For the past 5 years I have been developing a business that brings great quality food and pasture raised organic micro-nutrient dense meats to the local market. It has been amazing to see the transformation in the market place. 5 years ago when I would tell people I sell grass fed meat, they would look at me like I ate grass! Now I tell people and most often I become their best friend instantly!

I have realized over the past few years that my passion lies in people really owning their health. I don't know that there is anything greater than sharing a story of mine (I've got lots) and seeing someone light up and put the pieces together for themselves and then have them come back and tell me how their lives have changed. Its incredibly rewarding I couldn't ask for a better side effect to selling BEEF. 

NEXT STEPS FOR VIBRANT FARMS
When I started Vibrant Farms it was always designed to include many farms and to bring many really GREAT products to people through providing ease of access, education around cooking it, about the health benefits of it. The idea was Vibrant Farms, Vibrant Food, Vibrant Communities (both farming communities and urban communities). We always have to be mindful that we keep farms small, in order to create quality - often times we try to stretch the soil too thin, or put too many livestock on one patch of grass. At Vibrant farms we have always wanted to support small farmers who are focused on quality vs Quantity and to reward them for it. So Vibrant Farms is looking to bring on some more small farmers, we serve the farmers in ways of being able to sell everything they produce, and we serve you because we do all the "heavy lifting" literally and figuratively. We are always open and transparent about how things are raised and ask the questions that you might not even know to ask! Farmer's are often busy doing the farming and invoicing and getting back to you in a timely manner are really challenging! I know from experience!

GET MORE FROM YOUR FAVOURITE FARMERS
These are exciting times for Vibrant Farms, we have Kathryn managing all of the customer service and logistics and invoicing! We are offering administrative services to small farmers who may not want to sell through us, but are struggling to wear all the hats. This will also serve to bring you awesome product, when you need it and allows the farmers to do best what they love to do - which is farm and work with soil and animals! If you know some of your favourite farmers that are overworked and trying to figure out what a tweet is, let us know. We know farmers and we know customers we can help! We have always maintained there is LOTS of room for all kinds of products in the market and each farmer has their own unique selling proposition and we want to celebrate diversity! YAY for awesome food from small producers and truly artisan food.

WHAT'S YOUR FARMER'S DAUGHTER UP TO NEXT?!?
With all that happening, I'm looking for ways to bring you more and more value and to really serve what I believe to be my true calling. I have been REALLY blessed to have been born into the life I live and the circumstances which I have grown up in. I look around and I have been blessed with this unique knowledge, skill and experience base for a reason, and I believe it is to be a force for good in the world. 

I have traveled several places in the world, and I - like a true farm girl, always find a way to visit a farm where ever I am! There are some really interesting things happening around the world I think we can learn from and who can learn from us! Vibrant Farms is trucking along with a really strong team of farmers, butchers, advisers and of course administrative support. I am taking on the role of educating and mentoring in food/health, agriculture and tourism. I am headed to New Zealand first as it is the mecca of where tourism meets agriculture! I'll be exploring different agriculture structures and exciting food cultures. I will be writing about them RIGHT here and also through my newsletter which you can sign up for on the right side of this page. I know you'll be inspired by the vast and creative things farmers and food people around the world are doing!

LETS TRANSFORM THE FOOD SYSTEM TOGETHER !!
From the very beginning I have always believed that an education is far more valuable than any product I can sell. I take great pride in how educated and informed Vibrant customers are! I think this is a major component of transforming the food system. Transformation of our food system is what you participate in every single time you order from us and choose to buy locally and organically and to know where your food is coming from. You are the major force that will create a world where Organic micro nutrient dense foods are the main stream, that our children and their children will have access to quality food, and not have to decipher labels to make sure they are getting healthy food. Ultimately that is the goal is to bring huge transformation to our food system!

I hope you'll join me in this adventure and continue to support local farmers and ultimately the transformation of how we buy food, by buying from Vibrant Farms. THANK YOU always for all the past years and all the years to come from all of the farmers and butchers who have been able to stay in business and keep doing what they love in large part due to your continued and loyal support! You can now find Vibrant Farms product in a variety of restaurants! Make sure to visit Vibrant Farms to place your orders and even to put your name down for future orders, we're booking into November right now!

