It's been a big year for us here at Family Friendly Farms, so we want to highlight this past year's accomplishments to keep you in the loop on our progress. We desire to continually improve our products and services, while maintaining close relationships with you all...
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January 2023
Social Media + Marketing
Building on our Social Media outreach, Karen continues to grow our online community and share our farming life with you in a more accessible way.
March 2023
Website Revamp
Seven years after our initial online store launch, it was time for a refresh of our website! Along with updating our graphics, copy, and shopping experience, we also introduced our subscription program and upgraded our Healthy Meat Buyer's Club.
April 2023
Operations Manager
After a brief time away for college and marriage, Zach Zeiter moved back to Our Lady's Ranch with his wife and daughter, living in the original Cottage the Zeiter's first moved into back in 2004. Zach now manages the sales and operations of Family Friendly Farms :)
May 2023
Farm Event #1: Planting the Garden
We wanted to plant a big community garden for everyone to enjoy this year, so we invited our family, friends, and customers to enjoy this wonderful, sunny day with us. We shared food, faith, and farming together for a bonding experience that remains in our hearts.
July 2023
A Destination Wedding
Phil and Karen married on the beautiful Caribbean island of Roatan, surrounded by family and friends. All eight of Phil's children and Karen's two girls are pictured above at the site of the reception!
October 2023
Farm Event #2: Turkey Harvest
We actually had three different Thanksgiving Turkey Harvesting parties where friends and customers drove out to participate in the day-long event. Some even stayed overnight for the full homesteading experience!
November 2023
Farm Event #3: Olive Harvest
We picked over 2,000 lbs of olives this year with more help from family and friends. The single-day event yielded a whopping 40 gallons of olive oil and we can't wait to share it with you!
1. More farm events
2. New refrigerated delivery van
3. New dry ice machine for shipping packages
4. Upgrading our packaging with better temperature control
5. Plans finalized and building permit for our new onsite butcher shop
Over the years, the business growth of Family Friendly Farms has evolved relative to our delivery methods. At first, many years ago when the seven kids were aged between two and twelve, we did mostly farming with a little selling and delivering. Then we grew towards selling more and more meat, which required us to devote more time to the sales and distribution of our healthy meat products. And now we have found a balance of farming, selling, and delivering that offers the highest quality meat with the best customer service since the beginning. For those of you who have continued to purchase from us over the years, we hope the following stories will put some smiles on your nostalgic faces. And for all of our new customers… Welcome to the family ☺
The Early Years – Family and Friends
When first starting Family Friendly Farms, I didn’t really plan on an actual business, but simply creating some outdoor activities for the kids. We had purchased a 160 acre parcel of land in Grass Valley, California, with lots of sunshine, grass, and irrigation water, and I was determined to use that land for something bigger than myself. So over twenty years ago we started with two cows that became four, eight, and sixteen. When it was time to start harvesting the meat from this little herd, I simply asked around to family and friends, church acquaintances, and basically any one I knew. A few folks wanted to buy a side of beef, which was the old program back then and for centuries before. So we sold a few of those that first year, but only a few because most people aren’t equipped to receive 200 lbs of beef. And the other comments I received were that even for the people who bought that much at a time, they didn’t know what to do with all those strange cuts.
So after that first year, I revised our sales program to include smaller packages of beef, like a 50 lb pack and a 100 lb pack. I also custom packed those for people, so they could get the cuts they knew how to cook. Now, this new sales program is normal for many companies now, but back then it was the first of its kind. Most farmers/ranchers were not only selling exclusively sides or quarters, but they would confuse the buyers by making them pay the butcher directly, and they didn’t yet know how much meat would be included because every cow is a different size. That old program seemed ridiculous to me, so I basically rewrote the script so people could know what they were buying. I stated the specific amount of meat with the specific cuts with a specific price so everyone knew what they were getting. We still use this same system today so that our customers can purchase smaller quantities while still receiving a “bulk discount.” In addition they get to know up front what cuts are included, with the option for substitutions so they get exactly what they want.
Believe it or not, many ranchers still only sell beef according to that old method. But it’s not really their fault. You see, technically, they have to sell beef by selling a live animal, and then only coordinating the butchering for their customer. So in fact, they are selling a one half or a one-quarter share of the live animal. (That’s where we get the term Beef Share.) They have to sell beef that way because that is the law for their local butcher, as opposed to a USDA certified butcher. With a USDA program, we can sell beef in whatever size packs we want, including the individual cuts that you now see on our website. Incidentally, the USDA stamp does not depend on how you raise the animal but how and where it is butchered.
The Next Step – Farmers Markets
During the first two years of those little sales, most of our friends who tried our all-natural grass-fed meat just went absolutely nuts. “This is amazing,” “I’ve never had anything so good!” “This hamburger is like a steak – It never made it to the kitchen… we just ate it off the grill.” Then a few friends told us about farmers markets and that we just had to get our products in there. Well, it’s strange that even then, only about fifteen years ago, I had never yet been to a farmers market. So I loaded up the kids and went for a good ol’ fashioned “look-see.” As it turned out, it was a really nice outdoor market in Grass Valley and they didn’t have anyone there selling beef. So we put together the paperwork right there on the spot and got an exclusive sales agreement with the market manager.
Two weeks later, four of the kids and I showed up with some ice chests full of meat, a few tables, a pop-up canopy, and guess what else… a barbecue! I still laugh about that first year at the market that almost felt like cheating to me… Those nice folks were smelling that barbecue smoke every Saturday and asking all the other vendors where it was coming from. They literally lined up to taste our samples, every time leaving with a smile and some new cut to take home with them and cook that night for dinner. Even as little as twelve years ago, most people hadn’t yet tried authentic grass-fed beef, and it was so fun for me to see those heavenly expressions on their faces as they enjoyed their first bite ever.
One of the local ranchers that I used to consult with, who was still selling beef under the old program, told me I was crazy for trying to sell small packs and individual cuts. He warned me that the last guy he knew who tried it went “belly-up” after only three months because he had too many left-over cuts that he couldn’t sell. But I just smiled and said, “What do I care, I’ve got seven kids to feed!” But actually, he was a little right so we planned for success… Whenever we started piling up on a certain cut, that’s what we put on the barbecue for samples that week at the market, and yup, that instantly solved the problem as we would actually sell out of that cut by noon.
