David Harrison bagged these two big bucks last season!

Jack Fields had Kenneth keep the dried velvet on this unique buck!

Click here to see this buck the day it was taken.

Last day to sign up for the spring Ambrose Farm CSA is Sunday!

Be sure to have plenty of farm fresh vegetables to go with your Cordray Farms Beef! Sign up by clicking on the link below. Pete's taking just a few more members.

 .  www.stonofarmmarket.com/Membership.html

Phillip Runyon picks up his mount from Cordray's Taxidermy!

And don't you dare move!

Goats and other grazing animals, like deer and cattle, will often tuck their babies in a secluded area and leave them while they go off to graze. These three little ones are hidden by the water trough to await mom's return.  The babies will stay there for hours without moving at all. The camera noise made one of these lift his head, but the rest stayed absolutely still. When the herd returns, they'll be hopping and running all over the place! I'm not sure what she tells them, but they sure do listen!

Message from Cordray Farms

Hello, Everyone!
I hope this email finds you enjoying the FINALLY warming weather! If you've been watching the Cordray's blog, you know that we've been struggling with all this cold wet weather! For weeks we've only been able to get into some fields on the tractor!  That's why I'm contacting you today. We'd promised to have beef ready about 2 weeks ago and they are not ready yet. This kind of weather slows up the growth of the new spring grass and the cattle just don't fatten up on hay! So it will be at least 3 to 4 weeks before we have steers ready for harvest.  When we do, we expect to have 2 steers or 16 shares ready that first time. I'm encouraging folks to go ahead and send in their deposit to reserve your shares now. Usually we do a round of shares, then a round of sides, but we can have sides ready this first time if you let us know early enough.
If you're an old friend, you can skip this next part. :) We've had a lot of new folks join and I want to be sure to give you all the information you'll need to decide what will work best for your family.
Right now in March, we don't keep regular hours, but are glad to meet you here to pick up your beef by appointment. We're also considering making deliveries if we have folks who order shares or sides and live in the same area. For instance, if several neighbors in Mt. P order shares, we could deliver them to your neighborhood.

Cordray Farms Beef Sides - This is a half cow. It is custom cut to your exact order. You can come in and oversee the cutting or just let Michael walk you through it on the phone. You'll get individually vacuum sealed steaks, the cuts of your choice, and burger in patties or bulk. If you're familiar with our venison boxes, it fills about 6 boxes, so you'll need a good sized freezer. There's obviously only 2 sides per steer, so be sure to send in your $200 check early to reserve a side.
Cordray Farms Beef Shares - These are our CSA shares. We take a steer and cut it into the standard cuts (steaks about 3/4 inch thick) and burger. Then we divide the whole animal into 8 equal - or pretty close - shares. You and 7 other families get to share the bounty from one animal! It's cow pooling! We ask that you send in a $100 check to  reserve your 1/8th share. It will fit in a regular refrigerator freezer if you don't have too many frozen pizzas!
Thank you for your patience. Lots of farmers can have beef ready earlier by loading them down with corn and hormones, but real old fashioned natural beef takes time! I promise it will be worth the wait!
Thanks,
Claudia Cordray


--
www.cordrays.com
Cordray Farms
Cordray's Venison Processing
6708 County Line Rd.
Ravenel, SC 29470
843.766.7922

And 2 more!

Seven baby fainting goats and counting....

GOOD Morning!

As anyone who knows me will tell you I'm NOT a morning person. But Sunday morning I took in a show that I highly recommend. When's the last time you saw the sunrise? Now it doesn't count if you regularly see it over the hood of your car or if its steady climb in the sky just means you're getting later and later for work or your list of to-dos! No, I mean really saw the whole sunrise, just for the heckuvit? I bundled up, coffee in hand to experience the sunrise on this early spring Sunday. It was a show with the soundtrack symphony of roosters competing with an owl for center stage. It had drama! It was dark. My hair was tucked under a camo duck hunting cap. I ambled around the corner of the house and our country burglar alarm came boiling out the doghouse and almost had me for breakfast! It had romance! This is a family blog where the story of the bluebirds I saw isn't appropriate. But from  those first rose kissed clouds to the sparkle of sunlight on dewdrops, it was a morning that filled me with a renewed reverence for all God's creation. A Sunday morning in God's house. It's a great place to start your day.

Three new fainting goat babies!

And yes, even the tiny babies will sometimes faint.  I'll leave them with their moms, but bottle feed these little guys some so that they'll be very tame and easy to handle.

Ellen cooks Cordray Farms Pot Roast!

When my six year old, Carson, began asking, "Mom, is it time for you to cook some more meat yet?", I figured we needed to try out our next recipe!