LOTS OF FOOD LOVE ALWAYS
Sincerely,
Melissa - Your one and only Farmer's Daughter... now coming to you from around the world!

Have you heard of people having allergies to eggs?

I hear it often doing what I do. Well recently I have been hearing that duck eggs are actually better for your health and our bodies react entirely differently to duck eggs vs chicken eggs. This is a little hard to wrap my head around considering how similar they are. The eggs and the birds that lay them!


None the less here is the quick run down on why I feel duck eggs are better... also some other research to back it up!

1) Ducks are not regulated like chickens, and thus have not been genetically selected (this is different than GMO, this is Hybridization, taking preferable genes and breeding with other preferable genes)

2) Duck eggs are bigger... ok, that's just because I love me some eggs! The bigger the better I say! (naturally bigger of course!)

3) Duck Eggs are an Alkaline producing food, we all strive for an alkaline environment! However Chicken eggs are an acid food leaving your body more acid, just like most proteins... THAT'S AWESOME that duck eggs have this magic super power!

4) Duck Eggs have more Omega 3 fatty acids
5) Duck eggs have twice the nutritional value of a chicken egg and stay fresher longer due to their thicker shell .
    This one is maybe subject to what you feed your chickens. Vibrant Farms Organic Grassfed Beef eggs have pretty thick shells if I do say so myself!

I hope this has inspired you to at least give duck eggs a try!  You can find them at Top Market Meats if you are in the Waterloo Region area.

I will admit these are some common things that I found during my search, I have not fully vetted this information. I know personal friends who can only eat duck eggs, and I do know they make very fluffy ice cream!! I have a family member who loves his duck eggs and tells me all the benefits of them. But like I said I encourage you to find out the truth of these claims on your own! Try a few see how you feel, especially if you aren't someone who can regularly eat lots of eggs. This article sums it up nicely

We all want to love the life we live. Well what in today's video post I talk about how knowledge is power. The power to get you to where you want to be. Sometimes knowledge can seem like an obligation, but mostly once we know. At least we can call on those skills whenever we want. Knowledge is not "book-learnin" as my dad likes to call it. Knowledge is the understanding the ability to do something or to know something inside out and for oneself. Not sure if that's what Websters would say. All I'm trying to say is its more than reading a website, its experience and your hands knowing what to do at what time.

I hope you enjoy it

Plus this is my version of a #nomakeupselfie heheh

Hope you enjoy

I have always been told that balance is the key to living a happy life. Well I am here to tell you I DON'T GET IT! Balance for me is different than it is for you. It is fleeting, the fulcrum point changes, the definition changes. On top of that can you truly have all areas of your life in full complete balance? Lets just for a moment pretends it is all a bunch of cow crap and consider how we then go about living our best lives?  I have heard it said before that sometimes we need to go out of balance to regain our balance and flow. That resonates with me.

It has been a busy year for me, so many successes and plenty of stuff in the other category as well - we'll just call the "Learning experiences".  Dinners with The Farmer's Daughter becoming more and more successful and sought after I never expected it but it fills my heart to no end to be able to provide this. As a result of this I'm coming out with a recipe book of all my best 5 course meals, you'll get a "cheat sheet" on all the fun facts and tips I talk about when I serve the food, the reason for why its prepared specific ways and why its so beneficial to buy certain things organic and even where to GET all of the ingredients!  If you want to know about this - head over to the right side of this blog post and sign up for the newsletter - you will get notified of when its for sale. It will be for sale on Amazon for 2.99. But it will be free for the first 5 days! So Make sure you sign up so we can tell you!

Needless to say I LOVE what I do and I have a tendency to get very deep into it and forget that I still need to do many things like be social, take care of myself, tidy my office (yikes!), do my laundry, and oh ya... HAVE FUN!

