Clark Summit Farm
As of mid-September: I have emailed with owner Liz Cunninghame. She sounds pretty great too, and they do have chickens already, along with beef and heritage pork. She writes: "We would like to meet with you. I saw your intentions mentioned in that article and thought to myself that it would be great to speak with you about the possibility of using some of our products. We have a small farm that has been in my family for over 90 years. Farming is what we love. As our business grows we are looking to become involved with CSA's and buying clubs to better market our products."
October 5:
I met Liz last week and toured the ranch. I thought she was great! I wrote about the farm and its history in general terms on the Ethicurean here:
A Visit to Clark Summit Farm
Cathy: I just read the Liz Cunninghame article on the ethicurean site. Sounds ideal as a rancher to me, especially since she is so close and she raises chickens too. Bonnie, how is it that I access the video you mentioned in the article? Can't wait to show it to my little omnivore! Bonnie replies: oops, I accidentally deleted the link because the embedded video was throwing the whole thing off. Here it is.
Summary
- Willingness to work with a CSA: High
- Livestock: 80 cattle, 45 pigs, couple hundred broiler chickens, 700 laying hens, and occasionally turkeys. All grassfed (pigs get whey from Cowgirl Creamery; chickens get protein supplements), all certified organic or in process. Hormone and antibiotic free of course; extremely humane, animals seemed to be living Babe-like idyllic life.
- Family Farm: Since 1916. Three generations raised on farm
- Slaughter: Beef on the grass's schedule, meaning not year round but July-Oct. Pork and pouktry year round. Slaughters on the farm, has a great butcher who dry ages beef 3 weeks (this is excellent news). Offal available, including the coveted leaf lard from pigs
- Currently sells: Beef by split quarter, half, or whole; hogs by half and whole; broiler chickens; eggs to supermarket
Roadblocks
- Not having beef several months of the year, except frozen.
- Delivery: No system in place at present. Willing to consider.
- I have never tasted Clark Summit beef or pork, as when I went there I only had a tiny cooler. However, I could see taking a small group back for a more extended tour, and buying some then with which to host a tasting.