FarmersMarket

08/19/2026

Ground beef may be one of the most familiar foods in America.

But “grass-fed ground beef” can come from remarkably different farming systems.

The words grass-fed tell you something important. They don’t tell you the cattle genetics, what the pasture looked like, whether the animals were finished entirely on forage, how the land was managed, who raised them, or who processed the beef.

That’s why we think the better question is not simply:

Is it grass-fed?

It’s:

Whose grass-fed beef is it?

Ground beef is an everyday food, but the soil, pasture, animal, farmer, and processor behind it still matter.

We wrote a guide to what to look for when buying 100% grass-fed ground beef—and why knowing the source tells you much more than the label alone.

Read it here: https://farmersmarket.com/blogs/field-notes/grass-fed-ground-beef

Good food begins with a place.

08/17/2026

Wine drinkers have long understood that place is only part of the story.

The year matters too.

A vineyard can grow the same grapes in the same soil under the care of the same people, yet one vintage can be very different from the next because rainfall, temperature, and the growing season changed.

We think truly grass-fed beef deserves the same consideration.

This year in east-central Indiana, abundant rain has kept pastures growing well through the summer. The cattle finishing this fall are eating the forage that this particular soil, weather, and season produced in 2026.

That doesn’t mean weather is the only thing that determines quality. Genetics, animal husbandry, grazing management, maturity, processing, and aging all matter too.

But the year becomes part of the food.

That idea is almost impossible to see when beef from many farms and regions is blended into an anonymous commodity. It becomes much easier to understand when the food comes from one identifiable farm.

We have a feeling 2026 may be a vintage worth remembering for grass-fed beef from east-central Indiana.

That’s terroir.

08/15/2026

Crispy chicken is one of those dinners almost everybody likes.

The good news is you can make it without a long list of ultra-processed ingredients.

This version starts with pasture-raised chicken breast, then uses homemade avocado-oil mayonnaise, Parmesan, herbs, and a crispy pork-rind coating. It comes out golden and crunchy, with about 35 grams of protein and only 1.5 grams of net carbs per serving.

And this doesn’t have to be a “keto recipe.” Use regular breadcrumbs instead of pork rinds and you still have a simple homemade dinner built around good chicken.

That’s really the point: start with a great ingredient, choose what goes into the recipe, and skip the unnecessary shortcuts.

We put the full recipe on the FarmersMarket.com blog:

https://farmersmarket.com/blogs/news/crispy-keto-chicken-cutlets-high-protein-low-carb

Good food begins with a place.

08/14/2026

08/14/2026

A special dinner doesn’t always need a complicated recipe.

Sometimes it just needs better ingredients.

That’s especially true with chicken. When the recipe is simple—good chicken, butter, mushrooms, stock, cream, herbs—there really isn’t anywhere for an ordinary ingredient to hide.

The pasture-raised chicken offered through FarmersMarket.com comes from an identifiable farm in Central Indiana, where the birds are cared for daily and moved onto fresh ground as they grow.

That source matters.

“Pasture-raised” tells you something, but knowing the farm, the people, the husbandry, and the processing tells you much more.

We wrote more about why special dinners start with better ingredients—and why chicken deserves the same attention to place that we already give wine, cheese, and produce.

Read the full story here: https://farmersmarket.com/blogs/field-notes/pasture-raised-chicken-chicago-better-ingredients

Good food begins with a place.

08/13/2026

Yesterday was a reminder that food always begins with a real place—and real places have weather.

Tyner Pond Farm received more than four inches of rain, enough to put several low pastures underwater. Less than 30 miles east, some Indiana communities received more than 10 inches and are dealing with much more serious flooding and damage.

The farm was fortunate. The water will drain, fences can be repaired, and the cattle can be moved quickly to higher ground while the low areas recover.

This is part of what we mean when we talk about place at FarmersMarket.com. Soil, rainfall, pasture, seasons, weather, animals, and the people making decisions every day are all part of the food system.

Most days, those conditions are ordinary enough that we barely notice them. Every once in a while, nature makes the connection impossible to miss.

Our thoughts are with the farmers, families, and communities across Indiana who were hit much harder.

Good food begins with a place.

08/13/2026

This was Central Indiana last night, just before the rain moved in.

Jim Baggott caught the moment as the sky turned pink and gold over the pasture and the cattle kept grazing below it.

Scenes like this are part of why we talk so much about place at FarmersMarket.com. Food does not come from an abstract supply chain. It comes from real land, under real weather, cared for by real people.

The pasture, rainfall, season, soil, animals, and farmer are all part of what eventually reaches the table.

A few minutes after Jim took this picture, the rain arrived and the whole scene changed.

That’s farming. And that’s terroir.

Good food begins with a place.

08/12/2026

A friend of ours who grows produce here in Central Indiana once told me she didn’t really like grass-fed beef.

That struck me as funny—not because she was wrong, but because she would never say she didn’t like tomatoes after trying one variety she didn’t enjoy.

Two tomatoes from the same farm can have completely different texture, sweetness, acidity, moisture, and flavor. Grass-fed beef has just as much potential for variation.

Soil matters. Rainfall matters. Forage matters. Cattle genetics matter. Animal husbandry matters. Processing matters. The farmer matters.

“Grass-fed” tells you something, but it doesn’t tell you everything.

That’s why we keep coming back to the idea of terroir at FarmersMarket.com. Food reflects the place and people behind it just as surely as wine does.

Read the full story here: https://farmersmarket.com/blogs/field-notes/why-grass-fed-beef-tastes-different

Good food begins with a place.