Christiansen's Family Farm & Hog Heaven

New for 2012

2011-12-26T13:36:00.001-07:00

Vacuum Packaging and preservative free sausages! Read below. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! It is hard to believe that we are already starting a new year. The last few months have been crazy as we have tried to keep up with getting everyone their orders for the holidays. Our little farm continues to grow. We are grateful for the support we continue to receive both from our customers

We Now Ship Farm Fresh Lard

2011-10-01T13:45:00.000-06:00

Due to a surprising number of emails asking us to ship our Farm Fresh Lard, we have now set up to ship our lard anywhere in the country! In the past we have simply encouraged these people to find a local source. However, the majority have responded that it simply isn't available. We are sure this will change as more and more people discover the health benefits of cooking with pasture raised,

Barn Raising Event

2011-09-27T20:20:00.005-06:00

For those who are familiar with Jacob's Cove in Orem, you already know about their amazing produce especially their heirloom tomatoes. You may also recall last winter when a snow storm collapsed one of their greenhouses. For a small farm, tragedies like this can sink a family run farm. But not the Allreds! They have cleaned up the mess and are now rebuilding. On Monday, October 17th

New Heritage Breeds

2011-09-22T20:02:00.001-06:00

Large Black Pigs When we decided to start raising pigs, we researched the different pig breeds to find a breed that would work well for our needs. We recognized that we live in a climate that can be hard on animals. (Hot sunny summers and cold, windy winters.) From previous experience, we knew that light colored pigs had a tendancy to sunburn. We also found that some pigs had little

A Little Publicity

2011-09-01T16:42:00.002-06:00

Fall is in the air! The low for today is 48 F. It is a welcome change from the warm nights and a good reminder that we need to start gearing up for the winter months. Our farm has been blessed to be getting a little publicity lately. We thought it would be fun to share it with you. Read about our farm in this month's Catalyst Magazine. Great article about buying all natural, locally

Support a Local Farm

2011-08-30T17:09:00.001-06:00

On Labor Day (September 5, 2011) our family is going to be eating a delicious meal at the Clifford Family Farm in Provo, UT. The meal will be delicious because it is being prepared/catered by the incredible chefs of Pizzeria 712! Pizzeria 712 is part of the Heirloom Restaurant Group and is a good customer of ours who makes their own meat toppings and sausages from our Berkshire Pork.

Apple Finished Pork this Fall

2011-08-06T15:43:00.000-06:00

One of our favorite way to finish pigs is on fresh Utah grown apples. This fall, all of our Berkshire pigs delivered September through December will be finished on locally grown apples! The apples help give the pork a wonderful flavor. Based on the last few years, we anticipate selling out of our fall pigs rather quickly as folks get ready for the holidays. I know it seems early to be

Encouragement

2011-07-17T13:05:00.000-06:00

Farming often has rough days that cause us to question whether all the hard work is worth it. Of course, we often think in terms of money, of which there is little, especially with feed and fuel prices through the roof. However, there are other rewards that to us are priceless. There is the satisfaction of viewing our happy animals out on pasture, knowing that they are living a comfortable and

The Local Ripple

2011-07-11T16:35:00.000-06:00

As a small family operated farm we have witnessed firsthand the wonderful ripple effects of buying local. We have greatly benefited from local restaurants, businesses, and families purchasing their meat from our farm. They enjoy the benefit of visiting our farm and seeing exactly how their food is raised. They meet the farmer (our family) and have the opportunity to ask us questions they may

Roaster (luau) Pigs

2011-06-22T19:33:00.002-06:00

Just in time for summer! We are pleased to announce that we will now be offering Berkshire Roaster Pigs. Roaster pigs are perfect for larger gatherings/events. Our pasture raised Berkshire pigs offer greater marbling than any other pig. Marbling will add flavor, moisture, and tenderness to your pork. The more marbling, the better the results. It also means that it will be much more forgiving if

