WTF News- April 29

Wild Turkey Farms News- April 29

Well another week has come & gone. Fortunately we were spared the harsh weather that many others got. It's been quite a spring so far with all of these bad storms. Phinious the lamb finally got evicted from the bathroom and moved out to the trailer in the backyard so the bathroom is back to normal and no more 4am wake up calls for a bottle. Yeah. See you all at the markets.

Davidson Farmers Market (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Domisty will be back at the Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon So come stock up. To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & she'll have it ready to pick up.


We will NOT be at the Mecklenburg County Farm Market ( http://mecklenburgcountymarket.com ) this weekend.



We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury


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

CSA Week 2

Another tasty week at Wild Turkey Farms.

This weeks basket includes:

Spinach

Turnips with greens

Kohlrabi

Bok Choy

White Radishes

Not sure if I missed anything because the baskets were already prepared by the time I got to the farm & everyone was picking them up.......but I think I am close on the contents.

Hopefully, next week I will take a picture of all the bounty.

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I got to see a lot of of our CSA customers last week at the pick-up & I think they were all thrilled with their baskets. this week everyone got there at the same time so there was no time to visit but there's always next week.

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Until we started selling at the Farmer's Market there were a lot of vegetables I had never heard of much less cooked them. So it has definitely been a learning experience for me what to do with some of them.

While at the Farmer's Market last Saturday I heard over & over again customers ask "How do you cook this?" when they saw the bok choy. The response was usually "stir fry." While I have MANY times used bok choy in stir fry we also discovered last week that it's pretty good on the grill. We also grilled some kohlrabi & radishes. The kohlrabi we peeled and sliced then grilled...it was yummy! I'm going to try it on my George Foreman grill tonight.

I cooked last weeks recipe for Braised Bok Choy last night. It was YUMMY!!!! If you haven't tried it you'll definitely want to this go around. I used low-sodium organic chicken broth because I had just enough left but next time I'll use the chicken stock that we made ourselves.

This weeks recipe is for kohlrabi. I was hoping to try it out first but I did not have any Parmesan Cheese at home. I find that my kids will eat about anything if they know there is cheese included.

I also got an early Mother's Day present (HINT: Mother's Day is May 8th), it was a pickling cookbook with over 250 recipes. There was a recipe for pickled kohlrabi, so I hope to try that over the week-end!

Check out this link for more recipes using kohlrabi & Emily's Green Kitchen for lots of recipes & healthy living ideas.

Kohlrabi with Parmesan

2 large or 3 medium kohlrabi, stalks and leaves removed
2 T unsalted butter or olive oil, or combination
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 T minced parsley


Peel kohlrabi to remove fibrous outer layer. Shred with grater or food processor. Heat a medium skillet to medium heat. Add butter and/or oil. When fat is hot, add kohlrabi. Cook, stirring frequently, until vegetable is tender, about 8 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir. Toss with cheese. Cook until cheese melts, about 1 minute. Garnish with parsley. Serve hot. Serves 4.

WTF News- April 22

Wild Turkey Farms News- April 22

Hope everyone has had a good week. Just when you think your out of the "keeping a lamb in the bathroom" season, well you can probably see where this is heading.... Let me introduce Phineous - and don't ask me where the name is from, Domsity and Rosty have this knack for picking obscure names. As I was walking up to the barn the other day, I heard a lamb bawling and I just assumed that it was one of the other bottle babies we've raised wanting attention. Upon a second look I realized that this lamb had just been born but there was no mother around. I grabbed him up and we proceeded to walk through the sheep until we found a new moma nursing his brother. I placed him near his moma but she only pushed him away when he would get near. Lord only knows why some sheep are like that but they occasionally decide that twins are too much trouble and pick one that they like to take care of. Anyhow, Pineous is the newest resident in our bathroom but I've got to say he's a pretty good one to have bunking in the guest lamb suite. He gets his bottle about 10pm and he's content to snooze until 6:30am or so he's a pretty good boarder. Hopefully we'll have better luck with the rest of the sheep and lil Phineous won't get a roommate.


