Sign Up Now for the August Farm Share!

July 29, 2017 By Four String Farm in Farm Share 1 Comment

Butternut Squash

(Friends, our August Farm Share is now sold out. Thank you so much Farm Share Friends for your partnership with our family and the local farm families we work with! To find out first about Farm Share openings coming soon, please email me at justinallenbutts@gmail.com to get on our waiting list. Thank you so much!)

Friends, we invite you to join us for the August Farm Share! August is going to be a great month for farm-fresh food, please click the link below to reserve your space now! You can still sign up to receive your Farm Share for three weeks in August, beginning next week!

What is the Farm Share?

The Farm Share is a weekly delivery of farm-fresh vegetables, eggs, freshly-baked bread and prepared options by Kayla, local cheeses, and cuts of grass-fed beef, pastured pork, chicken, and lamb. This food is as fresh and good as any food, anywhere.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to eat amazing food. Simply invest some of your current grocery store dollars into local farms and treat yourself to something special.

Mediocre ingredients make mediocre meals. You are extraordinary. Eat food that is extraordinary. You are worth it!

What is Featured in the August Farm Share:

We will have some nice produce in August, despite the summer heat! The Farm Share will include freshly-baked artisan bread and prepared items from Kayla. We will have fewer eggs in Aug due to the heat, but will have a wonderful variety of local cheeses each week plus all our cuts of protein–beef, lamb, pork, and chicken. August will be a great month for the Farm Share!

Please click on the link below for your preferred pick-up place/day for the month. Pick up at Kimmi’s Fine Foods on Tuesdays from 4:00pm to 6:00pm. Or, pick up Wednesdays at the Downtown Farmers’ Market in Corpus Christi from between 5:00pm and 7:00pm. Or, pick up Fridays between 4:00pm and 6:00pm at Eleanor’s in Corpus Christi.

Baked Goods from Kayla!

We are so excited to offer Kayla’s homemade artisan baked goods in August! Each week, your baked will include one or more the following: freshly baked baguette bread, ciabatta, sourdough, farl, challah, focaccia, crusty cob, whole wheat, dried fruit and nut bread, corn bread, banana bread, or zucchini bread. You may get blueberry, pear, or carrot muffins, cookies, or one of Kayla’s many other wonderful baked goods. The baked depends of the freshness and quality of ingredients we are able to find.

You may recognize Kayla’s creations from The Bend Magazine, where she writes recipe articles each month featuring the best of farm-fresh food. Kayla is a registered and licensed dietitian who cooks mindfully. A lot of love and care is baked into her bread and prepared items!

Prepared Items Too!

Kayla’s prepared items may include: fresh fruit jelly, jam, marinara sauce, salsa, hummus, tzatziki, sweet red onion marmalade, butternut squash soup, homemade butter, lard, and ect. The offering depends on what we harvest or can find locally or organic. Kayla uses only the finest ingredients for her creations.

You may receive freshly baked pies, tarts, or cobbler. Or, even better, we may offer our own nicely packaged raw tart or pie dough with the filling preserved in a mason jar. Kayla will include clear and specific directions on how to finish your tart or pie at home. Our customers have loved this option because it is so easy to bake at home and allows your family to enjoy a pie, tart, or cobbler cooked to its perfection, hot and fresh, in your own kitchen.

A Wonderful Selection of Produce in August!

The hot weather has shut down most of our vegetables for Aug, but thanks to good planning will still have some nice produce for you! The selection will be more limited than most months, but designed to nicely compliment your Farm Share offering!

We will have small personal-sized pumpkins and exotic heirloom winter squash in August! Look for these beautiful heirloom varieties in August: jarralde squash, small rouge vif d’tampe pumpkins, rai Thai tok squash, blue Hokkaido, red kuri, butternut, tatume, and many others.

We will have a nice selection of organic potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, fruit, and other items from Kimmi’s organic produce. We are leaning on some high-quality organic produce to help us in these hot months.

