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How good is Thistle Hill pork???
Well, modesty has not been one of my more noticeable traits. But even I had to blush reading this rave review we received about our most recent pork from Brooke Henley of Middletown, Maryland. The pork is heavenly! What an animal! And the processing is amazing too! So far we’ve sampled two cuts of bacon (definitely will be the first thing we run out of!), pork chops, and a ham steak. Photographic evidence attached! This is one of the 2″ thick chops and yes, we’ve just sliced it open. You’re looking at it from the end. One chop was enough for both of us and we had a little bit leftover.…
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Round-up (glysophate) is just about everywhere…
….we’ve made the point here that genetically-modified foods may or may not pose a health risk, but there’s no doubt that the wide-spread use of Monsanto’s Round-up in raising GMO crops certainly does. It’s also true that wheat farmers apply heavy doses of Round-up in their fields….and right before harvest….though wheat is not a GMO crop. And Dr. Joseph Mercola believes the increased use of Round-up is linked to the increased incidence of celiac disease. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/09/14/glyphosate-celiac-disease-connection.aspx
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Everybody knows that…..
….at least everybody who reads this blog, or any of the others that are built around grass fed meat. Turns out the government and the scientific establishment have been wrong for decades…forget low-fat diets. Cut out the carbs and eat all the healthy fats you want….particularly on grass fed beef and pastured pork! That’s the conclusion of the latest study: http://www.meatingplace.com/Industry/News/Details/52562 I couldn’t count the number of times people have told me they’ve cut down on red meat…or cut it out entirely. Worse they’ve inflicted their “diet” on their family, particularly their kids. Usually it is in the context of saying they could never use a 15-pound box of our…
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Look up chutzpah….
….and you’ll find the Monsanto logo. The evil genius of this gigantic corporation is demonstrated anew with its campaign to co-opt the National Honeybee Day. Bees, like butterflies, have rapidly been disappearing from the planet…a critical threat to growers around the world. As reported by Dr. Joseph Mercola, Monsanto moved in (as it has into the White House) to claim it wanted nothing more than to save the bees. Turns out Monsanto has as much clout with the British ag department, DEFRA, as it has with our own USDA. It’s clear that they have corrupted the entire regulatory process with the enthusiastic cooperation of universities and government bureaucrats. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/09/02/save-bees-against-monsanto.aspx
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Return of the Pork Pak….
….a last minute cancelation of a whole pig, makes it possible for us to sell 10-pound Pork Paks….again….briefly. The demand for our pigs has moved us to offering just halves and wholes….but for as long as they last, the 10 pound package is back and costs just $75! The Pork Pak includes 5 lbs of a variety of sausage, pork chops, hams steaks, and bacon. Yes, bacon. Like our beef, our pork is raised on pasture….is entirely drug free…and even the corn we feed is non-GMO! All this reminds me of two things: First, the picture. Our website is repeated on Facebook and on occasion someone posts something there that…
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The perfect storm….
An old CBS News colleague, Bill Kurtis, is a mover-and-shaker in grass fed beef circles….his Tall Grass Beef company marketing nationally. But Bill thinks those of us operating at a smaller scale better not be making any big, and particularly long-range, plans. Guest Blog August 2014 By Bill Kurtis Dry Age Beef and the grass-fed dilemma I much admire Tom Johnston’s Meatingplace “Dry Age Beef” series on the state of the beef business in America. I would add yet another segment that as a grass-fed beef rancher and distributor is just as dark. The perfect storm of drought, historic market prices and food safety pressures that have hit us…
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Mama…don’t let your kids grow up….
….to be farmers. It’s still a no-win game despite all the publicity about the Locavore movement, farm-to-fork, food hubs, CSAs. “blah-blah” stuff. The dirty little secret is the Big Guys are killing us….and they’re the ones getting the subsidies and grants that enable them to further squash the idealists. The New York Times had the story this past weekend. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/opinion/sunday/dont-let-your-children-grow-up-to-be-farmers.html?_r=1 Thanks to Dr. Sue Beal for the link.
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Driving a steak (sic) through the heart….
….of the fat and cholesterol nonsense. This week’s Dr. Joseph Mercola column sums up all the recent research on saturated fats and cholesterol and concludes we’ve been “had”. Natural saturated fats are great for you….and so are high cholesterol numbers! What? The real villain, of course, is sugar! So who sold us the bill of goods? To quote Mercola: With regard to heart health, nutrition policy has been derailed over the past half-century by corporate greed, political agendas, and bad science A new meta-analysis involving a half million people found that those eating more saturated fats do NOT have more heart disease than those eating less Cholesterol is critical for building…
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As we were saying….
….we’ve been warning that you’re making a mistake if you buy pork or chicken these days at a restaurant or supermarket. Most likely it was “Made in China”…although it’s not required to carry a label. The Chinese simply don’t have the same health standards as our own (a pretty low bar) and Big Ag and our government care more about protecting Chinese imports than your well-being. Here’s only the latest story: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-24/china-meat-scare-adds-foreign-suppliers-to-food-worries.html
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For your summer party….
….a Tamworth pork salad! Recipe from son, Church!