Chicama Run Family Farm

We get so many questions about our Meat CSA because it's SO different from everyone else's it seems - yet we were one of the very first farms to have one.  Strange how that works.

I'm going to start by showing you what we do NOT do so I can get this out of the way.  I just found a local business that offered weekly pickups.  That's all fine and awesome but here's the deal.... it's $55/week and you get 5 lbs of meat.  Yep - no matter what they give you - they even have listed: "One week may have 3 lbs of beef short ribs, 1 lb of ground turkey, and 1 lb of maple breakfast sausage. The next week may have 1 lb of hot italian pork sausage, one whole 3-4 lb organic chicken, and 1 lb of ground beef. "  So you are paying $11 per pound for those items.  Great idea - and I know they would have a lot of business (and they aren't even the farmer's BTW - they contract out) because of their pick-up locations, but I cannot justify charging or PAYING $11 per pound short ribs or a chicken.  My own personal budget (no matter what Joe says, I do have one) can't be stretched THAT thin - I like to eat too much!!  Sadly, most farms do their Meat CSA's by weight as well.

So then let's see what we offer here at Chicama Run.  You are paying 10% off the RETAIL VALUE of the items.  That's simple.  So for a pound of ground beef, you are getting 10% off the current retail price.... you WON'T be paying $11 for short ribs - you would be paying the current retail price minus 10% (currently at $4.99/lb retail) - so when this happens you get MORE items in your bags!  The whole concept/idea we have is for you to get as much as possible in your bags - we want to give you a great selection for the entire month!  As a bonus, you can also receive 10% off any other items when you pick up your bags.  So if you know that you are having a party or a cookout, you can always stock up on extras and get the 10% off!

So why the CSA vs the Build-a-Box?  The discount is the same!  Some people aren't big experimenters in cooking - they know what they like and aren't going to try a lot of different things.  Personally, if left to my own devices, I fall into this department, I can eat the same thing over and over again without too much thought.  For people like that, the Build-a-Box (which has a $150 minimum retail) is the perfect option.  You just schedule it when it's convenient for you and then come in and build it. 

For the CSA, you never know what you might get in your bags.  I do think this is a fun way to "shop" - it's like a mystery surprise but for meats!  We essentially are building your bags from what we have available at the time.  We try to base it off of the season, more steaks when it's grilling season and more roasts if it's colder slow cooker season, so you get the most use for your money.  It also allows you to try different things that we have that you might not have thought of before.  Sometimes, we also throw in something that's new and we want some extra opinions on so you won't be able to find it in the store!

I hope this helps with some of the questions we receive and how our CSA is a little different than the average CSA out there.  If you have been around us and learned about our farm for awhile, you would understand that we don't like to charge more than we have to - we understand living on a budget and we try and make our farm as family friendly as possible!

Most people don't think about this, I know I certainly didn't when I wasn't a farmer.  What do farmer's DO during the holidays?  Simply put - we work.

So I put off writing this for a few weeks until after the stress of Thanksgiving was gone.  How do we plan Thanksgiving?  We start in December or January.  That's right, we start now.

First, we have to plan on how many turkeys we would like to butcher for Thanksgiving.  This year we butchered the largest number we have done so far - 74.  We placed that order last December and we STILL didn't get the delivery date we would have liked!

That done, we have the turkeys from July-the week before Thanksgiving.  We start selling in September even though most people aren't thinking of Thanksgiving yet, we've found it is a good starting place for us to take orders and most people have caught on and place their orders right away because we do sell out.

For us, by the end of the week, we have no desire to see another turkey!  This past season it took us 18 1/2 HOURS to butcher the turkeys over the course of 3 days.  It's exhausting work as a 20lb dressed turkey weighs in at about 30lbs live so lifting and moving the turkeys can take a lot out of everyone.  Imagine - our largest turkey this past season was 32lbs!

So while everyone else is planning their meals, we are working our asses off to make sure that we have everything together so that you WILL have a turkey.  Last year, in 2014, it was the first year we had to ask people to give up their turkeys and our customers were great with it.  For us though, it was heartbreaking.

After Thanksgiving, we took a few days of rest, which doesn't mean no work because the animals still need to be fed, cows still need to be milked, it means we didn't do anything extra.  I think we all took a nap or 2 during those days as well!  Then we start working on Christmas sales - for that season - we have our Prime Rib Roasts & hams.

We have people pre-order if possible so you can get the size that you would need and we have to plan for the butchering WELL in advance!  Did you know we book our steer and hog butcherings at the beginning of the year for the ENTIRE year?!

We work right through Christmas (animals still need to be taken care of!) and we just continue on.  We move right into the new year and keep going. This job is 365 days per year 24 hours per day.