How We Make Cooking for A Crowd Easier with the Best Beef and Potatoes

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July 12, 2022

At Red Hill Harvest, we love a good party!

And we love providing our guests with great food that is easy for us as hosts to prepare. Not everyone has a farm full of 100% grass fed beef and fresh potatoes, but that shouldn’t stop you from hosting amazing gatherings with delicious food. We can show you how.

This summer, we dusted off our hosting shoes to throw Nathan a graduation party. One hundred people gathered in our backyard. He’s the social butterfly of the family.

Our friends and family came together for an evening of socializing, basketball playing, and eating good food. We enjoyed everything from pulled pork and ham sandwiches (shocking for beef farmers we know!) and our roast potatoes to macaroni salad and deviled eggs made with our eggs. Then, we finished the night with gluten free cupcakes and homemade fruit salad.

It was the perfect celebration of Nathan’s achievement, and reminded us how to best prepare food for a crowd. No one wants to spend an entire party in the kitchen, but we all want our guests to leave fully satisfied.

With a large family, we have a fair amount of practice cooking for a crowd and wanted to share some of our best tips and tricks to make your summer entertaining even better and easier.

The Best Food for A Crowd Starts with the Best Ingredients

When you’re cooking for a large group, simple recipes are always best. They will appeal to a wide range of eaters and require less prep time in the kitchen, which allows you to enjoy the party.

The way to make those simple recipes shine is to make them with the best ingredients. Even something as simple as a hamburger tastes dramatically different when it’s made with 100% grass fed beef from a local farmer instead of the mystery ground beef at the supermarket.

Likewise, freshly picked vegetables like tomatoes or cucumbers require little more than some salt and pepper to become a delicious side dish that everyone will love. We recommend visiting your local farmers market before the party to find the most fresh produce.

As beef and potato farmers, we like to utilize our own bounty for parties, and fortunately it is perfect for large group meals! Here are some of our favorite ways to include the best beef and potatoes in our party cooking.

Our Favorite Beef Recipes for a Crowd

No one wants to be flipping a hundred steaks on the grill when they would rather be socializing with friends and family. Fortunately, there are lots of simple ways to cook beef for a crowd.

Cooking your beef ahead of time is a great way to enjoy the party without fussing over the stove or grill.

In the morning of the party, we put a beef roast (arm roast or chuck roast are great options here) in the slow cooker with carrots, onions, and a seasoning mix. As we clean the house and set up for the gathering, the beef cooks down to become meltingly tender. Then, when we’re ready to eat, we shred the beef and serve it on buns alongside a selection of sauces. This simple recipe requires very little effort for a delicious reward!

Hamburgers made with 100% grass fed ground beef are another great party option. You can grill the patties during the party or, to make life even easier, grill them before the guests arrive and then leave them a crock pot to stay warm. When you are ready to eat, bring the patties outside and let people build their own burgers.

Finally, beef kabobs are always a hit at a summer party. Take our pre-cut beef cubes, marinate them with your favorite sauce or seasoning, then place them on skewers with fresh cut vegetables. The combination of vegetables and meat will help you to stretch your protein to feed a crowd and the meat will cook quickly on the grill. Besides, everyone loves food on a stick!

Delicious Potato Recipes for a Crowd

Who doesn’t love potatoes? They are versatile, easy to prepare, and can be enjoyed both warm and cold.

For Nathan’s graduation party, we made pan roasted potatoes for our guests. We quartered baby yellow potatoes, mixed them with butter and Old Bay seasoning, then roasted them in an oversize roasting pan. It was a simple dish with little prep work, but all the guests came back for seconds!

Potato salad is another summer party classic. Whether you prefer a traditional mayonnaise based dressing, a vinegar and mustard recipe, or something fancier like pesto, using organic potatoes will make all the difference. We recommend our baby organic red potatoes for the pop of color that the red skin adds.

It’s not quite as simple as roasting or boiling potatoes, but making homemade french fries is a great way to wow the guests at your next party. If you have an outdoor fryer, like the kind used to deep fry a turkey on Thanksgiving, you’ll be able to make a mountain of fries in no time. Our french fry potatoes are the Norwis variety which was grown specifically to make the best fries.

Hosting a party and cooking for a crowd can feel daunting. But time spent with loved ones is more than worth the effort. And, when you start with the best ingredients, like 100% grass fed beef and fresh potatoes, and use simple recipes, you can have a feast without any stress.

What are your favorite recipes for a crowd? Let us know in the comments below!

*Photo by Alexander Zvir

From field to barn! How we harvest potatoes at Red Hill Harvest!

