This has been another good year for Peterson Farm and we want to thank each of you for your support of local organically grown food. We do a lot of hard work to provide the very best quality products for your culinary pleasure. Our greatest reward is that you enjoy it. And you must because you keep coming back for more.

We believe as the cost of energy and transportation keeps rising locally produced products of all kinds are going to become more important. Over the past fifty years we have become a nation of consumers instead of producers. But the tide is changing. We can make, produce, or create all kinds of things. And eventually we will do it more price effective than imported goods.

We think our support of local business is ensuring the economic future of our communities. Together we can prosper.

Hours at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market for Christmas and New Year weeks are Friday (12.00 until 4:00) and Saturday (9.00 until 2:00).
We will be at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market both Saturdays from 6:00 until 12:00.

Winter vegetables include red kale, green kale, black kale, curly mustard, collards, savoy cabbage, turnip roots, and lettuce from the greenhouse.

We have a good supply of USDA grass fed Jersey beef and free range chicken. Our laying hens have slowed a lot but we have several dozen free range farm eggs.

While you are making your holiday outings come on by the market for delicious healthy food.

Many Blessings,
Joe and Jean Peterson

We will be open at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market each day until Wednesday ( the day before Thanksgiving). Hours are Friday, Sunday, Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday (10:00 until 3:00). Saturday (8:00 until 4:00).

We will also be at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market Saturday (6:00 until 12:00) and Wednesday (7:00 until 1:00

According to reports, Whole Foods Markets profits were up over 30% in the third quarter and a survey found that over 75% of families with children buy at least some organic products. So organic is not just a ‘niche’ market anymore. Perhaps the accusation that organic is elitist will fade away.

From our gardens we have beautiful broccoli, Savoy cabbage, boc choi, romaine lettuce, Swiss chard, arugula, mesclun mix, red kale, green kale, black kale, turnip greens, curly mustard, collards, and turnip roots. All are grown using organic methods.

We have a good stock of all cuts of USDA grass fed Jersey beef. Along with the usual cuts of steaks, roasts, ground beef, etc. we have some things you might not be familiar with. Philly style steak is thin cuts (1/4 inch) of steak that are traditionally used to make the famous Philly steak sandwich. These can be cooked in just a few minutes in a fry pan and may be used for steak and eggs, stir fry, chunks in a salad , or any other use quickly cooked thin steak would work. Flat iron steak is lean boneless shoulder steak that is usually marinated and grilled. We use McCormick’s Montreal Steak marinate and we recommend soaking over night ( or 12 hours). Marrow bones are 4 inch leg bones that may be used to flavor soups, stews, or vegetables. They may also be stewed separately and the marrow removed to spread on bread as a delicacy. Knuckle bones are the joints that contain marrow but also have the cartilage. When stewed in other dishes the cartilage releases beneficial nutrients said to help lubricate our joints.

We have plenty of USDA free range pasture chicken in whole chickens, boneless/skinless breast, split breast, leg quarters, wings, backs, and necks.

Our laying hens are still doing well so we have several dozen fresh free range farm eggs.

Our market hours beginning next week at the Piedmont Triad Farmers market are Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday ( 9:00 until 2:00); Saturday ( 8:00 until 4:00).

Hours at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market are Saturday ( 6:00 until 12:00).

We will look for you at the market!

Right on que with the weather we are picking fall greens. The last couple of cloudy and rainy days caused them to just jump so we have beautiful, tender, sweet greens for you. They include turnip, mustard spinach, arugula, red kale, and some boc choi. Several others will be coming a bit later.

Other vegetables include heirloom field peas, calico crowder peas, heirloom white half runner beans, okra, egg plant, and butternut squash.

Sales have been brisk on USDA Grass Fed Jersey Beef and Free Range Pasture Chicken and we may experience temporary shortages of some items. Right now we have a good stock of most everything.

Our laying hens and pullets (young hens) are liking the cooler mornings and these beautiful ladies have really picked up laying eggs for us. We have several more dozen available. Hopefully, you won’t have to be disappointed by us being sold out.