After a few years, we started a food booth at the market and sold cooked hamburgers and other outdoor meat delights. It was a big hit and all the kids took turns learning how to cook and sell and visit with all kinds of people. Some well-meaning friends would tell me that home-schooling was such a problem for socializing kids… until they greeted one of mine and received a firm handshake with a look in the eyes, while responding to any question they dared to toss out there. One friend actually came to me with eyes so big that I thought he saw a rattlesnake or something. When I asked him what was wrong, he confessed that he would never question homeschooling again. Then he said that what shocked him was that his last half hour of conversation was with my seven year old. Apparently, the little whippersnapper was teaching him about farming and selling meat ☺
The Local Delivery Host Locations
By the fourth year of selling at our local farmers market, we had started raising and selling not only beef, but pork, lamb, and chicken as well. We were making quite a ruckus on the local scene, and even though I wasn’t looking to expand, new places invited us in. There were a few regular customers who lived in the Bay Area and visited Grass Valley on the weekends. So they naturally asked us if they could buy our meat in the winter when the market was closed. One person even wanted a large beef pack and asked me to deliver it to him in San Francisco. It was just not a big enough order to justify the long delivery trip, so I asked him to persuade a few friends to also buy some meat, and he could have a little “Tupperware Party” at his house on the day of delivery. He politely agreed and sure enough, we sold about seven more beef packs through his referrals.
The day of delivery at his house in the “Big City” turned out to be a wonderful event. Everyone was super interested in our farming practices along with stories about the kids. Then in the Q and A time we talked a lot about cooking and everyone got really excited to share all the recipes and ideas with their family and friends. And that’s how our Bay Area local delivery “Host Locations” were formed. With all those first referrals who told their family and friends, we received enough orders to return the next month, and then the next. Within a year, we had expanded to over fifteen host locations that we developed a delivery route for each month. We drove through Sacramento to Fairfield, Benicia, San Francisco, and then right on down the peninsula to hit Palo Alto, San Mateo, San Jose and everywhere in between. Then we came up the other side to catch Livermore, Danville, and Walnut Creek, sometimes going back through Tracy and Stockton as well. It was a really good system that allowed for a small delivery fee, which we waived for the host. That system worked for many years, until it was time for a weekly delivery program that began with our new online store.
Our Online Store and Home Delivery
As we began raising and selling more and more of our all-natural, grass-fed, healthy meat products, I kept up with the demand of emails and phone calls, but that began to really sacrifice my time with the kids. Every night after dinner, I would be swamped with three hours or more of correspondence. Something had to give beyond just my sleeping time. So with some help from a good friend, we designed and built a new web site that included an online store. Now we could post our pricing right on the website and customers could purchase directly online without me having to make each and every sale through an email or phone call or both.
This new shopping experience was readily accepted by our customers who found it informative and convenient. And now the orders came in a little faster, so how were we going to get all this meat to them in an efficient way? I really liked the pickup/host program we had, but many customers started asking about home delivery and we couldn’t do both. We were also limited to a once a month system that really needed to be once a week in order to properly service our customers.
So that came immediately next with a big announcement to our expanding customer base. NEW WEEKLY HOME DELIVERIES, every Tuesday of every week! We started with a “Free Home Delivery” special that first week to help everyone get used to our new program and sure enough, they did. Most people loved the convenience of not only a home delivery, but the weekly opportunity as well. To help ease the burden of our necessarily higher delivery cost, we started our “Memberships” with the Gold and Silver options to purchase special benefits along with reduced home delivery costs. If you’re not a member yet, you’re welcome to check out our Healthy Meat Buyer's Club at any time.
Our Online Distributors and Health Food Stores
Somewhere along the line of that progress, we had a few online organic-food distributors ask us to provide meat to their growing audiences. We worked out some wholesale pricing for them and now we enjoy their ability to distribute our healthy meats in a way that is convenient for their customers, who are now our customers too. Our first and largest distributor delivers to over thirty-five locations in the Greater Bay Area through a “Host/Pickup” program that is similar to the one mentioned above. Their name is Real Food Bay Area (RFBA) and the owner is very particular about the food they distribute, keeping it only to top shelf health. I’m happy to say that we started with them about eight years ago and for the last four years, we are their only healthy meat producer.
The other online distributors that we continue to service are the Farmers Marketplace, for the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, including a walk-in store in Auburn. Then we have the Tahoe Food Hub, for those mountain folks that are wanting to eat only healthy meat. We have also found our way into a few health food stores, including Sunrise Natural Foods, in both Auburn and Rocklin, California. And just recently we started supplying a family owned store in Cool, California called, Lokl General Store. We’re happy to announce these distributors and stores, giving them a shout out, while welcoming all of you to shop with them for the convenience of purchasing and delivering any of your healthy food desires.
Our West Coast Shipping Program
Ever since building our first website, we have received numerous inquiries from people hoping to find a reliable source of healthy meat that could be shipped to their area. Frequent requests have originated from people living in the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego in Southern California. Several years ago, in an effort to finally service these good people, we started working with a small shipping company (GLS) who gave us an overnight delivery service at a cost that our customers could afford. GLS has continued to expand their service area, so we continue to expand ours into the neighboring states of Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington.
Our Future Plans
Well, I’m no longer trying to keep the business small because it’s now clear that the more healthy meat that we raise and deliver equals the more healthy people we can service and help. We have received many encouraging emails and notes over the years from good customers like you who thank us for all the love and hard work that we put into every ounce of meat that we deliver to you. And that is where this little family business becomes a lot more than a business. I can speak for myself and my wife, along with my kids and all who work here with us… We really like producing good food, and we especially enjoy the relationships that have developed into a wonderful community of caring people like yourselves.
