Just got this email forwarded from a friend. I have been looking for good pork, so I'm getting my husband $150 worth for his birthday.

Jen

--Forwarded email:
Hello Lincoln Square,

We NEED to bring in $11,283.24 within the next week! We need your help to do this so we are having a HUGE sale tomorrow!

Why do I need to bring in this amount of money? First the feed bill has gotten out of hand in the past two months. Corn and soybean prices are on the rise and that is what the pigs eat. With 16 new litters of piglets the mothers are eating three times their "normal" amount. I have to pay them $8,000.00 before February 1. Second, we owe the butcher $3,283.24. The walk-in freezer and freezer trailer are filled with pork and 15 more pigs are going to the butcher on Monday. It is not cost effective to keep pigs on the farm, eating, once they reach butcher weight. We need to move the meat!!!

My e-mail list should be reaching 230 people in Lincoln Square. On a regular Tuesday I am lucky if I see 40 of you. I cannot stay in business with that few customers. .

My goal for Tuesday is:

20 3 month CSA's at a discounted price of $230. That is a savings of $25.00! You decide what month your CSA starts. Don't want it for three consecutive months, you pick the three
months you do want it. Fill out the attached form and bring it with you!

$20 donation checks will get you 1 package of bacon and one package of bone-in chops (Make checks out directly to Synergy Feeds)

105 dozen eggs on sale for $4.50 a dozen when you buy any pork item. Don't eat meat, buy 2 dozen eggs and get them at $4.50 a dozen
(eggs will last you 1 year in the refrigerator - these are fresh off the farm - eggs bought in the grocery store are 3 to 9 months old before they ever get there)

Don't have a car, I will deliver it to your doorstep!

Ham Steaks on sale for $4.78 per pound Spare Ribs on sale for $4.99 per pound Baby back ribs on sale for $11.99 per pound
Bone-in shoulder roasts on sale for $4.19 per pound Boneless shoulder roasts on sale for $4.66 per pound Bone-in pork chops on sale for $6.39 per pound

Want to help us out but don't need much meat right now? For $100.00 we will give you a $120.00 gift certificate.

If you would like a home delivery please e-mail me by 4:00 pm today so we can get your order together. Include your address and phone number with your order so we can stay in touch with you.

We prefer cash and checks (this week please make all checks out to Synger Feeds) but will happily accept visa, mastercard, discover and American Express.
--
Crystal L. Nells
C & D Family Farms
crystal@cdfamilyfarms.com
574 772-5334 (office)
773 401-9759 (cell)

crystal, would you please post again exactly where your white van will be? i'll be up in lincoln square getting a haircut, and would love to stop by. thank you, and good luck getting the sales you need. justjoan

justjoan wrote:crystal, would you please post again exactly where your white van will be? i'll be up in lincoln square getting a haircut, and would love to stop by. thank you, and good luck getting the sales you need. justjoan

Hi Joan, I'm not Crystal, I just re-posted an email that was forwarded to me. However, I did talk to her on the phone and she will be in the parking lot for the brown line station on Lincoln Ave from 7-11AM on Tuesday, then in Andersonville from 4-7PM on Thursday. Possibly give her a call for more details.

Jen

i know they've been hurting (and having problems with their van on top of everything). There stuff is really great--I hope we can rally to help them. I'd hate to lose them.

Forgive me if I'm just skipping over something obvious, but I'm confused as to when the C&D Farms van will be in Lincoln Square--I see Tues is their regular time and your confirmation just above, but was thrown off by this

Crystal's E-mail wrote:
We NEED to bring in $11,283.24 within the next week! We need your help to do this so we are having a HUGE sale tomorrow!

Any idea if the van will be in Lincoln Square today (Sunday) as well? If so, 7-11?

I've never bought from them before, but now seems like a good time to start.

skess wrote:Forgive me if I'm just skipping over something obvious, but I'm confused as to when the C&D Farms van will be in Lincoln Square--I see Tues is their regular time and your confirmation just above, but was thrown off by this

Crystal's E-mail wrote:
We NEED to bring in $11,283.24 within the next week! We need your help to do this so we are having a HUGE sale tomorrow!

Any idea if the van will be in Lincoln Square today (Sunday) as well? If so, 7-11?

I've never bought from them before, but now seems like a good time to start.

Give a call, but my understanding is that you can order on the phone today, but they won't be in the city until Tuesday.

Jen

Thanks for the reply, and for sharing this information with the forum.

