August 2023 Newsletter – Zettel Family Farms

Farm Tour

On July 16th Zettel Family Farms co-hosted a farm tour, in cooperation with Star Seeds Acres, the organic produce farm and farm store operated by Kevin and Lauren Voisin. About 150 of you, our customers, plus neighbours and friends joined us for an afternoon of touring the two farms, culminating in a barbecue at the Chepstow Lions Park.

This was our first public event on the farm since pre-covid times and it was a great time for all of us. We started out at Star Seed Acres where Kevin and Lauren introduced us to their organic vegetable gardens. This young family is only 2 years into organic produce at this location, but have transformed an expanse of lawn into a lavish, diverse ecosystem, growing healthy, local food.

The caterpillar was an exciting part of the farm tour this year!

From there we went to the Zettel’s “home farm” where Sam assembled our visitors under the shade of a giant walnut tree and outlined the history of our family here on this piece of land, going back more than 150 years. Mark and Ted Sr. explained some of the technical details of grass based, organic livestock husbandry, and answered questions as we watched the turkeys, pigs and cattle, all inquisitive as to the sudden onslaught of attention. We then headed to the Chepstow Lion’s park for a couple hours of visiting and the sharing of a feast featuring our own pork and beef and salad’s – courtesy of Kevin and Lauren.

This event is a lot of work to organize (thank you to Sam), but it is very rewarding to see how you, the people we serve, appreciate the efforts we make to produce the best food money can buy. We would like everyone who buys our meat to see the animals and to understand why we farm this way. Thank you all who attended – including quite a few from as far away as Brampton and Oakville. God willing, we will do it again next summer.

Enjoy a few photos of summer life at the farm!

A storm blew down one of our favourite wild apple trees near the pasture. After we eat the apples it will be cut up for use in Sam’s wood smoker.

Processing

Our primary processing facility (Formerly “Bauman’s Sausage” now under the banner “Bauman’s Country Meats”, was shut down for 2 whole months this summer, which meant we had to scramble to keep going. You may have noticed some changes in packaging and labelling as we called on some friends in the industry to help us out. A shortage of ground beef was averted by borrowing from “Seillern Farm”, where Jennifer and Mathias have almost identical production techniques and the same breeds of cattle.

Batte Meats in Mildmay helped us out, cutting up two animals on short notice when the shutdown persisted longer than expected. So some of you got products packed or labelled differently than usual, and sometimes there were delays in filling your orders. Thanks to everyone for their patience and understanding. The new facility is managed by Vernon and Julia Bauman, son and daughter in law of Amsey and Erma Bauman who ran the old facility. Our best wishes to all of them on the occasion of this successful transition of a great family business to the next generation.

Products

Hurray! We have summer sausage and hotdog wieners back in stock. Make sure you stock up for back to school time on these easy, convenient, yet wholesome meats. Along with the standard half beef, half pork patties, these are always on hand in our fridge to make a quick meal that pleases everyone.

Here they are along with a few other products you might want to try!