Hours at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market are Tuesday and Wednesday (10:00 until 2:00); Thursday and Friday (9:00 until 3:00); Saturday (8:00 until 4:00); Sunday (9:00 until 3:00).

Hours at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market are Saturday (6:00 until 12:00).

Thank you for your support of local healthy food and your business with us. We hope to see you at the market!

Right now we have lots of summer peas from the garden. Some of our friends from up north may not be familiar with them since they are a warm season crop. But peas (cowpeas of many varieties) have long been a staple food in the south. Around the depression years peas were the main food people had to eat all year. They ate them green in the summer and canned or dried them for the winter. Bushel and bushels were stored away to keep the large families fed. Here at the farm, we still eat them all year because they are one of our favorite foods.

Being a legume, peas are packed with protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Along with a few greens, and the occasional wild meat, they kept farm families going strong.

Along with peas, we have some zephyr squash, heirloom white half runner beans, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, peppers, eggplant, okra, and some leaf lettuce.

Good comments just keep coming about our USDA Grass fed Jersey Beef. One person said it is ten times better than the beef they had been getting. Another said it well, “It is the best.” Well, we agree. In fact we try to have everything we sell ‘the best’.

We have a good stock of Jersey beef in our freezers. There is a good supply of pasture raised chicken although we are running low on boneless/skinless breast.

Hours at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market are Tuesday and Wednesday ( 10:00 until 3:00); Thursday and Friday (9:00 until 3:00); Saturday ( 8:00 until 4:00); Sunday ( 9:00 until 3:00). We are in space 74 in farmers area #2.

We are at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market on Saturday from 6:00 until 12:00.

The weather is not so hot now so come on out and see us at the market!

A lot of people are looking for more local meats and produce, and that is a good trend. But if the local food is laden with pesticides or is GMO’s that produce their own pesticides, what have you gained? Or if meats are grain based instead of grass based you are missing the added health benefits. Choose organically grown produce and grass based meats for optimum health.

Hurray! Finally! We just received USDA approval for our new grass-fed beef and free range chicken labels. So now we can advertise our production methods since they will be printed on the package labels. It will be a couple weeks or so before we have product with the new labels but it appears our long ordeal with the USDA is over on this one.

Although we are out of some items we have quite a bit of grass-fed Jersey beef, especially steaks and ground beef. The same is true with pasture raised free range chicken. In fact, we just picked up chicken from the processor the day before the USDA label approval arrived. So we need to move these items so we can make room for product with the new labels.

We have switched all our chicken feed to 100% organic feed from Reedy Fork Organic Farm near Elon, NC. (www.northcarolinaorganicfeed.com) They received a grant to install a feed mill and have just started selling feed made from 100% certified organic ingredients. This is the only source of organic feed made in NC. It is about 50% higher (plus a 100 mile round trip ) than the feed we had been using which means the cost of chicken and eggs will have to go up. But we feel, and hope you will agree, that being assured there is no pesticide residues, or GMO grains, or chemically derived grain byproducts will be well worth the price. This is in keeping with our commitment to providing you with the best quality, most healthy food we can produce.

Our gardens are still doing well and we have zephyr gourmet squash, silver queen sweet corn, jade stringless beans, Yukon gold potatoes, our German Johnson tomatoes, salad tomatoes, heirloom green zucchini, heirloom clemson spineless okra, both slicing and pickling type cucumbers, hot and sweet peppers, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, and field peas.

Announcing! Beginning this Saturday (7/23) we will be selling at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market on Yanceyville Street. Hours are from 6:00 until 12:00. Debra will be managing our table there and she hopes to meet new customers as well as see some of you who may frequent that market. Of course, she will have the same products we have at the Triad market.

Our hours at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market are Tuesday and Wednesday (10:00 until 3:00) Thursday, Friday, and Sunday (9:00 until 3:00) and Saturday ( 8:00 until 4:00). We are in space #74, farmers area #2.

We will be looking for you at the market!

More and more people are asking questions about how we produce our food products and we think that is a good thing. We gladly answer all your questions and, in fact, encourage them so you can be informed and confident you are purchasing the healthiest food available. With all the deceitful marketing practices around the safest thing you can do is get to know your farmer! Ask questions. Visit the farm. Be proactive in securing your food health. That may involve educating yourself in sustainable farming practices. A good place to start is www.attra.org. Then support your local farmer for the freshest food around.

