Organic Farms

I’ve been meaning to post this question here for some time now. By organic, I don’t mean the Smart Chicken you find in your grocery store. I’ve been doing lots of research lately about pesticides and gmos and want to see if removing this stuff from my diet improves our health. It’s not that bad at our house but things like ecxima, heartburn, muscle soreness, ear infections, poor sleep and tiredness are all present.

Does anyone order chicken, pork and beef from a local farm versus the grocery store? There seems to be lots of farms near the twin cities that offer all sorts of different choices from 1/4 – 1/2 cows, to individual frozen chickens to individual cuts of meat straight from their farm.

Just looking to see if anyone does this and if you have anyone you recommend.

I know you live in the North Metro and unfortunately there is a dearth of Co-ops up here. A shame too, when I lived in Minneapolis there was a co-op 10 minutes away and they are dotted all around Minneapolis. To answer your question, the co-ops offer all kinds of local, organic (healthy) options for just about anything without having to buy 1/2 a cow. You would be pleasantly surprised at all the variety at co-ops. I was a regular shopper there when I lived in the city. You will pay more, but you get what you pay for…right?
You might try to go down every other week and stock up a bit. Closest (best) for you would be Eastside.

http://www.eastsidefood.coop/

There’s a coop in Cambridge. I’ve been there but they were very, very low on meat. If I remember, they only had a couple chickens. Maybe that’s by design.

Personally, I’m not opposed to filling my freezer. If I could find a program where I buy 10 frozen chickens and x# of pounds of beef and/or pork I’d be interested.

There’s an IDO staffer that I was considering buying a 1/4 cow from this fall but I couldn’t make the financial commitment this year. Hoping to next year though.

Sounds like that co-op in Cambridge is not at all a good representation. The one’s down in the cities have a lot more than a couple chickens. Beef, pork, fish, chicken, ducks, turkey, venison, eggs, etc. Most all organic or “free range”…ha!

I get where your coming from though…in fact maybe next year when you’re ready, we can get together and split a quarter and ease the financial commitment for both of us.

Some family members do the CSA veggie box thing and is very happy so far. Believe a few offer eggs, milk, and such, maybe contacting one of those and seeing if they offer beef in a box

We did the csa thing at work a few years ago. It was not organic and I felt the quality was pretty poor. Plus ot a ton of veggies that we didn’t eat because we didn’t like them. I bet we got 40# of green beans. I’m thing really serious about a nice garden next year.

We live close to MN Fresh Farm and started buying things from there. I planned on talking to them next spring to see where I can get meat. They’re not fully organic but they are a small family farm close to home.

We made the decision when our kids were born to try to buy and feed them as much organic as possible. We are fortunate that this is possible financially as I know it is limiting for many. Our kids seem to be healthier than others around them and we that this is due in part to their diet.

After reading a lot about the “commercial” organic process it left us feeling a little less than inspired so we did exactly what you are proposing. I contacted an old high school friend who raised “beyond organic” poultry and pork. We stocked up the freezer from him that year.

I grew up spending summers helping on the farms of friends and family. I always enjoyed farming, but didn’t think it was economically viable for me to get into farming in th traditional sense. However, after reading a lot about small, local farms it got the farming bug going for me again. We bought 10 acres and I have raised a few hundred chickens the past two summers. Some of these are sold and the rest stay in our freezer. I am hoping to add pork (heritage pork is unlike anything you will find in the grocery store) and beef soon.

I think if you do some internet searching, you should be able to find someone around you that is producing food in the manner which you desire. Most small farms offer packages as well as a la carte purchases. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will try to steer (no pun intended) in the right direction.

nhamm wrote:

Believe a few offer eggs, milk, and such, maybe contacting one of those and seeing if they offer beef in a box

Did you mean “chicken” in a box?

Some farms do meat CSAs as well. They all have a little different model. Some, you get what is available at that time. Others are more of a prepurchase program. You contract a certain amount of product and put a deposit down. Then you get the meat as it is finished. This is a helpful model to the small producer as your deposit helps to offset the capital requirements of raising your animals. If I grow more, I will be looking to do something along these lines.

jake47 wrote:

We are fortunate that this is possible financially as I know it is limiting for many.

Well, if you include medical bills, true organic is MUCH cheaper. I just can’t justify treating an allergy caused by chemicicals, with another chemical. From what I can tell, the cost isn’t that much higher. When you consider the water added to store bought beef, beef is about the same cost by weight. I even found some chicken that was around $4/lb.

I love to cook so much and I wonder what kind of flavor I’m missing in locally raised animals. It sounds as though everything is far superior flavor wise.

Thanks for the advice.

I used to order from true cost farms. he is located in montrose but he delivers to different hubs around the metro. Meat is high quality. He has different monthly plans from getting a little food to a lot. Does mainly meat and eggs not much for veggies. Stop ordering due to the cost on our family but i sure miss it sometimes.

Here are a few I’ve found. Has anyone tried any of these?

Welcome to Our Family Farm

https://www.tc.farm
http://www.graisefarm.com

Prairie Pride Farm of Minnesota, Est.1878

I don’t get why the links won’t work.

There’s a lot of options, from small farms (friend of a friend type deal) that will raise an animal pre-ordered and pre paid deposit. To quality butcher shops that can tell you what farms their meat comes from, and a lot of those farms will let you visit (good day w the kids). To Hutterite (like the Amish) raised chickens and eggs. If you want to go full out contact a small certified organic farm like Prairie Point Farm and you can discuss your options. Good luck, and keep us updated with a new little man at home we may make the switch soon too.

