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If you’ve seen our display at farmers' market you know that the “What's In Season” sign is part of it! This is our way of sharing with you when certain products are available. This chart is unique to our farm!
Grass-fed Beef
Available Year-round
Our beef is 100% grass-fed and 100% grass-finished. Our beef cows enjoy fresh, green organic pastures in the summer and are fed organic dry hay and baleage in the winter.
Fresh Organic Chicken
Available fresh each week beginning mid-May through the summer
For Apple Creek Farm, this is a seasonal product. We begin raising our meat birds (broilers) in late March so they are fully feathered and ready to go out onto pasture when the grass is green. We raise broilers March – September (when there is fresh grass) and offer them fresh each week through the summer and frozen throughout the winter.
Organic Eggs
Available Year-round
Our organic, pasture-raised eggs are collected daily and refrigerated immediately to preserve freshness and egg quality. Eggs are then washed and packed for their destination in either half a dozen or dozen cartons.
Grass-fed Goat
Available September - March
Our goat kids are born in early to mid-May. They spend six months with their moms (our does) out on pasture and in the woods eating lots of deep-rooted perennials and invasive plants such as bittersweet. At six months the kids are weaned and join the lambs in their daily pasture moves. Our goats take a full two years to finish and as a result goat cuts are generally not available until September or October.
Grass-fed Lamb
Available October - March
Isn’t spring lamb in season in spring? Nope! Our lambs are born in February and March allowing them to nurse from their moms (our ewes) until May. This gives them time to learn to eat hay and then head out to pasture with their moms to learn about what plants are good to graze and how to be model farm residents by responding to our claps and daily moves to fresh pasture. We train the lambs to come when we clap so that they can easily be moved from one field to the next.
The lambs spend their summer growing while grazing. This is a slower way to finish them (by this we mean prepare them for eventual harvest) and is what makes our lamb lean yet tasty (never gamey). Our lambs stay on the farm until September or October when we choose which ewes (girl lambs) will be kept for our breeding flock (moms) and which ones will be harvested. This is why lamb generally isn’t available until September at the earliest.