during the first few weeks which made the ground too wet to plant.  The warm sun and cool nights have helped make up for the delay a little bit, though, and we are well on our way to a fantastic season.

The hens are laying beautifully now and we have plenty of eggs available.  We will also be doing our next round of butchering the second week in May and will have around 50 whole chickens ready for your dinner table.  I’ll post when they are ready and you can pick up here on the farm or at farmer’s market.

Speaking of markets, opening day of the Lee’s Summit Farmer’s Market will be this Saturday.  We’re having an opening day celebration starting at 8:00 a.m. with Cowgirl Kate doing balloon animals, singers, the LS Parks & Rec handing out coloring books for the kids and more.  Many vendors will be there with their produce and baked goods.  We will be bringing green onions, radishes, eggs, jams and maybe some baby spinach.  Hope to see you there!

Until next time.  ~Karin

I’ve begun sending out periodic newsletters to all those that have signed up for or shown interest in our CSA Programs.  You can view the current issue and past issues on our newsletter page at www.nvranch.info/newsletters.html.  Once the harvesting season starts, we’ll be posting these weekly.  The newsletter page will also have a weekly posting of what the CSA shares will contain that week.  If you’re not a CSA shareholder, this list will give you an idea of some of what we’ll have at farmer’s market that week.

Since the weather was warm on Wednesday and then turned abrubtly cold on Thursday afternoon it was perfect timing for us to butcher our family hog for this year.  With the weather warmer during the early morning yesterday it made it easier for Arcenio to work without feeling like his hands were frost bitten.  As the weather quickly turned colder and dropped below freezing it was perfect for cooling the carcass, preparing it to be divided into cuts today.  This hog also serves as our “test” hog for the CSA Meat Program.  This one was started earlier than the others to allow us the opportunity to monitor growth and make changes to our feeding schedules and practices for the hogs we’ll use for our customers.  This hog ended up huge.  Arcenio and I estimate the hanging weight to be at least 175 pounds, probably more.  I’ll post again when we’re done with an accurate weight.

If you don’t know the difference, there are different ways to classify the weight of an animal when butchering.  “Live weight” or weighing “on the hoof” refers to the animal’s weight when it’s live.  “Carcass weight” is the weight of the animal after the internal parts and unusable areas have been removed.  “Hanging weight” is often used interchangeably with carcass weight, but generally refers to the weight of the carcass after it’s been aged which includes any shrinkage from evaporation of moisture content.  “Finished weight” is what’s left after the carcass has been cut, trimmed and boned.  This is what you see in individual packages.   Hogs are one of the most efficient converters of food to meat.  In other words, you get much more useable meat by percentage from a hog than you do from, say, cattle. 

For example, when butchering cattle a typical steer will have a hanging weight of 62% of it’s live weight.  The aging process may remove another 15%.  Finishing reduces that number another 30%.  So, with a 1,000 lb steer, you may end up with around 350 to 370 lbs of actual meat.

For pork, however, the numbers are much higher.  If you finish a hog at 220 lbs, you’ll end up with around 120 to 150 lbs of cuts depending on the cuts.  So, the ratio is closer to 65% of the live weight, compared to 35% with cattle.

One of the other benefits of raising hogs is they take up less space than cattle.  Depending on the way they are raised, they can forage for much of their diet and eat a wide variety of foods from hay, legumes and grains to dairy products, leftover sweets (a much appreciated treat) and more.  As long as they have areas to root around and are provided adequate shelter, they’re happy animals and can be quite social.

We butcher our hogs for family use ourselves here on the farm.  The pork we provide in our CSA program and for sale at farmer’s market is processed by a USDA butcher and labeled for retail sale.  While the butchering process may be disconcerting to some, it’s a vital part of our farm life.  It is satisfying to enjoy the fruits of your labors and all the while know that the animal was well treated during it’s lifetime.  I honestly believe in the way we do things and have a difficult time buying anything in the grocery because I don’t know where it came from or what kind of life the animal had.  We’re proud to offer our meats to our customers, whether it’s pork, beef, chicken or goat and glad you’ll know where it came from.

 -Karin