Stuart Farm

Easy and Delicious Vietnamese Garlic Chicken

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Leg thigh quarters are by far our favorite chicken cut.  On the BBQ, split for fried chicken, roasted with all that crispy skin, always with moist dark meat. What’s not to love!

If you’ve always wondered how to prepare chicken quarters or need a new recipe for them, this post is for you.

This is a mash-up of Wellness Momma’s Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs and Milk Street’s Vietnamese Caramel Chicken. One didn’t seem spicy enough and the other had me standing over the stovetop, neither of which I really like.  Bring on the spice and let me walk away!

Easy and Delicious Vietnamese Garlic Chicken

Preheat oven to 375F.

4 Stuart Farm Leg Thigh Quarters

1/4 c. flour of choice

1/4 c. honey or maple syrup or a combo of the two

2 Tbsp coconut aminos or soy sauce

2 Tbsp water

4-6 cloves of garlic minced or through a garlic press

2 tsp fresh ginger chopped

2 Tbsp fish sauce

1 tsp Gochujang sauce or Schiracha (optional for some heat)

1 Tbsp lime juice

Dredge chicken in flour until coated and shake off excess.

Place in a shallow baking dish.

Whisk remaining ingredients (except lime juice) in a small bowl and pour over chicken.

Cover loosely (cookie sheet on top is fine) and bake 15 minutes.

Remove cover, spoon sauce over chicken. If the sauce is getting too thick add 2 Tbsp water to the pan.

Continue baking uncovered until internal temp reaches 165F.

Drizzle lime juice over chicken and serve with steamed veggies and rice or quinoa.

What’s Slow Food?

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Like a lot of things I get into, I don’t remember how or where I came across Slow Food, but I’m soooo glad I did!

Slow Food is the opposite of Fast Food.  It’s good clean food made with real food ingredients. Think about what your grandmother used to cook, more than likely, it was Slow Food.

Slow Food is a worldwide organization that started in Italy.  From www.slowfoodusa.org:

“Over thirty years ago, a large group of Italians gathered in Rome for a protest. Why? A fast food franchise was opening at the base of the iconic Spanish Steps. Instead of throwing rocks and yelling, the activists brought in a big bowl of penne pasta and shared it with the crowd that gathered, chanting:  We don’t want fast food.  We want Slow Food! That gathering was the birth of the Slow Food movement. Today, we are in over 160 countries, with 150 chapters in the United States”.  To read more about Slow Food, click here.

Our Slow Food Chapter in St. Louis is amazing! Run by a group of volunteers, they put on monthly speaking engagements to help people understand the importance of buying from local farmers and how they can support and create their own local food system.

Throughout the year, classes and workshops are offered on everything from making the best cup of coffee to chocolate tastings and from cheese making to apple tree grafting.

They also put on fundraisers like an all locally sourced pancake breakfast to support programs like the Biodiversity Micro-Grant.

The Biodiversity Micro-Grant assists small farmers in producing heirloom varieties of produce and preserving heritage livestock breeds. The aim is to bring these products back into the St. Louis area. We have been the lucky recipient of 3 grants.

Momma

Our first grant helped us purchase our first cow/calf pair of American Milking Devons (AMD) in 2013. We were just starting our farm business and wanted cattle that did well in our area, we could train as oxen, and milk.  It was a big investment for us and the help from Slow Food St. Louis made a huge difference.  Momma has given us 5 calves and Clementine has given us 4 calves since arriving at our farm.

The second grant helped us purchase our bull, Reddington, in 2014. He has been a stellar bull for us. His temperament is cool and mellow. He “plays” gently with the steers, allowing them to test him without taking it personally.  He has sired 25 calves so far.

Reddington (www.kimcarrphotography.com)

So far we have been able to offer three AMD beeves to our customers with another three ready in 2020, five in 2021, and five in 2022. These two grants helped us increase our herd, help start two other herds in Missouri, and increase the overall numbers of the breed (~2000) in the world.

Our third grant (2020) helped us purchase a Tamworth boar to replace our Berkshire boar. Tamworths are gaining popularity and increasing in numbers but finding traditional stock is hard. Most are bred to be show pigs–shorter and stouter than the traditional tall and long Tams. We’ve loved our TamxBerk pork, but wanted to go back to our original plan of pure Tam pork and all their wonderful qualities.

Since it was a long drive to get him, we decided to get a gilt (female) to make the trip really worth it. The boar will be ready to start servicing the girls Fall 2020, so our Berkshire will continue his duties until then.  If we can find traditional stock semen, we’ll artificially inseminate the gilt and keep the best female from her to add to our breeders.

