4.16.2010

Our Little Field Trip

We all met early at the restaurant and took off over to Summerfield, Fl and Pasture Prime Wagyu. We were met by Torm and his father who welcomed us and gave us a little introduction and background on the farm. It was a dairy farm until the government regulations forced them to make a choice of rebuild and go into enormous debt or close the dairy. At that point Torm explained that it had already become a soulless production, pumping milk 24\7 just to keep up with the bills. He ended up hating it and what it had become.
Torm left for a while then returned to the farm to start Pasture Prime Wagyu. He began with a high ratio wagyu, a 15/16 breed where as most are 50/50 wagyu and black angus. This high ratio breed of wagyu has a better temperament than the BA mix, almost no issues when calving, high fat ratio, and has a very different long legged look from the BA mix. He raises them on grass alone until they reach around 30 months.



Here is some of the wagyu he brought up by the house for us to look at.



Here is Torm telling us all the benefits of raising these guys on grass alone, no antibiotics, no hormones, nothing.






We moved on to Torms newest acquisition, naked neck chickens. Here the chicks are about 2 weeks, they will require some extra growing time as it takes them a little longer to mature. Instead of 8 weeks these little guys are looking at being around for the next 15 weeks to get them up to weight.



Turkeys!!!!



Along with the naked necks Torm picked up some red bourbon turkeys just in time to get them ready by thanksgiving. In the end these guys should be around 12-13lbs.



ok now on to the pigs. Here is a big blondie, this guy probably comes in around 300lbs and will hang around 220lbs when dressed.


With a simple "here pig" call they all came running. We started pulling up all the grass on our side and feeding them. These mangalitsa are awesome.



Torm continued educating the group and answering all our questions.



We all got in with the pigs and hung out for a while until they all decided to make a run for the mud hole and chase everyone around after they got out.







Here is one of the chase scenes.



The bluezoo crew with Torm on the far right. We can't thank Torm enough for the hospitality and the experience. Everyone is looking at our products differently now. The level of respect for the ingredients just went up ten fold around here. I reccomend taking your crew on similar excursions, it's the best thing we could have done.



Afterward Torm cooked us up some fine wagyu burgers, we had lunch and then broke out the firearms. What's a trip to the farm with out a little target practice.



This one is not mine, just letting everyone know that.



Our marine was up first, you can tell this guy has done this a couple times before.



Everyone had a good time, nothin' like letting off a few rounds to relieve stress.









A good day for the zoo. Come see us and get some of Torm's mangalitsa that is now featured on our menu. We are also curing lots of lardo and gonna get some hams going for the fall.

3 comments:

  1. Looks like I missed a good time! Glad everyone got to experience the farm though. It's a crucial part of the process that a lot of people don't get to experience in a way that Torm can provide. When's the next trip?

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  2. Geez luckies. Looks like a killer field trip. Definitely inspired me to get some of my kitchen guys to go to check out what the local guys are doing here in Colorado. There are plenty of farms producing high quality stuff. Thanks for motivating me to kick these yahoos in the keester and see what is outside of the four walls in the kitchen.

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  3. AML, after getting pounded for the last month with business, sometimes you just have to get everyone away from the kitchen for a minute, those 5 hours have provided everyone with new ideas, respect and focus. We are back and ready to go! We got hammered tonight when it was supposed to be "slow" and in the end we were still talking about our next charcuterie moves, still excited. Coppa is curing, pepperoni is next, two monster bellies just came out for our dry box cure to smoke for bacon, 2 more waiting to hit the southern style bacon brine, 2 hams begging for a smoked salt rub. Paper thin guanciale over barley risotto, after all it is their main feed at the farm. It's not just me dreaming this stuff up, it's the cooks and servers, yes servers too, who had that experience and then make suggestions that I run with. I hate corporate B.S. but this was the best team building exercise we have ever done.

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