What the Heck is a Hock?
If you’ve ever studied our product list and wondered “what exactly is a hock?”, this post is for you!  One of the benefits of sourcing food directly from the farmer is that we offer access to nearly every part of the animal, including things you might not find in most stores. 

Hocks are the joint on the rear leg of the pig. Sometimes called ham hocks or pork knuckles, they’re adjacent to the shank and then the ham (the rear end of the pig).  

Hocks have a good amount of meat attached to bone, so perfect for slow cooking to release the collagen.  Because the hock is a joint, there’s a lot of connective tissue, which needs to be cooked low & slow to tenderize.  The moist, tender meat is covered in a tasty layer of fat & skin.  We generally offer them smoked, which brings a delicious flavor to your table.  Hocks star in traditional dishes of many different cultures, but here are two basic recipes to get you started.  What's your favorite way to prepare hocks?
Hocks & Beans
1 lb dry beans of your choice (pinto, navy, etc).
1 large smoked ham hock (or 2 small)
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 diced red chili peppers (optional)
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper

1. Place beans in a bowl with enough water to cover, and soak overnight.
2. Drain beans, rinse, and remove any debris.
3. Put beans in a stockpot (or slow cooker) with 12 cups of water.  Add rest of ingredients.
4. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low & allow to simmer for 90 minutes.  (If using crockpot, cook on high for 3 hours or low for 5-6+ hours.  Stir occasionally.  Meat will fall from the bone.
5. If a thicker broth is desired, continue to simmer up to 6 hours.
6. Serve with or without broth.
7. Variation: Sear the hock in oil in skillet until browned on all sides, prior to adding to beans.

Creamy Potato & Ham Hock Soup
10 C chopped potatoes
2 lb smoked ham hocks
2 C chopped yellow onion
1 C chopped celery
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
5 C water or broth
1 C heavy cream

1. Place potatoes, hocks, onion, celery, garlic, salt, pepper and water in a stock pot or slow cooker. Cover, bring to a boil then simmer until potatoes are tender (cook on high in slow cooker for 4 hours).  Remove hocks and place on a plate to cool.
2. Puree soup in pot with immersion blender until creamy but chunks of potato remain.  Add cream & stir.  Remove meat from hocks, chop, and stir into soup.   (If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can pour the soup into a blender in batches).  

​Healthy eating around the holidays is always a challenge.  Whether we are “eating to live” (consuming nutrient dense foods only necessary to maintain our bodies) or “living to eat” (making food a more central focus of our daily lives) has been in my thoughts this week.  My opinion: Everything is okay in moderation.   Indulgence is okay, in moderation.  Is filling up on empty calories of junk food worth the health consequences? No!  But there are too many foods that are absolutely delicious, that are treasured family traditions, that sharing them with loved ones makes memories and life worthwhile.  Whatever those foods are for your family, embrace them and indulge! 

Here are 4 of our family’s fast & favorite dip recipes – the perfect accompaniment to family game night or watching the ball drop on New Year’s Eve!
Tomato Dip
8oz Morning Glory Original
1 quart canned tomatoes
¼ tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
Allow cheese to come to room temperature.  Heat tomatoes to a simmer in saucepan or microwave.  Drain most of juice from tomatoes.  Place tomatoes, cheese & pepper in blender and pulse until smooth, scraping sides with a spatula as needed.  Refrigerate until serving.  Best with fresh veggies or potato chips.
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Bacon & Swiss Dip
8oz Morning Glory Original
½ C mayonnaise
4oz Butternut Baby Swiss, grated/cubed
2 tbsp chopped onion
8 slices of bacon, cooked & crumbled
Reserve a handful of bacon crumbles, then mix all other ingredients.  Place in a small greased loaf pan.  Top with remaining bacon.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until browned on top.  Serve hot/warm.  Best with bagel chips or crackers. 

