Pig Picking Time with a Clear Creek Farm Pig

As you know, we had a great time a Grits and Groceries last month as being the featured pork and beef dish during their Farm to Fork Dinner.  Heidi, the owner, gave our name to Morgan who contacted us about a pig for Memorial Day for his pig picking. 

 After many hours of me trying to catch a pig and looking like a fool-much like the first time that I went to pick up a pig, David went out to the pasture and caught a pig and loaded it up.  

We made the arrangements with the processor and Morgan.  Memorial Day came and went and we hadn't heard from Morgan. I was starting to get a little nervous that something went wrong.  David heard form Morgan on June 1st and said, "I would like to thank you for providing us with a wonderful hog and great experience for our first South Carolina pig pic kin / hog roast". 

Morgan sent us a great description of the preparation and roasting of the hog below: (if you don't like to see whole carcasses then I would recommend to stop at this point, but he did a wonderful job)

He stuffed the cavity with local collards, Vidilia onions, and home made bacon 

before sewing it up with butchers twine. 

it cooked over hardwood charcoal, oak and pear woods for a little over 7.5 hours before 

 being done to perfection

" I would say the flavor was the best I have had ever roasted and comparable to kuroboto for a fraction the price. We will surely be doing business with you again. "-Morgan. 

Thanks Morgan for some great pictures and feedback.  

Farm to Fork Supper

We had the pleasure of being asked by Heidi and Joe Trull from Grits and Groceries to provide the beef and pork portion of the meal for their monthly supper club.  We were truly honored. If you haven't been to this cute little restaurant at Saylors Crossroads, then be sure to stop by for some great food.  

David and Sarah Katherine in front of their big chicken

They asked for primal cuts which are whole loins and grilling roasts.  We process everything into individual cuts so this meant that we had to take a cow and a pig to the processor.  Thank goodness for Northwest Meats!  This is where we have all of our cows and pigs processed.  Glen Jones and his staff are great to work with and were able to slide us into the schedule to get Heidi and Joe exactly what they were needing. Thank you Glenn for fitting us in so quickly.

 The meat was delivered and the menu was set.  Everything on the menu was prepared from local farms. The beef was masterfully prepared and served as French Grilled Beef and the pork was slow cooked with herbs and spices and turned into a pork pate and served as Pork Rilletes.  Everyone we spoke to commented on how great the beef and pork were!  It really made us proud to see so many people enjoying our products.

 The evening was perfect and we got to speak to people from all over the upstate.  It was amazing to see so many people who were interested in sustainable agriculture and products raised without the use of antibiotics or hormones.  We made a lot of new friends and look forward to working with the fine folks at Grits and Groceries in the future!

Calving Season

When cattle get out and you get a phone call in the middle of the night that you have several cows in the road-- it's aggravating. When it's snowing and you are on a tractor riding down the road with images of "Dumb and Dumber" with snot frozen to their face to feed hay-- it's miserable.  I am so glad I don't live up North!

But, in the Spring when you ride out to check cows and you see a calf that wasn't there the day before nursing on its mother it makes it all worth those horrible days.

  This is one of the best times of the year...calving season. This is when all of the planning and management comes into play and you get to enjoy seeing calves being born. All of the cows are on Spring pasture and are rotated every week. After pregnancy checking we know we should have about 65 calves being born this Spring so we check them daily in case any of the mothers have some problems.  I love what we do!