I know many working professionals, moms, dads, and anyone who has to balance having a life, with eating healthy and also working to sustain themselves knows that this can be a challenge sometimes. If you find it hard to maintain balance or maybe think that one part of your life is out of balance well. It's hard to know what to do when you've been one way for so long, and it's equally hard to actually do it! Someone once said just do something, doesn't matter if its good or bad, just do SOMETHING different, that will spark the part of our brains that allow us to think outside the box. On the plus side we'll have more experiences to add to the "I like that" or "I definitely don't want that experience again" lists!

I hope the following story about JUST DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT inspires you!

I had been posed the question recently and it went like this

WHAT ARE YOU LUSTY AND PASSIONATE FOR IN LIFE?

well I of course said well that's easy... I Love my work! As I started to consider it though, I realized maybe it has become just that- Work. (On a side note I'm not entirely convinced that doing what you love is without side effects - another story for another blog). So I thought I would sit with that question. What am I really lusty and passionate for in life (those words conjure up some pretty good imagery don't they?).

There are a few ways to change your life. Ok, so there are a LOT of ways. When you are in a patterned way of being, you know the one. You get up, you eat the same breakfast and you go to work, and you come home and Tuesday its hockey and Thursday it's dance etc. I am not suggesting that those are negative ways to live. In the interest of balance and maintaining ones spark in life Ive realized I need to shake it up now and again and really feel alive, ignite my adventurous spirit.

Ive long been aware that doing the all inclusive thing (while super cost effective) is not my idea of a good time. I feel like a caged animal. All I can think about when I'm "swimming with the dolphins" (aka not really swimming, but doing choreographed exercises and feeling kinda bad because they do the same things day in and day out) is what else could I get these dolphins to do, how do they primarily communicate? Do they respond to dominance or are they gentler souls, how does their communication within their species work.  I also feel fatter, less fit, marginally less smart, and oddly enough even more tired when I return! So I figured I have to get away from this dreadful cold, and I know the perspective and sense of aliveness I feel when I'm traveling, but I HATE tourist traps.

GOOGLE TO THE RESCUE!!!

So after a little google searching and some following of the internet bunny trails. I inadvertently came across Stemple Creek Ranch . So I sent them an email indicating that I too was a farmer and that I would do my best to be more help then hassle (as can sometimes happen with "free help". So I'll be heading down at a very exciting time to visit Loren and Lisa and their family. I'll get to brand cattle and herd some sheep. Learn about how they do things in the west. Most of all I'll get a change of pace. As Loren said when I spoke with him on the phone it doesn't feel like work when it's not your own.

Here are some pics of the ranch... can you see why Im a TEENCY bit excited!??!? Did I mention it is only a couple miles from the Pacific Ocean...

I pose the question to you - What are you Lusty and passionate for in life? I happen to love the land, soil, animals and hard work. I love the feeling in my body after a day of giving all I have with people who are there to do the same thing, of being part of something bigger. I love the feeling of sun on my skin as I work my butt off, put my muscles to the test. I love the feeling of a little scratch here and there or a bruise or two to remind me how much I really did give of myself that day and to grateful that I have the body and ability to give it.

I hope you leave a comment about what your truly passionate and lusty for, and I hope that one day you can find a way to experience it. We are not passionate and lusty for money or fame or fortune, we are all seeking the experience, and the juiciness of life. We just need to ask ourselves what specifically that is for us? For me its cows.

Some of you may already know that it takes a few people to make the little engine of Vibrant Farms work. It takes diligent farmers who are super committed to the land and constant self improvement of their operations. It also takes a very flexible and understanding trucker who comes when I call (I am super blessed!) He has a whole bunch of friends with trucks and trailers and between them all we make sure we pick up and deliver to the butcher. Of course it wouldn't be possible without the butcher which we have a very long standing relationship with and we are very happy with his humane practices as well as his commitment to organics. We actually take them almost 2 hours away because we are so committed to it.