Babies Everywhere

2011-06-20T20:25:00.000-06:00

I have mentioned in past posts that we have enjoyed this spring and all the new life that it has brought. We have seen new piglets and calves born. Our turkeys hatched out a couple of new chicks as well. Two weeks ago, our cat had three cute little kittens. This evening when I was out on the tractor doing some chores, I kept hearing a squeaky noise. The boys and I started looking around the

Pork is Nearly Ready

2011-06-15T20:37:00.001-06:00

This time of year presents perfect conditions for livestock, especially pigs. The weather is warm but not too warm, with the occasional thunderstorm to help keep the dust settled. The fresh spring grasses are loaded with nutrients that the pigs and cattle graze down as fast as they can. During the warmest part of the day, the pigs hide out in their shelters and take a nice long nap. They also

The Happy Farm

2011-05-25T19:43:00.002-06:00

The past few weeks have been busy as we have tried to get projects done on the farm. Of course this rainy weather has slowed us down as we wait out storms and fight through the mud. We are slowly getting our garden planted as the weather permits. Our 90 day growing season makes it challenging to grow anything, but we keep trying. When our finances permit we would like to build a greenhouse.

Utah's Finest Pork

2011-05-03T21:24:00.001-06:00

Executive Chef Jim Light at the grill. This past Saturday we hosted the wonderful folks from Viking Cooking School and Slow Food Utah. The event was headed up by Jim Light who is the executive chef at Viking Cooking School. They chartered a bus from SLC and came for a tour and lunch at our farm. We gave a quick summary of our farm and explained the three factors that contribute to the

Directions for Farm Day

2011-04-27T18:54:00.001-06:00

We are looking forwarding to hosting our Farm Day on May 07, 2011 from noon to 4 pm. Please use the map below for directions. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us. The map will be easier to view if you click the blue "View larger map" text below. View Larger Map

Farm Day and Slow Food Day!

2011-04-06T20:06:00.003-06:00

We will be hosting two fantastic events in the next few weeks! The first event on Saturday April 30th will be the Culinary Tour to Hog Heaven. This event is being sponsored by Slow Food Utah and led by Jim Light the Executive Chef of Viking Cooking School. Jim has chartered a bus to help transport people from SLC to our farm in Vernon. Participants will meet in SLC for a light breakfast

Farm T-Shirts

2011-03-30T21:01:00.000-06:00

I often mention that we have such wonderful customers. And that's the truth. We have had several customers come up with some great suggestions. Recently, it was suggested that we come up with some T-shirts with our farm name on them. While I love the idea, I am not particularly fond of wearing "business T-shirts". You know, the kind that are simply Hanes undershirts with a business logo on

Pork Milk?

2011-03-21T19:48:00.003-06:00

We are a fairly modern farm in regards to our use of the internet and online presence. So if somebody is searching for something online in terms of farming and Utah, we often come up in some of the top search results. This means when somebody has a wacky question such as, oh I don't know, something like, "Can I come and milk one of your pigs?", we would be the farm that they call to ask such a

Modern Farmer

2011-03-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

Modern technology has really changed the opportunities for farmers. For example, prior to the mid 90's before most people had internet in their homes, our farm in Vernon, UT (remote location) would have struggled to find customers. As we were getting started, we did lots of research and talked to many farms across the country. In the past few years, we have have found and been able to get

No Power on the Farm

2011-02-07T19:22:00.001-07:00

The storm knocked the power out. Fortunately, we have a back up generator. However, most of the power needs to be allocated to the well pump, freezers, and heat lamps for the animals. Since the stove uses too much power with all of these items going, dinner is cooked on the wood stove. The beautiful Chef Hollie is serving fried potatoes with pork sausage. It is an

Impostor Berkshire Pigs

2011-01-29T21:45:00.001-07:00

Can you spot the impostor Berkshires above? After reading this blog post you won't have a problem. Scroll to the bottom for the answer. I had a very eye opening experience yesterday. However, the story actually began last week which is where I will start. I received a lead on some Berkshire pigs that a man was wanting to sell. Normally, I only buy pigs from one of three farms that I have

No Backyard Chickens For You!