Our production has grown so much since we started in 2012 and a big part of that is because of Slow Food St. Louis and people who support their mission.

If you’d like to support Slow Food St. Louis and small farmers like us, here are a few ways you can do so.

1-Become a member. By joining, you’ll help keep the mission of good, clean, and fair food alive and well while helping to support programs like the Biodiversity Micro-Grant.  Click here to join.

2-Attend a speaking, class, workshop, or event. Almost every month there’s something going on. Click here for a calendar of events and follow them on Facebook to stay up-to-date. You’ll learn something new and meet a great bunch of people.

3-Make a tax-deductible donation. In addition to becoming a member, or in lieu of, you can make a donation by clicking here.  Your donation helps put on the events in #2 and helps support small farmers through the Biodiversity Micro-Grant.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you Slow Food St. Louis and its supporters for all you’ve done for us, our fellow farmers, and the St. Louis area.

Want to find a chapter in your area?  Click here!

Corky’s Piglets

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I’m always excited about piglets.  The weeks leading up to the big day, trying to guess when it will happen, pampering the momma, even staying up late in the freezing cold, it’s all worth it.

Last week, when I got home from driving my afternoon school bus route, Corky had started to farrow.  The nice thing about attending farrows is I get to know the changes in breathing and movement that go along with the process.

As I watched her, I knew she still had piglets to birth.  The way she kicked her legs, a certain grunt, it all said: “I’m working on more!”

I cleaned each one up and told Corky she was doing a great job. We don’t use heat lamps, so I made sure each stayed close to her for warmth.

I stayed with her for two hours while she added 3 piglets to her litter.

When she was having trouble getting one out, she’d half sit up, and roll back down.  Sure enough, one would come out right after.

But when she stood up, turned around, laid back down, I knew that was that. Her breathing slowed and was easy.  She softly grunted at the piglets to come eat and they did.

I waited another 20 minutes or so and the afterbirth came.  My heart sank.

She delivered 5 piglets.  One stillborn with leg deformities, four alive.  One of the four also had deformed legs and we had to put it down.

That leaves three piglets with this litter.  Her previous litters were eight and two.

If Corky were solely a pet, I’d be happy to keep her and never get another piglet from her. But she’s not a pet. And sows that produce so few piglets don’t work for our business.

These were to be our farmer market hogs, so our pork will be in short supply for the summer. Not a good thing.

Having piglets, even just three, is hard on the sow. After the piglets are weaned, we’ll let her regain her conditioning and make an appointment at the butcher.

It’s not an easy decision to make, but a necessary one for us to be sustainable, to continue producing meat, and to keep lesser quality genetics out of production.

I will enjoy these few months with Corky and when the time comes, cry my eyes out when we say goodbye.

Get Ready for Fall–Bacon Wrapped Butternut Squash

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No matter where I’ve lived, Fall was always my favorite season. Maybe it’s because most places had stifling hot summers and the cooler weather (75 is cold, right?) was a welcome break.

But more than likely it’s because I LOVE comfort food!

Now that I am in Missouri, not only do I get beautiful fall foliage, I have a Fall and Winter that beg for hearty rich comfort foods. And this recipe is the perfect welcome to Fall!

A couple of tips/options for this.

  • You can cut the squash in chunks and wrap smaller slices of bacon around it for appetizers.
  • I used the whole slice of bacon, but cutting it lengthwise for thinner strips would have been better bacon to squash ratio.
  • Soak toothpicks in water and use to secure the bacon; especially if you use chunks.
  • If you have extra unwrapped squash and room on your pan, just add it on.  The bacon grease will add yummy bacon flavor to it.

Bacon-Wrapped Butternut Squash

1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into chunks 1″x1″ or slices 1/4″ thick.

1 pack Stuart Farm bacon

Equipment:

rimmed baking sheet, silicone baking mat (or foil), knife, peeler, cutting board, toothpicks.

Sliced squash: cut each slice of bacon lengthwise to make thinner, wrap around and down a slice of squash, secure with a soaked toothpick if desired.  Arrange on a rimmed baking sheet with a slipmat or foil.

Toothpicks would have kept it wrapped tighter.

Chunked squash: cut each slice of bacon into pieces long enough to wrap around each chunk with some overlap, and secure with a soaked toothpick.  Arrange seam side down on a rimmed baking sheet with a slipmat or foil.

Bake @ 425F for 30 minutes or until squash is tender.

Removes from baking sheet and plate on a bed of greens, garlicky pasta, or mac and cheese. Enjoy!

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