YOGURT CONTAINERS

I have had a few people express some concern in regards to opening the yogurt containers. My apologies to those who have had problems. The reason we went to this container a little over a year ago was due to the request of the stores that we sell too. They wanted a sturdier and tamper proof container. We have found that an old fashion bottle opener works. My wife uses a spoon handle if she is having problems. I personally have not had a lot of problems, but I have noticed that the colder the container, the stiffer it becomes and the harder it is to open.

We are always open to suggestions and if you have any special tricks for getting them open or have a container that you think would be better, feel free to let us know.

Thank you for your continued support and take care.

Dan Hiday

2017 flew by

2017 was one crazy year. As most of you have probably realized, time seems to go by faster every year. I want to thank everyone who has supported the farm by purchasing beef, pork and or yogurt.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and I hope you all have a Happy New Year.

Updated list of stores carrying our yogurt:
Green Gardens -Marshall/B.C.
Sprout Urban Farm - B.C.

Busch's - Dexter, Ann Arbor and Plymouth
Arbor Farms - Ann Arbor
Argus - Ann Arbor
Plum Market - AA
Pure Pastures - Plymouth
Westborn -Plymouth

DeVries - Detroit/Eastern Market

Yogurt Update

Hello Hiday Family Farm Yogurt Fans,
I wanted to let everyone know that now you can get our yogurt at the new Busch's in Canton Michigan. For those of you closer to home it is available at Glei's in Coldwater and Apple Valley in Battle Creek.. Also in BC, Station 66 will be opening soon and I am sure it will be available as soon as they are open.

I also wanted to let you know that this is a low production time of the year for us here on the farm as many of the cows are drying up to get ready to calve soon. This means some of your favorite stores you like to shop at may have limited supplies for a few weeks. By mid May we hope to be back up to full speed.

Thanks

Dan

Hiday Family Farm Yogurt 2017

    Hello to all of our yogurt fans. I want to bring you up to date on places to purchase our yogurt. Over the past few weeks we have added some new stores carrying our yogurt. In Battle Creek we have added Apple Valley Natural Food store on Beckley rd. and in Coldwater it is now available at Glei's on Willowbrook rd. Keep in mind you can still get it through Sprout Urban Farms and Green Gardens Community Farm in Battle Creek and it won't be long before Station 66 reopens for the season.

   In the Ann Arbor area we are at Arbor Farms on Stadium and we are in four Busch's (Dexter, both Ann Arbor stores and Plymouth.) Busch's is opening a new store this spring in Canton and plans have been made to be in that store too as soon as it opens.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Dan

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Everyone at the Hiday Family Farm would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Dan

Yogurt Demo

I wanted to let people in the Ann Arbor area know that Holly and I will be at the Busch's in Dexter this Saturday (Nov. 12th) to sample out our yogurt. We would love to meet and thank all of our new customers. This will also be a great time for any of you that would like to ask questions you may have about our farm and farming practices. We are scheduled from around 11 am to 3 pm.. Swing by and say hello if you get a chance.

The other thing I want to let you know is that Station 66 in Battle Creek now has some of our cheese in stock for sale.  Sprout Farm Stand in Battle Creek also has our cheese.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Dan

Cheese

Hello Hiday Farm followers. I wanted to let you know that we now have two flavors of cheese that is made from our milk. The two flavors are Colby and Pepper Jack. This is a raw milk cheese and is aged for 60 days. Currently Green Gardens Community Farm has it for sale at their farm on on H Drive North. The farm store is open on Wed. and Sun.. Check their website for hours. They also take it with them on Saturday to the downtown Kalamazoo farmers market. As we add more places to get our cheese we will post it on the blog and on facebook.

Dan

Busch's

Wanted to let our friends on the East side of the state know that I delivered a limited number of quarts of Hiday Family Farm Yogurt to four of  Busch's stores. We are part of their Local program and appreciate that a store of Busch's quality has a desire to carry our product. I delivered to both Ann Arbor stores along with the stores in Plymouth and Dexter. Thanks to everyone at Busch's that helped us today. Stop in and give us try.

Thanks

Dan

Hiday Family Farm Yogurt

This has been one crazy and fast paced year so far. Let me bring you up to date on things on the farm.
In the last post we were trying to get a bunch of cow milk shares sold. That did not go as well as we had hoped, but we continued to push on with the dairy project. In June we started milking cows in the renovated milk-house. Our creamery is not done at this time so we have farmed out some of our milk to friends with creameries and they are making product for us until we can get up and running on our own. On Monday we had our first batch of yogurt run and I realize I am prejudice towards our product, but it came out great. It is a plain Mediterranean yogurt with No additives. If you would like to give it a try it can be purchased at the following places.

Green Gardens Community Farm, located on H drive north, between Battle Creek and Marshall. They have a farm store open on Wed. and Sundays.

