This year we held our first ever “Tasty Turkey Contest”.  Folks who purchased their Thanksgiving turkey from our farm had the opportunity to submit the recipe they used and have it graded by our good friend Chef Joseph Hewett at The Indigo Duck in Franklin, IN.  After careful review, our contest winners are:

• First Place – Sue Mogel – $40 Dinner Gift Certificate to The Indigo Duck in Franklin, IN
• Second Place – David Feinburg – $35 Gift Certificate to Simpson’s Farm Market
• Third Place – David Feinburg – $25 Gift Certificate to U-Relish in City Market
• Fourth Place – Despi Ross – One pound of locally roasted coffee beans from Harvest Cafe
• Fifth Place – Meaghen Nelson – One bottle of extra virgin aged olive oil from Artisanos Oils & Spices
• Honorable Mention –  Lynne Goodin – Breakfast box from Fermenti Artisan, local chefs using local foods

Be sure to check-out Sue’s winning recipe and photo of her finished Thanksgiving Turkey.

This is the actual recipe submitted to us by Sue Mogel which took first place in our Tasty Turkey Contest:

“First, I pruned the apple tree out back. 🙂 I got a nice little stash of applewood for the Big Green Egg!  I stuffed the turkey lightly with 1# sautéed Mexican chorizo from Goose the Market. I rubbed it with olive oil, sprinkled lightly with Arizona Seasoning (Penzey’s) and a little herb de Province and fresh ground pepper. Added about a cup of white wine to the pan for moisture. Tuck it in for a nice nap in the Big Green Egg with a generous amount of applewood at 210-220 degrees.  Propped up with a potato on each side—the potatoes were awesome too!”

We love to hear from our customers. We’ve already heard numerous stories from customers already who have talked about their experiences with our pastured raised chicken, pork and beef. We frequently get comments from new customers who say they were told they just had to try our products.

If you don’t mind, take a couple of minutes and let us know what your experience has been with Simpson Family Farms over the years. We’d love to share some of these stories with others on our website as well, so if you’d prefer to keep your thoughts for our eyes only, just click the appropriate checkbox on the form.

This is a simply amazing recipe that really gives new life to an old “meat and potatoes” recipe.  The entire dish picks up a hint of apple cider and is so easy to put together.  You can also feed a family of 4-5 a totally organic meal for about $25 and have some leftovers.  Trying doing that when eating out!

Ingredients:

• 2-3lb pork shoulder roast
• 1-1/2 cups of apple cider.  You can substitute apple juice but if so add a couple pinches of cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg.
• 5-6 red potatoes, skin on and cut in half
• 5-6 carrots, cut into two inch long chunks
• 1 onion cut into large pieces
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Place all ingrdients into a crockpot
2. Add apple cider
3. Add salt and pepper
4. Add bay leaf on top
5. Cook for 6-8 hours on low

A great article was recently published about Simpson Family farms on the Indiana Public Media website. The article, “Family Farm Takes Holistic Approach to Raising Natural Food” was a great overview of the history of the farm and how Darby and Brandy do things differently from many other small farmers.

If you’re visiting your local farmer’s market and looking to compare meats raised elsewhere. Ask them about the grains they use to feed their livestock. Is it also organic? If not, many of the chemicals you’d rather not have injected into your meat are getting added by default when the animals eat grains that have been modified with those same additives.