In the SF Bay Area, we are not only blessed with hundreds of local family farms that produce a year-round bounty of fresh, local, and sustainable produce - we also have a number of non-profits that run sustainable farms and provide education to children and families about where our food comes from. Located in the Los Altos foothills just past Foothill College, Hidden Villa is one of these non-profits that, among many other cool things such as running a hostel, has a working farm with a wide variety of vegetables along with organically fed pigs and grass-fed lamb; operates a CSA; sells at the seasonal Los Altos farmers' market; offers weekly farm tours; and provides intern/apprentice opportunities in sustainable agriculture and animal husbandry.
This Saturday, Hidden Villa is hosting one of their not-very-often sustainable meat sales. It's first come first serve so get their early.
Below is a description straight from their newsletter:
The lambs were all born on the farm this past February and March. Lambs at Hidden Villa are left with their mothers to graze on lush pasture from early-February until mid-June. At that time, the mothers are moved to lower quality summer pasture (their nutritional requirements are quite low while they are neither lactating nor gestating) while the lambs stay on our richest irrigated pasture during the summer and fall. The lambs grow rapidly without any grain supplementation, and are ready for harvest in late fall. There are several breeds represented in our flock- the lambs available at this sale are a mix of pure-bred Katahdin, and Tunis x Jacob crossbreeds. All three of these breeds are heritage rare-breeds. None of these lambs ever received any type of growth hormone or antibiotic treatment.
The pigs featured at this sale were born at Deer Hollow and were purchased as six week- old piglets. These pigs are the cross-bred combination of a Chester White boar and a Poland China sow. Both of these breeds are well-regarded for their meat quality, and our feeding program lends an extra hand to full flavor. These pigs were raised in the group pens at the barn, where they were fed a diet of 100% organic grain, milk from our cows and goats, and vegetable culls from our CSA. We kept these pigs for nearly 8 months, allowing them to grow quite big- which ensures that they will feature a good amount of intramuscular fat and marbling for full flavor and tenderness.
The cuts of lamb that we will feature include loin chops, rib chops, leg of lamb, ground lamb, sirloin steaks, shanks, shoulder steaks, ribs, and boneless shoulder roasts.
Pork cuts will include rib chops, loin chops, sirloin chops, standing rib roast, butt roasts, boneless leg roasts, tenderloins, country ribs, spare ribs, boneless cutlets, ground pork, several varieties of sausage, and bacon!
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