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‘Grassfleshe’. In the Old English of 1600, the prized meat produced by lush pasture was called ‘grassfleshe’, ‘grasslamb’, and ‘grassbeef’. Modern grassfarming is recovering this lost delicacy of our heritage.
 GRASSFED - Finished on pasture - beef and lamb receive no grain
ORGANIC. Raised organically ( non-certified) with no antibiotics, hormones or other drugs. No GMO’s, pesticides or other chemicals.
SAFE - No animal by-products fed. Secure from BSE with a beef cow herd ‘closed’ for 25 years.
LOW-FAT - Comparable to skinless chicken.
NUTRIENT-RICH - Higher in the ‘good cardiac’ fats - omega-3 and CLA (the “cancer-fighter”) and more vitamins E, A and D than its grain-fed counterpart.
NATURAL HABITAT - Raised free on grass - moved daily to fresh pasture. Lambs graze freely with mother ewes.
HUMANE ANIMAL CARE - Individualized, low-stress, respectful care on a small family farm.
ECOLOGICAL - Grassfarming restores soil fertility, protects water quality and forms an important carbon ‘sink’.
LOCAL - Eat from your local ‘foodshed’. Butchered and flash-frozen at a local
provincially- inspected abattoir. We call you when your meat is ready so you can pick up your order in Pakenham.
DRY-AGED - Beef is hung for 14-21 days.
SEASONAL - Grassland meat is dependent on fresh pasture for finishing. Therefore, much of our meat is available in the fall with beef also available as boxes and individual cuts in the summer.
GRASS-BASED GENETICS - Using breeds designed to finish on pasture: Angus cattle & Katahdin sheep.
GREAT TASTE - Grassfed is sweeping all the chef competitons with it's fresh, almost sweet, taste - "like meat used to taste before factory farms".
Commercial beef farming has changed dramatically in the last 75 years as Canada has invested in an infrastructure that sees most cattle in this country shipped to Alberta feedlots to be finished on grain in the Golden Triangle. The stress of moving animals such great distances and then forcing them to live for several months in crowded fecal-contaminated conditions means these cattle need a constant maintenance dose of antibiotics in their feed. The grain feedlot diet changes the pH of the animal’s rumen making it more susceptible to H157 (‘hamburger disease’). Intensive grain feeding would lead to a fatty carcass; but to avoid this, cattle are given hormones to produce the artificially lean beef promoted as so good for us by the industry. Slaughtered in big plants that can handle 60,000 head a week, the meat is shipped back across the country in cryovac gas-filled bags that permit a 3 day chemical ‘aging’ process.
Contrast this with cattle on Heartland Farms. Living on pasture, our animals are moved daily to ensure a diet of fresh, growing grasses and legumes. Manure is incorporated into the living sward immediately. We pump fresh water to the cattle to keep them out of streams and waterways. Come the fall our animals go, a few at a time, to a small provincially-inspected abattoir close to our farm.
And the meat produced is high in CLA and omega-3 fatty acids. High in Vitamins A, D and E. The meat is naturally lean - not hormone-lean- and our butcher has commented that “these are carcasses like I used to see in the fifties”. Besides all that, you’ll notice a difference in the smell of this meat as it cooks and a delicious difference in the taste.
One final note, our beef comes from a herd that has been ‘closed’ for over 25 years, meaning that no cows have been introduced to the herd since before BSE existed. We just thought you’d like to know.
Khatadin sheep were developed in Maine in the 1970's. They are a hair sheep and, in not producing wool, they are spared the stresses of both shearing and tail docking. Our lambs are born in the Spring to take advantage of new growth pastures and they stay with their ewes until the fall, feeding on rich mothers’ milk and a daily rotation of fresh pasture. We do not use hormones, antibiotics or concentrates on our lambs or our breeding stock, so you are assured of all the benefits of ‘grasslamb’ with none of the commercial hazards associated with grain feeding.
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