We hate that we missed out on the markets last week due to the weather but this weekend is looking great so come on out and see us. If you want some good tasting eggs to dye for Easter we'll have our white eggs separated out for you but better hurry as supplies are limited.
Davidson Farmers Market Starts back Tomorrow (8am-noon)- Come find us in the town hall parking lot and stock up on our delicious pork, beef, chicken, and eggs.

Domisty will be back at the Salisbury Farmers Market tomorrow. 7am-noon So come stock up. To make sure you get what you want, send us an email & she'll have it ready to pick up.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.
Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte
Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM
Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain
Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte
Bread Riot Co-op- Salisbury


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

CSA Week 1

Today is our first pick-up day for the2011 CSA. It's been a couple of years since we have done a CSA so we thought would try it again.

I will be using the blog to list the items in the CSA each week & give you some ideas and recipes on how to use some of the vegetables.

I did check out other blogs to get some ideas, not only for the CSA customers but for myself. I think the only way I have prepared Bok-Choi is in stir-fry and I know there has got to be many other ways to use it.

Please feel free to comment here, on Facebook or email us any ideas you may have too!

Week 1 consists of:

Kohlrabi

Bok Choi

Radishes

Kale

Swiss Chard

Arugula

Romaine Lettuce

This week I searched for ideas for Bok Choi

Stir Fry- Chop the stems & the leaves. Stir fry the stems for about 2 minutes before adding the leaves. Some of the suggestions for what to use in the stir fry were soy sauce, sesame oil, butter and/or balsamic vinegar.

Substitute Bok Choi in any recipe that calls for cabbage.

Grilled

Steamed

Cut in chunks and use in salads (you'll have lettuce)

RECIPE

Braised Bok Choi

Use about a cup of chicken broth and 2 tbs of butter. Bring to boil and set the bok choi in the pan. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes until tender.

You can also add some garlic if you choose.

Easter Eggs

Since Easter is right around the corner I have seen a lot of articles that mention eggs. Whether it is talking about how to dye, decorate or decoupage eggs or how to cook them.

We are never without eggs at our house....which is a good thing!

Lately, Lee has been making spinach omelets...yummy!

If I have a real abundance of eggs I start making quiches and freezing them. They come in handy on days when I come home & don't want to cook.

We experimented with pickled eggs......you'll have to ask Lee about that one. He said the pickled eggs made a "mean" egg salad.

Anybody have some egg recipes they want to share?

I'll post the sausage quiche recipe that my family loves.

In the spirit of Easter we will have a limited amount of all white eggs for sale at both the Davidson & Salisbury Farmer's Markets on Saturday.

Contact us by email or Facebook if you would like us to hold you a carton.

Easter Fact:

61,000,000 dozen eggs (732 million individual eggs) are sold during the week leading up to Easter, a 45% increase above average sales, according to the Nielsen Company.

Now that's a lot of eggs!

WTF News- Tax Day Edition

Wild Turkey Farms News- Tax Day Edition

Happy tax day everyone!!! We processed chickens this week and will have them available this weekend. We also picked up lamb today so come by & stock up.

Davidson Farmers Market Starts back Tomorrow- We'll be there unless it's just plain nasty & stormy tomorrow.

We'll be at the Mecklenburg County Farm Market ) from 9:30-12:30 again this weekend. Domisty will be there with our fresh free range eggs and a limited selection of meats. Make sure you get what you want by emailing us your order and we'll have it ready to pick up.

Salisbury Farmers Market starts up tomorrow. Sorry to disappoint you all but we will NOT be able to make it this week but will be there next Saturday.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.

Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte

Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM

Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain

Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte

Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

Lee, Domisty, Rosty, & Charlie

Wild Turkey Farms

Grove, NC

Bacteria Seen In Nearly Half of U.S. Meat (taken frm health.com)

I saw this article on cnn.com & thought it was interesting.

(Health.com)

-- Almost half of the meat and poultry sold at U.S. supermarkets and grocery stores contains a type of bacteria that is potentially harmful to humans, a new study estimates. Researchers tested 136 packages of chicken, turkey, pork, and ground beef purchased at 26 grocery stores in five cities around the country, and found that 47 percent contained Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), a common cause of infection in people. What's more, roughly half of the contaminated samples contained strains of the bacteria that were resistant to at least three antibiotics, such as penicillin and tetracycline. Some strains were resistant to a half dozen or more.