2011-01-26T13:06:00.001-07:00

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51122033-76/chickens-residential-springville-backyards.html.csp# A big thumbs down to the Springville city council for voting down a proposal that would allow residents on less than 1/2 acre of ground to keep backyard hens. I hear people complain all the time that the Federal Government is taking away our rights. As a member of a city council myself I can say

Real Beef for Sale

2011-01-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

This morning I read in the news that Taco Bell is being sued for false advertising for listing "ground beef" as an ingredient in their products. "...the "taco meat filling" used by Taco Bell is only about 35% beef, with binders, extenders, preservatives, additives and other agents making up the other 65%." Just what is the other 65% made of? "...water, sodium phosphates, soy lecithin,

New Logo

2011-01-13T16:56:00.000-07:00

This is a cry for help! : ) I am thinking it is time for a new logo. However, I am not very good with computer graphics. Would anybody be willing to help us design a new logo in exchange for some pork? If this is of interest, please contact me and I will give you an idea of what I have in mind. I am also wanting to make our website easier to navigate and clean it up a bit. Does anybody have

Beef and Ground Beef CSA Shares Available

2011-01-07T00:03:00.001-07:00

For those who have been waiting for a Standard Beef CSA Share as well as a Ground Beef CSA Share, you can now order them on our website! These shares are a direct result of customer suggestions. As we continue to say, "We want to be your Farmer!" Please keep the feedback and suggestions coming. A little about our new CSA Shares: A Standard Beef CSA Share consists of 30 lbs of our grass fed

Now on Facebook

2011-01-06T23:31:00.000-07:00

We may be a little behind the times, but we are finally on Facebook! Several of our customers have suggested we create a Facebook page over the past couple of years. After it was (once again) recently suggested we decided it would be worthwhile. We hope to provide more frequent farm updates, as well as greater insight into our farm. Our iPhone will allow us to post right in the field

Reflecting on 2010

2010-12-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

This year has been a very busy year for us! We have had lots of ups and downs but hopefully we have averaged an upward direction. This year we were blessed with the opportunity to expand our farm. We purchased a new parcel of land about 1 mile from our previous location. We built a new home on the farm as well as a large workshop/barn. We have some of our pens built and will work on more

The Whole Truth

2010-12-02T16:57:00.000-07:00

I was recently questioned why I post some of our negative experiences on our blog. It sort of caught me off guard. Was it being implied that I am a whiner? Because that certainly hasn't been my intention. Was it out of concern that it may not be good for business?...something I hadn't considered. Was the blog perceived as being negative? All of these questions danced around in my head. The

In Good Company

2010-11-29T16:24:00.000-07:00

I hope everybody had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. Last week started out hectic and stressful but ended well. After 8 months of carefully raising our heritage breed turkeys, the time had finally come to butcher them. Sunday evening Hollie and I went out to catch the turkeys that were to be butchered on Monday and Tuesday. We naturally chased after the largest turkeys first. As we ran around,

Tough Times

2010-11-16T17:15:00.000-07:00

What a crazy couple of weeks we have had! Now I know why so many old time farmers have stayed at their farms their entire lives. It is an incredible amount of work moving equipment, animals, setting up new pens etc... I have used up nearly all my sick leave and vacation from my "off farm" job just trying to get everything done. It also is very expensive to move/expand the farm. There are

Bad Blogger

2010-11-09T09:57:00.000-07:00

It's official. I am a bad blogger. I can't believe how much time has gone by since our last post. If anybody is still following this blog, please forgive our silence. In our defense, we have been incredibly busy this summer and fall. As some of you know, we have spent this year expanding our farm. We had the opportunity to buy a larger plot of land on which we are in the process of moving

CSA Shares Available!

