Check out some of our friends

Please take the time to check out some of our friends blogs.

Gluten Free Kids Rock-

R.O.C.K (Raising Our Celiac Kids)- A support group for families with Celiac Disease or living a gluten-free lifestyle.

http://glutenfreekidsrock.blogspot.com/

Scarlett's Homestead Letters-

This site has letters written to you; sharing my experiences and advise to help you get started in your country living, backyard homesteading journey and other do-it-yourself activities. You will find recipes, natural health issues and many other things people who are independent minded enjoy. I refuse to limit what we talk about!

http://homesteadletters.com/

The Pasta Wench-

Pasta Wench is a small family owned company nestled in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of Boone NC and Swannanoa, NC. We create all-natural Gourmet Pasta including Ravioli, Fettuccini, Cavatelli, and Spaghetti, as well as homemade gourmet sauces to accompany them.

http://pastawench.com/

WTF Newsletter- August 20, 2010

Wild Turkey Farms News- August 20, 2010

Well another week of summer has flown by. With all of the heat & humidity I've got to admit I'm ready for a little bit of fall weather to get here. At least we've been blessed with good rains this summer to keep everything green & growing. Hopefully we'll get the tractor up & running and get some hay cut this week so we'll have at least a little something to feed the cows through the winter. We've got our turkeys up & growing even though we've had the toughest year yet in raising them. I think this heat & humidity makes it hard to keep conditions perfect for the poults and they are extremely sensitive during the first month of life. We started out with 150 and at last count were down to about 60. With all of the enthusiasm in our turkeys we don't want to disappoint. We ordered another 50 that arrived this week and appear to be doing well but keep your fingers crossed and let's hope that they continue to ! do well.


Volunteer Opportunities- Ever want to get out & get a taste farm life for a day or just an afternoon. We have several projects that we need to extra hands to complete and would love to offer you the opportunity to come help. If you are interested just let me know & we'll add you to the list to contact. We going to plan some a couple volunteer days in Sept & October. Some of the projects include building a hoop shelter for the hogs, building fence, building chicken tractors, and whatever other projects pop up between now and then.

Don't forget to get your tickets for the Know Your Farms Annual Farm Tour Sept 18 & 19. This years tour features 27 farms all across the Piedmont. For details check out their website. http://knowyourfarms.com/j/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99:annual-farm-tour-new


Eggs- We have plenty of eggs now so bring a couple friends and come see us at the farmers markets this weekend for a dozen of our free range organically raised eggs.

This weeks specials- Help us make some room in the freezers & get a great deal

Maple & Mild Breakfast Patties & Bulk Sausage 10% off

Beef Short Ribs- 20% Great meal that can be prepared a variety of ways. In the crock pot or on the grill these are sure to please.

Beef Soup Bones- $3/bag or 2 for $4- We're over stocked so our loss is your gain. Makes a great beef broth or a great "popsicle" treat for your pooch on a hot summer day.

We plan to process some chickens this evening so we'll have a few whole fresh chickens available at Davidson & Salisbury Farmers Markets in the morning. Come early for the fresh birds as quantities will be limited. We should also have some leg quarter and wing packs available.

We will be at the China Grove Farmers Market at the Mill Friday from 4-7pm so come see us for all of your meat needs.

Davidson Farmer's Market (8am-noon). We're in the Town Hall parking lot working out of our big white trailer just up hill of our friends at Correll Farms. Come pick up something to throw on the grill or get a couple packs of sausage & a dz eggs and treat yourself to a fresh local breakfast Sunday morning.

We'll be at the Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow so come find us under the big green tent (once again just up hill from our friends at Correll Farms) 7am-noon so come on out and load up.



We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM
Hippie Kitchen Bakery- Huntersville / DFM
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Watts Grocery- Durham
Sage & Swift Catering- Durham
Four Friends Brewing- Charlotte


Thanks for your support, have a great weekend, and we'll see you at the market.