Although the high contamination rates may sound alarming, the threat these bacteria pose to humans is still unclear. "We know that nearly half of our food supply's meat and poultry are contaminated with S. aureus, and more than half of those are multidrug resistant," says Lance B. Price, Ph.D., the senior author of the study, which was published Friday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. "What we don't know [is] how often these transfer to people. We need more studies to quantify the public health impact."

S. aureus, and drug-resistant strains in particular, can cause serious infections and even death in humans. However, simple precautions including cooking meat thoroughly, washing hands after handling meat, and keeping raw meat separate from other foods to prevent cross-contamination are believed to neutralize the risk of infection, according to experts not involved in the research.

"Numerous studies of this type done in other countries...have generally come up with the same findings, that multidrug-resistant S. aureus are present in a variety of animal meats," says Pascal James Imperato, M.D., the dean of the School of Public Health at SUNY--Downstate Medical Center, in Brooklyn. "But, so far, no one has been able to draw a connection between the presence of those bacteria in meats and human illness."

Multidrug-resistant bacteria strains are "always a concern for humans," says M. Gabriela Bowden, Ph.D., a bacteria expert and assistant professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center, in Houston. "But if you follow the hygiene rules that you would follow for Salmonella or E. coli, there shouldn't be a problem."

The meat, which was sold under 80 different brands, was purchased in Los Angeles; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Fort Lauderdale; and Flagstaff, Ariz. The variety and number of S. aureus strains found on the samples suggest that the livestock themselves -- rather than contamination during processing and packaging -- are the source of the bacteria, the study notes.

Each year farmers and ranchers give millions of pounds of antibiotics to farm animals, most of them healthy, to make them grow faster and to prevent -- rather than treat -- diseases, says Price, the director of the Center for Food Microbiology and Environmental Health at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, a nonprofit organization in Flagstaff. The combination of bacteria, antibiotics, and livestock living in close quarters creates the perfect environment for bacteria to thrive and mutate, which may explain the high levels of drug-resistant S. aureus seen in the study, he adds.

Virtually all (96 percent) of the S. aureus strains Price and his colleagues isolated had developed resistance to at least one antibiotic. Strains resistant to three or more antibiotics were found in 79 percent of turkey, 64 percent of pork, 35 percent of beef, and 26 percent of chicken samples. "It's four different meats from four different animals in different geographical areas," Bowden says. "[S. aureus] may be more prevalent than we think."

Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), which has been a particular menace to humans in hospitals and communities alike, was found in one package each of beef, turkey, and pork, though not chicken. This sample size wasn't large enough to arrive at an accurate estimate of its prevalence in meat nationwide, according to the study.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture currently monitor the country's meat supply for evidence of four major types of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (including Salmonella and E. coli). The study findings suggest that S. aureus should be screened for regularly as well, the researchers say.

WTF News- Friday Morning Prankless Edition

Wild Turkey Farms News- Friday Morning Prankless Edition

Another week of winter & summer weather has come & gone, hopefully the winter part is gone for a while. I've got to thank everyone for the responses to the Paula Dean email last week. I can't begin to tell you how much we enjoyed the comments and every one's sense of humor & sportsmanship once the joke was revealed.

For the past couple emails we've told you about our goose eggs that are hatching off. We're now up to 4 geese and 2 chickens that have hatched with another 12+ goose eggs and 8+ turkey eggs to go yet. Rosty and Charlie have had a blast watching the eggs develop and then to see the final product once the goose/ chicken has started breaking the egg and entering the world. Eggs are such a wonderful life lesson for young kids. I'm now starting to dread the day that they actually see some pigs, lambs, or calves being born cause I know the question of "why did they come out of there, and just how did they get in there to begin with" is not far behind.

We're planning to process some chickens next week so we should have chicken for the April 16 market. We should also have lamb back in stock by then also.

This week's farm gate specials

Fresh Polish and Cajun Sausages 10% off

Bulk breakfast sausages 10%

Davidson Farmers Market Starts back Tomorrow- . An end to the winter blues is in sight- Davidson FM starts back to every week and summer hours (8-noon)!!! We'll be back in town hall parking lot so take advantage of the nice weather and come see us in the morning. We'll have plenty of eggs so come stock up.