Station 66, located on M-66 just south of Battle Creek.

I will post more locations as more places come on board.

Thanks

Dan

Need Your Help

Hello,
This message is intended for everyone in the Marshall, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, and Coldwater area.
As I mentioned in earlier posts, we are starting a small dairy on the farm. We are also starting a creamery so we can pasteurize and bottle our own milk. Our intent is to sell the milk directly to you the consumer. We are offering shares for $400 and a Share is a gallon of whole cream-line milk for 52 weeks. More information is available on hidayfarm.blogspot.com

We are working with Trent and Ruthie Thompson of Green Gardens Community Farm located at 14201 H  Drive North, Battle Creek Mi. to be a distribution point. They have agreed to distribute milk on Wednesday and Sunday during their market hours. You will also be able to pick up from us at the Hiday Farm Creamery. We are working on a drop off/pick-up in the Kalamazoo area.

You can sign up by contacting me at 517-765-2268 or email me at hoopshiday@aol.com   you can also sign up through the Green Gardens web site. greengardensfarm.com 

We need to get the word out to everyone we can, so please pass this along to anyone you think may have interest.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Dan Hiday

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all of our friends and followers. Hope you had a Merry Christmas, we did here at the Hiday Farm. As usual 2015 was very busy, the year flew by and with the addition of a dairy in 2016 things will get even busier.

Speaking of the dairy, I want to answer a couple of questions being asked. Is it going to be organic?
The Hiday Farm is Certified Organic through a certified organization called Ecocert. Our hay fields and pastures are certified organic and this alone costs me over $1000 a year and requires lots of paperwork. In order to certify farm animals they have to have been born on your organic farm and also costs another fee. To begin with we will have to purchase cows and heifers to start our herd, so until we have dairy stock born on our farm we will not have organic cows. However keep in mind these cows will be eating certified organic pasture and forage crops. So the milk may not be able to be certified on paper, but in reality it is organic.

Another question has to do with the type of milk we plan on providing. This is going to be what we call "Udder Direct Milk".  In other words this milk is going to come from the cow, go to the pasteurizer, be minimally processed, bottled and then to you. This will be a whole milk and the fat content will vary from season to season. As a cow moves through a lactation her milk will change some. It changes as her food supply moves from spring grass to fall grass and then to winter forages. As your milk sits in your frig over night the cream will rise to the top of the bottle. Our intentions are to use plastic jugs and not glass bottles.

Please feel free to give me a call at 517-765-2268 with any questions you may have.

Thanks and hope all is well with you and yours.

Dan

MILK

Hello everyone,
Wanted to bring you up to date on our farm. To go along with our beef and pork business we are going to add a small dairy. Our goal is to start milking by the summer 2016. Our dairy cows will be raised just like our beef cows. Grazed on Organic Pastures in the summer and fed Organic Hay in the winter. We are going to sell 100% grass-fed milk that we are going to process and sell ourselves. (not raw milk). Just like we sell our beef and pork by the share, we plan on doing the same with the milk. A share will be one gallon of milk a week for 52 weeks. This will not be an inexpensive venture and to help us get it up and running we are looking for share holders in our area who would have interest in not just purchasing a share, but forward purchasing their share.  This would help us remodel the old milk-house, add dairy cows and make additions that are needed for this project.

If this is something you would have interest in, please give me a call at 517-765-2268 and let me know what you think and I can give you more details.

Thanks

Dan

Turkey

I wanted to let everyone know that we did not raise any turkeys this summer for the Thanksgiving season. We decided not to raise any this year due to the bird flu epidemic that broke out across the mid-west. With all of the problems on poultry farms we did want to take a chance on any problems that might affect our beef and pork business. ( our main business).

Hope all is well with you and yours and thank you for your continued support.

Dan Hiday

Summer

I have been so busy I did not realize how long it has been since my last post. For a quick family update. In February we added two new grandsons. Colton was born on the 15th and Christian on the 17th. They are growing fast and doing well.

As for the farm, we are getting plenty of rain. So much in fact that we do not have most of our first cutting of hay up yet. Hopefully we will get a stretch of good weather so we can get it put up soon. We will be contacting pork buyers soon because this years pigs are going to be ready early. I have a newsletter ready to go out this week to all of the pork and poultry buyers.

I will try to get back to the blog soon.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Dan

Hiday Farm Meats

Hello everyone, hope all is well. I have some good news for those of you in the Kalamazoo and Lansing area. Hiday Farm meat is now available at the following retailers.

Sawall Health Foods --  BEEF
2965  Oakland Drive, Kalamazoo, MI.

People's Food Co-op --  BEEF
507 Harrison St., Kalamazoo, MI.

Foods For Living  --  BEEF and MANGALITZA PORK
2655 E. Grand River Ave., East Lansing, MI.

