Category Archives: Beef available now

It’s mid-September – harvest season at Bull Brook Keep

Wasn’t it just Memorial Day? Yup, another growing season is coming to an end. Fog hangs heavy over the pastures in the mornings. The days are getting shorter and the evenings much cooler. Trees are turning on nearby hills. The sumac at the northern fence post is blazing red, as are the hawthorn berries. Bees are a loud cloud above the chive blossoms, and bright yellow heads of goldenrod sway in every ditch and fence line.

The herd has been grazing happily all summer and fall. As usual, they take a mid-morning lie-down from about 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM. It’s a sign of a healthy, contented herd.

And that’s a major goal: healthy cattle raised on healthful grass. Another is to work in harmony with the season.

And so, it’s time: We begin the 2021 beef harvest in a few days. If you’d like to order, please do so early to secure your beef.

Please know that you don’t have to buy half a cow to enjoy the great taste and high nutrition of grass-fed-grass-finished beef. Our variety packages start at just 30 pounds. (A variety package includes ground, steak and roasts.)

Don’t hesitate to call, email or text with any questions. We’d like to be your farmers.

Sylvia & Dave Toftness

In time of need: delish, nutritious pastured meats and veg from local sustainable farmers

Looking for nutritious foods? Meats and veggies that will boost your health – and just when we need it the most? Look to your local, sustainable farmers.

We’re here to help as we face today’s challenges, and as we prepare for a better future. Today, we can offer healthful, delicious foods – as supplies last.

If you’re in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area, and in Wisconsin’s Polk and St. Croix counties, here are farmers ready to help with foods grown for health: of the land, of the livestock, and of the meats and vegetables themselves. Contact farmers directly. We deliver, or you can pick up at the farm. Our farms are clustered closely – you can visit two or more in a single trip. We’re an easy drive through beautiful countryside.

We’re the sustainable farmers of the St. Croix Watershed Midlands. We’re committed to great taste, quality and high nutrition. We use organic practice, livestock is pastured, and meats processed at nearby custom USDA facility.

BueLingo cattle graze lush pastures

Bull Brook Keep: grass-fed-grass-finished beef grown without grain, subclinical antibiotics or hormones. Available now —  #1 ground beef packages, soup bones, summer sausage (without artificial nitrates or nitrites), and variety packages of ground beef, cuts and roasts. Variety packages start at just 15 lbs. See my order page here. Call or text with questions, Sylvia@bullbrookkeep.com, 651-238-8525.

Blackbrook Farmstead: pastured pork and fresh spring spinach. Other products may also be available. Contact Ayla or James, 651-343-2595, blackbrook.farm.llc@gmail.com 

Whetstone Farm: pastured lamb and mutton, stored root vegetables, fleeces. Other products may be available. You can also sign up for their organic vegetable CSA. Contact Emily or Klauss: cell 612-354-6282, home 715-268-8454, whetstonefarmers@gmail.com

Turnip Rock Farm: pastured pork, and to sign up for their organically grown CSA. This farm also raises and milks a grass-fed herd that supplies the wonderful milk for Cosmic Wheel Creamery for fresh and aged artisan cheeses that are out of this world. Contact Josh or Rama, 715-268-9311, turniprock@gmail.com.

Additional farms and resources will be added. Check back often. Thanks.

Sylvia

Where to go for healthful beef? Read on

In light of emerging scarcities, and a desire to provide a healthful alternative, Dave and I are offering a smaller variety pack of our grass-fed-grass-finished beef. This 15-lb. pack is called “To Your Health!” and includes ground beef, roast and steaks.  You can pick up at farm, or at a drop site (+$5) in Mpls/St.Paul metro, and Wisconsin Polk and St. Croix counties.

Suppy is limited. Find out more and to order, click here.

Wishing you health and calm.

Sylvia – your local, sustainable farmer

Larger packs, ground beef, soup bones and summer sausage also available.

Questions? Email (sylvia@bullbrookkeep.com) or call, 651-238-8525.

New. Limited. Natural Veal – really

Veal wasn’t something my Mom put on the table when I was growing up in the Bronx. A dinner of pork or fish, rice and beans, and a salad was the usual fare at our house in the 1950s and 60s.

Veal also never made it to my shopping list in the 1970s and 80s, when I was old enough to stock my tiny kitchens in Manhattan and later in Duluth, Minnesota, because by that time, news stories told us that those pale cutlets were the result of calves kept isolated and in the dark. Ugg.

Now, here I am, selling veal! We’re offering our Nature’s Veal in limited quantity for the health of the pastures, the cattle, and for economic sustainability.
– Rotational grazing. Because we rotate the herd from paddock to paddock throughout the growing season, we have to manage the herd size to promote top-quality grass. We’ve reached our maximum herd size given the 72-acre size of the farm. Our pastures are lush and diverse, but can provide highly nutritious grasses, herbs and legumes for 35-40 animals during the growing season. It’s also about giving the pastures time to recover and regrow for 40-60 days between grazings.
– Cow, pasture and economic health. If we keep more and more cattle on the pastures, they’ll decline, and the cattle will require hay to keep growing and staying contented. Fresh grass is more desirable. An alternative would be to sell the extra calves to the conventional food system, where they would end up in feedlots. We don’t want that! So we offer naturally raised veal.
– Working in harmony with nature. All our cattle – bulls, cows and calves – are provided fresh water, open pastures and a natural diet every day of their lives. That means grasses, legumes and herbs on the fields throughout the growing months, and good quality hay in the winter. They never get grains, hormones or subclinical antibiotics. It also means the calves stay with their moms, nursing 9-10 months and grazing more and more as the season progresses.

A few of our grazing Buelingo beef cattle


Know that when you buy our veal, you’re part of a sustainable food system. You can purchase ground veal in bulk, or variety packages that include delicate, low-fat roasts, cutlets and ground veal. Order here.

Questions? call, 651-238-8525, or email,
Sylvia