{"id":974,"date":"2022-01-19T15:30:02","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T15:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/?p=974"},"modified":"2022-06-01T15:37:55","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T15:37:55","slug":"january-is-the-perfect-time-to-fill-your-freezer-with-pastured-meats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/blog\/2022\/01\/19\/january-is-the-perfect-time-to-fill-your-freezer-with-pastured-meats\/","title":{"rendered":"January is the perfect time to fill your freezer with pastured meats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/01\/ThatLittleFarm-Family-photo-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"That Little Farm Family Photo\" class=\"wp-image-981\" srcset=\"https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/01\/ThatLittleFarm-Family-photo-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/01\/ThatLittleFarm-Family-photo-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/01\/ThatLittleFarm-Family-photo-1-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption><em>Colleen and Jeremy Ruhter of That Little Farm in the Country pose with their Idaho Pasture Pigs. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>January is the perfect month to buy local meat. Cold winter days lend themselves to wholesome winter meals, and pastured meats are a natural choice for all your hearty stews and roasts. What&#8217;s more, pastured meat is easy to find in the winter months and purchasing in January helps support farmers all year round. In recent years, the farmer&#8217;s share of the food dollar has dropped to just 14 cents for every dollar you spend, making it harder for farmers to earn a living. When you buy directly from local farms, you&#8217;re ensuring they get every penny and can keep producing local products to help sustain you and your community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read on to learn about pastured&nbsp;meats from Little Farm in the Country and search the Buy Fresh Buy Local Illinois directory to find pastured meat near you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-fill\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-luminous-vivid-orange-background-color has-text-color has-background\" href=\"http:\/\/www.buyfreshbuylocalillinois.org\"><strong>Find Pastured Meat Near You<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Grazing in the grass at That Little Farm<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Meet Colleen Ruhter<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even in the unpredictable world of farming, 2021 was a doozy for Colleen Ruhter, who owns and runs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thatlittlefarm.com\/\">That Little Farm in the Country<\/a> (Sidney, IL, near Champaign) with husband Jeremy Ruhter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the upside, the couple pitched their own tent to sell their pasture-raised pork and chicken at Urbana\u2019s Market in the Square, after previously selling through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ruhterbison.com\/index.html\">Ruhter Bison<\/a> (owned by Jeremy\u2019s family). And Colleen was nominated by <a href=\"https:\/\/thelandconnection.org\/\">The Land Connection<\/a> for <a href=\"https:\/\/routes2farm.org\/about\/farmeraward-3\/?emci=1b01f4f9-1431-ec11-9820-c896653b26c8&amp;emdi=9a6ccb5b-2231-ec11-9820-c896653b26c8&amp;ceid=7165257\">Routes to Farm<\/a>\u2019s Farmer of the Year competition.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the downside, Colleen stumbled in a hole while doing barn chores and broke her right ankle in three places, sharply limiting her farming activities for most of the year. Colleen, who says the leg is back to 80 percent normal, accentuated the positive during an interview just before the new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Colleen spent much of her youth on her grandparents\u2019 farm near Peoria and Jeremy&#8217;s parents started the bison farm 11 years ago, neither intended to follow suit. They met as engineering students at University of Evansville (IN) and pursued professional opportunities in Annapolis, Maryland. But the pull of home was strong, especially after they became parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They found a location that met their three criteria: At least three acres, within 30 to 40 minutes of Champaign, and less than $300,000. They initially intended to do homestead farming to feed their growing family but decided to go bigger shortly after they started raising livestock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why pastured pork? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first big decision they made was to replace their Duroc pigs \u2014 which dug up the pasture \u2014 with <a href=\"https:\/\/idahopasturepigregistry.com\/breed-standard\/\">Idaho Pasture Pigs<\/a>, a hybrid that is docile, somewhat smaller, and much gentler on the fields. Colleen, whose engineering expertise is in stormwater and environmental engineering, said that they were drawn to pasture-raising by the positive environmental impacts, and the prospects of less damage to their grazing land was very appealing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Noting that they had to supplement the Durocs\u2019 diet with eight to 10 pounds of grain per day, Colleen said, \u201cWhen we heard about the Idaho Pasture Pigs and how they could consume a lot more grass and they would eat less grain and they were a lot more gentle on the pasture, it seemed like a more environmentally friendly approach to what we were already trying to do in order to get some good quality pork.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She continued, \u201cI&#8217;ve definitely got a good small following of people who, once they&#8217;re willing to try it, once they see the value of spending an extra couple bucks per pound on a good quality meat, that it&#8217;s really worth it. The meat that we sell is a really dark red meat. It&#8217;s got a lot of iron and beta-carotene in it from all the grass that the pigs eat, because about 75 percent of their diet is grass.