We will also offer a variety of fresh herbs, such as basil, oregano, thyme, stevia, hyssop, rosemary, and sage. We pick these herbs and put them in water just prior to delivery so they arrive fresh, fragrant, and beautiful.

Thompson’s Dairy Farms Cheese every Week in August!

Each week, we will include the fresh run batch of cheese from Thompson’s Dairy Farms. This may be some of the best cheese you ever taste! August will include options for chevre, feta, gouda, fontina, manchego, and more. Soon, they will also offer yogurt which we will be thrilled to deliver to you! This Texas licensed cheese-maker sells their products through HEB, but we offer these excellent local cheeses in the Farm Share at a fabulous discount!

All Our Cuts of Protein will be Available in August!

In August, you will enjoy pastured chicken, grass-fed lamb, grass-fed beef, pastured pork, and fresh eggs. You will have access to every cut of pork, beef, chicken, or lamb we offer! In addition, you can choose from whole chicken or cuts of boneless skinless chicken breasts, packs of wings, packs of leg quarters, or backs for broth and stock. This will be a great month for choices.

These products will come from our farm, Turkey Hollow Farm, Whole Earth Farm, Groundswell Farm, Palo Verde Cattle Co., or Beverly Jacobson, all local family farms. We are thrilled about the amazing quality and variety of protein coming your way!

Each Delivery Includes Detailed Recipes and Meal Suggestions

Your Farm Share delivery each week includes detailed recipes and preparation tips from a registered and licensed dietitian who is expert in preparing this farm-fresh food. We will empower you to make the most of your food and maximize the value of your Farm Share. Get ready for some truly amazing meals right at your table!

Pick-up Weekly in Corpus Christi or Rockport

You can pick-up your Farm Share each week at Kimmi’s Fine Foods in Rockport on Tuesdays between 4:00pm and 6:00pm. Or, pick up at the Downtown Farmers’ Market in Corpus Christi on Wednesdays between 5:00pm and 7:00pm. Or, pick up at Eleanor’s in Corpus Christi on Fridays between 4:00pm and 6:00pm.

Your First Pick-Up Days will be NEXT WEEK, the SECOND Full Week of August (Aug 8, 9, or 11)

Click Below to Pay and Reserve your Farm Share for August. When all the spaces are filled, we will disable the link to make sure we do not overbook. Thank you so much!

Please click the pick-up place/day you want (I will send you an e-mail confirmation with the place/day). Please stay with your day through the month, as we are not able to switch days during the month. The cost is $61 per week or $183 for THREE weeks of August, beginning the second week. The last pick-up day in Aug will be Fri, Aug 25.

The August Farm Share is now sold out. To get on our waiting list and find out about future openings coming soon, e-mail me at justinallenbutts@gmail.com, thank you! Your first pick-up will be Tues, Aug 8. Your last pick-up will be Tues, Aug 22.
The August Farm Share is now sold out. To get on our waiting list and find out about future openings coming soon, e-mail me at justinallenbutts@gmail.com, thank you! Your first pick-up will be Wed, Aug 9. Your last pick-up will be Wed, Aug 23.
The August Farm Share is now sold out. To get on our waiting list and find out about future openings coming soon, e-mail me at justinallenbutts@gmail.com, thank you! Your first pick-up will be Fri, Aug 11. Your last pick-up will be Fri, Aug 25.

Thank you for joining us in the Farm Share! We look forward to serving you!

More about Our Farmer Partners!

Your Farm Share products will come from our farm or from one of these small, local, family-run farms. These are wonderful people with great products! Spirit Pioneering Farm (produce); Turkey Hollow Farm (grass-fed beef, pastured pork, and fresh eggs); Palo Verde Cattle Co (grass-fed beef); Whole Earth Farm (pastured chicken); Groundswell Farm in Cuero (grass-fed lamb); and The Chicken Lady of Rockport (fresh eggs), and Thomson’s Dairy Farm (cheese). We will also get some staple organic produce (organic and rare varieties of potatoes, onions, garlic, etc.) from Kimmi’s Fine Foods, items you can’t find at the grocery store.

Merry Christmas Farm Share Friends!

