Welcome to our store How it Works

Order by Monday for delivery Wednesday each week.

Free shipping on orders over $200

Your Field Guide

News, Explainers, and Articles About Food, Farming, and the Politics of Land

Here you'll find big and small picture info on all things related to food and farming - terminology, definitions, and the intricacies of raising pigs and the challenges of producing lab grown meat.

If you're interested in the more personal side of Cairncrest Farm, head over to the How We Farm page.

From the Ground Up

  • Terminology

    A useful guide to words commonly used in pasture based farming.

    Pasture Terminology

  • Grass Fed Basics

    If you're new to the world of grass fed and pastured meat, this is a great place to start.

    Grass Fed Basics

  • Grass Fed vs. Pastured

    Two common terms with important differences.

    Grass Fed vs. Pastured

Deep Dives

  • Grass Fed Chicken

    If someone claims to raise grass fed chicken, you should be skeptical.

    Grass Fed Chicken

  • Reasons to Doubt Lab Grown Meat

    In the past decade there's been immense hype about lab grown meat. So why isn't it in stores yet?

    Lab Grown Meat

The Latest From the Farm

View all
  • Lunchables and Microplastics

    Lunchables and Microplastics

    The Focus on Lead A recent study by Consumer Reports found elevated, though not illegal, levels of lead and cadmium in prepackaged lunch meals. Lunchables is the most famous version,...

    Garth Brown |

  • Bringing Down The Industrial Food System

    Bringing Down The Industrial Food System

    The story of food for the past hundred years has been one of industrialization. This is true of farming — we’ve gone from horses to 600 horsepower tractors — but...

    Garth Brown |

  • New York is Losing Small Farms

    New York is Losing Small Farms

    Between 2017 and 2022 New York lost 2788 farms, a more than 8% decline. It was concentrated in small farms; the number of operations with over 500 acres actually increased....

    Garth Brown |

  • Beef Rice: An Examination of a Very Silly Idea

    Beef Rice: An Examination of a Very Silly Idea

    By taking standard rice, coating it in a layer of fish gelatin and microbial transglutimase, immersing the grains in a nutrient bath seeded with beef muscle and fat cells, waiting...

    Garth Brown |

  • Thin sliced beef served with rice, topped with chili oil and scallion

    Thin-Sliced Beef with Scallion and Crunchy Chili Oil

    Growing up outside of Philadelphia, I always associated thinly shaved beef with cheesesteaks. Perhaps I would have assented on some abstract level that it could be used for other dishes,...

    Garth Brown |

  • How to Think About Microplastics

    How to Think About Microplastics

    I have a strong intuition that consuming thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions of microscopic beads of plastic, some unknown number of which doubtless become lodged within my body,...

    Garth Brown |

Back to top