Messy and Picky

The last stop on our day long tour was Green Meadow Farm in Gap, PA. Glenn Brendle, the man behind the 29-year-old farm, proudly brought us right to the literal heart of the farm: the biodiesel shack. Oh yes. Biodiesel. Free fuel! Brendle is a pioneer in the field with no special training. He started gathering up the grease from the restaurants he delivered his specialty produce to and went to work. Year by year, he's increased his savings through biodiesel investments. The large farm equipment is all on biodiesel, the greenhouses are headed using biodiesel and he's working on getting the whole operation fully off the grid once he finishes up converting his diesel generator.

As Brendle opened up the door to the shack, out wafted that fry-o-lator smell. A friend of ours has a biodiesel car in LA and we rode in it when we visited 3 summers ago. This smelled like that, but more so. It's not an offensive smell, just a smell that means, oil is up in here. Have you ever been to a big deep fry party? Well, we have, a few times, and the smell in the deep fry party is more overwhelming than this shack which was powering the entire farm.

We walked with Glenn to his greenhouses where he can grow his produce year round. Above is a champagne grape vine – gorgeous eh? He also has tons of concord grapes on the property which are super sweet.

So into the greenhouses. There were all kinds of goodies all around. He and his crew grow all kinds of micro greens, herbs, tomatoes… Above is a shot of Glenn and one of the Farmstand's awesome volunteers, Jamie, strolling through one of the greenhouses.

And a 12' banana tree! That's half of a banana leaf on the right there. The banana tree hasn't produced any fruit yet, but it's there, growing and getting huge!

Just outside the door from the banana tree were more goodies. Citrus plants. Lemons, blood oranges, kaffir limes. These were grown just outside of the greenhouses warmed by the residual heat and protected from the wind. On another part of the property, Brendle has a bunch of paw paw trees growing.

We ventured into the original greenhouse which Brendle made from lots of found materials. He mentioned lots of found railroad ties and iron piping for the hoops. That incredible stretch of rosemary in the photo above was awesome. It was about 7' X 30' and it smelled decadent.

This passion fruit blossom caught the eye of everyone who went into the hot house. It was quite dazzling to see up close. Layer upon layer of stuff going on in every which direction you could see.

The entire farm was so idyllic it was almost sickening. I was walking with my co-worker Emily, complaining about gorgeous every square inch of the entire plot was and we passed by this scene. A group of steps overgrown with grass, flanked by lush greenery.

We walked down the road a bit to get to one of the several acres of garden. Above is a row of corn which was just starting to come up.

Here's Glenn talking to one of my co-workers, Jennie, about the crops on this little plot.

Here's the gang of tour goers crossing a little creek back to the farm house. Three Black Angus steer followed us back through the field. They were a bit camera shy.

Back inside the Brendle house we came across the most awesome range we've ever seen. An antique range, that the Brendles found on the side of the road, and brought home and restored to beautiful working condition. It's a Clark Jewel Lorain Oven Heat Regulator and it's in perfect working condition. Glen fixed it all up.

And here's my co-worker Nate with a new friend which I found and promptly stuck on his shirt.

The second stop of the day (first stop at Smucker's Meats) on the Lancaster Tour was to Meadow Run Farm, in Lititz, PA, whose tagline is "Uncommonly Good Meat & Eggs" which we can personally attest to being 100% truthful. We've been enjoying their top quality products for the last 3 years. The chance to visit the farm where the products were raised was an honor.

Our caravan of cars pulled into the driveway and we were greeted by a gaggle of geese enjoying the shade of a tree on this super hot day. The tour was smack in the middle of Philly's record breaking run of 80°+ days; this day was well over 90°.

A few steps onto the property and we spotted a barn where farmhands were gathering up the sheep. Sheep are an odd looking bunch if you look at them for a bit. The rest of the sheep were out on pasture, but these were in the barn, but we're not sure why.

Above are Philip and Dee Horst-Landis showing us our way to our chariots. You'll notice that Philip is using arm braces, yep, he's a paraplegic, who runs a farm with cattle, sheep and poultry. So, back to the chariots. You can see in the photo above a tractor and a big quad with trailers hitched to them. We got a hayride tour! Oh yeah.

Our first stop was to see the sheep out on pasture. We got off the tractor and Philip lead us to the electrified fence which kept the sheep in a big pasture. The sheep were moved around so that the land was grazed evenly. I forget the exact cycle, but cattle, pigs, sheep and chickens all go through the fields.

Here's Philip pointing to one of the sheep out in the field telling us how many times each animal can go through the field. He said that with their husbandry practices, they're able to pick out the sheep which get sick earlier than on a conventional farm. Their loss rate (sheep are prone to parasites) is remarkably low compared to industry averages.

He went out to the artificial shade constructed for the sheep to give them a quick check. Philip told us that the sheep needed a structure like this because they only eat during the day. If it's too hot outside, they wouldn't be able to eat as much given the heat. So, they can rest under the shade, get a drink of water, and graze. Cattle, on the other hand, don't mind eating at night.

Here's a shot of some of my co-workers, friends and loved ones in the back of Philip's tractor. It was a nice ride throughout. I think it was my first hayride in decades.