December 25, 2015 By Four String Farm in Farm Share, Recipes of a Wee Wife 2 Comments

Nasturtium Leaf and Flower with Country Terrine

This week, we knew that many of our Farm Share customers would be traveling and it would be difficult for them to eat all the fresh greens we have been harvesting lately. To accommodate the holiday travel schedule, we made some dishes that would also travel.

Nasturtium Leaves and Flowers with Country Terrine

My favorite dish this week was the nasturtium leaves and flowers with country terrine. Country terrine is a pate made from pork liver, pork roast, onion, garlic, spices, cream, and high-quality brandy. Every ingredient in this dish was grown or raised on our farm (except the brandy!).

The terrine is served in small dollops on the nasturtium leaves and topped with a nasturtium flower. These flavors are incredible together. The nasturtium leaf brings a bold fresh flavor and the flower tastes almost of fruit. The mixture of these flavors with the unique taste of the terrine is just exquisite.

To keep the flowers fresh, I dug up the roots of the plant and stored them with the soil in a zip lock bag. You can moisten the soil and put the flowers in the refrigerator and they will stay fresh for days. The blooms will open again when they come into the light. We also included edible radish flowers for a slightly different flavor.

Organic Fuji Apple Tart

We delivered the organic Fuji apple tart to be finished at home. Kayla prepares the raw dough for each of the tarts, then wraps the dough in butcher paper. She pours the apple filling into mason jars. Each customer is given directions on how to roll out the dough, form the tart, and bake it. That way, our customers can enjoy their tarts hot and fresh out of the oven.

The filling for this tart is a pure taste of freshly-picked apples. It is tempting to want to add a lot of brown sugar and cinnamon, but Kayla lets the flavor the apples shine through. The sweetness of the filling balances perfectly with the sweetness of the crust.

Challah

Challah

Challah is a wonderful bread often served at Jewish holidays. Kayla braids the dough into a beautiful loaf and bakes it to golden brown perfection. We thought challah would be nice toasted and topped with country terrine, if any is left when the nasturtium leaves run out.

The King of Pork Chops

We gave each customer a package of our thick-cut pastured pork chops. I can’t decide whether I love these chops better on the grill, or in one of Kayla’s crock pot masterpieces. These chops were particularly large; some of the packages would go for nearly $50 if we sold them retail.

But these chops are worth it. The nasturtium leaves with terrine are a wonderful taste, but they are more of an hors d’oeuvre. These pork chops are the main course, and then some.

Really Good (and Healthy) Breakfast Sausage

We had an idea that a nice brunch would be fitting at some point over the Christmas weekend. We put a pound of ground pork into the Farm Share, along with a recipe for Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage. We took the recipe straight from the Jimmy Dean website, but we eliminated the massive amount of MSG’s they put into their sausage.

This breakfast sausage is not a guilty pleasure, but part of a healthy breakfast. The sausage, along with pastured eggs and toasted challah, is exactly how we started our Christmas morning at the farm.

Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

I should call these birthday cookies, because Kayla makes them for my birthday, at my request, instead of cake. I don’t know how she makes these cookies so good. I tell the children that she dips the tip of her little finger into the batter to make them so sweet, and that they all must learn how to do this.

Produce

Additionally, we had a good selection of produce in the farm share this week. Our customers had a choice of some or all of the following: broccoli; kolh rabi; Siberian or curly leaf kale; green leaf mizuna; Prima Rosa chard; Chinese or All Season or Early Dutch cabbage; broccoli greens; pak choi; yams; sweet onions; garlic; Laurentian rutabegas; Shogoin or Purple-Top turnips; and heirloom radishes. We even had a small amount of zucchini and eggplant to add to some of the boxes.

We included some recipe ideas for a soup or crockpot, to help make the most of the produce and protein in the share. There should be plenty for one or many delicious and hearty holiday meals.

Why We Love our Customers

We are so blessed to partner with such wonderful people. Our Farm Share friends are faithful, loyal customers. They have been there for us during flood, drought, heat, cold, good harvests, and bad. They take care of us in big ways, like paying for their share up front each month; and in little ways, like returning mason jars and egg cartons for us to recycle. Our customers keep us going.