Cheesy Crab (or Chicken) Dip
¼ C butter, softened
4 oz Morning Glory Original, softened
1 C shredded Goblin cheese (or NY cheddar)
1 C sour cream
½ Tbsp minced dry onion
8 oz crab meat or cooked chicken, shredded
Mix all ingredients in bowl, spread in casserole dish.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.  Serve warm with tortilla chips, crackers, bread bowl, etc. Yield: 4 C
 
Glorious Fruit Dip
8oz Morning Glory Original
¾ C packed brown sugar
1 C sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp lemon juice
1 C cold milk
1 small pkg instant vanilla pudding
Beat together cheese & sugar til creamy.  Add rest of ingredients & mix until smooth. Cover & chill.  Serve with fresh fruit!

When you open your freezer, are you met with an ice-covered abyss of unidentified objects? 
Does the thought of “stocking up” on anything scare you because you’ll have to make more space? 
Not sure what you should meal plan because you don’t know what’s left in there? 
Whether your freezer is just ½ of a typical fridge, or you have the largest chest you could find, keeping it under control will make your life better! 

This hit home last time we returned from the butcher with two truckloads of meat!  Our fleet is seven chest and upright freezers, plus the freezers of two extra refrigerators, and keeping track of what’s where, how much inventory we have left, and GETTING IT ALL IN is no easy feat! No lies, I consider myself something of a pro at freezer jenga. 

Here are 5 tips to make life with a freezer more enjoyable:

1. Find containers that fit efficiently.  We use the heavy duty cardboard boxes from our butcher because they fit in the freezer perfectly. (We always have tons of these boxes so let us know if you’d like some!) Heavy duty plastic bins are another option we like.  You lose a small amount of capacity by using boxes & bins, but the trade off in being able to pull them out to access what’s underneath or behind is worth it! 
2. Choose a strategy to organize: group all like items together, like all beef in a bin, all pork, all veggies.  Depending on space & volume, you might sort even further – all steaks together, all sausage, all roasts, each type of veggie.  This method makes it easy to see how much you have left of each item.
   OR    Mix items proportionately to the rate you’ll use them.  For instance, put a week’s worth of items in one container – maybe that’s 3 meats, 5 veggies and 2 fruits. Pack variety in each container, then each week, use the items in that box to meal plan.This method forces you to use everything up and makes weekly choices less overwhelming!
3. Label!  Label at least every box/bin, preferably every item with the date it went into your freezer, so you can use the oldest first!  Use magnetic clips or a dry erase board on the freezer to draw a chart of what’s where.  Sometimes we also write a note on the top box of what’s underneath it.  Do not assume that you’ll be able to tell the difference between frozen green beans & rhubarb a year from now!
4. Check your freezer!  Open it every 3 days to make sure it’s functioning!  If it’s not, items should still be cool with this time interval and safe to refreeze.   If you can’t check often, install a temp monitor with an alarm to protect your investment! You don’t want to find out your freezer failed when you smell it!
5. Defrost if & when you get more than ½” of ice buildup.  Easiest to do in cold weather – remove everything and set it outside (protected from animals!).  Turn the freezer off & block the lid/door open.  Within a few hours, you should be able to pull chunks of ice out of the freezer, which is faster & easier than waiting for it to melt completely.  Either open the drain and place a container under it, or use old towels to sop up any water in the bottom.  Now is a good time to give the freezer a thorough scrubbing!  Dry, remember to TURN BACK ON, and replace your neatly organized inventory! 

 
Hopefully these tips will help you keep the Abominable Freezer Monster under control – and make stocking up an easier option! 

​

This year, online ordering & shipment has become commonplace for nearly everyone.  You can order just about anything and have it delivered to your doorstep within a few days. 
​
This week, a highly anticipated delivery arrived, but not in an Amazon box.  You know you’re a farmer when the most exciting delivery in months arrives in a container like this: 

​This is a special shipping container charged with liquid nitrogen and used to ship frozen bull semen.  It keeps the semen safely frozen at -320⁰ F.  UPS drops it in our driveway, we transfer the semen to our liquid nitrogen storage tank, and then the shipper is returned & reused.