I’ll keep you guys updated. Got a 3yo and a fresh one on the way. Keep the recommendations coming.

biggill wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>jake47 wrote:</div>
We are fortunate that this is possible financially as I know it is limiting for many.

Well, if you include medical bills, true organic is MUCH cheaper. I just can’t justify treating an allergy caused by chemicicals, with another chemical. From what I can tell, the cost isn’t that much higher. When you consider the water added to store bought beef, beef is about the same cost by weight. I even found some chicken that was around $4/lb.

I love to cook so much and I wonder what kind of flavor I’m missing in locally raised animals. It sounds as though everything is far superior flavor wise.

Thanks for the advice.

This is very true!

My sister actually abandoned city life over a year ago and started up a hobby farm in Good Thunder, MN. It’s about 20 min away from Mankato so it’s a bit of a drive but I believe she has shipped items before. Her farm is called Rebel Rooster Farm and she raises chickens for sale, sells eggs, and also milks her goats to make fabulous goat milk soap. Seriously guys, if you need something to stick in to your ladies’ Christmas stockings this soap is amazing and so good for your skin! I bought her first bar for sale and haven’t used my old bath & body soaps since!

The chickens and eggs are very tasty and earlier this year I got to help milk some goats and “harvest” some chickens. The whole process is really quite cool and I think it’s good to learn about farming and where food comes from.

Check out Rebel Rooster Farm on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/rebelroosterfarm and Instagram http://www.instagram.com/rebelroosterfarm. Or send Becky and email at [email protected].

We’re in the process of making the switch also. We’re on year two of buying a pig from a co-worker who raises them as a hobby. We are also beginning to source local chicken and beef from the grapevine. I can tell you that the meat is much better than store bought. You will most likely pay a premium for this meat, but it’s worth it.

I don’t know about the other meats, but after having organic, free range, hormone free chicken I cannot eat the other stuff. The other chicken breasts are mutant sized, tough and gross tasting.

We are also in the process of trying to eat as much of our food homegrown or local as possible. Between a garden in the summer, having our own laying hens, and meat from hunting and fishing, we have been able to eat I’d estimate about 75% of our food or meals homegrown in the July to October months, then it tapers off the rest of the year as we get through frozen or canned things from our garden.

If we ever get around to purchasing an additional freezer then we will probably add a portion of a cow and pig as well.

We have been eating organic for years… the wife has different places she goes to get different stuff. From Kenyon, to Apple Valley, to St Joseph, to Brainerd. She has her shopping routine down pretty good now. I’m with Pug… after eating organic chicken and their eggs, the other stuff is so fake tasting now. The egg yolks are almost orange in an organic egg… pale yellow in a steroid chickens eggs.

big_g wrote:

The egg yolks are almost orange in an organic egg… pale yellow in a steroid chickens eggs.

That likely comes from the chickens being exposed to more sunlight! Completely agree with you though….

I sell butcher hogs they get what is grown on the farm

This is slightly off topic but check out pipeline foods. They are building organic and non gmo supply chains and based here in Minnesota. They are trying to migrate row crop farmers to organic so the supply/demand changes and we rely less on internationally sourced organic grains that go into food and animal feed. Because there is a lack of standards, much of the so called organic products are not. Producing organic is also much more profitable for farmers due to the premiums paid. Also better for the land.

This is not so much of an issue with small, local farms but for scale we need a non traditional supply chain.

It’s pretty fascinating stuff once you dig into it.

Great to see everyone on this thread supporting local farms.

I met this neat young couple at a farmers market last year. I don’t think they are officially certified as organic even though their practices seem to follow suit.

http://www.johnsonfamilypastures.org/about.html

They’re located in Centuria, WI about an hour from the cities. They invited us out to their farm for a tour and patiently answered my barrage of questions. We bought some (heritage) pork chops which were ridiculously good. I’ve been meaning to buy some of their other meats…

I have to be honest, when I read the first post of this thread, I thought it was going to go a whoooole different direction.

I was expecting a bunch of ‘organic is the same as all the other crap, I hope you enjoy paying a 50% markup for the same product like a sucker’.

You surprised me today.

There are a lot of articles out there that say how “certified organic” is a government/big business marketing scam. It is and it gives real farmers a bad name.

No matter how you look at it it is bad for small scale local farming.

I would love to see the USDA kill the certified organic program. I think it would give some credibility back tho the real farmers.

Have 4 hens that usually lay eggs daily 4 ducks they haven’t started laying yet. Eat venison and fish as much as able.

philtickelson wrote:

I was expecting a bunch of ‘organic is the same as all the other crap, I hope you enjoy paying a 50% markup for the same product like a sucker’.

It’s not the same product.

Organics go bad faster.

speaking of… I always like to bring up my wife’s experiment she set up about 8 or 9 years ago… she bought a McDonalds Cheeseburger, 6 piece McNuggets and French fries and put them on a paper plate. They are still there in her office… no smell, no rot, no flies eating it.. it all just looks dehydrated… bun looks fine, cheese is still yellow… meat brown… nuggets still golden brown.. fries dried out but not rotten. Weird….

For those interested, we get most of our non-perishable Organic and GMO free products here. Typically cheaper than the block and mortar stores and delivered right to our door. Organic-Non GMO