For several years I was a near vegetarian.
Following my moms cancer diagnosis when I was 16 and she 36, I quickly developed an ulcer (yes, at age 16!) The doctor put me on Zantac, which made it worse, and as a result I stopped taking it and began noticing a connection between food and the stomach aches the ulcer created.
Red meat gave me a gut ache.
One of the food culprits I noticed was red meat. Spaghetti, pizza, hamburgers, anything with beef gave me such a gut ache. So I stopped eating it. I cut out soda and Doritos and noticed great improvement with how I felt. I began expanding my repertoire of food with eating more beans and hummus, vegetables and tofu—things I thought at the time would work well for me. They did, but only for a while.
I went about 7 years eating very little red meat. During that time I still ate fish, chicken, and turkey. My stomach aches went away, though I still suffered greatly from acne, a bout of depression, terrible periods, anemia, mono, blood sugar imbalances and fatigue.
Then I met this guy:
And I began eating red meat again. Having grown up in a family of hunters I ate game all the time with no problem, it was just beef that got me in the end. As we started eating more and more red meat I had the A-ha moment that perhaps it was the quality of meat I had trouble with, so I began buying our meat from the co-op…which changed things incredibly. A few years later I could eat a full steak from a grass fed cow with no problem, and ask for more!
Why I buy from a farm.
As purchasing our meat from the co-op was doing a number on our bank account, the next realization I had was to source our meat direct so it would cost less. It didn’t take long for me to find a farmer that was a good fit for us. We went through a few before landing on a family living the American dream, raising meat (and a family) we love. From chicken and pork to beef and turkey, our family loves the experience (not just the food) of buying our food direct.
We know what goes in to raising our food. We know what they feed them and (more importantly), what they don’t. We see the land they graze on, can visit when we want to, and have a say in how we spend our hard earned dollars.
Introducing Pasture Adickes
Jerid and Katrina are living the American dream. We have watched them grow their farm over the years (along with their family) to now include four home schooled littles of their own.
What I love about this little farm is the gratitude they have for families like yours and mine seeking a healthier way to eat, a more conscious way of keeping the dollars spent right here in our own community, and the opportunity they have to educate and feed us. Their meat is divine, raw milk even better, and the experience of driving out there when we need to replenish our supply, so satisfying.
A while back I told Katrina I had coined the pole barn “the grocery aisle” because you get to walk in and shop, just like at the grocery store, except for here there are cats who are looking for love crossing in and around your legs as you peruse the refrigerator, chicks cheeping in the trailer as they grow large enough to be let outside, a calf keeping cozy in the corner pen, and, the fresh smell of farm all around. It’s so fun to grab what we need for the week or month, along with ordering the half pig and cow our family consumes in a years time.
With their animals never being fed grain, and given the old school care of rest and appropriate recovery if ill, we can rest assured we aren’t getting anything we don’t want (and wouldn’t put in) our own bodies, leaving us with the best possible quality food.
Let me give you a tour:
Jerid and Katrina really encourage families to come out and have a little tour, if you will. Get to know the animals, see how they are raised, and even get in on naming the newest calves!
This is true! The turkeys love to make a ruckus and have followed us around many a time upon visiting. Once upon a time, each of my girls had a kitten crawling along the back of their shoulders and resting in the hoods of their sweatshirts as we followed the chickens while being followed by the turkeys themselves! That’s a moment they laugh about often.
You can’t have a farm without a little sass. These lovely milk makers are Farrah (to the left), and Tyra (to the right). Nice ladies, they are….and so at peace in their lovely home.
And last but not least:
The pigs get rotated on the grounds of the farm as they do good work in tilling it up for future gardening. How convenient to not have to do weeding as these guys do the work for you. My girls love nothing more than to keep a close eye on the Pasture Adickes Facebook page for updates as to when a sow is preparing for birth or when they think a cow is close to having a calf—they love the pictures of the new little farm friends. It’s truly a highlight for all of us.
What’s in it for you.
There are many ways you can wisely spend your grocery dollars, and this one is, hands down, a no brainer. We save at least $2/pound on grass fed meat, whether it’s a T-bone steak or a pound of ground beef. My favorites are the bones I use for broth and the liver that keeps the baby I’m carrying and I super healthy.