From my email last week:

FEBRUARY, MARCH & APRIL
SCHEDULE

Lincoln Square Tuesdays 7 to 11 am
Lincoln & Leland in brown line parking lot

Andersonville Thursdays 4 to 7 pm
On Ashland at Berwyn in front of church

North Center Saturday 8 to 10 am
On Belle Plaine off Lincoln – across from CVS
1/29, 2/12, 2/26, 3/12, 3/26, 4/16, 4/30

Lincoln Park Saturday 10:30 to 12 pm
In High School parking lot
1/29, 2/12, 2/26, 3/12, 3/26, 4/16, 4/30

Beverly Sundays 8:30 to 10:30 am
Parking lot at 95th and Longwood

Hyde Park Sunday 11:30 to 1:30 pm
Harper Court at 52nd St
1/23, 2,13, 2/27, 3/13, 3/27, 4/10, 4/24

Resurrection Covenant Church Sunday 11;30 to 1:30 pm
In front of church
2/6, 2/20, 3/6, 3/20, 4/3, 4/17

SPECIAL MARKETS –
Ebenezer Luthern Church (Andersonville) Saturday February 19 9 to 1 pm
FamilyFarmed Expo Thursday – Saturday March 17 – 19
Beverly Unitarian Church Saturday Hours unknown

We have been buying nearly all our pork from Crystal for a little 2 years now, and I can't speak highly enough of her product. The quality and taste of her products has always been excellent. She has no problems getting special cuts for me (for example fatback in smaller sizes, a whole pigs head, etc.). Her pork is a combination of Yorkshire, Hampshire, Duroc and mixes between them. Prices are comparable to Whole Foods.

Last May we had a chance to visit her farm, which is located in Knox, IN (about 45 minutes east of Valporaiso)
Their animals are free to roam about the property, the piglets all sleep with their mother in little corrugated steel cabins. They are weaned naturally (ie. when the mother is sick of her piglets shoving her around). See a few pictures of our farm visit here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/11023897962 ... 30/DropBox

Thanks for the heads up on this, I bought from them once or twice at the market but get most of my stuff through Liberty Family Farm and other Green City vendors. A friend and I are splitting one of the CSAs as a potential replacement to Liberty's if that would not continue (anyone else on here doing a CSA through Liberty, I would appreciate it if you could please send me a private message). I also ordered the meat for my superbowl party from them and bought some jowl bacon and eggs which made a couple of super tasty bacon egg and cheese sandwiches.

Just tried the bacon-- it's really good, the perfect snow-day breakfast with eggs over medium, also from C&D!



Jen

i bought the bacon last tuesday as well. it was good, but i would have liked it a little thinner. i have some pork chops and pork shoulder waiting in the freezer for me to try. glad i made it there, and i hope they made enough extra money to pay down their debts. justjoan

justjoan wrote:i bought the bacon last tuesday as well. it was good, but i would have liked it a little thinner. i have some pork chops and pork shoulder waiting in the freezer for me to try. glad i made it there, and i hope they made enough extra money to pay down their debts. justjoan

I agree, thinner would be better-- if the chops I got are good, I might order a half-pig-- they (I hope) I can specify the bacon thickness. I hope they are doing well financially too-- I would hate to find "my" pork person and then have them go out of business.

Jen

justjoan wrote:i bought the bacon last tuesday as well. it was good, but i would have liked it a little thinner. i have some pork chops and pork shoulder waiting in the freezer for me to try. glad i made it there, and i hope they made enough extra money to pay down their debts. justjoan

A little snippet from her email I got this morning:

"I would like to thank all of you for your support and assistance through our finiancial crisis. Yes, we did meet our deadlines. The feed company is paid in full and more feed will be coming this week. I have received additional e-mail from people that want to help. Please don't feel it is too late. The pigs don't stop eating. 5 tons of food is delivered to our farm every week. 16 mothers are still nursing their piglets. We are still hand feeding (goats milk) to 5 piglets that are motherless. 13 hogs went to the butcher last week and 9 went on Monday. In other words, nothing stops here.

So, for one more week I am going to sell $120 gift certificates for $100. [...]"

And she'll be at her usual post in Andersonville on Saturday (tomorrow) morning since she didn't come out on Thursday due to weather concerns.

I've been buying Crystal's bacon for about a year now and this latest batch was by far the thickest, longest cut I've ever had. I've just popped some in the oven and was sort of struck by it. I'll ask her about it when I see her on Thursday.

ps I made an accidental Italian version of carnitas with her pork shoulder roast last weekend (rubbed it with garlic, crushed fennel seed and a couple other spices) and it made my husband and the neighbors very, very happy.

bjt

thought I'd repost part of the latest note from Crystal for anyone interested (not the whole note--left off some stuff that pertains to things already past):

From Crystal:

I have started a new blog. The address is http://cdfamilyfarm.blogspot.com/. It will be up to you how long I keep it. If it gets hits and followers I will keep it up. If not well then I will get bored looking at no comments, hits or followers and I will give it up.

I am going to give you all advance notice, we are going to have a customer appreciation day on the farm, Saturday May 7 from 11 am to 6 pm. We will provide the meat and you provide the side dishes and deserts. I will keep you all updated on this. Mark your calendars!