This week on the farm, potato harvest was all we had on our minds! The weather has been a challenge during this year's harvest, from being too dry early in the season to 10 days of rain in late September, but hey, that’s farming. This week's goal is to get as many of the remaining potatoes out of the ground and back into the storage. Here’s how we do it! Step 1: Prep fields for harvest - Before a field of potatoes is harvested, the tops of the potato plants must be killed. This tells the potatoes to put all their energy into growing thicker skin instead of growing in size. We terminate the potatoes 2-5 weeks before harvest, depending on the variety. (Some varieties take longer for the skins to set.) In a non-organic system, potatoes are terminated using a chemical desiccant. This is a very effective way to get the potato vines to die and leave the field ready for harvest. However, we must take a different approach to the 50% of our potato crop that is certified organic. Once our organic potatoes have matured, we will run a flail shredder through the fields to mulch the vines into tiny pieces, killing the plants and sending them into full skin development mode. While we wait the 2-5 weeks before harvest, weeds tend to pop up now that the crop canopy is gone and sunlight reaches the soil. We often run the flail shredder or our weed burner ahead of the harvester again to help separate potatoes from other materials during harvest. Step 2: Dig - Once the fields are prepped and the conditions are right, we head out to the fields to bring in the spuds. We have a harvester that can dig two rows at a time. We chose this smaller machine because it matched well with the destoning system we use in the spring. To briefly explain the long process of planting, we make a bed of soil, use a destoning machine to pull the rocks from the bed and lay the stones into the tire tracks, and finally, we plant two rows of potatoes in the rock-free bed. Using this system, we can limit the damage caused by handling potatoes and rocks together. Here’s how the harvester works… First, the potatoes are dug out of the ground and transferred onto a slatted conveyor belt. This conveyor is the first separation method, removing all the loose dirt and small rocks. The remaining material continues up the belt and onto the main separation table. This table has a series of counter-rotating shafts that grab onto vines, mud clumps, rocks, and other foreign materials and pull them down below and back into the field. From there, the potatoes go to another conveyor, where we have two people standing to remove all of the foreign material that the harvester missed. At this point, it is crucial to get all of the rocks that the destoner missed out of the potatoes because the next stop is the truck! The potatoes ride up the conveyor and into the truck, which drives alongside the harvester. Once the truck is full, it returns to the shed, where it gets unloaded! Step 3: Unload - When the truck returns to the shed, we back it up to our ELIMINATOR… Dun, Dun, Dunn! Ok, maybe it's not that scary! The potatoes unload from the truck and ride up yet another conveyor, which dumps onto a star separation table. The table allows any soil that may have passed the harvester to be removed from the potatoes. Then, the spuds get one final hand grade. Removing all of the material before the potatoes head into storage is important. After the final grade, the small potatoes are removed. These potatoes are not desirable for making french fries and do not look nice in a package with bigger potatoes, so we remove them and pack them separately. Once sizing is complete, there are only two more conveyors before they reach the bins! We use an automatic bin filler, which uses sensors to fill each bin to its optimal level. After the bins are filled, they’re off to the cooler! Step 4: Storage - Most potatoes in the United States are stored in bulk, which means they are stored in one big pile. We choose to use the bin method for variety separation and quality. The first reason is simple: we grow over ten varieties of potatoes on our farm. It is much easier to keep them separate in bins rather than piles. Most importantly, though, we use bins to keep the quality of our potatoes high. With varying field conditions, potatoes in one area of the field may be more prone to rot. Rot will spread like a disease in storage if not properly addressed. Separating the potatoes into boxes can better control an outbreak of rot; we only lose 1,000 lbs of potatoes rather than the whole pile. This method takes a lot more time and money, but it is necessary for our operation, especially storing potatoes for nine months like we often do! Each bin is labeled with the variety, field name, and date harvested. The organic potatoes are then put into a cooler at 38-40 degrees Fahrenheit, and the non-organic potatoes are put into a cooler kept at 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit. Why do we store them at different temps? Almost all of our non-organic potatoes are sold to vendors who make fresh-cut French fries! If the potato's temperature gets colder than 45 degrees Fahrenheit, it will turn dark brown when fried. YUCK!! On the other hand, we keep our organic potatoes at a colder temperature because they keep much longer. Also, we do not use a sprout nipper, so the cold temperature helps to keep the potatoes from sprouting while in storage. As a small farm, we choose the smaller, simpler equipment and storage techniques to give us the ability to produce many different types of specialty potatoes. The spuds we raise would not fare well with the large equipment used in other parts of the world. Many farmers use various techniques to bring in the crop for their unique situations. We plan to continue to adapt our harvest methods as new engineering technologies are discovered. I hope you learned something about how we harvest potatoes today! If you have any questions, please email us at info@redhillharvest.com or call (570) 900-1566. If you’d like to try some of these potatoes for yourself, here are some of my favorites! Organic Purple Potatoes Organic Red Potatoes French Fry Potatoes Baby Yellow Potatoes

3 reasons why you should (NOT!) go vegan.