So our future plans are to build and grow and continue to service your healthy meat needs with the right kinds of products that are delivered to you in the most convenient way possible. The farm has expanded to 250 acres, while the personnel has expanded to reach beyond our immediate family, and the facilities are expanding to soon have our own butcher shop right here on the Ranch.
We continue to host farm tours and small homesteading retreats, and we plan to continue the ministry of healthy love through healthy food. We’ll continue to keep you apprised of our family farming events, including an Olive Harvest that we have planned for next Saturday, 11/25.
Wishing you all health and happiness through the upcoming holiday season ☺
Blessings and Peace to you,
Philip and Karen Zeiter,
Family Friendly Farms
Fall is suddenly here which means for us... IT'S TURKEY TIME! Thanksgiving is just around the corner so we're preparing some yummy "Farm to Table" Thanksgiving dinners with our turkey harvesting parties. We've got three harvest dates this year... One we just had a few Saturdays ago on October 7th, and we've got the photos below to show you, along with the frozen evidence currently in our freezers :)
And our systems are simple enough that we had old friends, faithful customers, and family members show up and participate in the day-long event! The next date is today, October 21st, and the final date is Saturday November 4th. We're sharing those dates with you to give you an opportunity to come out and join us for the experience, but also so you can select the Turkey of your preferred size as they come available. Here's how the last harvest went along...
Step 1: Our day began at the crack of dawn with Stevenson and Keller herding the turkeys into the trailer for transportation to our processing center (aka the garden area). We're always looking for new ways to gather animals efficiently, so the guys created a fenced walkway to push the birds in the trailer as opposed to picking them up one by one. It worked very well for us, but maybe not so well for the turkeys :)
Step 2: We dispatch the turkeys quickly and humanely in a very safe way that even the kids can help. We're sparing you the photos of this particular station, but actually it's a very clean operation - much different than the old stereotypical ax-thing of our great-grandpas.
Step 3: Next is the scalder which helps to loosen the feathers. We basically dunk the Turkeys in very hot water (165 degrees), with a little dish soap actually. We lower and raise them in and out a few times until the feathers loosen. Then they're off to the Plucking Machine...
Step 4: This must be the most important equipment of the whole operation. We can't imagine the old days of pulling feathers one by one! We used to have a very slow machine that took a lot of time because it really didn't do a very thorough job and actually slowed down for the bigger birds. But we're so happy to have this brand new unit with a large enough motor to make the turnstile move quickly and smoothly so that plucking the whole turkey takes less than a minute.
Step 5: After the plucking machine has done its job, we get to work saving the giblets. We call this the eviscerating station where only the bravest of us jump in to keep the production line moving. That's Larry and Stevenson in the photo showing the curious how it's done. Larry is a federal trapper who loves to hunt and shows up every year to help us with the dirty work. His seven year old daughter just hunted her first wild turkey on the ranch this year. Way to go Annabelle :)
Step 6: A three hour ice bath is one of the most important steps in the process because it kills any and all bacteria from the harvesting process. It's a USDA requirement that we appreciate because it's a really good and necessary rule when most everything else from the government is, well, you know! We use these large tubs and about 800 lbs of ice for the day... I think next year we'll finally get an ice machine :)
Step 7: We package our turkeys by squeezing them into "shrink" bags that seal themselves by literally shrinking when we dunk them in large pots of hot water. We then weigh and hand-write each of the labels before they go straight into our refrigerators for a few days. After the turkeys have "wet-aged" for five days (to tenderize), we move them into our freezers to await delivery.
While the turkey harvesting was rolling along Karen and Imelda made sure there was coffee and food available for all of the hard workers! In addition, some friends slept over the night before and the night after in our guest house campers. They received the full homesteading experience, while enjoying all the events of the weekend, including feeding the animals and eating farm fresh food.
The finished product! Ready for your Thanksgiving table 😋
It's so true! Healthy food is like liquid gold, especially in this day and age when the big corporations are charging such high prices for food not only soaked in pesticides, but genetically engineered, and lacking in nutrition...
But that science-y stuff is for another post at another time. We just wanted to share the amazing planting party we had last Saturday!
With all of the current young adults living on the Ranch now we knew we wanted to plant a big community garden for everyone to enjoy. We also wanted to extend an invitation to all of our healthy meat customers to join us! We had about twenty people show up (to join our ten) from families to retired couples and it was such a blessed day.
The sun was shining, smiles were bright... and we planted A LOT of food.
In our raised box beds we planted potatoes, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, eggplants, and flowers.
To the side of the boxes and next to our little grove of bamboo, we planted all the "creepers": butternut squash, spaghetti squash, zucchini, snacking cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, cantaloupe melons, honeydew melons, and watermelon!
We also planted a bunch of new fruit trees including Bartlett pears and apples. Trees we still need to get in the ground include peaches, nectarines, apricots, and pomegranates.
While the big group worked hard at plating seedlings and saplings, Ali and Claire were busy in the kitchen making hamburger patties with our delicious grass-fed ground beef. 😋
Then it was a group effort to get those patties cooked for the hungry planters.
We love providing pasture-raised meats and growing clean veggies, but even more we love the good people that our good food brings together. We are so thankful for such a vibrant community of health-conscious people and can't wait for more opportunities to work together in little events like these!
Hello Everyone -
It’s a brand new year for us with a whole bunch of exciting new developments! A new look for the website, a subscription and referral program, and so much more. We wanted to start this new year of Storytime Blog posts by sharing a typical “Day At The Ranch”. After lots of heavy rain here in Northern CA, we finally saw some sunshine this past Wednesday, so we took the opportunity to spend some extra time with the animals, repair and mend some fences, and finish setting up some employee housing. It was a wonderful day of community prayer, work, and play.
Keller and Mario pet Daisy (the milking cow) and her calf, Buttercup. Daisy nurses Buttercup during the daytime but is separated at night so that she can be milked in the morning.
Isaiah and Mario worked together to install a new roof over the milking stanchion. Now we have a dry area to milk Daisy, while keeping the rain out of our milk :)
Joe excavated a hole to install a post for a new electrical panel that will power two new residences. He eventually hit a water line and got soaked by the gushing spray. It took a bit of holy indifference for him to surrender the situation to God. Then he retrieved some parts from the shop and fixed the problem without upsetting the peace of his day.
