Canter Hill
Farm
WHY WE GROW
We grow because we care what we eat. We care even more what our children eat. And we think you care, too. We founded Canter Hill Farm in 2008 with the goal of growing our own food so that we knew exactly what was (and what wasn't) in it. We didn't set out to start a business - we had two full-time careers of our own. But then we started talking to people who read the books that we did and cared as much as we did - and we decided to try to grow for them, too. That's how it all began....
WHERE WE ARE
2138 Valley Hill Road
Malvern, PA 19355
We are open on
Fridays from 12 - 4.
Email: canterhillfarm@yahoo.com
Phone: 610.827.1594
(For a quick response, email is best!)
HOW TO BUY
SCHEDULE
Bryn Mawr:
Every Saturday from 9 am - 1 pm
Location: Parking lot of the Bryn Mawr Train Station (Lancaster Avenue & Bryn Mawr Avenue)
Chestnut Hill:
Every Saturday from 9 - noon. Location: in front of the Mermaid Inn.
Kennett Square:
Get on our "Kennett Dropoff List" by sending us an email
Media:
Email to get on the "Media dropoff" email list. I'll alert you when I'm coming to Media and we can meet up for a pickup.
Farm:
Friday from 12 - 4 pm
(or request an appt.)
Drumroll please...
Clearance sale you don’t want to miss
This morning I was up early to drive our youngest to ice skating, and watched the sun rise and there was a heavy mist over the pastures. It was beautiful. Most weeks I like to focus on the bucolic farm landscape, the joy of the new Dahlias opening and finally identifying which color that mysterious tuber that over-wintered in the basement was hiding, or the delight when a hidden bunch of eggs is hatched by a broody hen and she proudly shepherds them around the farm.
But this week I had many conversations with other farmers the stark reality that I try to ignore and simply hope will change: since Covid, it’s become almost impossible to make a living farming – particularly by staying true to the principles that likely drove you there.
And then simultaneously, we read about parasite outbreaks, meat recalls and how meat and poultry preservatives cause cancer and heart disease. It’s never been more important to eat pure, and meanwhile it’s expensive for the consumer and practically impossible for the farmer.
When we took our first batch of May chickens in to be processed with the USDA butcher, they didn’t have our invoice ready when we picked up, and mailed it instead. Imagine my shock when – a week later – we received a bill that charged $18.95 PER BIRD to butcher and pack it. $20 just to slaughter it! What about the cost of the chicks, the feed, re-seeding the pastures that we move their portable tractors over, the replacement cost to purchase new chicken tractor to replace the one that a huge branch fell on and crushed over the winter or the loss we experienced when birds died to predators digging under the pens or extreme heat that we struggled to keep them cool during? Let alone getting paid for our time doing all these things or bringing things to market and paying the market organizers a share of our revenue. For every $1 in increased costs we face, we’ve shifted 10 cents or less to our customers, and shouldered the rest. And yet, when I talk to other farmers, they’re also experiencing decreased sales.
So what do we do?
We partner. We THANK you for taking the time to come to the farm and shop at the markets and spend the extra time, effort and cost that shopping local entails. And WE try whenever we can to provide windows of affordability – like THIS WEEKEND!
CLEARANCE:
Everyone loves chicken thighs. Guess what’s left over? The DRUMSTICKS. This is your chance for healthy & CHEAP. We’re overloaded, and therefore offering them at literally the cost the butcher charges to package and return any cut to us: $2 / lb!!
(Regularly $4.50 / lb)
OTHER CLEARANCE ITEMS:
Our on-farm freezers are full, so we’re making space by clearing out items that we don’t get much request for. If you want them, now’s your chance. Offering them for $2 / lb this week, and then they become dog food boxes:
Pork Fat Back (Pork Fat from the back, also known as “leaf lard”): this is not rendered, but rather literally the blocks of fat that can be melted and skimmed INTO leaf lard for recipes or soap.
Pig Feet (aka “Trotters”): I’ll admit, I don’t even know how one uses these. Perhaps that’s what makes me a lousy salesperson for them. But we occasionally get asked!
Pork Bones: For soup, of course! These are the much less popular of the bones category, so we’re ready to part with them.
Unsmoked Hocks: We’ve learned our lesson. We’ll always get them smoked. Want to smoke them yourself for soup? Come on over.
We’ll also have some “trial” sausage flavor varieties available at the farm today for $2 / lb. These were ones where the butcher made a small amount – like 20 lbs – for us to try. Although good, we have a high bar to make it a regular flavor, so these trials didn’t make that cut.
FUN AT THE FARM!
Mark your calendar for our first OPEN FARM DAY on Saturday, August 8th from 4 pm – 8 pm. It’s free, but we’ll have tours, tasters, flower picking, ostrich feeding and we have lots more in the works. We ARE asking you to RSVP so that we get an idea of head count for parking and snacks, but there’s no cost to come.
Don’t forget to pre-order to enjoy all the sales by emailing: canterhillfarm@yahoo.com
Our Mission:
We founded the farm on a simple premise:
Before chemicals, labs and factory farms got involved, God had created a perfect, workable system. We will learn about it, respect it, and we will naturally and successfully be able to be "beyond-organic" in our food supply.
New to farming, we had no pre-conceived ideas about raising animals or vegetables, and sought out farmers across the globe to learn what we did and didn't want to do. We quickly saw that most food systems raising just one type of offering needed external inputs - fertilizers, corn and sadly - sometimes chemicals and antibiotics. That's why we raise a variety of animals. Each has been chosen to serve a function for the others.
Over the last 10 years, we have grown and in addition to our home-base farm in Malvern, we lease 180 acres of grazing land from old family friends in Lancaster County. During the summer, we rotate half of our sheep flock through this land, and most of our steers call this land home. All of the land we graze is 100% free of any chemicals or sprays and we re-plant every other year to manage soil compression, erosion and to preserve a diversity of forage.
Canter Hill's beef and lamb is 100% grass (or hay) feed, and supplemented only with salt licks. We de-worm our sheep flock once annually, after lambing season (at the same time as sheering - typically the first week of June) and do not introduce any other chemicals or antibiotics. We have not experienced the same need to de-worm our steers. We have been migrating our sheep flock from Dorset to Katahdin, and therefore most of our sheep are now 50% or more Katahdin (a hair sheep), because we believe the meat tastes nicer! Our beef is both Black and Lowline Angus. We are shifting towards Lowline Angus which is more tolerant of 100% grass feeding and generally very hardy.
Canter Hill's poultry and pork is either pasture (for poultry) or forage fed (our pigs dig in the forest, and our turkeys also tend to roam!). They are supplemented with organic, soy-free feed. How much feed vs. forage do they consume? It depends on the weather. If it's raining or cold, more feed than forage. On warm days that aren't drenching, almost entirely forage. This is why we raise from March - November.
We STRONGLY encourage you to open your minds to frozen meat. If you're committed to pasture raising, recognize that you can't have fresh meat in the dead of winter, and purchase a great freezer!
We are committed to pasture-raised, antibiotic-free and chemical-free poultry, lamb and produce.