Lee, Domisty, Rosty, & Charlie
Wild Turkey Farms
China Grove, NC

A good reason to buy local

380 million eggs recalled over possible salmonella tainting
By Caitlin Hagan, CNN

August 19, 2010 7:18 a.m. EDT

-- A voluntary recall of eggs because of salmonella fears reached 380 million eggs Wednesday, the Egg Safety Center said.
Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa, which announced an earlier recall last week, added several more batches and brands to the recall Wednesday afternoon.
"Wright County Egg is fully cooperating with FDA's investigation by undertaking this voluntary recall," the company said in a statement. "Our primary concern is keeping salmonella out of the food supply and away from consumers. As a precautionary measure, Wright County Egg also has decided to divert its existing inventory of shell eggs from the recalled plants to a breaker, where they will be pasteurized to kill any salmonella bacteria present."
After an uptick in salmonella infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration traced the source and determined it was most likely eggs from Wright County Egg. The company says it is working to determine how the shell eggs are being contaminated.



The new recall covers eggs branded as Albertsons, Farm Fresh, James Farms, Glenview, Mountain Dairy, Ralphs, Boomsma, Lund, Kemps and Pacific Coast and are marked with a three-digit code ranging from 136 to 229 and plant numbers 1720 and 1942, the company said.
The earlier recall covered the Lucerne, Albertsons, Mountain Dairy, Ralph's, Boomsma's, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms and Kemps brands and are marked with a three-digit code ranging from 136 to 225 and plant numbers 1026, 1413 and 1946.
The plant number beings with "P - " and is followed by the three-digit code.
Both recalls affect eggs packed in several different sized cartons, from a half-dozen to 18-eggs. Only shell eggs are affected by the recall, the company said.
Consumers are encouraged to return the eggs in their original packaging to where they were purchased for a full refund.
Salmonella bacteria can be found inside and outside of eggs that appear to be normal.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/08/18/eggs.recall.salmonella/index.html?hpt=T2

Pictures

Everybody loves to see pictures of the farm & the animals. So here are a few I took last night. By the time we checked on the checked on the cows it was too dark for pictures but hopefully I'll get some pictures of them later this week.

Bandit (Border Collie)

Panda Bear (Border Collie)

Poundcake

This is the baby lamb that we bottle-fed & who lived with us the first month of her life. She is now a resident at the farm and she is adjusting to farm life.

Another lamb at the farm

Pigs

Laying Hens

My Future Farmer!!

He is helping to load feed buckets.

WTF Newsletter- August 13, 2010

Wild Turkey Farms News- August 13, 2010

It's late & it's been a long week. Here it is 10:15pm on Thursday night & I've been going at it since the alarm clock went off at 5:20 this morning and it's been this way all week. That wouldn't be all that bad if we could get caught up but that's part of the joys of farming. To say that this past week has been a whirlwind for us may be an understatement, perhaps it was more of a tornado.

Last Friday we were invited by Chef Dave Hummelberger (Dave I hoped I got the spelling right) to attend a Slow Food Dinner at Noble's Restaurant in Charlotte. This was quite an invite for us since fine Friday night dining for us usually means picking up a pizza from the Stag & Doe somewhere between leaving the China Grove Market @ 7pm & getting ready for the morning markets until midnight so we worked hard to make it work out to go. Dave had gotten some bone in chops from us to prepare for the dinner & let me tell you he did them up right. I can say without hesitation that was the best damn pork chop ever fixed in North Carolina. Dave did an excellent job with not only that but all of the courses of the meal. It was a real treat to get to dine like that- thanks. We got home about midnight.

Saturday morning's plans went to pieces quickly with the passing of my grandfather about 6am but we regrouped and improvised to make the most of the day. Sorry to leave all of you at Salisbury without your WTF fix for the week. Domisty ended up going to the Davidson Farmers Market while Rosty & I participated in the Gluten Free expo at Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte and got to meet and talk with a lot of great people.

By the time we got home about 4pm a quick nap was in order. As I laid down on the bed I heard my cell phone ring & somehow I got a sinking feeling that it wasn't going to be good news. It was our neighbor at the farm letting me know that for the 2nd Saturday in a row we had a few pigs coming to visit him. For those of you without pigs I can let you know that neighbors generally don't like visiting pigs unless they are cooked. So at 4:30 we rounded up the kids and head to the farm for a pig round up. We got the last of the wild pigs on the trailer about 9pm and decided to call it a night. As I lay there in bed, too tired to go to sleep (not a problem for Domisty) I kept thinking "why the hell do I keep doing this?" then I'd remember that pork chop grilled to perfection at Noble's a meer 24hours earlier- oh yeah. Rosty summed it up best at 3 years old when he told me at ! supper one night "Daddy, we raise a dang good pig". That's what we're after, to raise a dang good pig (and other stuff too).