Fox News and Natural News reports there has been a deadly accident at a Tyson Foods chicken processing plant in Springdale Arkansas. Two chemicals were mixed together which produced deadly chlorine gas causing 173 of 300 workers to be sent to the hospital. Five workers were taken to intensive care and fifty were hospitalized for days. This sounds like something that might happen at a chemical plant rather than a food processing plant.

The chemicals were not identified but various forms of chlorine and ammonia are routinely used in industrialized meat processing. Add to that salt water injections along with artificial flavorings and preservatives (including carbon monoxide, nitrates, and ammonia ), then perhaps irradiation and the meat ends up a processed food product full of chemicals. That is just in the processing phase and does not include the deplorable growing conditions most animals experience.

Our animals, both beef and chicken are processed at a small family owned and operated local plant. No harsh chemicals are used. Only natural lactic or citric acid is used to control bacteria. There are no weight adding injections or preservatives. Even the air is removed from packages by vacuum packing. The resulting meat package is free from any added chemicals or chemical treatments. It is ‘real food’ as pure and natural as can be.

To view the article : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/06/29/dozens-us-chicken-plant-workers-hospitalized/

We have a fresh supply of grass-fed Jersey beef including steaks, roasts, ground beef, etc. There is also all items of pasture raised chicken.

Our new laying pullets ( young hens ) are beginning to produce so we will have several dozen fresh farm free range eggs on Saturday.

From our gardens we have heirloom tomatoes, heirloom salad tomatoes, heirloom zucchini , Zephyr squash, cucumbers, green and yellow wax beans, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, arugula, new Yukon gold potatoes, and sweet corn. ( corn will be silver queen white beginning Saturday )

Hours at the market are Tuesday and Wednesday ( 10:00 until 3:00); Thursday, Friday, Sunday ( 9:00 until 3:00); Saturday (8:00 until 4:00). We are in space 74, farmers area 2 at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market.

We will be expecting you at the market!

More and more people are asking questions about how we produce our food products and we think that is a good thing. We gladly answer all your questions and, in fact, encourage them so you can be informed and confident you are purchasing the healthiest food available. With all the deceitful marketing practices around the safest thing you can do is get to know your farmer! Ask questions. Visit the farm. Be proactive in securing your food health. That may involve educating yourself in sustainable farming practices. A good place to start is www.attra.org. Then support your local farmer for the freshest food around.

Fox News and Natural News reports there has been a deadly accident at a Tyson Foods chicken processing plant in Springdale Arkansas. Two chemicals were mixed together which produced deadly chlorine gas causing 173 of 300 workers to be sent to the hospital. Five workers were taken to intensive care and fifty were hospitalized for days. This sounds like something that might happen at a chemical plant rather than a food processing plant.

The chemicals were not identified but various forms of chlorine and ammonia are routinely used in industrialized meat processing. Add to that salt water injections along with artificial flavorings and preservatives (including carbon monoxide, nitrates, and ammonia ), then perhaps irradiation and the meat ends up a processed food product full of chemicals. That is just in the processing phase and does not include the deplorable growing conditions most animals experience.

Our animals, both beef and chicken are processed at a small family owned and operated local plant. No harsh chemicals are used. Only natural lactic or citric acid is used to control bacteria. There are no weight adding injections or preservatives. Even the air is removed from packages by vacuum packing. The resulting meat package is free from any added chemicals or chemical treatments. It is ‘real food’ as pure and natural as can be.

To view the article : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/06/29/dozens-us-chicken-plant-workers-hospitalized/

We have a fresh supply of grass-fed Jersey beef including steaks, roasts, ground beef, etc. There is also all items of pasture raised chicken.

Our new laying pullets ( young hens ) are beginning to produce so we will have several dozen fresh farm free range eggs on Saturday.

