I have a lot of cookbooks. I have boxes of them that were my mother’s packed away in the attic. In her time, cookbooks were how you stored recipes and boy did she store a bunch.  I think she had a copy of every Ladies’ Sunday School Class cookbook that was ever printed in Franklin County, PA, where we lived. She clipped and scrap booked recipes from magazines, newspaper food sections, and hand-written recipes she received from friends.  Add to these the cookbooks from product makers such as Hershey Cocoa and Calumet Baking Soda.  Quite a collection.

Today, we’re more inclined to do an Internet search and find our recipes on All-Recipes or the Food Network. But, I still have a shelf of cookbooks in my kitchen.  Many are Amish or Mennonite recipes since my upbringing involved a lot of foods based on flour, butter, and sugar!  This is my cooking heritage. Yet, I have tried to expand into cooking based on what’s in season and regional specialties.

Here is a picture of some of my cookbooks. Tucked between the white binder and the “Dishing Up Maryland” cookbook is my favorite cookbook for working with pasture raised meats. It’s the “Grass-fed-Gourmet-Cookbook” by Shannon Hayes. It is the number-one most recommended cookbook by grassfed livestock farmers across the country. Shannon and her parents, husband and daughters operate a family farm in upstate New York. Her blog, the “Radical Homemaker” is also an interesting read on small farm life.

This cookbook is available on-line at:

https://www.amazon.com/Grassfed-Gourmet-Cookbook-Healthy-Pasture-Raised/dp/0979439167/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=P1ZC0YQ9MMM8XJJP52A1

Or from Shannon’s website at Books by Shannon Hayes – The Radical Homemaker

Do you have a favorite cookbook or recipe source? Do you have a favorite cooking technique for preparing our pasture-raised meats?  Can you share?  I would like to start a recipe and cooking section for our farm website. Your comments could be helpful in getting that content started.  Thanks and Happy Eating!