***New Market in Charlotte***-

We'll be at the Mecklenburg County Farm Market

from 9:30-12:30 again this weekend.

Domisty will be there with our fresh free range eggs and a limited selection of meats.

Make sure you get what you want by emailing us your order and we'll have it ready to pick up.

Salisbury Farmers Market starts up April 16 & we're looking for some help/ volunteer(s). What better way to spend a Saturday than socializing with friends, enjoying the outdoors in downtown Salisbury, and getting good WTF food for your efforts. We're running short on man & woman power this summer so we're looking for help to cover the SFM. If you or someone you know would be interested in working SFM on Saturdays please contact us and we'll go from there.

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.

Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte

Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM

Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain

Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte

Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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

Best April Fool's Joke Ever

Wild Turkey Farms News- April 1 Edition

Thanks for making the Paula Dean the best April Fools Joke ever at WTF. The response has been tremendous so I'll have to start emailing and see if we can get her to come.

On a more serious note we will not be at the farm for purchases until 2pm.

Thanks & we'll see you at the market (that is- if you're still speaking to us) Lee

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WTF News- Friday Morning Edition (April 1, 2011)

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UPDATE:

In case you didn't read all of our newsletter - Happy April 1 everybody!!!! Have a great weekend!!!

Thanks to everyone that emailed & called us about our exciting opportunity. Happy April's Fool's Day!!!!!

This was our first successful attempt at an April's Fool joke...please don't be mad at us! But thank you for thinking we could get Paula Deen to the farm. Hope to see you tomorrow at the Mecklenburg Farmer's Market.

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Wild Turkey Farms News- Friday Morning Edition

Marty is a big brother!!! Our incubator has been full and the eggs have finally started hatching. We got our first baby goose the other day and in checking the other eggs you can hear and feel the babies moving around & getting ready for their grand entrance.

Don't forget to sign up for our once in a lifetime cooking class with Paula Dean. Domisty & I are huge Paula Dean Fans and we've been emailing her for over a year now to try & get her to support local foods. This week we finally got a response & she has agreed to do a cooking class, filmed for her show at that, on location at our farm on Friday July 8!!! Evidently her contract with Smithfields Foods is running out at the end of this month and she is making a push to do more to support local farms like us. This is going to be awesome, I can't wait!!!! We'll have room for up to 40 people to be in the audience for the taping of the show and then everyone will get to break into groups for more individual cooking lessons with her and her staff. If you are interested in participating let us know and we'll put you on the list. It's first come, first serve so reply fast.

This week's farm gate specials

Fresh Polish and Cajun Sausages 10% off Bulk breakfast sausages 10%

Davidson Farmers Market Starts back April 9. An end to the winter blues is in sight- Davidson FM starts back to every week and summer hours (8-noon)!!!!

***New Market in Charlotte***

We'll be at the Mecklenburg County Farm Market from 9:30-12:30 again this weekend. Domisty will be there with our fresh free range eggs and a limited selection of meats. Make sure you get what you want by emailing us your order and we'll have it ready to pick up. Come see us at the farm.

While Domisty is at the Mecklenburg Market I'll be around at the farm so come by and stock up this Saturday 10am-2pm.

Salisbury Farmers Market starts up April 16 & we're looking for some help/ volunteer(s)/ part time employee. What better way to spend a Saturday than socializing with friends, enjoying the outdoors in downtown Salisbury, and getting good WTF food for your efforts. We're running short on man & woman power this summer so we're looking for help to cover the SFM. If you or someone you know would be interested in working SFM on Saturdays please contact us and we'll go from there.

In Case I forgot to mention it in the second paragraph .... Happy April Fool's Day......

We hope that you'll support some of the chefs & businesses that support us & other local farmers.

Customshop Restaurant- Charlotte

Chef Charles Catering - Charlotte/ DFM

Black Mountain Farmers Market- Black Mountain

Know Your Farms Buying Club- Davidson/Charlotte

Bread Riot Coop- Salisbury

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