We will be at the China Grove Farmers Market at the Mill Friday from 4-7pm (or maybe until about 6:15) so come see us for all of your meat needs.

Davidson Farmer's Market (8am-noon). We're in the Town Hall parking lot working out of our big white trailer just up hill of our friends at Correll Farms. Come pick up something to throw on the grill or get a couple packs of sausage & a dz eggs and treat yourself to a fresh local breakfast Sunday morning.

We'll be at the Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow so come find us under the big green tent (once again just up hill from our friends at Correll Farms) 7am-noon so come on out and load up.



We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM
Chef Charles To Go- Davidson
Hippie Kitchen Bakery- Huntersville / DFM
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Weaver St Market- Hillsborough/ Carborro/ Chapel Hill
Whirling Whisk Bakery- Mooresville
Watts Grocery- Durham
Sage & Swift Catering- Durham

Slow Food Diner- August 6, 2010

Well, I started this entry last Saturday but as you can see it has been almost a week and it was never finished......

If you receive our newsletter you've already read about our crazy week. If not I will post it later today. But thank you all for the thoughts and prayers we received this week. Lee's grandfather will be missed by all of us.

Again, to our Salisbury customers sorry we were not at the Market last week-end but we will be there tomorrow.

Me & Lee had the opportunity to attend a Slow Food Dinner at Noble's Restaurant last Friday night. The food was phenomeneal. If you are not familiar with Slow Food check out their website (http://slowfoodcharlotte.org/).

We got an opportunity to meet some of the other farmers, catch up with some of our friends involved with the Slow Food Charlotte movement and meet some new friends. Best of all was the meal. Chef Dave did an excellent job.

The following is the menu from the meal:

FIRST COURSE

Tega Hills Micro Green Salad, Assorted Local Tomatoes, Heirloom Tomato Conserve, Bosky Acres Feta

SECOND COURSE

TRIO OF JACIC MUSHROOMS

Sauteed Oyster Mushrooms with Ratatouille

Shitake Soup with Savory Foam

Roasted Maitakes with Fisher Farm Potato Puree & Thyme-Mushroom Jus

THIRD COURSE

Pan-seared Sunburst Trout, Newton Farms Ossabow Ham Consomme, Pink-eyed Peas, Simpson's Produce Tender Greens, Heirloom Tomato Chips

FOURTH COURSE

Grilled Wild Turkey Farms Berkshire Pork Chops, Seared Anson Mills Polenta, North Carolina String Beans, South Carolina Peach Butter, Toasted Anson Mills Farro Piccolo, Peach-Pork-Jus

FIFTH COURSE

Fried Bosky Acres Chevre-Stuffed Squash Blossoms, Compressed Local Melons, North Carolina Figs, Rosemary Pete Mint Varietals

My weekend- Friday & Saturday

Here is a recap of our week-end:

Friday

5:30-

Wake up

7:30 - 5:00-

Work

5:15- 6:30-

China Grove Farmer's Market

6:30- 7:00-

Supper

7:00-8:30-

Feed/water the animals

8:30-10:45

Prepare for Farmer's Market

(this is actually an early night)

10:45-

Go to bed!!

Saturday

5:00-

Wake up

5:30 - 6:30-

Load van for Farmer's Market

6:30 - 7:00-

Arrive at Market & set up

7:00 - 12 noon-

Farmer's Market

12 noon- 1:30-

Unload from Market & fixed a local lunch

Tomatoes (Correll Farms), Mozzarella (Calico Dairy) & Basil (my herb garden)

Tomato Basil Bread (The Bread Basket)

1:30 - 2:30-

Power nap

2:30 - 3:30-

Run errands

3:30 - 7:30

At farm

7:30-

Shower

Start Supper

8:30-

Enjoyed a nice local meal

Ribeyes- Wild Turkey Farms

Grilled Corn-Wild Turkey Farms

Grilled Potatoes- Wild Turkey Farms

Grilled Sourdough Bread- The Bread Basket

Watermelon- Correll Farms

Grilled Peaches- Huffman Farms

and believe it or not we ate all of that food!!

Now you have a small glimpse into our busy schedule.