I so appreciate that when I scream really loud for help how all of you rally and come and see me. Well it has been a month and since I met my goals last month I need you to come out and buy more. I am going to make it super simple this time. ALL pork on sale for 20% off. Gift certificates, again $100.00 will get you $120.00. I know many of you have already used up last months so it is time for another one! The feed bill is back up to 8,069.49 and the butcher bill is up to $5,381.78. Dave will be heavily stocking the van with PORK, beef, and chicken. I believe we have 45 dozen eggs. A few CSAs ran out in February so lets promote them again. Save $25 by signing up tomorrow. Regular price $255, on sale for $230. I have also started a no pork CSA for my non pork eating customers. I am sorry but I cannot discount that one. Both forms are attached. Please return the entire form so that I know if it is a pork or non pork package.

Thank you, boudreaulicious, for posting about the CSA discount Crystal mentioned. I have purchased meat from her at the Lincoln Square farmer's market and I am a big fan. I would love to purchase the CSA she mentioned in the note you posted, but I can not find an actual link or form to order it on their website, facebook page or blog. Was it only included in the email she sent out? I could be a bad searcher, that's always a possibility

There is a link to their CSA on their website at http://www.cdfamilyfarms.com, but as far as I can tell, it just provides info about the CSA and no actual sign-up form. If you wouldn't mind, could you please post the link to the sign-up? And please let me know if it was right there all the time, in my eagerness its quite possible I missed the obvious!

Thank you in advance for your assistance!

Best,
Jeannine

Jeannine,

It's not that high tech It's just a form attached to an email--PM me your email address and I'll forward it to you.

Thank you! I'm sending you my email address now in a PM- I appreciate your help and I'm looking forward to this CSA very, very much! I tweaked a Diana Kennedy recipe that ends up being Chuletas in a Roasted Tomato and Guava Sauce- when I make it again, I will pay attention to how I did it and send it to you in thanks

Best,
Jeannine

Crystal posed an interesting, possible rhetorical question on the blog:
http://cdfamilyfarm.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... lling.html

I'm looking forward to more "adventures on a hog farm".

We had C&D eggs, over medium, for breakfast today-- great stuff.

Jen

We just had our first C&D pork chops for dinner, brined and grilled with the spice rub from this recipe:
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/chin ... c=fp&ac=fp

This is our usual preparation for chops but the C&D were noticeably more flavorful than our usual Costco chops-- even my 6-year-old commented on it.

So, my husband is really enjoying his birthday meat! What a great gift, if I do say so myself!

Jen

C&D is having a sale to clear out their freezers...20% off everything she has tomorrow (Tuesday, 8-2-11, 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.) at the Lincoln Square Farmer's market.

Something from Crystal's weekly email that I thought some might be interested in:


"I have way too many of a couple of hard to move items that I would love to clean out of the freezer. Hams 5+ lbs. I know they are big but just think of how many meals you can get out of one of them. To make them more attractive, they are 1/2 off! Yes you are reading that correctly, 50% off. See I really want them out of the freezer. I also have quite a few skirt steaks that are larger then most of you appear to want. They are cut at 2.5 + lbs. I can't give you quite the deal I am giving you on the hams but you are getting an attractive price of only $6.39 per pound. Additional sale item, bone-in loin roast 5.99 per pound.

From time to time I get requests for items with the skin on. I have 2 boneless loin roasts around 4 - 5 lbs with the skin on. Smaller bone-in shoulder roasts 2 - 3 lbs with the skin on and pork belly (2 half bellies about 5 - 6 lbs) with the skin on. These items are on the truck but if you want any of them I recommend you e-mail to text me to let me know so I don't sell out."

Her email is crystal@cdfamilyfarms.com in case you want to contact her about anything.

She's at the Lincoln Square Markets tomorrow 7:00-1:00 and Thursday night 4:00-8:00. For a complete list of locations and dates for the white van check: http://www.cdfamilyfarms.com/locations-for-purchase

I know C&D has a lot of fans on LTH and just wanted to share that they need some help. If you've ever wanted to put in a little time working on a farm, here's your opportunity.

From Crystal's Facebook post:

"Dan was in a very bad car accident yesterday on his way home from work on I-80. The DEA was chasing a suspect and the suspect hit Dan causing the car to spin and hit the center concrete wall. He will be fine but is currently very banged up and bruised. His back, chest and right arm are in a lot of pain. He cannot get up, sit down or walk without help.

Please let me know if Saturday delivery will work for those of you that have already placed orders.

If you would like to help out on the farm from today through Sunday please let me know. Any help would be greatly appreciated as Dan will not be able to do anything. There are things that I am physically not able to do like filling up the feeders. A pen needs to be built for a pig getting ready to have piglets. Pigs need to be fed and watered and need fresh straw. If you are interested let me know what day you can come. Saturday and Sunday will be most important as I cannot afford to lose sales."

They are located in Knox, Indiana, about 90 minutes from Chicago.

You can contact Crystal at:
email | crystal@cdfamilyfarms.com
phone | (574) 772-5334
cell | (773) 401-9759 – this is the best number to call or text