Last but not least it takes a very committed and dedicated order coordinator. I used to do all of the business development and the sales and follow up - as many of you might have noticed it got to be too much for me, so in September of 2013 I took the plunge and hired Kathryn McEwin. She has been a blessing to Vibrant Farms family of producers, customers and of course to me! With her around you'll get responses faster and she can help you with what is best to order, she can tell you whats available, and when pick up times are open! She really is the glue that makes it all work. While some people might think that having it no longer be me may result in a lower level of commitment or service I assure you it is actually the opposite. I've been blown away by Kathryn's level of commitment and her ability to read my mind sometimes! She can see what is needed and does it! We (and you) are very blessed to have her. On top of all this she has inspired me in so many ways with her own family story and how she's incorporated so much local food coming from having very little to no local or organic food to serving a full organic

Kathryn comes from an executive administrative background. She doesn't miss a beat! She keeps me on track with all of the things that are necessary to keep Vibrant Farms and The Farmer's Daughter running like a well oiled machine and allow me to bring more great resources and food fun to you!

I just want to share a little bit about Kathryn's journey as I've seen it. I didn't know her much in the beginning but she was instrumental in starting a very well used community Facebook group for women of the Wellesley area. We started to get acquainted when she came for a dinner with The Farmer's daughter (one of the early ones!)

Kathryn started sharing with me some of the things she was incorporating, how her kids started to LOVE the beef and didn't want anything else (that makes me smile every time -its like their little bodies just know).  She has been going to a Naturopath for quite some time and went to see my favourite homeopath Dr. Andrea Hauser. She came back after her live blood analysis all excited about what she saw and you could just SEE the empowerment in her eyes, through live blood she could actually SEE what was all happening in her body. Shortly after she took her kids to see Dr. Andrea Hauser and it was even more exciting. Her kids started to understand that if they ate certain foods or didn't eat certain foods then the little "floaty things" would go away! The moment when you see kids start to put the pieces together and understand how things affect their body is such a magical experience.

Over the holidays after one of our meetings Kathryn showed me her freezer - which she had just recently purchased and wasn't sure she would be able to fill it. Needless to say it was full and full of all kinds of local fruit, veggies, soup broth and of course organic grass fed meats! I was so inspired almost to the point of tears, not because I think I had anything to do with it. Just to see the excitement and joy in Kathryn's eyes as she explained where everything was from and how she prepared everything!


When Kathryn shared with me about how she prepared a TOTALLY organic and local meal (during Christmas- aka the winter) for her family and how she was so happy to share such great food with her family and feel GREAT about what's on the table for the kids. Even how the kids gobbled it up - and even asked "Are these the eggs from the chickens at Melissa's?". That is what makes me smile, THAT is why I do what I do. If I can have even an iota of that experience seeing families become full of joy over food, seeing them sit down to a lovingly prepared meal and chat about their day and their food, I will feel fulfilled and at peace.

Thank you Kathryn for continuing to inspire me and for continuing to support me in more ways than you know - I feel totally blessed to have someone like you in my life and my business.

It's Christmas time and it is time to indulge in the finer things in life and share those wonderful moments with family and friends!! So if you've purchased grass fed beef and want to share the awesome sustainable healthy beef with your family here are some things to keep in mind! It is a little different from regular beef so hopefully these tips will help you make amazing company worthy beef! And of course ideally they will all love it and want some for themselves!!! he he he
Good luck!!!

1)   Thaw in Fridge – cook from Room Temp

Assuming you buy your beef frozen and in bulk you will want to get the beef out a few days before you want to use it, the best way to thaw it is in the fridge as it will slowly thaw as opposed to thawing at room temperature or worst of all in hot water. At the fridge temperature you won’t rupture the cell walls as much as if you were to thaw at room temperature or in hot water. When your meat is thawed, let it sit out for an hour or two and cook from room temperature. This process essentially brings the meat up to temperature slowly and does less damage to the cell walls. This will ensure better quality of your finished product when you and your guests are sitting down to munch down delicious grass fed organic beef

