People are smart enough that we don’t use vegetative pigmentation to lead us around like a bug. When it comes time to formulate a diet we use science, not color attractants.

Our method fails to acknowledge a critical reality.

Food, NutritionJS PortAugust 13, 2021Food, Diet, PhytochemicalsComment

A Very Particular Eater

I like to deconstruct my meals. On the occasions that I’m dining alone at home, I consume foods in a circular pattern, one ingredient at a time, without sitting at a table. Instead of mixing a salad, I’ll select each vegetable I want and eat them separately.

Food, FarmingJS PortApril 6, 2021Eating, Farming, FoodComment

Why I farm, Part IV

Our physical bodily systems are constantly attempting to establish equilibrium with the outside environment via the food we consume.

Farming, Food, Why I FarmJS PortMarch 23, 2021Farming, Food, Community AgricultureComment

Compensatory Gain

If a cow is forced to consume inadequate feed due to drought conditions or some other factor, she’ll survive the drop in energy by utilizing fat reserves stored on her body. As fat reserves are depleted, the sole mission of her body is to return body fat to an optimal level and reestablish equilibrium that enables successful breeding, foraging, and mobility.

Food, Local Food, NutritionJS PortDecember 7, 2020real food, local foodComment

Clarion Farms comes to Pittsburgh each Saturday!

I’m bringing the farm to your city in the form of hand-raised, authentic, top-of-the-line, extraordinary BEEF! Find me with coolers full of cuts at 2216 Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh beside the extraordinary Bar Marco from 9am – noon.

Tender N Tastes Good

Steak could be better.

There isn’t a food source that’s been more simplified than beef. Thus, the greatest potential for a food revolution lies in the chucks, ribs, loins, and rumps of beef cattle across the country.

Imagine, as I do, a trip to the farm: “We’re having guests over for a tasting. I’ll take a t-bone from the 2 year old grassfed Canadienne heifer, another from the yearling Holstein/Angus cross steer that was fattened on corn, and one more from the six year old Devon cow raised on grass and fattened on barley for a summer.” This is the stuff I dream about.

GOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, PITTSBURGH!!!!!

It’s Saturday, and that means I’m headed to your city with coolers full of BEEF, glorious beef. Find me beside the extraordinary Bar Marco at 2216 Penn Avenue from 9am-Noon. Look for the blue tent, and that’s where you’ll find excellent beef from Clarion.

Did you see the map of America’s food supply chain that was featured by Fast Company?

Flooded: How grassfed beef can save oyster farmers.

Over ten trillion gallons of water flowed through the Bonnet Carre Spillway during the summer of 2019, and each of those intruding units of river water freshened the brackish ecosystem that exists in the Mississippi Sound, resulting in massive die-offs of blue crabs, shrimp, and oysters.

A permanent solution is to stop the flooding instead of attempting to control it. The best way to take control of the flooding is to find a farmer who understands healthy water cycles and partner with the family by purchasing food directly from them.

Farming, Food, Grassfed, Industrial AgricultureJS PortNovember 7, 2019Clarion Farms Beef BarnGrassfed Beef, Water, Paradigm Shift, Local BeefComment

Do you...

Do you…

- Possess a gleeful interest in restoring the landscape around Clarion?

- Submit to nature, accepting that natural laws of diversity, thriftiness, conservation, and wholeness are more important than on-demand inventory and next-day delivery?

Clarion PA, Destination Clarion, Farming, Food, Local FoodJS PortOctober 24, 2019Clarion FarmsFarming, Community, Destination Clarion, Clarion PAComment

Fast Food Mentality (Get One)

If local farming and wholesome nutrition encompass the niche market, then fast food may accurately be tagged as the antagonist to the mission, being a product of industrialized production and indiscriminate consumption. Farmers and consumers have to objectively examine the differences between local food culture and fast food culture in an effort to shift the needle of consumer participation.

Farmer's Market, Farming, Food, Local Food, Marketing, Small BusinessJS PortOctober 12, 2019Local Food, Local EconomyComment

Local beef solves global trade tensions.

Headlines mentioning what we all ‘need to know’ about various countries around the world clog up nearly every artery of agricultural media I encounter. The global publicity fits, I suppose, considering farmers today are told they need to be as proficient at world-wide economics as they are at fixing equipment with baler twine and a scrap of metal salvaged from the road ditch.

The Beef, Friends, is RESTOCKED! (After 2 pm.)

We WILL have some tremendous Strip Steaks, Ribeyes, Sirloins, Flat Irons, Flanks, Filets, Chuck Eyes, Stew Meat, various roasts, ground beef, and more!

Farm Fresh

Several people have asked me after reading my jottings if I feel threatened by fake foods. Today I’ll address the question.

A review for old friends, and orientation for new!

IT'S WEDNESDAY!! The unequivocal BEST day to live in Clarion, because Wednesdays are the day we re-stock the Beef Barn with all of your favorite cuts.

We're honored to have an influx of new followers who're interested in this bustling farm community we call home. If you're new, welcome! We think you'll love being a part of the family as much as we do.

Let's go over a few details to make sure old friends and new fans alike are on the same page (this is a little lengthy, but worth the read):

Leased Food

Here’s what I notice on the landscape: Farmsteads that have been in the family for generations. A collection of equipment occupying outbuildings. Fancy pickups. And herds of cattle on completely exhausted grass.

Farming, Food, Local FoodJS PortAugust 22, 2019Relationship Agriculture, Real Food, Wealth, Smart Farming Comment

Fishy Beef

“This tastes like fish,” stated my sister, looking a little surprised.

“That,” I responded quite proudly, “is proof of all the extra omega threes found in grassfed beef.”

Beef, Farming, Food, Grassfed, Local FoodJS PortAugust 5, 2019Grassfed Beef, Steak Comments

Real Milk

Destination Clarion, Food, Farming, Local Food, Real Milk, Local DairyJS PortJuly 30, 2019Real Milk, Dairy Farms, Know Your DAIRY Farmer, Better Food, Buying Local, Destination Clarion Comments

Is Fun Functional?

During a tour of our farm in the late spring I greeted the crowd with the announcement that we would not be having fun during the event. My statement was met with surprised laughter, and when everyone regained their composure I offered an explanation for sounding like such a curmudgeon.

Farm Life, Farming, Food, Local Food, Small BusinessJS PortJuly 14, 2019Farm Life, Real Farms, Real Food, Local Food, Local EconomyComment

Are we fooled by efficiency?

Efficiency has become synonymous with convenience, and convenience is the impostor that’s distracting modern agriculture from honest effectiveness.

Convenience, Farming, Food, Grassfed, Local FoodJS PortJune 19, 2019Clarion Farms Beef BarnFarming, Grassfed Beef, Small Farm, Small BusinessComment

Shepherd's pies, skirt steak, and grassfed beef!

In a world plagued by constricted beef options, where steaks from across the country are mutually interchangeable because they share a common industrial template, our farm is the beacon for better eating. EVERYONE sells 'fresh meat', but NOBODY has their own cattle. Where, then, does their beef come from?