Stevenson transferred some old hay to the garden for use as mulch and fertilizer. Nothing on this sustainable farm goes to waste with God’s designs that sustain the bustling life around here, including the reuse of refuse.
Isaiah and Keller’s paths crossed, so they consulted each other regarding the day’s tasks. Our Lady’s Ranch operates smoothly when we all communicate with each other to coordinate our community efforts.
Keller prepared a new brooder for a second group of broiler chicks that have just arrived on the ranch. We’re working hard to expand our farming operations to produce enough meat for our growing customer base.
Claire was splitting firewood with a hydraulic press when the machine pinched her finger (ouch!). But we got her all bandaged up and she continued her work with some vigor in her soul and a smile on her face.
Happy Thanksgiving Week ~ We hope y'all aren't too crazy getting ready for this big event! We're holding it together over here at the farm, and enjoying all the hustle and bustle of packing your orders together with all of your turkeys.
Our Turkey Harvest this year began with a crisp, sunny morning and ended with a freezing hail storm. But we made the best of it with man's first major discovery... fire. The experience and the outcome was worth the long day, which we would like to share with you in the photos and stories below...
We began at 6:00 am before the sun began :) We needed to start the hot water turkey dunking basin (scalder) to bring the water up to 165 degrees before beginning the harvest.
Then Isaiah, Stevenson, and Keller went off to the portable turkey barn to catch the turkeys. Not long afterwards, our wildlife protection friend (Larry Lane) showed up with five more friends to help us finish this project in one day (which ended up being 6:00 am - 11:00 pm.
With all of us gathered together we began with a prayer and then a short orientation to organize the team. It’s time to grab the first turkey and bring it to station one… the dispatching zone.
Stage two is the scalder and then the featherer. We dunk the drained turkey in a hot water bath three to four times to loosen its feathers. Then we set it in the “sideways dryer with rubber fingers” and after a few minutes of spinning around we have a giant “rubber ducky.”
Next we have a small station to clean up the feathering work, and then we move the turkey over to the “dirty room” where we clean out the insides and save the giblets.
After final cleaning and rinsing, the turkeys get dunked in a freezing “cold bath” for a minimum of three hours, which kills any bacteria that may be present. Then the birds go to the packaging tables where they are dried off, shrink-bagged, weighed and labeled.
Before freezing the birds, they must all sit in various refrigerators that we have around the ranch, in order to chill out for 3-4 days (tenderizing). Then we set them in our freezers to await assignment to customers. With about 100 customer reservations, we need to match up our turkeys with our customers and then deliver them before Thanksgiving Day along with sausage and bacon and other little goodies to round out everyone’s holiday menus.
St. Stephen’s is a Catholic Church in Sacramento, California that celebrates High Latin Mass, where some of the residents here at FFF like to attend. Every year St. Stephen’s Parish provides a large pig roast for the parishioners to celebrate their patron on his feast day!
For those of you who don’t know, St. Stephen is considered the very first martyr in the Catholic Church. He is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles and was one of the first seven deacons appointed by the Apostles to distribute food and charitable aid to the poorer members of the community in the early church. Members of the Jewish synagogues had challenged Stephen's Christian teachings, but Stephen had bested them in debate. Furious at this humiliation, they dragged Stephen out to be stoned.
Anyways, about six months ago we had some pigs escape from their pen to head out into the wilderness. While on Ty's (oldest Zeiter kid) maternity photoshoot with Ali (fourth Zeiter kid), they saw the pigs had multiplied and had a bunch of piglets! As the pig roast grew closer, Isaiah (ranch manager) and Stephenson (farmer) knew they wanted to participate in the event and so asked Phil if they could donate the escaped pigs! “If you can catch them then go for it!” he laughed. So they began to put grain out in one particular spot in the fields to entice the pigs back… And it worked! One day they spotted the small herd out there and quickly recruited the Whites to help corral them. Success! They now had about 6 seventy-five pound pigs to donate to the St. Stephen’s parish celebration. Once they caught the pigs, the event coordinator was happy to accept the gift!
To help harvest the pigs for the day of roasting, a group of parishioners showed up on the Friday before. Father McWhirter came with them and blessed both the animals and the ranch in thanks for the bounty. Then they roasted the pigs all night long in preparation for the big day.
The event began with a High Mass on Saturday and was quickly followed by the activities of good food, good friends, good play, and an all around good time!
We here at FFF feel so blessed to be a part of community events involving the Catholic Faith and Christian Fellowship. These events are important for a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life, so we pray for more opportunities in the future!
Remember when we got a new dairy cow and shared the cute story about how she was named Daisy without the Whites, Isaiah, or Stevenson knowing that the Zeiter’s had already had a Daisy? … Well she had her calf! This little girl is named Buttercup and she is so cute! Jersey Cows have the biggest, softest eyes and are just beautiful 😍
Everyone has been having a ton of fun with the calf (cuz who doesn’t love babies) and enjoying the fresh milk immensely!
Raw Milk is a bit of a taboo subject for some odd reason but is slowly gaining popularity again here in the States. While some are afraid of the bacteria in raw milk (which is killed - pasteurized - in store bought milk), others are convinced that humans aren’t naturally supposed to drink it (even though we drink breastmilk exclusively for the first 6 months of our lives, at least), and still others down it by the glass (like Phil Zeiter 😂).
So what’s the deal? There’s a lot of contradictory material out there but we can say from personal experience that raw milk didn’t kill any of us growing up - in fact, some of our (Zeiter kids) dairy problems started when we moved out and were no longer consuming raw dairy but the pasteurized stuff. Not only do people who are lactose intolerant find that they can drink raw milk and eat raw milk products without problem, there are also scientific studies that show raw milk can help with: Asthma, Ulcers, Inflammation, Eczema, Allergies, and more!