2)   Tenderize

This is especially important for cuts like round steak, sirloin tip steak, flank steak, eye of round steak or any cuts from the hind quarter (excluding tenderloin, strip loin, or rib eye) Sirloin steak should still have enough marbling even if its grass fed but you can always tenderize it if you’d like  (not to be confused with sirloin TIP steak which is a much tougher cut with a tighter grain in the meat). With corn fed or conventionally raised beef the fat that results from that creates spaces between the muscle fibers making for a much more tender cut of meat that allows marinades and the like to get into the fibers. With grass fed beef there is very little fat in the meat so tenderizing will create space between the fibers allowing marinades and spices to penetrate into the meat. Even if you don’t marinate however this will make a tougher cut of meat much nicer to eat.  You can get a tenderizer that looks like this – see below, or for those who don’t see a need for yet another kitchen tool…. I use one end of a rolling pin (the roll part – not the handle!)

3)   Marinate in spice and alcohol and fat

Due to the tight grain of some of the cuts of meat (especially the hind cuts) alcohol does a really good job of breaking down the tissue.  Generally the meat you get should be aged at least 14 days, in the industry meat could be aged anywhere from 1 day to 10 days and in specialty stores and butcher shops up to 50 or 60 days. As the meat ages it will shrink, the aging process breaks down the tissue with naturally occurring enzymes (that are within the meat itself).  By marinating in alcohol you will help this process. By adding fat into your marinate you’ll add some fat into these cuts (especially after you have tenderized) that wouldn’t normally be there, be sure to select your fats that are healthy a great source for lists of healthy fats is here. Salt or brining your meat will also help break down tissue. Salt will also bring out the flavor of the meat, if you bought grass fed organic you’ll likely want to show off the flavor of the meat so you can just use a simple salt brine, or you can add pepper and garlic, these simple spices nicely compliment a grass fed organic beef roast or steak and don’t over power it. 

click here for a great list of fats

4)   Cook slow and low

I often say that fat is the “margin for error”, I only mean that with meat that has lots of fat there is more room for over cooking because there is moisture in the meat still. With grass fed it is critical to not over cook. In fact if you like your steaks medium to rare you’ll have an easier time with grass fed and probably enjoy it more. With roasts it is beneficial to slowly cook – sometimes I’ll stick it in the oven the night before, on 150-200 with a little bit of water put a lid on it and poof, in the morning – wonderfully cooked easy to cut and pull apart beef.

5)   Rest before eating

After cooking (especially with steaks) you’ll want to let it rest for a couple minutes before eating. This tip is not just for grass fed beef – you’ll see this for all kinds of beef, it helps the juices in the beef to work its way through, it finishes cooking in the last little bit while its sitting off the heat and on the cutting board before you cut it. It is actually amazing how much difference it makes when you let it rest before you eat it. Sometimes I’ll just leave it on the counter for a couple hours and it makes for awesome beef!!

6)   Cut selection

This is crucial for when you are entertaining you’ll want something that want something that will feed lots of people, if you bought your meat in bulk you likely won’t have 20 tenderloin steaks, you could do several different kinds of steak but that would require lots of different prep techniques. I always suggest using either a roast or some stewing beef, if you marinate the roast or stew and then slow cook it in alcohol and fats you’ll come out with the most tender cut with your fork beef.  If you are looking to make your beef go further, you can use either a roast or steak from the hind quarter that is a tougher cut and slice it thin for stir fry stack it up with lots of veggies and you’ll feed lots of hungry mouths.

7)   Overcooking – learn to love it medium rare

This is a sin when it comes to grass fed beef. It will make it the texture of shoe leather! If you are ok with a little pink in the middle of your beef you’ll get the most out of your grass fed beef. You want to also be sure not to cook it too long over the heat. Often it will seem like it isn’t cooked when you take it off the grill or heat and after you let it rest it will be perfectly cooked.

Enjoy your grass fed beef; if you have any questions you can always submit a question to “Ask the Farmer’s Daughter” page – happy cooking and entertaining your family to the super healthy beef that you have purchased!

Seriously this is too cute not to check out!!
Between all the hard work, shoveling  s*** and feeding hay, and lifting water buckets... etc special little moments like this happen and it kinda makes it all worth it!

Let me know what you think - Comment below! we need a CUTE revolution heheh - melts your heart doesn't it!