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.)
Focus on Fresh
Eating in Season
August is perhaps the easiest month of the year to eat “in season”, with corn, tomatoes and the height of fresh meat and poultry. But the world of recipes (or the pace of life, making it feel daunting to TRY new recipes) isn’t coordinated with this age-old wisdom that eating in season captures:
-
The greatest nutritional content
-
The height of flavor and freshness for your ingredients
-
It just feels fantastic to be able to assemble an entire meal entirely from farmer’s market finds
And this has been my challenge this August. The kids are along for the ride, serving as my taste testers, as I design menus around the fresh ingredients: tomatoes, basil, peaches and the early fall glimpses of squash, arugula and salad greens.
One of this week’s trials made the “make it weekly” list, and it highlights SO MANY of August’s specials: green onions, cherry tomatoes, basil – and fresh CHICKEN. I made this recipe with boneless thighs, which resulted in a soft, ready-to-shred chicken, but it also was fantastic with breasts (pounded flat to absorb the flavors). Our family is all about sauce, so I added 2 cups of chicken stock during the simmering process to produce a rich gravy that topped the pasta on which we nestled the chicken. I added fresh basil – about 16 leaves – towards the end of the sauce simmer, and it rounded out the flavor SO MUCH.
Perfectly Pink
I love bright colors. I pick the richest red strawberries, the deepest green zucchinis – there’s something about their deep hues that just feels healthy and appetizing. And I CAN’T STAND when supermarket produce has been picked so long before it’s ripe that when it finally does ripen it’s just the outside, and the inside is flavorless and rock hard. Maybe it’s this experience that pushes us towards the rich red tomatoes, but this fruit gives us some grace, and we should take it. Tomatoes are one of the few things that continue to ripen off the vine with NO REDUCTION IN FLAVOR. As a matter of fact, picking tomatoes at their first sign of pink helps keep them from getting so over-ripe that the thin skin bursts in heavy humidity. This week at the market, we’ll have the tomatoes divided into three categories:
-
Ready and Ripe
-
Magnificent by Midweek (Wed/Thur)
-
Wait – you aren’t coming to market next week? (great by Friday/Saturday of NEXT WEEK)
My suggestion? Get one of each. You’ll have delicious flavor every day without the swarm of fruit flies that you have no idea where they came from.
See the video below for a glimpse into our tomato greenhouse and finding those perfectly pink beauties.
BILTONG & DROEWORS
We have BOTH (and that’s rare). Snag the biltong by pre-order. It’s rare that any makes it to market.
PICK your Peaches
We don’t spray our fruit trees with anything. Some years, that results in some really “interesting” looking fruit, and we’ve already established that we’re drawn to beauty and perfection. But every once in a while we have a year where the fruit looks gorgeous AND it’s safe to pick and bite – because it’s ALL NATURAL! This is one of those years.
Our juicy peaches are ready – and when they’re ready, they come on in abundance. Grab them for the morning boost, for peach cobbler or to sear or grill to top pork chops.
And apples are coming!
HOURS:
Find us at the farm (Friday, 12 – 4)
Bryn Mawr: Saturday, 9 am – 1 pm
Chestnut Hill: Saturday, 9 am – noon
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.