In your share

• Chicken
• Lamb shoulder steak
• Ground beef
• Breakfast sausage
• Beef roast

On the Farm

The slow transition to autumn weather is always a refreshing time at Terra Farma, as the seemingly endless days of hot temperatures tend to suck the energy out of us, and the animals, too. The nearly one inch of rain we had at the beginning of the month was helpful enough to get some grass growing again, and the early indications of rain later in the month will help to ensure a fall grazing season before the winter rains arrive in earnest.

The property where we have our beef cows did run out of forage, but we are fortunate that the site down the road from that, where we have our sheep, still had many acres of ungrazed grass, so we moved all 12 of the cattle to that property where they’ve been very happy with belly-high grass. On our home property, we are also running low on forage, so we are letting most of the pasture rest for a few weeks while we supplement with hay, in the hopes that we will be able to get them on some fresh grass in October.

Off the farm, we were honored to be asked to present a workshop on regenerative agriculture at the Love, Oregon festival that was held at the beautiful Camp Colton on Labor Day weekend. This intimate festival (about 220 people were attending) is a celebration of what makes Oregon special, namely its food, music, and natural beauty, and was highlighted by some outstanding musicians along with some delicious meals. Dinner service is included in the ticket price, and the big dinner on Saturday night featured our chicken prepared by our friend and amazing chef, Kieth Bidwell. Our workshop was a lively small group discussion where we pushed back against the common narrative that livestock is a leading cause of climate change. That narrative may be true for grain-fed, feedlot beef; but, as you know, grazing animals raised with care in a manner that mimics natural movement across a landscape can be carbon-negative and is perhaps one of the best tools we have to permanently draw carbon out of the atmosphere and put back into the soil, where it belongs. We hope to be invited back again next year, as the entire event was lots of fun; and I would encourage you to look up their website and/or follow on social media to keep abreast of their events.

Recipe

Lamb shoulder chops from “momsdish.com”

This is a quick and easy dish that can be done on the stovetop, in the oven, or on the grill. We recommend using a cast iron skillet for both the stovetop and the oven methods; for the latter, do a quick sear to brown the outsides of the chops, then finish in a 350-degree oven until it reaches an internal temperature of 130-140 for medium rare or 160 for medium. For a 450-degree grill, 5-7 minutes on each side is all you need. Or, if you have a sous vide, you can seal the chips up in the vacuum bag with the marinade ingredients below and set your machine at 136-140 for 3 hours. Then discard the marinade ingredients and do a quick one-minute sear in a hot skillet on both sides to brown it up. That’s how we cook ours, and it’s delicious!

Ingredients

• 2-4 lamb shoulder chops
• 6 garlic cloves
• 1/2 oz fresh rosemary
• 2 tbsp oil
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste

Directions

1. Chop garlic and break down the fresh rosemary; combine with oil, salt and pepper in a large ziplock bag.
2. Add lamb shoulder chops into the seasoning and leave it to marinate for at least an hour.
3. Preheat the skillet on high heat. Remove all seasoning from the lamb shoulder chops and add them to the skillet. Cook for about 6 minutes on each side.
4. Let lamb shoulder chops rest for about 5 minutes before serving.