While access to fresh, local produce and other products is increasing in the U.S., so is the variety of labels on our food. What does the cage-free, grass-fed, or free-range mean and why should we care? Here is your cheat sheet for some of those fancy labels in an effort to make us more educated, healthy shoppers.

• Free-Range is used in reference to poultry. All birds have unlimited access to food, fresh water, and the ability to go outdoors. Free range chickens are not confined to overcrowded...

What is an omnivore to do?

With technological advancements in cultivation, transportation, and preservation, we are no longer confined by the season nor which region of the planet we live in.  Food is plentiful and available in a plethora of choices, at least in the Western hemisphere.

The problem with this overabundance of food choices (mostly of the nutritionally inferior variety) is that it presents a societal dilemma.  The conventional food industry, driven by commercial gain, has taken food...

A simple but bold statement:  All Farm Marketing Begins With Keyword Research.

For the uninitiated, Keywords are the terms that folks type into Google when they are looking for something.  Why should this matter to farm marketers? 

The simple answer is that this gives you easy and free insight into what marketers call "The Language Of Your Customer".   You want to make sure that you are always incorporating the customers' language into your marketing content vs. what might be perhaps language of...

We are a “pastured and sustainable” farm which raises cattle, hogs, and chickens without giving them antibiotics, hormones or caging them.

All of our animals are raised and treated humanely. We sell our grass fed beef, pastured pork, and free range chicken.

Come see us at our markets found at this site: http://www.huntercattle.com/farmers-markets/ to pick up your grassfed beef, pastured pork, and free-range chickens!

 

This post submitted by:

First Name: Del
Last Name: Ferguson
Vendor: Hunter...

One of my favorite food sources for my 100 mile diet is a farm located just east of Indianapolis called Tyner Pond Farm.  Reclaiming land that was once used for GMO corn, soybeans and wheat, Farmer Chris took on the project of turning this plot of farmland into one that uses sustainable farming practices.  

He raises grass fed wagyu cattle, pasture-raised pigs, free range chickens and harvests their nutritional eggs.  He's even recently added honeybees to the mix.   

A small operation that is just...

Incubated and newly hatched, these chicks are the future egg-layers of America!  

Hiding out under a heat lamp to keep warm, they hardly seem to know the mission ahead of them at this tender age.  Soon enough they will realize...

(It's a serious undertaking, after all, to provide this country with nutritious eggs the old fashioned way.)  

On a small farm in the middle of America, these feathered friends will be allowed to roam the open green pastures every day of the week.  As a result of their...

I have the PERFECT spring recipe for you.  Depending on where you live, you can probably pick up almost everything you need from your local farmers market this week.  Here in the Midwest, we can only get about half of everything at the market, but by mid-June, everything will be straight from local Indiana farms. 

Locavore friends, I give you Bok Choy Asian Chicken Salad. 

I’ve already made this twice in one week.  You’re gonna love it.

To start, bring a large pot of water to a boil, and throw in...

Tyner Pond Farm is named after Elijah Tyner who was one of the first settlers here in Blue River Township back in 1802.   He was really successful as a farmer and merchant and I'm hoping that by honoring him some of that good fortune will rub off on us! 

Our farm is located near Greenfield Indiana, in Hancock County.  Our focus is the slow food movement.   We provide a place where animals grow slowly....happily, the way nature intended.  

The result is beef, chicken and pork that  is...

I realize that both of the recipes I have shared with the community have included meat, and, in fact, most of the meals I make these days do.   I have to be honest though, my relationship with eating animals has been ever evolving.  Even now, there are moments when I question what I’m doing when I pull a chicken leg out of the freezer.  Sometimes, my heart hurts.  Other times, I say a silent ‘thank you’ and go about preparing it.  For better or worse, this is where my journey has taken me. 

Eating...

So last night I decided it was that time for crispy chicken and sweet potatoes!  I thought to myself, YES! let's try this again and luckily I knew I had some local, free range organic chicken breasts from Goose The Market, one of my favorite places to get local produce and meats!  I love being able to buy fresh organic locally grass fed protein!   I also had some organic sweet potatoes.

After racking my brain, thinking about what I had in my pantry I decided to make organic sweet mashed potatoes...