We would still caution not to get your raw milk from just anywhere though because of course you need cleanliness in any environment when dealing with food, but it is no longer something to be afraid of. Sure, pasteurized milk kills all the bad bacteria, but it kills the bad bacteria too, and then you’re just drinking a bunch of dead bacteria! This isn’t to say that pasteurized milk has no benefits, we're just saying that raw milk has more 😉.
One of the awesome things about homesteading is having the opportunity for and the access to real, whole foods like raw milk. Dirt under our fingernails, sunshine on our faces, and unprocessed foods are the way God designed us to be happy and healthy. We believe that a lot of the chronic depression, anxiety, and unhappiness of our world could be cured if people received more of the three things listed above - even if it was just once a week!
It’s been a while since we had Daisy (unfortunately we don’t have any photos of her! 😭) and recently our new farmers on the homestead have been wanting to have a dairy cow here again. After some discussion and research it happened! So let me introduce the new addition to Our Lady’s Ranch… two-year-old Daisy the Jersey milking cow.
The White family, along with Isaiah and Stevenson, picked the name Daisy without everyone knowing that we had a milking cow with the same name before! It was quite the fun conversation and I just simply laughed when they introduced her to me. “She just looked like a Daisy,” Isaiah said, “so we went with it.” It’s pretty providential, honestly — great minds think alike!
We got our new little Daisy from Oregon House, a residential community here in the area. Everyone had so much fun talking with Farmer Chris, watching a milking demonstration, playing with a newborn calf, and enjoying the beautiful scenery. While Daisy is still young, we can’t wait for her to calf so that we can have fresh milk here again! Fresh butter… fresh buttermilk blueberry pancakes… 😋
Have you ever made your own bread and spread fresh butter over it while it was still hot from the oven? There is nothing like it!
If you ever come to visit us in person at the farm, then you’ll get to meet Daisy yourself and maybe even try some of the milk too! In the meantime we’ll keep you posted on her progress and hopefully we’ll have pictures of a baby calf to share soon. 😉
Below are some highlights for you, our faithful friends and customers...
Here's Michael above, helping baby chicks grow so that Marianna can collect their eggs and wash and pack them for all of you... and all of us!
All that chicken growing and egg collecting was going along just fine until... Aaaauuuug! Is it ever going to stop raining? Apparently not... not 'til summer anyway. So that's Joseph and I to the rescue with Joseph taking the lead in 4-wheel drive.
Here's Ali in a cozy moment with a brand new calf, learning more and more about animal husbandry. Christia preferred a little more inside work this past year by learning the sales management role from Curtis. And since then, Ali has learned the sales role so that Christia could be freed up to take classes at the local college. Yes............... too fast!
And then we have the weekly task of moving livestock around the pastures, which is more or less eventful depending on the degree of cooperation from the animals. ;)
Some of our favorite times together are picking the fruits and berries that grow here on Our Lady's Ranch. Here we are getting into a wild black berry patch in the month of July, and then the olive grove in November.
Working in the garden together is quite invigorating, and this year was no exception. We each decide what we want to grow, then we develop some common goals. We then execute the work together while allowing the leadership to change from project to project so that the kids learn how to be young adults while the adults learn how to be young kids :)
We made some exciting business improvements this past year including several new recipes on the web site, along with our new "online store" complete with personal home deliveries and out of state shipping for the ultimate customer experience.
And here's the full crew - working up an appetite as usual. Good thing mom knows how to feed an army... and always with a smile.
We are so happy to share these magical moments of this past year with you. We sure appreciate your continuing encouragement and support! It's your positive comments, affirmations, and testimonies that give us the extra energy we need to continue providing you with the highest possible level of nutrition and flavor in all of our healthy meats!!!
Blessings and Peace to you,
The Zeiter Family
]]>One of the biggest spring jobs we accomplished this year was planting the garden!!! Joseph, Michael and Bryn started us off by trimming down the weeds and tilling the garden beds. Then we amended and fluffed the soil to make it ready for the new seeds and plant starts that we purchased from a nearby nursery. The next morning our whole family took the day off from other activities to enjoy working together for the final preparations before we all dove in and started planting! We made a fun time of it together in the nice weather and can't wait to taste the fruits of our labor.
Another important spring job is caring for the animals and moving them around for a seasonal transition. That's Zachary, Chad, and Joseph moving some pigs, after moving the cows from our winter dry lands to our freshly new irrigated pastures. During this time of year, our young chickens start laying, the pigs start snorting, and the cows excitedly strip the plump seed heads from their grassy shoots!
The water canal here at Our Lady's Ranch gets opened every spring on April 15th, so that's when Michael and Joseph start setting up our irrigation system for the 65 + acres that we keep green all summer. They're on the job three times a day zipping around on the quad to rotate the water along each paddock through the 6" silver pipes that circle the pastures. They don't mind the job at all, but mom doesn't like the zipping part so much.
One of my personal favorites... burn piles! We had a few tree's fall this winter because of the soft ground resulting from so much rain. So we cut and collected the firewood throughout the cold season, and piled up the slash for a future day of reckoning. Well, sure enough that day came and the fires got high and hot. They were truly sights to see, sometimes reaching over thirty feet tall. But the best part of that day was not watching the fires. It was watching the younger kids enjoy them while showing them how to be safe... like big brother Zachary above, teaching young Michael a thing or two about the elements.
What's this - tractor and gate problems? Yup! Our front gates froze up and our tractor decided to break down :( So instead of hiring out the repairs, we just called the boys! With a few tools and maybe an hour or two later... all's fixed and working again with a confidence-building exercise for the young men around here... "Way-to-go gents."
And last but never least... We recently began a new farmer's market season. Each Saturday we get up early to pack the trailer and head on out! We set up two booths - one for frozen meat and another for tasty food (breakfast burritos with our very own ranch eggs and country sausage followed by grass-fed beef burgers for lunch). The day moves along with live music, healthy food, happy families, and meeting lots of new people... all in all, another wonderful day during a new wonderful season!
Well, there you have it - getting off to a good start this summer! Thanks for joining us along these adventures out here at Our Lady's Ranch.