Farm Share friends, we want you to have a good Christmas because you have made it possible for us to have a good Christmas. We have plenty of presents under the tree for the little ones, and YOU made that possible. We have had some lean years building our farm, but this is a really great year, and we are so glad to share it with you.

Thank you so much, friends. We wish you a blessed holiday, good eating, and a very Merry Christmas!

Justin, Kayla, Nati, Emma, and Madeleine

Farm Shares Available Now!

November 28, 2015 By Four String Farm in Farm Share, Heritage Farming 4 Comments

Friends, we invite you to join our Farm Share program. We have limited openings available now and would love for you to become a part of our farm family!

The farm share is a weekly delivery of produce, protein, and baked or prepared goods from our farm. Your farm share will be waiting for you each week at Coastal Bend Health Foods in Rockport.

Your weekly delivery includes all the wonderful products you would hope to find at a really good farmers’ market. With the farm share, we bring the farmers’ market to you.

We raise our food ourselves, right here in Rockport, without the use of chemicals, using very old-fashioned methods. With the farm share, you will eat just the same as our family, straight from the farm, for a fair price. (See below list of items.)

To sign up for your December Farm Share, please e-mail me at justinallenbutts@gmail.com.

Farm Fresh or Supermarket Food?

By signing up for a Farm Share, you are simply shifting some of the dollars you currently spend at the grocery store to your local farm. Most of our products are more expensive than the grocery store, and some cost less; but overall, with the discounted value of the share, we are pretty competitive.

However, there is no comparison whatsoever in the taste, health, quality, freshness, and pure goodness of our food with anything you will find at the supermarket.

How Does the Farm Share Work?

On Tuesday or Friday of each week (you choose your pick-up day), stop by Coastal Bend Health Foods in Rockport to pick up your share. Your produce, protein, baked, and prepared goods will be neatly packaged and ready for you to take home.

With each share, we send a note with details about how the food is grown, plus recipe ideas from Kayla. We love our customers and want to help you get the most from your food.

Bring your own bag (or two or three, there will be a lot) to carry your food home. Your share will be ready for you at 2:00pm on your pick-up day.

You will pay for your monthly share on your first pick-up day of the month. The cost for the December Farm Share is $76 per week, or $380 for this five-week month. Your share will take care of much of your grocery shopping for the week.

As a current farm share member, you also have first right to sign up for the next month. We rarely have openings because most members re-up each month. We have openings now because we increased the number of shares.

Kayla with Siberian Kale (photo courtesy racheldurrent.com)

What is IN the Farm Share?

Each week, your share will include a percentage (or share) of the produce, protein, and baked goods raised or produced on our farm or from our local partners. Thanks to our partnership with CC Aquaponics and Coastal Bend Health Foods, we are now able offer a wider variety of wonderful, delicious, locally raised products.

Over time, we try arrange our shares, from a cost perspective, to be about 40% protein, 40% produce, and 20% baked and prepared goods. This formula is a balance between what we are able to grow, what our customers have asked us to provide, what is profitable enough to keep us in business, and what offers the greatest taste, health, and variety to our customers.

Our produce includes everything the season allows us to grow. We use livestock to prepare our gardens, so pork, beef, chicken, and eggs are part of what we sell. We added baked and prepared goods as a short-term measure to make up for a temporary gap in produce, but we continue to supply these products due to customer demand.

Produce

Each week, the produce in your box will reflect the harvest of our farm. Here is a sampling of what we and CC Aquaponics have planted in our winter gardens: several varieties lettuce, carrots, various kale, broccoli, mustard, purple and green mizuna, beets, pak and bok choi, daikon, shogoin turnips, rutabagas, beans, black-eyed peas, chard, cabbage, dill, cilantro, and much more. Many of these veggies will be ready in December.