\u201d That diet is supplemented with \u201ca non-GMO corn and soy mix with the right minerals, and the minerals make a big difference so that they&#8217;re not rooting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/01\/ThatLittleFarm-pork-steak-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"That Little Farm Pork Steak\" class=\"wp-image-982\" \/><figcaption><em>Meat from the Idaho Pasture Pigs is a dark red, full of vitamins and minerals<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Making it work as a small farm: &#8220;A Labor of Love&#8221; <\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They also learned to McGyver solutions to farm problems, with the help of her father and his workshop. Their chickens are pastured in a chicken tractor, a mobile coop with removable wheels that shelters the birds from predators, and they developed a lever that enables one person to raise the tractor to take the wheels off (so it sits more flush to the ground) and back on. They also raise mealworms to feed the chickens and developed a mealworm sifter that fits their specifications. (Both products are available for sale <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thatlittlefarm.com\/tools\">on their website<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Colleen doesn\u2019t sugar-coat the challenges of small-farm economics. Both she and Jeremy have full-time jobs at University of Illinois in Champaign, which is more rule than exception; the most recent U.S. Census of Agriculture found that 58 percent of producers had a primary occupation other than farming.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is also the patchwork of federal, state and local regulations that currently prevent them from selling product on farm, and the shortage of livestock processing facilities that is hindering the growth of pasture-raised meat production. \u201cIt&#8217;s been hard trying to work two full-time jobs, managing two kids, and then managing the farm. Sometimes we&#8217;re out feeding pigs at 10:30, quarter to 11 at night and then getting up next morning to try to go to work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But for Colleen, this \u201clabor of love\u201d is definitely worth it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen I was in high school, if you&#8217;d asked me if I&#8217;m going to be going to a farmers market and talking to people, I&#8217;d have laughed at you. I was so shy and it just wasn&#8217;t anything anywhere near my radar. And now, I love every minute of it. I love talking to customers. I love hearing from customers. I love sharing the stories of animals and our farm. I love hearing their stories of the meals that they&#8217;re making, and how great they are and they couldn&#8217;t believe how good it was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where to buy:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can find That Little Farm in the Country products by contacting them directly and arranging for purchase and pickup on their farm in Sidney, Illinois, or find them at the <a href=\"https:\/\/foodmarketmaker.com\/business\/bus-FD1553D4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Urbana Market on the Squar<\/a>e on Saturdays from May through October. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Colleen also runs an unusually extensive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thatlittlefarm.com\/merchandise\">merchandise program<\/a> with her own jazzy designs for verbiage such as \u201cIdaho Pasture Pigs,\u201d \u201cI Love Chickens,\u201d &#8220;Support Small Local Farms,\u201d and the cheeky \u201cCluck Off.\u201d These designs are emblazoned on stickers, magnets, T-shirts and mugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"833\" height=\"833\" src=\"https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/01\/Little-Farm-Jeremy-Ruhter-t-shirt.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-978\" srcset=\"https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/01\/Little-Farm-Jeremy-Ruhter-t-shirt.jpg 833w, https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/01\/Little-Farm-Jeremy-Ruhter-t-shirt-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/01\/Little-Farm-Jeremy-Ruhter-t-shirt-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/01\/Little-Farm-Jeremy-Ruhter-t-shirt-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 833px) 100vw, 833px\" \/><figcaption><em>Jeremy Ruhtor shows off a t-shirt designed by Colleen<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Find Pastured Meats Near You<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can find pastured meat farmers near you at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.buyfreshbuylocalillinois.org\/\">www.buyfreshbuylocalillinois.org<\/a>. Just use the filters to search by proximity, product, and farming practice.&nbsp;Below are just a handful of pastured meat farmers across the state:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foodmarketmaker.com\/business\/bus-E2DA7C84\">Bauman Family Farms<\/a>, Vienna: Southern, IL<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foodmarketmaker.com\/business\/bus-7P4xxbS7g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Grateful Graze<\/a>, Cambridge: Northwest IL<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foodmarketmaker.com\/business\/bus-ANmoG67nR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Irish Grove Farms<\/a>, Pecatonica: Northwest IL<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All<a href=\"https:\/\/foodmarketmaker.com\/business\/bus-95CED487\"> Grass Farms<\/a>, Chicagoland<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foodmarketmaker.com\/business\/bus-390BBA71\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mint Creek Farm<\/a>, Cabery: Central IL<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foodmarketmaker.com\/business\/bus-94D1118D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bland Family Farms<\/a>, Jacksonville: Central Illinois<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-luminous-vivid-orange-background-color has-text-color has-background\" href=\"http:\/\/www.buyfreshbuylocalillinois.org\"><strong>Find Pastured Meats Near You<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Get Listed with Buy Fresh Buy Local Illinois<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Are you a farm, farmers market, farm-to-table restaurant, or grocery store that sells local products purchased directly from local farms? Get listed in Illinois&#8217; most trusted guide to local food. Your listing is absolutely free. Buy Fresh Buy Local Illinois is a local foods marketing project led by a coalition of organizations across the state working to promote local farms and food businesses like yours. Get listed and start reaching new customers today! