The Urban Omnivore

Last weekend Katie and I went out to Hardwick MA to visit Misty Brook Farm. I had been in email contact with Katia Clemmer, one of the owners, with a number of inquiries about their products and the purchasing process and she encouraged me to visit the farm and have a look for myself. So Katie and I hopped in the car, cranked up the tunes, and drove an hour-and-a-half out to central MA with the intention of picking up some naturally raised meats and eggs, getting our feet muddy in the farm, petting some animals and chatting with the owners. We succeeded in all but the last. Unfortunately I had misinterpreted my email conversation with Katia in which she said that they would be on the farm until 11AM. I took that as “We’re busy until 11AM” instead of “If you want to see us, come before 11AM”. Next time we’ll get there earlier. I also made one other, minor, error during the day… I forgot to bring a cooler along and didnt’ realize until we were well on our way. Fortunately there were plenty of stores in the area that carried smaller coolers for us to add to our growing collection (yes, this has happened before).

We arrived at the farm, cooler and all, around 12:30 PM. We walked up to the rustic building with a sign that read “Misty Brook Farm Shop”. Inside were two freezers, a refrigerator, an a small table containing a jar of change money and a calculator. The freezers were stocked with various meats, mostly pork and veal. There was a good selection of ground pork, pork chops, country-style ribs, pork shoulders, various cuts of veal, a few beef bottom rounds, assorted bones for stocks, etc. The refrigerator had eggs, milk, and cream.

After settling on some ground pork, ribs, chops, a beef roast, and a dozen eggs it was time for us to add up our totals and leave our money in the jar. Although I had made sure to bring plenty of cash, the thought of leaving $100 in a jar, in an unlocked room, on the side of the road made me a bit uncomfortable. Rationally, I know it would have been fine but emotionally I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Out came the checkbook and one messy signature later we had made our purchase.

Leaving the farm stand, we ran into another couple (walking in with a well worn cooler!) who were buying milk. We asked them as many questions as we could about their familiarity with the farm. What we gathered from them was that most people pre-ordered whole or half animals and that what was in the freezer was what was leftover. I’m not sure that this is totally right so I’m going to follow up with Katia through email, phone, and/or visit. Perhaps there is a way to pre-order certain cuts rather than only being able to do a fraction of an animal?

We unloaded our arms, now freezing after holding onto frozen meat and standing in the cold during our conversation, into our new cooler and headed back to the farm to get a good look around. First we saw a number of cows across the dirt road “ruminating” on some hay. Even though we weren’t sure that they were Misty Brook Cows, it was still comforting to see some cows, lazily munching hay, giving us sidelong bovine glances, and belching.

Around the corner was a peep of chickens skipping around the snow, hay and mud along with a few ducks and a friendly and excited Jack Russell Terrier. Seeing the terrier running around, insisting that we throw or kick his bouncy ball, gave an even more personal touch to the farm.

Each of two young calves had his own private “cow house” that he could wander a few yards from before their length of chain ran out.

There was also a small barn with a number of cows moseying around another medium sized barn where the milk cows were kept. Katie was brave enough to pet some of the cows while I snapped some pictures.

We finally had enough so we scraped as much mud (and other) off our shoes, slipped into the car and spent some of the ride home discussing the various meals we’d cook with our farm-raised meat. Sunday night we enjoyed a dinner of slow-cooked beef roast, mashed up potatoes and sweet potatoes, and sauteed carrots, raisins and walnuts.