We love to teach our customers how to cook our organic grass fed steak so they get the best flavour our meat has to offer. Cooking grass fed meat is different than cooking conventional meat. With these simple tips you will be grilling amazing steaks from Meeting Place Organic Farm all year round.
I’ve been away from the farm for 2 months. Whenever possible I like to work for Elections Canada or Elections Ontario. It’s fun, short-term work which makes use of some of the skills the farm doesn’t always need, allows me to work more directly with people and be part of our electoral process. This year I was the Financial Officer for the riding of Huron Bruce. I had the opportunity to work with an incredible team of people in a great office.But – what that means is that I spent 2 months almost completely away from the farm. I wasn’t worried about it. It was in the incredibly capable hands of Fran, Tony (when he wasn’t campaigning) and Ben. They took care of almost everything while I was gone, from the day to day running of the farm including the chores, as well as the never-ending (this year) picking of the apples for our apple butter and fresh sweet cider.It was hard to be away, but it is also good to get some perspective. I missed the farm. I missed the animals, the physical body labour of the work, being outside and the self directed pace of things. Since being back we’ve pressed 3 batches of apple butter, had a 2 day board meeting for the Ecological Farmer’s Association, dealt with a pig with a prolapse, weaned piglets, bred goats, done the final garden harvest, moved firewood, dealt with over a foot of snow, had to unfreeze the feed auger and much much more! It’s a never ending adventure of dealing with the unplanned yet urgent needs of a biological system and living creatures.
Dear Friends and customers, Two weeks ago I gave a short talk at an Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario dinner. As I prepared for the talk it got me thinking about how essential our work is as organic and ecological farmers. Food is the underpinning of society. Unless food is produced in a manner that maintains the ecological health of the land and water it depends on for its productivity it will fail and society with it. When I was in University 45 years ago there were studies that showed that “modern industrial agriculture” was using 10 calories of energy as inputs of machinery, fertilizer, pesticides and in the industrial food system to put 1 calorie of food energy on a plate. Our modern agriculture is a remarkable inefficient way to turn fossil fuels into food. “Pre-industrial food systems” had a range of energy returned for energy invested that went from 5 to 50 – that is for every calorie invested in human and animal labour, saved seeds and equipment somewhere between 5 and 50 calories of food were produced. As we respond to climate change we need to develop an agriculture that turns sunlight into food using a lot less oil. One of the hopeful and exciting things for me is that an ecological/regenerative agriculture offers us so much. If you are concerned about climate change an agriculture that builds soil organic matter is actively sequestering carbon while at the same time building a soil that is more effective at dealing with both drought and deluge. If species diversity is your interest a small diversified farm provides far more habitat and food for a myriad of plants and animals above ground and soil micro-organisms below. If you want food quality and nutrient density a biologically active soil is the place to start producing healthy plants and animals. I am proud of the work we’ve done and know there is still much to learn and do to create a regenerative agriculture. I want to thank you for your support of our efforts as customers and friends. I am pleased that Katrina is interested in carrying on this work. At times it is hard physically and mentally. At times it is worrying as climate disruption makes our weather less reliable. But it is important work and gratifying to see both the changes on our farm and the growing awareness in our society. I’m glad to share the journey with you.Be well,Tony McQuail
Dear Friends and customers, Two weeks ago I gave a short talk at an Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario dinner. As I prepared for the talk it got me thinking about how essential our work is as organic and ecological farmers. Food is the underpinning of society. Unless food is produced in a manner that maintains the ecological health of the land and water it depends on for its productivity it will fail and society with it. When I was in University 45 years ago there were studies that showed that “modern industrial agriculture” was using 10 calories of energy as inputs of machinery, fertilizer, pesticides and in the industrial food system to put 1 calorie of food energy on a plate. Our modern agriculture is a remarkable inefficient way to turn fossil fuels into food. “Pre-industrial food systems” had a range of energy returned for energy invested that went from 5 to 50 – that is for every calorie invested in human and animal labour, saved seeds and equipment somewhere between 5 and 50 calories of food were produced. As we respond to climate change we need to develop an agriculture that turns sunlight into food using a lot less oil. One of the hopeful and exciting things for me is that an ecological/regenerative agriculture offers us so much. If you are concerned about climate change an agriculture that builds soil organic matter is actively sequestering carbon while at the same time building a soil that is more effective at dealing with both drought and deluge. If species diversity is your interest a small diversified farm provides far more habitat and food for a myriad of plants and animals above ground and soil micro-organisms below. If you want food quality and nutrient density a biologically active soil is the place to start producing healthy plants and animals. I am proud of the work we’ve done and know there is still much to learn and do to create a regenerative agriculture. I want to thank you for your support of our efforts as customers and friends. I am pleased that Katrina is interested in carrying on this work. At times it is hard physically and mentally. At times it is worrying as climate disruption makes our weather less reliable. But it is important work and gratifying to see both the changes on our farm and the growing awareness in our society. I’m glad to share the journey with you.Be well,Tony McQuail