2010-08-25T16:41:00.000-06:00

We are pleased to announce that we are taking orders for CSA Shares once again! We have come up with a new CSA option that we feel will serve both you, the customer, and us, the farmer, better. Earlier this year, we offered 6 month and 12 month CSA Shares where we delivered 10 lbs of meat per month. We found that with the busy summer months, many customers have had a hard time meeting us

Bad Timing

2010-08-19T17:20:00.000-06:00

By now everybody has heard about the massive egg recall due to a salmonella outbreak affecting 380 million eggs. Unfortunately for the West Valley City council they recently decided that they wouldn't vote on a proposal that would allow residents to keep backyard "urban" chickens. Of course this news is horrible timing for the city council. Hopefully residents of WVC will use this recall as

More Local Food

2010-08-19T15:19:00.000-06:00

We continue to be amazed by the demand we see for quality, local food. For those who follow our farm, you know that we are in the middle of expanding our farm. We are trying desperately to shorten the wait times that currently exist. Ideally, we would like to have beef, pork, and chicken in stock so that as orders come in, we can fill them within the week. By purchasing additional land our goal

More Chicken Talk

2010-07-28T10:31:00.001-06:00

Chickens have been the topic of conversation in our home for the last 6 months. We have now raised 7 different breeds of chickens and tried to evaluate the pros and cons of each breed. There has been a lot of failure and some success. We have evaluated the different methods of raising chickens. The commercial industry raises their chickens in dark warehouses as most of our customers

Pigs on Parade

2010-07-19T17:17:00.000-06:00

Independence Day is the main annual event for the town of Vernon. The day is full of activities some of which include Pony Express reenactment, parade, carnival/booths, and town dinner. This year we donated a Berkshire pig to the town for our town dinner. The pig was cooked in the ground by our neighbor Marlin who did a great job of smoking it with apple wood! Yum. This year the boys (Hans and

New Farm Update

2010-05-26T16:04:00.002-06:00

This week, we cleared some land for our barn. We will get some power poles this weekend and set them in the ground to build a pole barn. We have also hired a neighbor to “brush hog” the land. A brush hog is basically a heavy duty lawn mower. It rips out any sage brush or rabbit brush. The land has a lot of good native grasses that we want to keep as part of our pasture. We will plant additional

How's the Chicken?

2010-05-26T15:54:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday was our first CSA Share delivery where we delivered to all of our customers. Preparing each 10lb share turned out to be a little more work than we had calculated. We tried to make sure that every share included both beef and pork as well as a variety of cuts. At first we second guessed our decision to limit CSA Shares. However, now we are glad that we did. Like everything else we

Bigger Farm

2010-05-20T12:52:00.000-06:00

Some of our Berkshire pigs enjoying new pasture Have you ever found yourself playing a board game like Risk or Monopoly where you go all out in an effort to win the game? Where you make moves that are somewhat risky, where you spread yourself a little thinner than is comfortable? This is how I often find myself playing such games. Usually I end up losing but every once in a while I catch a

Farm Day! April 17, 2010 12:00 - 4:00pm

2010-04-07T17:17:00.000-06:00

It's official! On April 17, 2010 we will be having a Farm Day. We have received many requests from customers and potential customers to visit our farm. Initially, we invited people to come over whenever they wanted. We quickly found that while we thoroughly enjoyed visiting with our customers, that we easily lost lots of precious time to work on projects around the farm. For this reason, some

Chickens on Pasture

2010-04-07T10:21:00.001-06:00

We finally got the chickens out on pasture, which turned out to be a lot more work than we thought. They were getting a little crowded in the brooder. First I grabbed a box and placed a few chicks inside it. They immediately hopped out and started running around the shop. After a few minutes of chasing, I was able to gather them back up. I put them back in the brooder and began searching for

Chickens!

2010-03-29T14:59:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago, we received our first batch of chickens. The USPS is the only service that will ship chicks. Since Vernon is such a small town, we receive our mail through a PO Box rather than delivery to our home. Normally, the post office will call when the chicks have arrived and then we drive down and pick them up. However, since the person who picks up the mail and brings it to the

Defining Ourselves

2010-03-15T18:36:00.001-06:00