All three of these stores have brought in inventory within the last two weeks. Hopefully it will be a good seller and will continue to support the Hiday Farm. Please support these businesses. They are all well run small retailers working hard to bring you healthy food choices. We are proud to be associated with them and look forward to working with them to make Hiday Farm meats available to more customers who are interested in a healthy choice.

For those of you not familiar with us. We raise Beef, Pork and Poultry. Not only are our cattle Grass-fed they are Grass-finished, meaning that we do use grain to fatten our cattle. They are finished on our Organic pastures. We raise a special Old World Hungarian Pig called a Mangalitza. Known for its special fat and gourmet flavor. We also raise Chickens and Turkeys on Pasture.

Do not forget, we offer shares of all of our meats to you directly from the farm too. If you are not on our mailing list or you are a small retailer similar to the ones mentioned and would like more information on the how to purchase Hiday Farm meats, feel free to call me at 517-765-2268 or email me at  hoopshiday@aol.com

Thanks, and Hope all is well with you and yours.

Dan Hiday

Happy New Year

Happy New year from the Hiday Farm and Family. We had a very busy 2014 and expect 2015 to be pretty much the same. More and more people are asking for Hiday Beef.  I want to thank all of you who purchased from us in 2014.  My plans for 2015 is to increase the number of cattle to be raised for processing. This past year saw a long waiting list of people wanting beef, that we were not able to fill. Keep in mind that a lot of people who purchase from us have been customers for many years and order months in advance. 90% of our beef is processed in the fall and almost all of it is sold in advance, so contacting me in late September or October puts you on the waiting list. So when you get your order form this spring, please fill it out and get back to me as soon as possible. If you are not on the mailing list, give me a call.
Hope everyone had a good 2014 and I wish you all the best for 2015.

Dan

Summer Time

This summer has been flying by. Sorry it has been so long since my last post. The wet cool spring and summer have set us back with some of our crops. First cutting hay was about 3 weeks behind, but a pretty good sized one when we got it up. On the plus side, grass/pasture is growing well and the cattle have plenty to eat. The Mangalitsa pigs are also growing and getting ready for fall processing.

I have enjoyed seeing many of you at the Texas Corners Farmers Market.

Hope all is well with you and yours.
Dan

Waiting For Spring

I do not know about you, but I am tired of snow and winter. Wish spring would hurry and get here.

I have been working on the 2014 order form and the spring news letter to go with it. In the letter it will talk about a few changes for 2014. The main change for this year will have to do with the pork shares that are offered. Over the past few years we have only offered our Mangalitsa pigs to restaurants and not in shares to everyone. Instead we would purchase young regular breed pigs and raise these for share holders. This year we are not going to bring in regular pigs for shares, we have enough Mangalitsa to offer them to share holders. Between having plenty of Mangalitsa pigs and a decease running through many regulars pig herds throughout the USA. I will not be bringing in outside pigs to the farm.

What does this mean for you??

It means that you are going to be getting a great deal on pork that is served in some of the best restaurants in the world as a gourmet dinner. Yes the price per pound will be a little higher than regular pork, but will only run about $60 per share more than usual. Mangalitsa dinners are often a $100 per plate, so $60 extra for 30lbs of gourmet meat is not that much.

It also means that the chops and roasts will carry a good 1/2 inch thick of fat. The Mangalitsa is known for its fat. A fat known to be very flavorful and higher in omega 3's. The bacon will also carry a lot more fat (and cooks very fast.)  The meat will be redder in color

You can find a lot of info about the Mangalitsa pigs on the internet, if you want to know more.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Dan

Winter Chores

Hello Everyone.
I do not know about you guys, but I have had enough of this winter weather. In some areas I have had to trudge through 3 foot snow drifts to do chores. We are running out of room to push the new snows . So far all of the animals seem to be holding up to the extreme weather we have been having. Wish I could say the same for some of our equipment. Tractors are harder to get started in cold weather and I have buried the tractor in the snow once already and had to get another farmer with a much bigger tractor to pull me out.  Good thing we raise a pig with the nick name of wooly pig. All of that wool like hair has been a great help in keeping them warm.

It won't be long and it will be time to get order forms in the mail. My goal is to get them out to everyone sometime in March.

Looking forward to Spring.
Hope all is well with you and yours.

Dan

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

The Hiday Family would like to thank everyone for supporting the Hiday Family Farm. For many of you it was your first season with us, we thank you and hope to have you back with us in 2014. Even more of you have been with us for several years now,  we thank you for your loyalty and support. When things get tough around here, you are our inspiration to keep going. Many of you have become friends and feel like family.

Speaking of family, Holly and I are busy getting ready for a Christmas that will include two new daughter-in-laws and two new granddaughters. We are Excited.

Looking forward to 2014.

Here's wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Dan, Holly and Family