Tonight's dinner was the classic Pot Roast with Vegetables.  We did ours in the crock pot and it was fabulous!  You know how food tastes much better if you didn't cook it?  Well, the crock pot is kind of like that for me... get it started in the morning and then magically supper is ready at dinner time!  I also learned a couple things today:  1) I need a bigger crock pot.  It was definitely full to capacity with the generous 3.8 pound rump roast we had in it; and 2) Pot Roast has to be one of the best comfort foods around.  As I worked around the house today, the aroma from the kitchen kept tempting me to go take a peek.  Pot Roast reminds me of my great-grandmother, Hattie Mae, who always fixed the best roast dinner for Sunday lunch!  As we all sat down to the table tonight, there were many "ooohs" and "yums" being said before we even tasted the delicious beef and vegetables!  The meat was so tender and flavorful! My husband plans to use leftovers for sandwiches this week. 

One thing I wanted to mention was that I tend to substitute in recipes... a lot.  Sometimes it's because I don't have the exact ingredients I need (we live in a very small town with no quick way to run to the grocery store) and sometimes it's because I think something else might taste better!  So, feel free to add your own personal twist when using these recipes.  You know what your family likes.  Besides, you've already done the important part...started with a great cut of meat.  We're not gravy people, but feel free to use the juices left over in the crock pot to make the gravy for your roast.  Here's the recipe we used- enjoy!

Savory Pot Roast with Vegetables

INGREDIENTS

• Cordray's beef rump roast, +/- 3 pounds
• 6 potatoes
• 1 1/2 cups baby carrots
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 stalks celery
• 3 cubes beef bouillon
• 1/2 cup water
• minced garlic
• salt, ground pepper, additional spices to taste

Directions

1. Cut up potatoes, onions, and celery in to fairly large chunks and place in a slow cooker. Put roast on top of vegetables. Place 3 bouillon cubes on top of roast and cover with water.

2.      Replace lid and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or High for 4 to 5 hours (check your crock
         pot against these times, as it may cook faster or slower).

Heifer's first baby!

Definition time: A heifer is a cow that has never had a baby before. We always worry just a tad that she'll have the baby with no problems and naturally take care of her new little one. Over the years, we've kept cows that show good mothering instincts and have a calm disposition.  This mama did great!

When we drove up, he tried to quickly get to his feet, but that part was harder than he thought, I think!

You can see he was still wet, but Mama had licked him clean as a whistle! At first, he just kind of stood, a little wobbly and looked at us while his mom did that quiet cow lullaby they do. It's not exactly a moo, kind of a cross between a grunt and a moo! Ask Michael, he can do a passable cow lullaby if the occasion demands it!

At first, he was a little confused...

 but that lullaby thing must have directions!

BINGO! Now he'll nurse several times a day for about 4 to 6 months. We pretty much let the mamas wean them at their own pace, only interfering if a calf is still nursing by the time the mama is expecting again next year.  We once lived near a farm where the farmer separated the babies and the mamas according to his schedule, not theirs. It is a heartbreaking sound to hear them crying for each other. Our cows seem happier and more satisfied staying in these kinds of family units.  You even see moms and daughters kind of hanging together watching over the kids. They'll leave one cow with a group of babies and amble off for a kind of girls' day, but somebody's gotta watch those kids!

Gator Tag applications start May 1st!

I had one guy argue with me that all our gator photos were photoshopped, but I'm here to tell you that I don't even know how to do it if I wanted to!  This is just a reminder to apply for your alligator hunting tags on the DNR site after May 1st!

Our fainting goats had 2 new babies!

These little guys were born late Saturday afternoon. The lighter one's a girl we've named Sunshine and the darker one's a boy named Moonbeam. Don't blame me, my grandkids came up with these hippy names! These little goats should keel right over at the slightest fright! Both their mom and their dad are full fainting goats. We're expecting more as spring comes in!

Ellen cooks Pin Wheel Steaks!

Tonight we did Pinwheel Steaks!  To be honest, I had never eaten a Pinwheel Steak, or even heard of them, for that matter.  Always up for a challenge, I set out to find out how to cook them!  After a little digging, though, I came across a recipe on the Eating Well site that sounded good.  The trick with this cut of meat is getting it cooked to your liking.  My family prefers our meat well done, which is a little hard to do since it's wound around itself.  If you prefer your meat not so rare, cook it slowly on a lower heat so it has time to cook all the way through without burning on the outside.  I served these with baked sweet potatoes and a garden salad.    

Flank Steak Pinwheels

 

INGREDIENTS:

2/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes

2 cups boiling water

1 package Cordray's Pinwheel Steaks

1 clove garlic, minced

3 Tbs light herbed cheese spread, such as Boursin (I used an herbed cream cheese)]

1 cup baby spinach

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Bamboo skewers or toothpicks

 

PREPARATION:

1.  Preheat grill to high.

2.  Place sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl; pour boiling water over them and let steep until 

     softened, about 10 minutes.  Drain and chop.