In addition, we will supplement our share with produce from the Corpus Christi farmers’ markets and from Kimmi’s store, such as organic onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, fruit, and other good things that you will never find organic from our local supermarket. On top of that, Kayla and I will pick fruit from the trees of our friends in South Texas. We go to great lengths to find you wonderful fresh produce!

Protein

The protein each week will include cuts of grass-fed beef, pastured pork, chicken, and eggs. Your cuts each week may include one or more of the following:

Fresh chicken, bacon, beef roast, hamburger, thin-cut pork chops, thick-cut pork chops, t-bone, rib-eye, NY strip, link sausage, pan sausage, ground pork, spare ribs, country ribs, beef short ribs, soup bones, brisket, fajitas, eggs, and many other cuts.

Our animals are raised on pasture or gardens and grown completely without steroids, hormones, or antibiotics.

Baked Goods

Each week, your baked goods may include one or more the following: freshly baked baguette bread, ciabatta, sourdough, farl, challah, focaccia, crusty cob, whole wheat, dried fruit and nut bread, corn bread, banana bread, or zucchini bread. You may get blueberry, pear, or carrot muffins, cookies, or one of Kayla’s many other wonderful baked goods.

Prepared Items

Our prepared items may include: homemade butter, homemade cheese, lard, fresh fruit jelly, jam, marinara sauce, salsa, hummus, sweet red onion marmalade, butternut squash soup, and ect. The offering depends on what we harvest or can find locally or organic from Kimmi’s store.

You may also get freshly baked pies, tarts, or cobbler. Or, even better, we may offer our own frozen pie crust with the filling preserved in a mason jar, with specific directions on how to finish the pie at home. Our customers have loved this option because it is easy to make, saves you money, saves us time, and allows your family to enjoy a pie, tart, or cobbler cooked to its perfection in your own kitchen.

Cost of the Farm Share

The cost for the December Farm Share is $76 per week or $380 for this five-week month. You will pay Kimmi for your share on your first pick-up day in December. To sign up, e-mail me at justinallenbutts@gmail.com. Please order soon, the spaces will fill quickly.

As a farm share member, you will also receive discounts on our upcoming gardening and cooking classes at our farm. You will also receive discounts and offers from Kimmi for some of the wonderful items in her store.

Thank you for becoming a farm share member. We look forward to taking great care of you!

Tending a Winter Garden

Farm Share–Openings Available Now

July 26, 2015 By Four String Farm in Farm Share 8 Comments

Friends, we have a few openings in our Farm Share program for the current cycle. If you would like to join, please let us know by 5:00pm on Monday, July 27.

The current farm share cycle will last five weeks, beginning this week and ending the week of August 25. You will receive a delivery each Tuesday or Friday (your choice) of a package of our products. You will pick up your share at Coastal Bend Health Foods in Rockport by 6:00pm on your delivery day.

Your share each week will contain a mixture of protein, produce, and baked or prepared items from our farm. We will send you an email with each delivery that includes recipes ideas to help you make the most of your food.

The contents will change each week based on seasonality, availability, and our desire to offer you a wide range of new and interesting products. Here are some of the many wonderful items you can expect:

Four String Farm beef, pork, chicken, and eggs. The cuts each week will include one or more of the following: fresh whole chicken, pork roast, T-bone or rib-eye steaks, thin-cut pork chops, thick-cut pork chops, sirloin steaks, pork ribs, country ribs, beef short ribs, ground pork, ground beef, soup bones, stew meat, and much more–all chemical free and grown on our farm)
Freshly baked bread and other baked items
Four String Farm and other local produce (varies depending upon availability). Late summer is a tough time for produce. For this farm share, we are supplementing our harvest with produce from other local farms or organic produce from Kimmi’s store.
Prepared goods using local and organic ingredients, such as jam, pate, pickles, lard, salsa, sauces, etc.

The cost for your share is $61 per week, or $305 for the five-week period. We will accept the payment in two installments (check or cash), the first $183 due upon your first pick-up date. We only have a few openings, and they will fill fast.

To sign up for your share, please e-mail us by Monday at 5:00pm at kayladyandell@gmail.com. Thank you friends for shopping locally!

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