Place your order for some farm fresh goodies!
Buy Eggs Here
Purchase Fresh Produce Here.
Buy your Apple Fennel Brats here. Great thawed and cooked up on the grill – they caramelize up so nicely and stay juicy. Yum! Great served up with some macaroni salad!
Ready to plant that garden? Order your Seedlings Here
You see we’ve got the awning up? It sure feels like summer is here alreadys – what with the warm weather and the CSA store area getting spruced up for the season. Having that awning up shifts our living quarters to the outside. We’ll cook on the grill or in the pizza oven for dinner. Hang out in the “lounge” in the evenings and have farm lunches on the picnic tables. The girls are already asking for a camp out!
I was a little worried the awning wouldn’t get up in time for the Mother’s Day brunch we’re hosting with Sprezzatura. Click here to BUY TICKETS for the event! Jen Saffron and crew will be cooking up our ribs along with other great farm fresh goodies!
Evelyn has been industriously working on the violet sugar project and is also making watercolor note cards. She’ll make a Mother’s Day gift basket with 6 floral-themed original note cards, a jar of violet sugar, and a lavender soap. Stay tuned in the next newsletter for how you can order your Mother’s Day gift baskets soon. Pictures to follow!
Barn Yard Notes
(skip if you don’t want to hear about butchering)
We’re starting the butcher marathon. We have about 30 hogs scheduled for harvest each week throughout the month. It’s really intense for us, getting the pigs onto the bus for Freezer Camp. We take such care in raising them in a mostly chill environment. When the trailer arrives for them to head out… they are are suspicious. What’s this red metal structure? Why should I get on it? And then they’d turn around and try to bust out of the pen and go to the opposite side of the pasture.
Time and necessity are the mother of invention, and Greg had gathered together farm resources and built a pig chute. It’s made with solid metal roofing panels, so the pigs can’t see their surroundings. He mulched the chute with wood chips and cut back on their daily rations for a couple days. When the trailer arrived, we put the feed on the trailer and the pigs clambered on. Easy peasy.
This last round of pigs to go to the butcher were some of our breeders. The boar, Freddie, specifically. He’d outworn his welcome and had taken to harassing the ladies (sows). He and Clyde would snarfel at each other through the fence, frothing at the mouth over who was more important. Freddie even took to pulling out the fence posts and strewing them through the barnyard. Not. A. Good. Pig.
Boar meat, generally isn’t that appealing to eat – so we are making dog food out of that guy. Alice, August, and Charlie will be happy to help out!
Where to find our stuff!
If you’re in the East End area, please make sure to swing by Frick Park Market and pick up some of our frozen sausages. We’re working on getting more of our frozen pork and soaps into some of the local corner stores. They’ll only keep buying our products if it moves off the shelves. Support a local grocer and the farm at the same time!
We also have soaps (and soon to be sausages/bacon) at the Mayfly Market in the Northside too! Ann has been buying our soaps for a couple years now and said she has room for some of our frozen meats too!
Again keep these small independent grocers going – as a decentralized food supply creates more food security in our region.
Many of you may start asking – “When will CSA start?” We’re aiming for June 5th, (the first Wednesday of June). If you signed up for a half share, I’ll assign you to an even week or an odd week pick up. Keep an eye out around the end of May for your assignment.
We are still accepting CSA members too – there’s a limited number we can take on for the Northside and Squirrel Hill markets – and a few more that we can have out at the farm.
Mother’s Day Brunch
May 12th from 4 to 7 pm, we’re excited to host a Mother’s Day Brunch on the farm with Sprezzatura!
“Spend the afternoon and twilight hours of Mother’s Day at Blackberry Meadows Farm with a farm-to-table dinner provided by Sprezzatura. Enjoy a menu of wood fired foods, family-style serving, complimentary sparkling Prosecco, and dishes featuring humanely raised pork from the farm. The Don Aliquo Trio will be playing jazz throughout the evening. This event is rain or shine under a beautiful pavilion and is open to everyone, mothers or not.”
Menu:
Important: Ordering Information
Farm pick up to Wednesdays 3 – 7pm. We’ll have your order packed and set outside on the marble counter. Park across from the house, at the top of the land. Cross the lawn and look for the bag with your name. Frozen items will be in a white cooler.
IMPORTANT: Please make sure you place a minimum order of $30 for delivery.
Across from Frick Park Market in Point Breeze, this Saturday at 12:00 – 12:15 pm
Across from the Mayfly Market (Arch St) in Northside, this Saturday at 1:00 – 1:15 pm
Outside of Local Provisions in Fox Chapel – at the Plaza on Freeport Rd, this Saturday at 1:45 – 2:00 pm