]]>For some silly reason, it has become fashionable for conventional chefs to recommend searing the meat first, then moving over to medium temperature. The justification of this practice comes from the idea of "sealing" in fatty juices, which sounds appealing, but really doesn't help the tenderness of the meat. We have spoken with several "Celebrity Chefs" about how they receive their best BBQ results, and they have clearly, painfully explained... "Oh no, Don't Sear First."
We get so relieved and express, "Well that's what we've been saying for years. How come others are telling people to sear it first?" And then these professional chefs tell us, "Because everyone's in a hurry and it's what they want to hear."
We have completed many barbecue tests over the last ten years using lean steaks that have been cut from the same loin (next to each other). We have barbecued them side by side on the same grill, searing one first, while slow cooking the other. And every time we have conducted this test, the slow cooked meat comes out more tender and more tasty. So for your barbecuing enjoyment, we're providing you the following proven method of how to get the best barbecue results with our 100% Grass-Fed and Grass-Finished, All-Natural, Healthy Beef...
STEP 1: Thaw out beef in vacuum-sealed package, then remove from package and rinse with room-temperature water and place beef on platter or in marinading zip-lock until grilling time.
STEP 2: Let the beef come to room temperature before placing on grill.
STEP 3: With gas barbecue, set to low temperature and cover lid to warm up grill. Clean off grilling surface, then place meat first on the lowest temperature of the grill and close the lid so the meat will basically just warm up during the first ten minutes of grill time. (For charcoal grilling, start coals on one side and place beef on the other.)
STEP 4: Open lid and move beef onto a warmer part of the grill (now over low flames) for about five minutes per side, depending on grill temperature and thickness of meat.
STEP 5: If this is your first or second time trying this method, then cut a small sample of beef right on the grill to check how it's doing - and try it. By the way, sometimes we never make it back in the house with any meat left.
STEP 6 - ADVANCED GRILLING: Sear at the end - just make sure not to overcook it. That's why we have you stop at Step 5 for the first few times. As long as the beef is still rare (almost raw) - once it has come up to temperature, you can sear it at the end to get the outside crispy without compromising its tenderness.
STEP 7 - Get as many happy people as possible all around you to enjoy your Grass-Fed Beef feast... YAY!!!
For more cooking suggestions, and some family friendly farms' recipes, you're welcome to click on this link of our website:
https://www.familyfriendlyfarms.com/blogs/recipes
We sure appreciate all of your support and encouragement over the years, so we hope these barbecuing tips will help you to continue enjoying our Family Friendly Farms all-natural, pasture-raised meats for years to come.
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The baby chicks spend their first month here in our cardboard insulated, sawdust floored, Heat Lamped Brooder. This little enclosure uses a hinged lid that operates like a horizontal door that stays open when we add bedding, food, and water. We also have another roof with windbreaker sides to insure they stay warm and dry.
After their brooder beginnings, we move them to a protected pasture. In this photo the young hens are seen foraging on grass and grubs, while still being supplemented with our special corn-free, soy-free, non-GMO grains. We keep them here for a few more months until they're ready to join the older birds on larger pastures.
These are fully mature laying hens that are now producing full-sized eggs for us while fertilizing the pasture. Chickens produce the highest known natural nitrogen source on the planet. They also de-infest the pastures of any grass-damaging crickets or parasites. It's an amazing system of cleaning and fertilizing which is natural, ecological, and extremely economical, while producing a healthy bi-product for our own nutrition and sustenance - their eggs!!!
Now being that Chickens are at the low end of the food chain, we can't just leave them out at night, so we give them a coop to nest in, where they can also roost in at night for their protection. This is a special coop because it has external flip-out doors for easy egg collecting (without having to go inside) and because it is built with four wheels so that we can move it around each pasture in order to keep spreading the fertilizer from one place to the next.
That's Michael on the ATV pulling the "Egg-Mobile" a few lengths forward. (He asked if we could soup up the coop with a 454 Hot Rod Motor and steering wheel, but that idea hasn't gotten built yet).
Mariana does most of the egg collecting around here and actually, of all the work that I've done here in the last seventeen years, my favorite job is (by far) collecting eggs with Nina (Special Time).
Then inside we go to wash the eggs. No conveyor belt here. Just a little water with a sponge does a fine job and keeps everything natural and pure.
Next we take turns weighing and packaging the eggs. By the way - if you've ever wondered what makes the difference between a medium, large, and extra-large egg... it's not the physical size, but the weight of the egg that matters. Another interesting fact is the refrigerator-shelf life of these eggs is over two months. They are handled so naturally and simply without distributor and shipping delays that our customers usually receive them within a few days of collecting and packing. It's nice for us to offer you the real meaning of Free-Range, Fresh Eggs :)
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This photo captures the little creek that flows through our produce garden and orchard.
Here's a little spring that we discovered, that reminds us of God's kind words to all of us... "If you ask, I will become in you a spring of living water, welling up to eternal life."
And the little spring grows into a rivulet, which then joins other waters in order to create...
Waterfalls of love. And after the love moves along, the living water once again harmonizes with its natural environment to form...
An oasis of Peace :)
Then we little children get to enjoy God's amazing creation while we go about our family friendly farming work here at Our Lady's Ranch, nourished by God's Living Water.
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First, gather together as many cute kids as you can find.
Second, cut the base of the tree without showing the kids, so they can think you're the strongest dad in the whole world.
Third, eat your Wheaties.
Fourth, grit your teeth and push as hard as you can.
Fifth, everyone play around on the organic jungle-gym for a little while.
Sixth, make sure to have at least one big kid to help with the heavy lifting.
Seventh, get some cool man-toys around for photographic props... Well, they also help when it comes to transporting the logs back down the hill.
Eighth, include the kids in everything you do... and pay them for their work in praise, thankfulness, and a little cash to boot.
Ninth, enjoy the fruits of your labor with some special family time, and...
Tenth, remember to thank God for His incredible generosity toward each of His wonderful creations, especially the ones closest to you.
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We're continuously searching and finding more grass for them, and sometimes searching and finding the cows themselves. This time, we found them enjoying the view from this beautiful hilltop next to the farm.