We’ve worked hard to reduce purchased inputs in our business, but semen is one of the necessities.  Every cow needs to deliver a calf in order to start producing milk.  Ideally, they have a calf once a year.  And each of these pregnancies requires a semen source.  We choose to not keep any bulls on the farm, mostly due to the safety risk, but also because we want to choose the best genetics available to improve our herd. 
​
There are not a lot of other Brown Swiss herds, at least not compared to Holsteins or Jerseys (the two most popular breeds).   By purchasing frozen semen, we can utilize bulls from the best herds in the US and Europe, from which we could not feasibly purchase a live bull.  

So, about three times a year, this farmer spends a lot of time pouring over catalogs and selecting the best matches for our ladies, just like a fantasy football team. Yep, bulls have stats just like pro athletes.    Some are all around all-stars, while others excel in certain traits that we might want to focus on improving. 

Most of our semen is ordered from one Wisconsin-based distributer specializing in Brown Swiss, who has been shipping directly to our farm for years.  If you’re curious, check them out at brownswiss.com!
​
​This week’s delivery included bulls with names like Spark, Kade, Powerball, Juke & Kingsman.  Within a year we will have their calves running around, and in about 3 years their daughters will be producing the milk in your cheese. One small delivery will have a longterm impact on our farm!

There really is no limit to what can be delivered to your door!

This week was Charlie’s birthday.  Birthdays, when you farm, are like most every other anniversary, holiday or special occasion – not much different than any other day.  He spent an enjoyable day (his words!) making a big dent in our manure spreading project. 
Lyle & my mission was to make Dad his favorite treat – rhubarb pie.  We also needed to load a semi-trailer with hay that we’d sold. 

The truck appeared just as the pie was ready to go into the oven – perfect timing. You can load a tractor trailer with 44 round bales in less than 50 minutes, right?

Turns out you can, but when the phone alarm went off I didn’t rush inside. Our oven always seems to cook a bit slower than the recipe requires, so I figured a few extra minutes would be a safe bet. 

Got the load strapped & headed out the driveway, then went in with Lyle to check the pie.  Of course the oven picked today to work super efficiently & the pie was definitely overdone.  Not totally ruined, but the crust edges were on the verge of black. 

Charlie was a good sport & pronounced it “not that bad”.  Lesson learned…pay attention to the alarm! 

Pie crust is a big deal in both Charlie & my families…today I’m sharing my mom’s recipe.  You can fill it with rhubarb if you have it in the freezer – or since we’re at the peak of apple season, go for Maple Apple! 

If you ever want feedback on your pie, our household will gladly sample!

Happy baking!
Sarah, Charlie, Lyle & Hannah

DONNA'S PIE CRUST
5 C flour
2 1/2 C shortening
1 Tbsp salt
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 egg, beaten plus enough ice water to total 3/4 C
Mix dry ingredients.  Cut in shortening with pastry blender.  Moisten with egg & water.  Mixture will be sticky so use lots of flour to roll out dough.  Makes approximately six 9" pieces.  Roll out on plastic sheet or between 2 pieces of waxed paper.  
MAPLE APPLE PIE
~5 C apple slices
1/2 C sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Dash salt
Dash nutmeg
3/4 C Morning Glory Maple cheese
Pastry for double 9" pie crust
Bring cheese to room temperature. Line 9" pie pan with bottom crust. Combine dry ingredients & sprinkle 2 Tbsp over bottom of crust.  Add rest of mixture to apples & cheese, stir.  Turn into crust & cover with lattice top (cut top pastry into 1" strips and weave into lattice).  Bake at 425 for 15 min, then reduce temp to 325 and bake 45 min longer or until nicely browned.  

We are excited to be part of a new, rapidly evolving local food hub growing at Press Bay Alley in Ithaca!  You can order directly from multiple farms and receive all your goods in  one safe pickup.  Please review the pickup procedures.