Our next stop was to the broiler chickens. Chickens are raised in two categories on a farm: layers and broilers. The layers have been bred for the quantity of eggs they produce. Broilers have been bred to get bigger. These broilers aren't looking too happy, but it's not from a lack of care – it's just over 90° outside. They're kept in movable tent structures so they can graze on fresh grass each day. Chickens are naturally supposed to be out on pasture, eating grass and grubs. Eating what they're supposed to be eating leads to those awesomely golden, orangey colored yolks, not the wan, pallid light yellow yolks you get from cooped up chickens. We didn't have a chance to make it over to where the layers were kept as we were running out of time.

We hopped back into the trailers and over to the pig pens. Meadow Run raises Berkshire hogs. Pink, brown, black, spotted… all different kinds were scattered through 6 or so pens to keep them out of the oppressive heat.

Little piglets were kept separate from the bigger bodies. They seemed content with that.

Here's Dee hosing off the hogs. Pigs don't have sweat glands and that's why they're often covered or are wallowing in mud – it keeps them cool!

And here's my favorite shot of this visit. That pig is grinning ear to ear from the shower of cool water it's getting.

Here's a farming tidbit you won't learn everywhere. Most conventional farms dock the tails (cut them off) of pigs to prevent them from biting each other. Well, pigs are a pretty hierarchical group and nipping is part of what they do. It's when they get all nasty and sick from being pumped with needless hormones when they get nasty with pus-seeping wounds from their tails.

We took one turn by another barn full of sheep before heading back to the front of the farm where we regrouped and went off to our next stop.

We cooled off by going into their farmstore which was immaculate – and on the honor system. This little box contained some cash and checks written to Marcus Horst, Dee's father. You could pick up what you needed, write down what you took (so they could do inventory easier) and head out!

Five clear top chest freezers full of poultry, beef and lamb/mutton. The yellow fridge in the back was full of their prized eggs. They raise a few different kinds of layers, but the most prized eggs are those from the araucana which lays gorgeous blue-green eggs.

The farmstand carries a bunch of Meadow Run products including broiler chickens, stewing hens (what you need for coq au vin), chicken wings, beef cubes, beef stir fry strips, lamb cubes, lamb rib/loin chops, lamb stew meat, lamb sholuders/legs, lamb and chicken offal, lard, ham hocks and three types of delicious sausage: merguez, chorizo and plain. And then there are the eggs which come in a gorgeous brown or those rich green-blue ones.

A short video about Meadow Run's operations from Whole Foods blog (Meadow Run wholesales to WF) shot last year:

Over the summer, Picky's workplace (Fair Food) hosted a staff tour of two farms and one processing facility. This is the first of a three part series of our visit to Lancaster County. The first stop was Smucker's Meats, in Mt. Joy, PA, a family-owned, USDA certified meat processing plant. Jay Smucker (his father, David, started the operation in 1965) met us in the small parking lot, flanked by free roaming chickens which Jay keeps as pets, to lead us inside. We all donned hairnets (sorry, no pics of that here!) and ducked inside. Above is a shot of the holding pen where cattle and pigs are kept before being slaughtered.

Jay, pictured above with the awesome 'stache, was sure to tell us a about how much he cares for the animals as they come onto his property. How they are treated as to undergo as little stress as possible by being transferred at night. How they strive to keep everything as clean as can be. Neither of us had been to a slaughterhouse before, but the comforting words by Jay helped put us at ease. I'll also add that there was no foul odor that one might associate with lots of freshly killed things might conjure. Smelled like farmland.

No use beating around the bush. Above is a shot of a side of beef (half a beef for the pros out there) which was rolled out from the gigantic refrigerator unit separating the "kill floor" from the "processing floor". The fridge was, if I recall correctly, kept at 27°F. Why so cold? The freezing temperature of beef (28°F) is lower than that of water (32°F). I don't recall the exact weight of the side of beef, but I think it was over 500lbs.

Here's a shot of Jay checking on things in another room down the hall from the kill floor with rows of ready to use hooks on the left.

The day we went to Smucker's wasn't a kill day, that had happened a day or two beforehand. Standing on the kill floor wasn't odd. It was so clean. Tools lined up against the walls, floor and walls scrubbed clean, nothing out of place. Toward the end where the killing happened were 3 32 gallon buckets full of beef scraps. These were to be picked up by a dog food company which would, in turn, make some high quality dog food. Nothing was going to waste here.

On to the processing floor. Two lines of workers surrounded what was essentially a gigantic cutting board. They wore chain mail gloves on their non-cutting hands so no digits went missing (and probably also for a better grip on the cold meat). Different stations processed different cuts. One person was cutting front end steaks, one person on ribs, one person on back end steaks… The cuts were weighed out and placed in sorting bins before final processing and packaging.

The craziest part of the tour for me was the use of a chainsaw to cut the sides of beef. The guy pictured above was really making quick work of it all. He'd halve the sides and haul the pieces to the table for sorting. He was a big dude and I certainly could not have done his job.

Smucker's is a busy facility. Slaughter orders are booked 2 months ahead of time as they're an in-demand shop. They do huge orders of 100+ and orders of a handful. They work with their customers to make sure they're getting what they want. They really care about their product and they take pride in their work. Fair Food sells beef (steaks, ground beef, jerky and beef sticks [think really tasty SlimJim]) from Landisdale Farm which uses Smucker's as their slaughterhouse.

It should be noted that Messy, who grew up not really eating meat, found the visit highly educational and not gross.

So parts two and three will be up soon and we hope to visit more farms, dairies, bakeries and other local food producers in the future.