Here we are bringing them back down the hill with a bale of Alfalfa in the back of the ATV for incentive. With cows, we either have to pull them or push them to put them where we want them. So we first pull them as far as we can (Because it's usually easier that way) until they get out of line, and then we have to start pushing them. We pull them with a cattle "call" and some sweet feed, and we push them by walking toward them to lightly apply "pressure" for them to move.
Last month, the cows were feasting on neighboring pastures, so we needed to bring them back onto Our Lady's Ranch by moving them down the road and through the front gates. "Easier said than done"...
As soon as we got them through the gates, they saw fresh grass and took off running for it. Aaauugh!!! "All hands on deck!" Fortunately, there were enough of us to move them back in line to continue the march further down the road into the pasture we wanted for them.
All the kids have learned how to push a cow along by staying behind its front shoulder. When you get in front of its shoulder it will start to turn or go backwards. Cows are so much easier to move than sheep because you can pretty well steer them around with that shoulder technique. But with sheep, you have to pretend that you want them to go in the opposite direction, because they will always go where you don't want them to go.
Next was a tight squeeze between two fences where they tried to break ranks again. Thankfully, we're slightly smarter than the cows (sometimes) so we anticipated their move and got to the right place at the right time - to thwart their maneuver (that's maneuver, not manure).
Aaaahhh - Back to Our Lady's Ranch with fresh new grass and peaceful streams. "You lead me beside restful waters"... for the cows and us!!!
]]>We thought you might be interested to know what it's like to have this much wind and rain on a farm. It could have been a catastrophe with the animals, but with all the kids helping, we managed to rescue them, one group at a time...
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It could have been a catastrophe with the animals, but with all the kids helping, we managed to rescue them, one group at a time...
This aint no duc' tape weather!!! If it wasn't hinged, staked, or bolted down, then it's no longer here. The layer hens did fine in their egg mobile, but the meat chickens had another story. They were all cozy in the Greenhouse for a few days... until the cover blew away --- oooooh no! But we got there in time to move the birds to a secure location.
Moving the birds turned out to be the best part of the storm for Joseph, because he got a chance to practice his 4-wheel driving skills. Actually, I was still putting my boots on when I saw him down by the creek and thought, "I hope he's not planning on driving through that!" Well, he sure was, and by the time I got there, he'd already been back and forth a few times. I just had to laugh and then reflect on my own youth thinking, "Funny, I wonder who he got that from."
The little pigs needed extra bedding in their hutch. They lay down next to one another (and even on top of each other) to keep warm. The main idea is to help them with a dry space, then nature works it out from there. The big pigs carry enough fat on them to weather any storm, and they usually stay under trees for cover, so they were all okay.
The cows are big enough to handle pretty much anything - except maybe lightning. Here they are coming up to us in their current pasture. We called them in to look them over... all present and accounted for!!!
So we've got some clean-up to do, but all in all we seemed to have weathered the storm pretty well. It presented a good opportunity to react together in a semi-emergency situation. The kids fell right into our family hierarchy of leadership (with obedience and respect to one another) as the various dangers were systematically calmed.
All has ended with reflection, stimulating conversation, and peace... Another bonding experience for us in "Life on the Farm."
Well - we started with 10 picnic tables, 8 hoses, 6 extension cords, 4 bottles of propane, 2 furnaces, 1 water trough, a large scale, and 86 live Turkeys -
]]>We finished with................. lots of cleaning to do!!!
Actually, we'll be finishing with 86 very happy families enjoying 86 very healthy, tasty Turkeys on Thanksgiving/Christmas Day this year.
And here's how the day began...
We like to start our group events around here at Our Lady's Ranch with a little prayer. So here we are praying together, asking for a successful harvest, while the Turkeys in the Trailer (left side) were praying for the opposite :)
And the work begins...That's our good friend Larry Lane on the left standing next to Michael and Mariana. Larry's a federal trapper who helps us keep predators minimized at the Ranch. He's the best!!! And each year he brings 5 or 6 young men to come out and help us with the Turkeys. It's a wonderful day for all of us, and his friends quickly become our friends too. Most of them return each year for this day of good food, good friends, and good fellowship.
The young men on the right are at the plucking machine, there are several people in the trailer doing the heavier cleaning, and that's Christia and Ali in the back packaging the finished product.
Here's a closer look at the packaging process. Ali's selecting the appropriate sized bag to receive the finished Turkey, which then gets dunked into a hot cauldron to shrink the bag tight around it. Then its placed onto the scale where Christia labels it before placing it in the refrigerator to chill for three days prior to freezing.
Most of the Turkeys this year went from 15 lbs to 25 lbs in size with a new farm record of "El Grande" this year weighing in at 40.9 lbs :)
Hurray - Lunch time!!!
After Christia suggested making breakfast burritos with eggs and sausage, I asked her to double up on the Family Friendly Farms Country Sausage... That was the least we could do for this high energy team.
The day just wasn't long enough, so we worked into the night... That's Christia still packing - still smiling. She's a trooper... She's 16 years old, which means that I've had the privilege of working with her for over 12 years now. I've never yet seen her back away from a challenge and she's always the last one to call it quits - a real leader... You go girl!!!
It got a little chilly outside that night, but nothing that a little hot chocolate and a big fire wouldn't cure. A job well done with a rest well deserved!!!
And now? . . . Let's Eat!!!
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Mariana is our youngest at nine years old and this year she became in charge of the laying hens and egg production. Here she is collecting eggs from a specially designed coop that is kid friendly because we can get the eggs from the outside without walking in the coop itself. The next step is for Mariana to wash and dry and weigh each egg, then place them into cartons of correct size, then label each carton. It sounds like a lot of time, but she can wash and package 10 dozen eggs within an hour or so - not bad for a little whippersnapper.
Well, we just wouldn't be complete without Ty (19 years old) who keeps us online and connected to you all. She's had the hardest job of all (Teaching her parents how to work on a computer). She'll be sending out this Newsletter shortly, along with cooking up a storm at the local Farmer's Market this Saturday.
Well, there you have it - A day of Farming Operations here at Our Lady's Ranch. Thank you all for your continuing encouragement and support.