Pickups are on Thursday from 3-7PM!  You can order any of our cheeses or meats for pickup at the hub.  If you order through our online store, please choose the "pickup" option, then add a note at checkout telling us you want to pickup at Press Bay Alley.  You can also send us an email with your order; we will invoice you electronically.  All orders MUST be prepaid before pickup at the hub.  Please note: missed pickups will be not be held; they will be donated on Friday morning.  

SWEDISH MEATBALLS     Servings: 4-6
3 lb ground beef
1 onion, diced
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 C seasoned dry bread crumbs
½ c fresh chopped flat-leaf parsley (or 1 Tbsp dried parsley)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
GRAVY: 4 Tbsp flour
2  ½ C beef consommé or broth
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 C milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
12 oz medium egg noodles, cooked
¼ C butter
3Tbsp fresh chopped flat-leaf parsley (or1/2 Tbsp dried parsley)

1. Thoroughly mix together ground beef, onion, eggs, breadcrumbs, parsley, salt & pepper. Form into ¾ -1” meatballs.
2. Heat large non-stick frying pan over med-high heat (a Dutch oven or electric frying pan can also work well). Brown meatballs on all sides, in batches if needed.  Use slotted spoon to remove meatballs to plate, leaving drippings in pan.
3. Sprinkle flour over drippings and whisk until combined.   Cook for 3-4 minutes or just until flour turns light golden brown.
4. Slowly whisk in consommé/broth and Worcestershire.  Add milk, salt and pepper while whisking constantly to prevent lumps.  Cook for 5- 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, or just until gravy starts to thicken.  Add meatballs & juices back to pan; gently toss to coat meatballs.  Lower heat to medium and simmer uncovered  for 10-15 minutes or just until meatballs are cooked through.
5. Toss hot cooked egg noodles with butter to coat.  Divide noodles among plates and top with meatballs & gravy.  Sprinkle with parsley.

 
BEEF & POTATO MOUSSAKA    Servings: 6-8
1 lb ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
¾ C water
1 can (6oz) tomato paste
1 tsp salt
½ tsp dried mint (optional)
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp pepper
Parmesan sauce:
¼ C butter
¼ C flour
2 C milk
4 eggs, beaten
½ C Parmesan cheese, grated
½ tsp salt
5 medium potatoes, peeled & sliced

1. Cook beef, onion, and garlic until the beef is no longer pink; drain.  Stir in water, tomato paste, parsley, salt, mint, cinnamon, pepper.  Set aside.
2. For sauce, melt butter in saucepan over medium heat .  Stir in flour til smooth, gradually add milk.  Bring to boil; cook & stir 2 minutes or until thickened.  Remove from heat.
3. Stir small amount of hot mixture into eggs.  Return all to saucepan, stirring constantly.  Stir in Parmesan & salt. 
4. Place ½ of potato slices in a greased, shallow 3-   qt baking dish.  Top with ½ of the Parmesan sauce & all of the meat mixture.  Arrange rest of potatoes over meat, top with rest of sauce.
5. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until potatoes are tender.  Let stand 10 minutes.

 
 
GROUND BEEF & CAULIFLOWER HASH      Servings: 4
2 ½ + C frozen cauliflower (defrosted & drained) OR fresh cauliflower OR summer squash, chopped
½ C bell pepper, chopped
¼ C onion, chopped
1 lb ground beef or sausage
2 C shredded cheese (Goblin, sharp cheddar, mozzarella – or a mixture)
¾ tsp garlic powder
¾ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

1. In a large skillet, cook pepper & onion in oil or butter over medium-high heat. Cook until onions are translucent and peppers are tender, 3-4 minutes. 
2. Add ground beef or sausage; cook until no longer pink. 
3. Add cauliflower, garlic, salt, pepper; cook until tender.  (If using fresh vegetables, add ¼ C water and cover pan to steam).
4. Top with cheese; turn heat to low, cover pan and allow cheese to melt.