Pre-Summer Steak Special

Pre-Summer Steak Special:

Save big on:

Ribeye
Porterhouse
T-Bone
Sirloin.

PLUS! Buy 3 of any steak and get a pound of hamburger for FREE :)

Stock up. July 4th is coming quick!

End of Summer Report

Summer has officially come to a scorching, drought-ridden halt and it's been weeks since we last posted any sort of update so here goes:

The Culpeper Farmer's Market
We can't imagine life without the market. We had no idea how much fun we would have getting to know our customers and fellow vendors. The market is a joy for all of us here at Harvest Farms. Please stop by the booth and say hello if you haven't already done so. We're hard to miss: just look for the only shade tree at the end of the parking lot surrounded by half a dozen kids (some of which are ours, some of which are not), right beside Whisper Hill Farms, home of some of the finest (and freshest) produce we've ever tasted.

The Beef
We are proud to sell only the finest 100% Tarentaise Beef. We butchered two animals (God bless 'em) at the beginning of this year and thought it would be more than enough meat to get us to December. We just picked up our SIXTH animal from the butcher this week. Sales have exceeded our expectations and we couldn't be happier with the flavor and texture of our meat. Customers have been generous with compliments (and recipes). Thank you to everyone who has purchased burger, steaks, stew meat, roasts, jerky, and ribs (oh, and lest I forget, hearts and liver!).

The Cow Pool
We have decided to sell through the Fall / Winter. Now taking orders for 1/8 Shares. I guess you can call it a cow pool. It's the easiest way to stock up for the winter. At an 1/8th share you won't have to buy a whole new freezer. We can deliver or schedule a pick-up. Check it out and let us know if you're interested.

Jerky
There we were, middle of May and a freezer full of roasts. Roasts in the middle of the summer are not exactly "in demand". Whatever were we to do? It was then and there that we struck upon the ingenious idea to make jerky. Yes friends, necessity is indeed the mother of invention!

8 Flavors later we can't keep it in stock! On average we sell about 40 packages of jerky every week. And while we had no idea how labor and time intensive the process would be, we now we look forward to our family gatherings spent around the cutting boards. We cut it, we season it, we package it.

Basil Pesto
It's no secret: We eat what we grow. But we have a greenhouse where we chose to plant several beds of never-ending basil. This is the first ingredient (and we're proud to say we grow it ourselves) that goes into every jar of our Harvest Farms Pesto.

The Website
Check it out at HarvestFarmsVA.com and let us know what you think.


All in all, this has been a phenomenal season for all of us. Thank you again for a tremendous and memorable summer here at Harvest Farms.

Tomato Salad

Lindsay realized that we only have one variety of red tomatoes in the garden. Eek! Oh well, green, yellow and orange will have to do!

Enough red to make to even it out.

Put Away That Rusty Knife, Here Comes The Easy Open

We've improved our packaging! I know, I know, we're only a few months into this jerky business but we figured "why should our friends and customers be forced to use dirty scissors and rusty pocket knives to open their package of fine, quality beef jerky? It makes no sense!"

And so, we're very happy to introduce our new, easy-open packaging. Just find the notch and tear into the goodness.

Come check it out this Saturday at the Culpeper Farmer's Market. This week week we'll have Teriyaki, Sweet-N-Spicy, Berben and Chipotle. PS - This is the last week to get in on our introductory price; after this Saturday our price will go up to $4 (which is still $1-$2 lower than the store-bought stuff. Just sayin').

Hope to see you Saturday (we'll have samples!).

Our New Friends at Ternion Springs Farm

We recently made friends with the folks over at Ternion Springs Farm (right here in Madison, VA). They have a booth across from ours at the Culpeper Farmers Market. Located in Madison, this honey is about as local as we can get without having hives in our own backyard!

Anyway, we love their honey so much that we've decided to use it exclusively in all of our Jerky recipes. Local bees, local honey, local business, local friends. Sweet success!

PS - be sure to stop by their booth to check out their honey and, while you're there, ask about their blueberries (some of the sweetest you'll ever taste!).

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Harvest Farms on facebook. Come grow with us!

A Garden Update

Last night we made a trip to check out the garden. Jonathan (sadly) had not been to the garden since before his trip to Las Vegas. The tomatoes, onions and peas are doing very well. The potatoes are being overtaken by some very fat, very happy little grub-looking things. We'll need to find a remedy for that situation and fast. But, for last night anyways, they looked too happy to disturb so we left them to their feasting.

We couldn't resist picking three small baskets of peas, all of which were eaten when we got home. As you can see from the picture above, even the kids enjoy the green peas. Sarah ate several handfuls before we were able to put them into the pot to cook. For those of you who have only eaten peas of the canned variety, come out to the farm and try one fresh out of the pod. It tastes like summer.

We also picked almost 20cups of basil (which is doing quite well by the way). We'll be making fresh pesto for Saturday morning. In the meantime, the whole kitchen smells like a basil plant (which is a good thing!).

Anyway, here's what's growing:
Tomatoes
Squash
Onions
Peas
Turnips
Potatoes
Beets
Cilantro
Basil
Strawberries

OK, enough blogging, it's time to weed.

Harvest Farms Vegas Vacation

Last week, four of us made a week-long trip to Las Vegas for non-farm business. Chris and Jonathan were very happy to be joined by Shaun and Lindsay for an extended double date in one of the strangest (and brightest) places on earth, Sin City, Las Vegas NV.

While we weren't able to make it to Bradly Ogden, one of the only prestigious restaurants in Vegas to feature an organic, farm fresh menu, we did dine at some of the best restaurants west of the Mississippi including Delmonico's, Emeril Lagasse's legendary (and rightfully so) Creole restaurant, The Fix, a sophisticated hot-spot with an eclectic menu (Shaun had the lobster mango tacos, Jonathan had the spicy tuna with ponzo bread), and the exceptional Dragon Noodle where Chris and Jonathan enjoyed quail egg and pork belly sushi rolls and the most flavorful miso soup they've ever tasted.

We also had a lot of fun checking out the cakes and crepes at Jean Phillippe and had a very fine time at Beijing Noodle No. 9 where Jonathan apparently got trapped inside the enormous glass fish tank full of giant goldfish. It was awesome.

But, despite the fine dining and bright lights, we all missed our beloved Virginia. We're happy to be back on the farm. We've had two successful weeks at the Culpeper Farm's Market. Our basil is all grown up and all of our recent plantings are coming along nicely. We've also set a date with the butcher for our next two freezer fulls of Harvest Farms beef. All-in-all it's been a great season for us.

Come see us at the market next Saturday and make sure to join us on Facebook. You can also check out a few desert pictures taken from the airplane on Jonathan's Flickr photostream.