By specializing farms, we’ve cherry-picked a fragment of an ecological whole and concentrated it, thus removing any benefit of a complete ecosystem. As a result, farmers fail to take advantage of the free resources surrounding them in abundance on their home place, choosing instead to rely on an industry of suppliers. That’s like ignoring a dump truck load of money in the back yard while walking out the front door to ask a banker for a loan. In order to take advantage of nature’s freebies, we must trade spreadsheet efficiency for natural effectiveness.

Clarion Farms Grassfed, Farming, Small Farm, Vegetable productionJS PortSeptember 17, 2020Small Farm, Diversified Farming, Pasture CroppingComment

Two years and two weeks of waiting. How was the first grassfed bite?

Glory, glory, friends. It's a winner. That steak was tremendous. I didn't eat anything else; steak ruled the evening. And the evening was good.

TODAY IS A CLARION FARMS GRASSFED BEEF RELEASE.

Desystemized

When tension exists in the production of food, discomfort jumps to the end user. Nobody can eat contentedly from a platform that’s hanging on the edge of catastrophe, yet that’s exactly where we find ourselves today.

Clarion Farms Grassfed, Clarion PA, Local FoodJS PortMay 28, 2020Clarion Farms Grassfed Beef, Local BeefComment

Grit, Minerals, and Humus

Enriching food with supplements is not as complete of a solution as enriching soil, then feeding food grown from that soil to ill patients. To paraphrase the Frenchman, taking supplements completely misses the wholeness of eating. Following this logic, every doctor in the world should participate in farming as an extension of their craft.

Clarion Farms Grassfed, Farm LifeJS PortApril 10, 2020Clarion FarmsClarion Farms Grassfed BeefComment

Winter watering grassfed cattle: a quick how-to.

I'm frequently asked about winter watering for our grassfed herd. How do I keep the water trailer from freezing up?

The answer is not as complicated as everyone thinks: I don't keep the trailer full of water when it's freezing cold. If the trailer freezes, I'm toast.

Clarion Farms GrassfedJS PortJanuary 29, 2020Clarion FarmsClarion Farms Grassfed Beef, WaterComment

The Clarion Farms Grassfed Update

What we DO have is excellent: chipped steak can make a good ground beef substitute, and we have plenty of sirloin steaks that are versatile: grill them whole, slice and sear for fajitas, make steak salad...the list is long. There is a pile of grassfed filet remaining (seriously - grassfed filet), several ribeyes (Delmonico), tip roasts, rolled rump roasts, London Broil, and briskets. You'll also find chuck eye steaks, petite tender steaks, and some cubed steak. Options abound.

Money

People my age find it nearly impossible to get on in the field of agriculture without encountering the subject of money. Our elders tell us we need a lot to get started, we’ll never make any while we’re working, and we better get out while we still have some.