Last week a friend of ours reached out to us for beef.  He has been very supportive of our farm business, but had never bought any of our meats.  He had a “mild” heart attack and open-heart surgery some years ago and decided then to “go off beef” as much as possible .  Whenever we get together with him we are always super sensitive to his disciplined eating routine of “no fat” and “no cholesterol”.  

As you can imagine, it came as quite a surprise when he said he needed to buy some of our beef.  His doctor told him he has too low cholesterol (yes, it's a thing!) and some anemia, and he recommended he started eating more beef.  The good news was the doctor was clear in specifying - not just ANY beef, but GRASS FED beef!

As we grow our farm business, we are encouraged to see the health benefits of pasture-raised animals become more mainstream. 

Mayo clinic says, Grass-fed beef may have some heart-health benefits that other types of beef don't have. When compared with other types of beef, grass-fed beef may have:

• Less total fat
• More heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids
• More conjugated linoleic acid, a type of fat that's thought to reduce heart disease and cancer risks
• More antioxidant vitamins, such as vitamin E

One of the first proponents of pasture base meats, Dr. Mercola, says,
Conventionally raised beef can’t begin to compare with lifetime grazed 100% grass fed beef for health benefits. Here are just some of the ways grass fed beef is superior:

• A healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (1.65 vs 4.84)
• Higher in the B vitamins thiamin and riboflavin
• Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium, and potassium
• Higher in beta-carotene and vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)

Here’s something else you may not know about grass fed beef: Conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, is a naturally occurring fat found in grass fed beef and dairy.

CLA has been shown in studies to provide important support for weight management, immune function, normal cell growth and normal blood sugar levels.  Animals that graze on pasture have 300 to 400 percent more CLA than those fattened on grain in a feedlot. 

Once a cow begins to eat grains, it loses its ability to produce this valuable fat. Just one more compelling reason to choose grass fed! 

It really makes us feel good at Starry Nights Farm when we promote better health, it is part of our mission to deliver a delicious, healthy, and nutritious product to our customers. 

So have your cake and eat it too!

Springtime at the farm is a busy time.  We get ready to transition the cows from eating hay (that we harvested last year) to the new fresh grass that is growing in our pastures.  

One of the “dirty” jobs at the moment is to spread manure that built up during the winter over the fields (manure: a nice way of saying cow shit mixed with straw and hay).  Coming from my previous career in finance, where I was a sales person, I feel right at home spreading the manure.  In sales I could “shoot the shit”, “spread the shit”, and “bull shit” with the best of them, so how appropriate that I get to lay it on thick in our fields now!

Some of you may be thinking it is disgusting, or ask why the heck do we do that?!?….. Well, I will try to answer those questions.

Cow "caca", to organic/sustainable farmers, is brown gold!  This dookie is what makes our sustainable business work.  The dung increases the fertility on our land.  It adds organic material (humus) to the soil, which helps buffer the drying effects on soil during a drought by holding more water, essentially becoming a sponge.  

Unlike conventional farmers, we don’t have to use chemicals to fertilize our farm.  The manure provides the food for our plants, animals, and the other micro organisms (fungi, bacteria, earth worms, insects and many other invertebrates) that work in our circle of life environment.  It’s a cycle of birth, growth, plateau, decline, death, decomposition/decay, and rebirth.  Nature rules! She uses everything by recycling it, making our soil rich and full of life.  The cows give our farm an advantage, we are able to close our farm to any outside inputs.  We create a closed circle where the soil, plants, and animals work together and continue to build soil health.  Through this interaction we have a diverse set of nutrients and micronutrients in our soils, and by that in the food we produce.  Soil scientist J.I. Rodale said it best, “ Healthy soil, healthy food, healthy people.”

Farming is a humbling endeavor.  We have no control over Mother Nature, she has the final say.  It is humbling working with cow pies, but it is so important to being sustainable.  And think about how many different words we have for crap… when a word has that many synonyms, it has to be important! Changing my kids diapers and now having cows, I am over my poop phobia!  

With my new perspective as an organic/sustainable farmer, I like it when someone says, “have a shitty day!“