MM Livestock Co

Thanks to all of you that have joined our meat only CSA. We still have shares available, and are adding a drop in San Diego, and 2 in Orange County.Current drops are in Murrieta, Temecula, and at the farm. You guys have been asking for us to do this for months and with the way the economy is and our current predicament it seemed like the perfect solution. I am thrilled that those of you that are members already are happy with the set up and yes you can still get individual cuts and packages! Sunday was fun with folks picking up their shares and everyones kids playing with the baby animals. One little girl asked what the big things were in with the horses and when I told her they were cows she was amazed. It was cute and shocking at the same time. People need to know where their food comes from and how it is raised, all of it. I'm glad that we can do our part to make this happen. If you are interested in joining our CSA just call and we'll get you signed up. Thanks again for supporting us!

Branding day went pretty well. We castrated 40 bull calves, branded all 82, took blood samples for testing, vaccinated, etc. I thought it was going to be crazy with all the extra people around but Chris kept everyone where they needed to be and there were no problems. In fact when the turn table broke one of the spectators happened to be a welder and fixed it on the spot. After the work was done and all the demonstrations over, the fellas had kids out in the pens roping hay bales and flinging dried cow chips while the rest of us finished cooking supper. We spit roasted a side of beef, cooked 200 ears of corn, 30 gallons of cowboy beans, baking powder biscuits, 2 wash tubs of salad, and 20 dutch oven Cobblers. The most fun for me was watching people try the fresh bull fries! We cleaned them, soaked them in buttermilk for a bit, gave em a dose of Chuck Wagon seasoning and flour then grilled em up. Good Stuff! We do this every year but this time it was really great to have our customers and folks from the community come out to watch. 200 people came away from the afternoon with a new appreciation fo how hard we work, what it takes to keep an operation like this going and the animals healthy. I'm shamelessly stealing a quote from one of our visitors and adding it to our advertizing.(With his pemission of course) "Grass feeding livestock isn't a production system. It's a RELIGION!" I think he summed it up pretty well! Here's the formula for BJ's Chuckwagon Seasoning. 1 cup grey salt 1/4 c Peppercorns 1/4 c dried garlic (not the granulated stuff) 1/4 c dried onion 1/4 c parika Mix in a food processor just until the peppercorns break up. store in an airtight container. This mix is the base for most of the sauces and rubs we use. you can build on it for hundreds of variations. Enjoy!

Last nite was the Green Feast in San Juan Capistrano, it was a benefit to raise funds for The Ecology Center. What a Place! The vision these folks have is Amazing! Check out their website and you'll get an idea of what they are all about. It was a real honor to donate and participate. There were almost 200 people at 1 table discussing sutainability, giving examples of how each farmer or rancher accomplishes this, and fielding some of the most intelligent questions I have heard in a long time. The food and drink were wonderfully prepared and it was a truly lifestyle affirming nite. I wish every community had a place like this to go and learn about agriculture, sustainable practices, stewardship and the reasons we in this industry do what we do. Evan is one of my heroes and anything they need or decide to do I'm there! It's 22miles from my place as the crow flys, a little farther by road and a vision worth supporting. We are moving forward with our teaching center here and with The Ecology Center as a model and their staff as mentors we are going to really be able to help people learn about their food, where it comes from and how to get it to your plate in the safest, healthiest, and most natural way possible. It shows me that all the work we've done getting and keeping Certifications that prove the quality of our product were not a waste of time. It is a shame that we have to do this but it protects our customers and brings people like those at The Ecolology center in to our world and gives us opportunity to keep making a positive difference.

We're still lambing and the weather has been fierce! we have misters up for the animals but babies can't regulate their body temperature for the first few days of life. Over 80 can be tough on newborns but when it hits 100+ its really dangerous. No laughing but here's what we did. We took a portable swamp cooler and put it in the barn, moved the jug panels inside and voila no stressed lambs! This is working well! The family moves outside after about 5 days and with the misters, trees and shade covers adjust to the heat pretty quickly. Mom teaches the youngsters how to beat the heat. If you go out in the heat of the day you'll find the whole crew napping under the pepper trees or with their faces in front of the misters. I have 1 ewe that thinks she's a hippo and the water tank is a bath tub. It's funny to see but we've had to add 2 more tanks in the field and don't dare leave a float in any of them or we have floods. It means checking tanks more frequently but hey I want to go for a swim in the heat of the day myself. Our girls lamb year round and some of the challenges of out of season lambing are pretty funny, and they definitely keep our visitors entertained. On a more serious note, Gracie the Land shark is really getting the idea of how BC's are supposed to work sheep. She is starting to hold a good pace and not rush her sheep. She is finally getting a solid recall and lie down. She still doesn't get why she has to stay on the sidelines when Tweed moves them through the pens though. It's back to formal training in the next few weeks and we'll see if we have a trial dog in the makin'.

This has been a BUSY week! More lambs and goat kids have been born, 20 lambs and 3 kids. Everyone is doing well. This weeks dutch oven class was based around beef. We did some large roasts over the coals and grilled up some steaks just for fun. Everyone was shocked when I brought the steaks out still frozen. I explained that starting steaks frozen on the grill actually protects the tenderness of the meat. You don't lose any of the good juices that collect in the bag during during defrosting and it only adds about 10 minutes to the total cooking time. I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to steaks and don't use anything but salt pepper and garlic on mine. If you want to marinade that's fine. I just usually don't. They all thought I was nuts until they sat down to eat. 10 converts! If it was only always that easy! This week we did Matimbres, classic roast beef, and dutch oven Wellingtons. As soon as the website is finished we'll start posting recipes, until then you can e-mail me and I'll send em to you. Next week I am at the Green Feast In San Juan Capistrano so class will be Monday nite. Some of the cooking students are getting more interested in other aspects of ranching and livestock care so we're going to allow the general public to attend some of our seminars and are developing a couple of classes for newcomers to country life. As soon as we have the schedule set I'll post it. If there are specific things you all are intereste in let me know and we'll do our best to get someone out here to talk about it. All the slots are filled for Branding Day. I had no idea people wanted to watch calves get branded, doctored and castrated. I'm glad they do though. If more people took the time to learn the how and why of where the meat they are eating comes from they would have a deeper appreciation for their food and the land that produces it. If I can show one person the difference between living with the land instead of just on it, I've done my job. Time to bring the sheep in. talk to you all soon. Meg