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-fill\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-luminous-vivid-orange-background-color has-text-color has-background\" href=\"https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/join-us\/get-listed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Get Listed for FREE with BFBL Illinois today<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This story is written by Bob Benenson of <a href=\"https:\/\/localfoodforum.substack.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Local Food Forum<\/a> on behalf of the <a href=\"https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/about-us\/\">Buy Fresh Buy Local Illinois Coalition<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>January is the perfect month to buy local meat. Cold winter days lend themselves to wholesome winter meals, and pastured meats are a natural choice for all your hearty stews and roasts. What&#8217;s more, pastured meat is easy to find&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[8,30,28,29],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlight","category-uncategorized","tag-central-illinois","tag-january","tag-local-meat","tag-pastured-meat","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>January is the perfect time to fill your freezer with pastured meats &#8211; Illinois Buy Fresh Buy Local<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/blog\/2022\/01\/19\/january-is-the-perfect-time-to-fill-your-freezer-with-pastured-meats\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"January is the perfect time to fill your freezer with pastured meats &#8211; Illinois Buy Fresh Buy Local\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"January is the perfect month to buy local meat. Cold winter days lend themselves to wholesome winter meals, and pastured meats are a natural choice for all your hearty stews and roasts. What&#039;s more, pastured meat is easy to find in the winter months and purchasing in January helps support farmers all year round. In recent years, the farmer&#039;s share of the food dollar has dropped to just 14 cents for every dollar you spend, making it harder for farmers to earn a living. When you buy directly from local farms, you&#039;re ensuring they get every penny and can keep producing local products to help sustain you and your community. Read on to learn about pastured meat from That Little Farm in the Country and search Buy Fresh Buy Local Illinois for pastured meat near you.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/blog\/2022\/01\/19\/january-is-the-perfect-time-to-fill-your-freezer-with-pastured-meats\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Illinois Buy Fresh Buy Local\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/buyfreshbuylocalillinois\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-19T15:30:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-01T15:37:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\/illinois\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/01\/ThatLittleFarm-Family-photo-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"molly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"molly\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\\\/illinois\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/19\\\/january-is-the-perfect-time-to-fill-your-freezer-with-pastured-meats\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\\\/illinois\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/19\\\/january-is-the-perfect-time-to-fill-your-freezer-with-pastured-meats\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"molly\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\\\/illinois\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/746165a20a2a2d1c59cfaf54cd5bc477\"},\"headline\":\"January is the perfect time to fill your freezer with pastured meats\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-19T15:30:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-01T15:37:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\\\/illinois\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/19\\\/january-is-the-perfect-time-to-fill-your-freezer-with-pastured-meats\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1325,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\\\/illinois\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\\\/illinois\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/19\\\/january-is-the-perfect-time-to-fill-your-freezer-with-pastured-meats\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\\\/illinois\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/ThatLittleFarm-Family-photo-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Central Illinois\",\"January\",\"local meat\",\"pastured meat\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Spotlight\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\\\/illinois\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/19\\\/january-is-the-perfect-time-to-fill-your-freezer-with-pastured-meats\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\\\/illinois\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/19\\\/january-is-the-perfect-time-to-fill-your-freezer-with-pastured-meats\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/buyfreshbuylocal.org\\\/illinois\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/19\\\/january-is-the-perfect-time-to-fill-your-freezer-with-pastured-meats\\\/\",\"name\":\"January is the perfect time to fill your freezer with pastured meats &#8211; 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