3.  Mix garlic with cheese spread.

4.  Unroll one pinwheel steak and spread cheese mixture down the length of the strip.  Top

      with the sun-dried tomatoes and spinach.  Starting at one edge of a long side, roll the

      steak back up tightly, tucking in the filling as you go.

5.  Sprinkle salt and pepper all over the outside of the steak roll. 

6.  Secure the loose end of the steak roll with a skewer or toothpick. 

7.  Grill one side then flip gently with a spatula to the other side.  Cook 3-4 minutes per side

     for medium-rare or more for your taste.

 

**Some filling may slide out as it's cooking- that's ok.  Either remove skewers before serving or warn your diners! 

 

Adapted from www.eatingwell.com 

 

These look very pretty and like they took a long time to prepare, but they were actually fairly easy.  My husband and I enjoyed branching out and trying something new.  The kids weren't quite sure about the sun-dried tomatoes!  The baby loved the cooked cheese mixture on his little bites of steak.  =)  If you have any other delicious Pinwheel Steak recipes, please share!  
Happy Cooking,
Ellen

Jason Shamis picks up his mount from Cordray's Taxidermy!

 

This big guy weighed 182 lbs. on the hoof!

Let's welcome Ellen as she cooks through a Cordray Farms Beef Share! Today it's Asian Beef Stir Fry!

 I'm excited to welcome a guest blogger to the Cordray's blog!  Our friend, Ellen, has agreed to  cook  all the beef cuts in a share and to share her recipes here with you. Give them a try and let us know how they work for you! Or better yet,  post your own recipes with today's featured cut! Claudia

Now, I'm not a chef extraordinaire, but I do enjoy cooking for my family.  We all look forward to dinnertime in the evening when we can sit down together and catch up on each other's day.  Our family of 5 consists of me, my hubby and our 3 boys, ages 6, 4 and 1.  With young children, it's important to me to cook a meal that tastes good and is nutritious, too.  Since I can't afford to spend all afternoon in the kitchen, I need quick, easy, healthy recipes.

    

As you can imagine, it takes a hearty meal to fill up these growing boys!  (My oldest son's appetite already surpasses my own on many nights!)   We love to try new recipes and the boys give me plenty of feedback as to what they loved and what they didn't.  I'm excited to be able to share with you some of the delicious and easy recipes we've found to use with our Cordray's beef share.

We kicked off this adventure with an Asian Beef Stir Fry.  It was delicious, extremely quick and easy, and was a big hit with everyone! 

INGREDIENTS:

Sauce    2 Tablespoons cornstarch

               2 teaspoons brown sugar

               2 Tablespoons soy sauce

               1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

               1/4 cup apple juice (can use white wine or water)

1 package Cordray's Stir fry beef

1 pack frozen stir fry veggies (I used a mix of red, green & yellow bell peppers and onions)

Olive oil

Minced garlic

Brown rice

Optional:  toasted sesame seeds

DIRECTIONS:

In a bowl, combine cornstarch, brown sugar, soy sauce and apple juice until smooth.  Add beef and toss to coat.  Let this sit and marinade.  Cook rice and set aside.  In a large skillet, add 1 Tablespoon oil and some minced garlic.  Add veggies and cook until desired tenderness.  Remove from pan and keep warm.  In the same skillet, cook the beef until done (don't add too much of the sauce as it may burn).  Return vegetables to pan and toss with beef.  Serve over rice.  Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. 

A couple notes:  Fresh veggies would work just as well, I just had frozen ones.  If you prefer to have extra sauce for serving, make another batch and keep separate from the marinade. 

Give this one a try- it's a sure winner.  Happy Cooking!

Ellen

Matt Bollenberg picks up his mount of the 2009 Big Buck Record Breaker!

Matt's waiting for us to get his engraved shotgun to him, but at least now he's got that terrific mount!

This one's from the night Matt brought the big fellow in. The big buck was taken here in Ravenel!

Every now and then I run across a photo that I've just got to show again!

 

Thought I'd revisit this big guy! On all these cold nights, those big fellows are just laying up and waiting for warm weather. Just like us!

Two hours old!

Did you see us on TV's Restaurant Review?

No, and you won't,  because we consistently score near 100 points and treasure our A rating! Did you know that we voluntarily undergo inspection? State Law doesn't require any inspections AT ALL for deer processors. Yep, that's right! Your local wild game processor can close his deer processing facility to any and all viewers.  We hope you'll choose us to process your deer, but if you don't, be  aware that you may be their only inspector. Ask to be able to see the skinning, cutting, and packaging rooms. Use your nose to determine if the facility is managed for food safety.
If your processor also handles beef, pork, or chicken meat, their plant must be inspected, but they can refuse to allow their venison facility to be included. Ask questions.  Ask to go into every area of the processing plant. Your family's safety depends on your inspection!.