The American Family Dinner is Back!

​Along with the healthy food benefits, cooking at home saves you money and allows you to control your portions.  Studies have also shown that getting together for family dinner is associated with lower teen use of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana; lower risk of obesity, eating disorders and teen pregnancy; and improved physical and mental health.  Add to that list the nutrient benefits of our cooking with our meats and it’s a home run!   

Family dinner doesn’t have to be as much work as Sunday’s at Grandma’s house – you can pop a frozen pork butt or chuck roast on low in the crock pot before you go to bed, viola you wake up to the start of an easy and versatile meal.  

Keep a supply of our beef and pork in your freezer to make family meals a snap.

---

Partner of the Month

---

Essential Health 74 Park Road West Hartford CT.  Essential Health not only offers a pasture-raised meat program (that we participate in) but they also carry an entire line of Natural Foods & personal care items.  They are literally a one-stop shop for health.  Along with their natural foods they have Far-infared Sauna’s, massage, yoga, a rotating list of clinics and workshops and of course Dr. Allie’s chiropractic care for the entire community.   We love working with Allie, Dave & Mike.  Check them out online at https://essentialhealthct.com/
​

What's new........

---

​Anyone who has visited the farm since September was sure to meet the passel of hogs we raised for The Kendall Co-Op Project.   Under the Whole Animals for the Whole Region Project – we were contracted to raise both pork and beef that is destined to feed students at Smith College, Westfield State University, Mount Holyoke and Amherst College.  https://www.kendall.org/whole-animals-for-the-whole-region/
​
The goal of this program was to increase the direct purchase of beef and pork from farms in New England and to introduce nose-to-tail dining to these campuses as opposed to buying individual cuts through distributors as they’ve done in the past.   
​
The direct benefit was pretty great – the students & staff get to eat high quality meat, the farmers were paid a fair fee for their animals and the local slaughterhouses had extra work during their slow months.  But the ripple effect is where it gets pretty interesting.  First off, the ability to raise additional animals without having to worry about storing and selling the cuts was HUGE!!  And, for just our small contribution to this program we were able to help support 7 local farms:

• Piglets were purchased from 3 local farms
• Pig feed was purchased from a farm in New York State
• Hay was purchased from 2 local farmers

---