Blessings and Peace to you,
This week at Our Lady's Ranch we started preparing for Thanksgiving by moving some turkeys from their small starter home to their new grand estate...
]]>This week at Our Lady's Ranch we started preparing for Thanksgiving by moving some turkeys from their small starter home to their new grand estate...
We recently completed their new mobile coop (notice the wheels) in order to move them from pasture to pasture, naturally fertilizing the grass to keep it healthy for them and the other grazing animals.
Next, we moved the turkeys from their brooder to the new coop. Mikee (on the left) and Jo-Jo (on the right) coordinated the effort!
Then came the big move! With Jo-Jo on the tractor, we carefully transported the turkeys over the creek to their new home.
We placed the coop in a luscious green pasture right next to another mobile coop of turkeys who began this transition a few months ago. Growing several ages of turkeys yields a variety of sizes for you to choose from. (If you look at the photo real close, you can see some of our pigs in the background coming to say 'hi' to their new neighbors!)
The turkeys will spend the next several months foraging on this pasture and basking in the California sunshine.
]]>Would you care to join us for a brief stroll down memory lane? Twenty years ago we set about searching for land in Northern California, looking for a place that settled at the end of the road for privacy, that displayed a gentle topography for usability, that retained a park-like setting for beauty...
]]>Would you care to join us for a brief stroll down memory lane?
This week we took the kids fishing just up the road from us at our friend Bob Reeder's place. Nina took home the medal for the biggest fish!
Here is Phil (on the right) and Bob (on the left). Being with Bob always takes us back to the very beginnings of Our Lady’s Ranch…
Twenty years ago we set about searching for land in Northern California that would be conducive to living in peace and sharing it with others. We considered many parcels over a period of three years, all ranging in size from twenty to fifty acres, but none displaying the amenities that would help us achieve our goals. We looked for land that settled at the end of the road for privacy, that displayed a gentle topography for usability, that retained a park-like setting for beauty, that extended both local and distant views for majestic scale, that contained a variety of habitats for wildlife diversity, and that flowed with plenty of water in various sources, just in case we ever wanted to farm a little ;)
Well, after three years of investigating areas, reviewing countless properties, and engaging dozens of realtors, we just never could find that peaceful place that satisfied our criteria… until the century turned into the year 2000, when a very kind and elderly gentleman named Bob Reeder said, “I just might have the land you’re looking for, but it’s never been listed on the market before and I’m not planning on selling it – but maybe if I find a nice family that loves it as much as I do?”
So the following week we strapped in the two car seats for little Ty, who was three years old at the time, and her younger brother Zach, who was just eighteen months, and we drove out to meet ol’ Bob Reeder, who greeted us on his secluded parcel of land in Nevada County, California.
He was a calm, wonderful host who began showing us creeks and waterfalls, hills and woods, meadows and springs, agricultural irrigation canals, and everything we could ever imagine for our dream of living a simple life in the peace of God, and sharing it with others. And wouldn’t you know, it just happened to be at the end of the road, sheltered in a natural oasis, surrounded by hills, yet replete with a wide variety of natural habitat and extended views across the San Joaquin Valley to the Coastal Mountain Range. So as we looked back at each other silently saying, “Wow, this is it!” – we glanced up at Mr. Reeder who was about ten paces ahead with Ty walking next to him, her hand clenched around his pinky finger. His heart was just melting, and so were ours.
Then, through a series of non-coincidental coincidences, we experienced several episodes of Divine Intervention, like watching scenes unfold in a movie, leading up to the purchase of that one hundred and seventy three acre parcel of land that is now affectionately called, “Our Lady’s Ranch.”
]]>Well, the music was blasting, the girls were cookin', and out came three delicious marinades for this Saturday's BBQ Extravaganza at the Grass Valley Farmer's Market.
We made three very different, yummy marinades... all for your enjoyment! New York's, Top Sirloins, London Broils and Korean Style Short Ribs -
All with unique family stories and all delicious!!!
Marinade #1 is a Steak Marinade for New Yorks and Top Sirloins that Phil and Alicia used with a Tri-Tip on their first home date BBQ. It must of went well back then because they got married and they keep on cookin'. Now it's 25 years later and Alicia's been perfecting the family recipe for this savory sensation. The ingredients include a base of Cabernet Sauvignon, Lea & Perrin's Worcestershire Sauce, Olive Oil, Crushed Garlic, and lots of love... the secret's in the love!
Marinade #2 is a sweet basting and dipping sauce for the veteran barbecuer with a London Broil. This marinade is cooked a little to melt down some brown sugar into a delectable sauce that requires top-secret clearance to uncover... Or a really nice email request to Alicia.
Marinade #3 is a Family Favorite for the barbecuing of Korean-Style Short Ribs. This Asian concoction of soy sauce, sesame oil, crushed garlic, ginger, and chopped green onions wins the Family Friendly Farm's Marinade competition year after year, and is currently in first place once again for this week's competition at the local Farmer's Markets.
Final results of the Marinade Competition will occur at the Grass Valley Farmer's Market (North Star House) this Saturday 6/4/16 between 8:00 - 12:30, where we'll be cooking samples of all three of these Beef Cuts with their accompanying Marinades... Hope to see you there for the taste testing and yummy fun. We'll make sure to post the results afterwards.
We're happy to serve you these All-Natural, Pasture-Raised, Healthy-Meats, and we really enjoy our friendships with each of you.
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Actually, this was a rescue operation... Joseph found this little guy stuck in a pipe and brought it down to show everyone
And then he released it into its new, happy little home...
See? Stories do end with "Happily Ever After" in real life too...
Just ask the Turtle!
Or perhaps.... Nothing better than two brothers smiling together...
But then again... nothing's better than a Father and Son working together...
Except Maybe... A Father and Daughter Working together...
But then again... How about a Husband and Wife working together...
Then there's Ty with her turn on the Tractor...
And the Girls gluing the pipes together...
Even the two youngest pitch in...
Well... Maybe the best is when we're all working together...
With love from all of us to all of you :)
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