Soup season is almost here! Who loves soups and who doesn’t??
Cameron is not a fan of soup unless it is this homemade Chicken Noodle, and I love soup except for any kind of chicken noodle besides this one lol. This is a super easy soup with amazing flavor that only takes a couple hours to cook!
How is your dry aged beef raised and finished?
They are born on our ranch and live their whole lives on pasture. At 6-8 months we wean them from the momma cows and move them to their own pasture where they continue to grow. About 3-4 months before processing, we bring to a closer to pasture to the house and feed them alfalfa and non-GMO corn to give them flavor and marbling. They also have grass, prairie hay, minerals, and salt on free choice.
How long are they dry aged?
They are aged for a minimum of 21 days for perfect flavor and tenderness.
What breed of cattle do you raise?
We have Angus and Beefmaster cows with Angus bulls.
What is Timber Raised Pork?
We coined this term for our pigs that we raise in our Missouri timber aka as trees. We buy them at around 40lbs and train them to hotwire in a pen by the house then move them to the timber after about a week. From then on to processing, we rotate them through the timber as they always have fresh land to get nuts, roots, and grubs from.
What breed are your pigs?
They are ½ to ¾ Berkshire and a mix of Old Spot and Duroc. We were very fortunate to meet an older gentleman who has been raising pigs for many, many years and has far more knowledge of pig genetics than we do. We have always been super impressed with the amount of meat in the bacon and marbling in the pork chops!
What do your pigs eat?
Besides their natural diet of what they find in the trees we supplement with a non-GMO feed recommended by our nutritionist. They never receive any scraps to ensure they have a consistent flavor and healthy diet.
What is Green Grass Chicken?
Like the pigs, it the name we came up with for our chickens that we raise on the green pastures in chicken tractors. We only raise them in the spring and fall when there is enough green grass to guarantee, they always have access to bug activity that comes with it.
What do your chickens eat?
They get moved to fresh grass everyday and take full advantage of the clover and bugs that our pastures are rich in. They are also supplemented with a non-GMO feed recommended by the nutritionist to keep them healthy.
Do any of your animals receive hormones or antibiotics?
No, none of our meat animals are ever given hormones or antibiotics. We believe in keeping them healthy with fresh air and the best nutrition.
How can I get your meat in my freezer?
We have a few options for you based on where you are located! We ship meat nationwide through UPS, if you are within a few hours of Joplin, we send it UPS ground and it will arrive in 24-48hrs. Or if you are further, we send it 2-day air. It will arrive frozen or mostly frozen within the 48hr range. Each box gets 5lb of dry ice and is packed in a recyclable insulated box.
If you are in the Lamar, Nevada, Carthage, Joplin area we can arrange delivery. Also, we have a freezer at Sunny Gardens Greenhouse east of Lamar right off Hwy 160.
We also attend the Greater Springfield Farmers Market every Saturday from April-October from 8-12. From November-March we go every other Saturday. To stay in touch with that routine sign up for our email newsletter and let me know you are interested in our Market information.
Do you sell halves and wholes?
Yes, we do sell beef and pork halves and wholes. It is not available for shipping but if you are interested in prices and more information contact me at jacquelyn@cjwpinoranch.net
Where can I learn more about you and your story?
I share everything that we do on the ranch on our social media pages @cjwpinoranch on Instagram and CJW Pino Ranch on Facebook. I also update the blog regularly and send emails weekly with what is happening around here, so be sure you are signed up for that!
Anyone think it is too soon to be planning your thanksgiving meal??
Before we started this business I definitely would have been like “who thinks about thanksgiving in August?” Well, the answer to that question is, your rancher does. That is because it takes 4 months to grow turkeys and we must plan even further ahead than that to make sure we can get turkeys and that they can get processed.
So, these thanksgiving turkeys have been in our minds and on our schedule since January. Blows my mind I was able to plan that far ahead HA!
We almost had a problem when the hatchery we get the turkeys from called a week before the turkeys were due to arrive and informed us, they wouldn’t be sending turkeys this year. Really could have been a bad deal! Thankfully, the hatchery that they get the eggs from was able to ship us 100 toms. That was a bit worrisome for a minute though, Cameron has been looking forward to these turkeys since last year!
While turkeys are similar to chicken in that they are both poultry, the similarities seem to end there. Turkeys seem to be far tougher than chickens and really love to interact with humans. One of us goes into their brooder multiple times a day to check on them and just talk to them. They love it! That might seem weird to some people but it’s not unusual to hear us talking to all the animals around here.
They also take 2x as long to grow and prefer hotter temperatures than chicks in the brooder. Which suits our climate perfectly for their arrival in early August when it was 100+ degrees without heat lamps during the day.
We also run them differently on the pastures, instead of individual chicken tractors, Cameron and James are building a large mobile shelter on a trailer and we will fence the turkeys in with poultry netting hotwire. It’s amazing how well this works! As long as we give the turkeys somewhere to roost in their shelter they don’t fly over the netting, and it keeps predators out. Well at least last year it did, but we did have Mundi to help with that too, I am a little more concerned this year without her.
Also, the turkeys leave behind a lot more manure than the chickens and it was incredible to see what that did for the pasture this spring! We really love this season around here with the little gobblers we call them!
As I mentioned above, we will have 100 turkeys this year. I am taking names for anyone who would like one and if you know of anyone who wants the best thanksgiving turkey they have ever had send them our way please!
We had a heartbreak on the ranch this week. We had to put down our Colorado Mountain Dog Mundi, who guarded all the animals around here faithfully for the last 2 years. She was accidentally ran over by our farm helper when he went to move a truck and trailer and broke her back. With this heat, we are sure she was sleeping under there and was sleeping too hard and didn’t hear the truck start. Which is really saying something because that truck sounds like a spaceship when you start it.
It’s a very unfortunate event that has made us all look around a little more and appreciate what we do still have. I know some people might think she was just a farm dog to us, and we shouldn’t be too bothered by it. Though, that is just not how we are made around here. This morning I was praying and asking God if this is how I was supposed to feel, or should I be tougher about it. Then I proceeded to read my scriptures for the day, and I was in Romans 8 the very last verse I read today was verse 17 it says “And since we are his children, we will share his treasures – for everything God gives to his Son, Christ, is ours, too. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering”. It was the answer I was searching for. I know that God uses hard times to build our character, but today I wasn’t sure if it was okay to feel the hurt that I was. But as always God was faithful.
Mundi was always so sweet and did her job so well! We never had anything get into the chickens or bother the pigs with her around. She was our first experience with a LGD (livestock guardian dog) and she couldn’t have been a better one!
Now, not only do we have to deal with the heartbreak of losing a loving pup, but we must try and replace her. Our thanksgiving turkeys just arrived today, and we only have 4-5 weeks until they will move out to pasture where we will need a LGD to keep them safe. They will be in a hotwire pen, but a determined skunk or opossum could get in there and completely wreck our plans for your thanksgiving.
As of right now we aren’t sure where we will find a dog in time. Hopefully something a little older so it can go to work right away and not have to grow up too much. Our little polar bear Mundi is very missed around here!