From our gardens we have heirloom tomatoes, heirloom salad tomatoes, heirloom zucchini , Zephyr squash, cucumbers, green and yellow wax beans, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, arugula, new Yukon gold potatoes, and sweet corn. ( corn will be silver queen white beginning Saturday )

Hours at the market are Tuesday and Wednesday ( 10:00 until 3:00); Thursday, Friday, Sunday ( 9:00 until 3:00); Saturday (8:00 until 4:00). We are in space 74, farmers area 2 at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market.

We will be expecting you at the market!

With pumping water every day we have zephyr gourmet squash, cucumbers, zucchini squash, our family heirloom German Johnson tomatoes, salad tomatoes, arugula, new fresh dug potatoes, and a few jade stringless beans.

Our sweet corn will begin maturing the first of next week. The first crop will be golden queen which is a yellow F1 hybrid. All the later plantings will be silver queen ( white ). These are both non-gmo F1 hybrid sweet corns.

There will be people selling sweet corn with a sign saying ‘no pesticides’ or ‘not sprayed’, etc. And they may be telling the truth. However, if there is no sign of a worm or bug the corn has either been sprayed with insecticide or it is a gmo variety that produces it’s own toxin to kill pests. The toxin is a bt produced by the gmo plant. If a bug or worm eats any part of the gmo corn plant he is eliminated. The thing is when you eat the corn you are eating the toxin. And you can’t wash it off because it permeates the entire plant.

Organic production does not allow gmo’s ( genetically modified organisms ). Our corn (and everything else) is non-gmo. There will probably be some worms and bug bites but you can rest assured it is healthy for you to eat.

The NC house and senate has passed a bill ( HB168) which exempts bonafide farms from forced annexation by municipalities. As long as the farm remains in operation it may not be annexed without the owners written permission. We think this is a good thing and hope the governor signs it.

As we have mentioned in previous newsletters we are waiting (still) for the USDA to approve our grass-fed Jersey beef label. We have been selling down our stock in anticipation and as a result we are low on some items. We have a few NY strip and Fillet steaks along with ground beef, stew beef, cube steak, beef liver, and that is about it. Wish they would hurry up!!

There is a good supply of pasture raised chicken in boneless/skinless breast, split breast, leg quarters, backs, necks, livers, hearts, and whole chickens.

Market hours at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market are Monday and Tuesday (10:00 until 3:00); Thursday and Friday ( 9:00 until 3:00 ); Saturday ( 8:00 until 4:00 ); Sunday ( 9:00 until 3:00). We are in space 74, farmer’s area #2.

Come see us at the market for high quality organically produced meats and produce.

Some businesses have not keep their products profitable. One example is the large chicken integrators. Almost all of them have gone bankrupt and sold to foreign companies for a fraction of the actual value of their assets. They still
operate under the same brand names but are foreign owned. The pressure to keep their prices low forced them out of business. And this sort of thing is becoming all too common. By contrast, we need to support locally owned and USA businesses. We recently became
aware of one such company, Texas Jeans, which is located in
Asheboro, NC. Their jeans are USA made from USA goods. They are
available online at www.texasjeans.com. By browsing their website you can order their products and read their business philosophy
which we found to be right on track with what our society needs. We have not purchased their product yet but will soon. USA made products are not readily available in stores but a search online for ‘made in USA’ revealed 416,000,000 sites. We need to support
each other. Collectively we can make a real difference for our mutual benefit.

Now it is time to get down from my soapbox and cease from speechmaking; we plan to be at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market Saturday from 9:00 until 3:00. Along with our plants we will have some leaf lettuce and arugula from the greenhouse. From the field we have those sweet, tender, early spring greens in green kale, red kale, collards, upland cress, and perhaps a bit of
turnip and mustard. We have a good selection of grass-fed Jersey beef and pasture raised chicken. All beef roasts are still on sale for $5.00 lb. There is a good supply of free range farm eggs in
mostly xlarge and jumbo sizes. The chickens have picked up laying with the warmer temps and longer days. We had planned to be at the market on Sunday from 10:00 until 2:00 but the weatherman is calling for rain. So if it is pouring rain on Sunday we will have
to cancel. However, Saturday is a definite. Here’s hoping you will
come by the market to say ‘howdy’ and pick up some wonderful, delicious, healthy ‘real food’ for your
family.