UPDATE: Only *eight* tickets are remaining for this event. Call 931-389-9450 to reserve your spot.
By ZOË WATKINS
zwatkins@bedfordcountypost.com
The family owners at Valley Home Farm, 310 Potts Rd. in Wartrace, invites everyone to come out this Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. for beef and local wine tastings on their six-generation farm.
But more than that, they also want to provide an information meet and greet to show how food goes from farm to table, according to co-owner Chad Grubbs.
“We’ve helped other farms do farm-table events, and it’s just a way to tap back into what we used to be as a farm,” said Grubbs.
At the event, they will be showcasing their Valley Home Farm Grass Finished Beef. Some of the cuts will be recognizable while others will be less familiar. They will serve such cuts as Stew Meat, Fajita Meat, Burger, Short Ribs, Sirloin, Flat Iron Steak, Skirt Steak, Brisket, and 30-day Dry Aged Steaks (Ribeye, Filets, and New York Strip).
Through this, they hope to show guests cuts of beef that are not seen in traditional grocery stores and give ideas as to how to prepare it.
“I want people to know you don’t have to be a trained chef to cook what we’re cooking. And it gives you availability to the family to ask the people that raised it,” said Grubbs. “We controlled it all the way until it hit your plate.”
Aside from the steaks and brisket, they will be using these cuts in several different ways and many different dishes. Their soups will even be made from homemade bone broth.
“We’re trying to reverse the effects of the American consumer where in America we eat about 33% of the animal, while 66% of it is waste,” said Grubbs.
“One thing we’re trying to connect our consumers or our customers with is, there’s more to beef than a ribeye.”
The meat will be fresh from the farm as it goes from Valley Home to being processed at Potts’ Meat, which was established on site in 1972, to the consumer’s fork.
“If you look at Bedford County, we produce about 15,000 beef per year,” said Grubbs. He explained most of those calves will get to 600 to 700 pounds to be sent to Nebraska, Kansas, and Pennsylvania to become “stockers.” Eventually, they’re sent to feed lots to grow up to 1,500 pounds before going to slaughters plants. They are then sent to wholesalers and distributors.
“This beef is traveling 2,500 miles to get right back to us. Our cattle will travel less than a mile their entire life,” said Grubbs, adding that the reduction in packaging and distributing helps reduce their carbon footprint.
“For us, we’re working, at the slaughter plant, toward being a zero-waste facility where we’re not sending out any waste–everything is consumed and used back on the farm,” said Grubbs.
This new agricultural movement is part of the four-way stewardship: stewarding the land, the animals, the farmers, and the customers.
Stewarding the customers looks like educating them of the farm’s operations.
“In Tennessee, we are currently losing 130,000 to 150,000 acres per year in farmland. For us, to be able to take this fairly small farm and to be able to have a living here, it’s going to take consumers being educated.”
Throughout the evening of April 27, the family, the butchers, and the farmers will all be available to ask questions or just chat with them.
“We invited a lot of people out from the community who had a hand in getting us where we’re at. So a lot of people will be here, down to my banker and the people who have taken a risk on my vision and given me a helping hand,” said Grubbs.
For those who want to support this operation, Valley Home Farms is providing an opportunity for consumers to be a part of Cost-Share Agriculture (CSA).
Through paying a portion of money, consumers can get a share of the farm’s beef.
“So the CSA program encourages people to take an investment in the life of the animal…and it also gives the ability to save because you’re paying by the year,” said Grubbs, who explained tickets to the event purchased in advance go toward the CSA program.
Grubbs said the family comes out of a commercial agriculture background. “You never plan on being a commercial agriculture family. It’s just you kind of go the way of the consumer, which is quicker, faster, cheaper,” said Grubbs. “With doing grass-fed beef, it’s a way for us to control our animals.
“What we’re trying to do with farm-to-table is give people a behind-the-scenes view of what it takes to do grass-fed well. And that’s what we’re calling it: grass-fed done right.
“I’ve got good friends of mine that do grain-fed beef for us and they do it ethically, they do it correctly, and it’s a great way to raise beef. This grass-fed way is the way that fits our farm we can do and do it well.”
Additionally, Big Creek Winery Tasting Room and Sweet Caroline’s will be providing a variety of wines and sweets.
It all will hint at their theme of supporting and feeding the community. “We’re trying to make it a community thing,” he said.
Chad Grubbs
Grubbs and his wife Pepper live in the farm’s original 1835 home. Tours will be given to showcase the years of restoration while Frank Cicalese will be playing music on the 1831 Square Grand Piano, which is original to the home.
The home was built by the Clevelands who were an “industrious” family, according to Grubbs. “They had grain mills, they had cattle, they had pottery factories, they had a lot of industry,” he said.
The last people to own the property before Grubbs and his family were the Dements. Then, Grubbs’ great-grandfather bought the central part of the farm in the late 1950s. Today, it’s a sixth-generation farm that covers over 400 acres.
“If I live long-enough, we’ll be poised to make this farm a century farm,” said Grubbs. “I’ve gotten to enjoy the farm because of the sacrifices of the past generation. So my wife and I made the decision three years ago that if it’s us that’s got to make the sacrifice to secure the farm for the next generation, then we will.”