A recent study by Vegetarian Times shows that 7.3 million people follow vegetarian diets in the U.S.A. alone, and the number is rising daily! It’s almost understandable why this trend is rising in a world full of fake news and food mislabeling. Recently, I did some research concerning these common misconceptions. Without further adieu, here are the top three reasons people go vegan (and the truth about these polarizing issues). #1 Environmental Impact Over 90% of all meat produced in America is raised in CAFOs. (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) What is a CAFO, you ask? CAFO stands for Confined Animal Feed Operation and includes all farms that raise more than a set number of animals. For example, a CAFO of cattle is 1,000 animals, whereas a CAFO of chickens starts at 30,000. To learn more about CAFOs, click here. Large amounts of carbon emissions are released into the atmosphere in a CAFO. Feed needs to be grown, processed, and trucked in. Then, after feeding, the manure must be trucked out and spread onto farmland. This large amount of trucking and processing makes many of these CAFOs detrimental to our environment. Arguably, the most significant environmental concern in our region (Mid-Atlantic) is the over-application of manure. If you drive through PA, NJ, MD, NY, or VA, you will see countless large poultry CAFOs. These farms generated millions of tons of manure, which was more than they could ever use to add fertility to the soils of their farms. This led to manure being over-applied, causing runoff and the pollution of streams and rivers. To help solve this problem in our community, the government (taxpayers) have financed a facility to dehydrate poultry manure to divert it away from the area. What should you do? Becoming vegan simply does not mean eliminating environmental issues. Each system of raising food has its own set of problems. Fruit and vegetable farming, processing, and trucking can be as bad as animal production. For example, most of the produce we eat on the East Coast must be shipped from California or other countries before it reaches our plate. Click here to watch John Dutton from the show Yellowstone simple explanation on the issues of veganism. Knowing where your food comes from is essential to combat these environmental issues. You can make a difference by sourcing your food from farmers who use green practices such as cover cropping and rotational grazing. Cover crops pull carbon from the atmosphere into our soils, helping to counteract animal carbon emissions. Rotational grazing leads to a healthy level of manure distribution throughout every acre without additional hauling. Invest in a farm whose practices work with nature rather than against it and whose goal is to regenerate the environment rather than sustain it. #2 Animal Welfare In large confinement operations, animals are contained by the thousands. Although farmers must follow USDA’s requirements for sq. ft./ animal, disease can spread quickly when many animals are confined to a small area. Recently, the avian flu has been all over the news. This disease travels through wildlife and transmits to poultry through their saliva. It is a significant threat to poultry production in America. Poultry is often raised in a confined house in a controlled environment. This environment is created to help keep the birds from getting ill from rain or cold weather. While it does a very good job of keeping them safe from the elements, it also weakens their immune systems because they are never exposed to harsh climates. When events such as the avian flu happen, problems arise because the flocks are not suited to protect themselves from this illness. We witnessed how this disease affected our local farms. A recent outbreak led to over 40,000 birds being killed due to their weak immune systems, which is a big problem for American farmers. The final and most concerning animal welfare issue in the vegan community is the treatment of animals. Farmers often hire laborers to help with the day-to-day chores of farm life. These workers see so many animals daily that they can lose respect for the animals they care for. While every farm is not this way, we can not turn a blind eye to the fact that this mistreatment of animals does happen, and it is an issue that needs to be fixed. What should you do? This one is very straightforward. VISIT YOUR FARMER!! Find a farmer who is willing to show you around their farm. Don’t trust a label in the supermarket; find a farmer you can trust, and be sure to ask him/her about their practices. By visiting your farmer, you can know the food you put on your table was raised with respect and care. #3 Health There’s no denying it: the cheapest meat you find on the supermarket shelf was likely raised using GMO feeds, antibiotics, and artificial growth hormones. These factors are beginning to appear as significant factors in the chronic disease epidemic our country is facing. Eating fruits and vegetables has undeniable health benefits for our bodies and well-being. However, vegetable and fruit farmers often use chemicals to control their fields' pests, which leads to the same problems production animal farming brings. Another reason people are turning away from meat is for heart health, which is a legitimate concern with very fatty animals such as grain-fed beef. This fat contains cholesterol that is very high in saturated fat, causing many people with high cholesterol and heart issues to go vegan. What should you do? There’s no denying that a diverse diet is key to health. However, meat provides essential, natural nutrients not found in fruits, veggies, and nuts. So, where do you turn for healthier meat? Stop going to the supermarket and head straight to your farmer. Buy grass-fed or pasture-raised meats, which are leaner and have less saturated fat than their grain-fed counterparts. Grass-fed beef is becoming increasingly popular because of its higher concentration of CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid). This acid helps to aid in weight loss and lower cholesterol. You can learn more about the fantastic benefits of CLA by clicking here. Why grass-fed or pasture-raised? The microbes in a ruminant animal's (AKA Cow’s) gut make CLA. There is a higher microbe count in grass-fed beef because the plants they eat are alive and full of bugs! Recent studies have shown a 300%—500% increase in CLAs in grass-fed beef, making it a much better alternative to manufactured supplements, often made from seed oils like safflower and corn. Knowing all of the facts is essential before you go vegan. Don’t let yourself be misled by flashy marketing campaigns or cool packaging in the supermarket trying to persuade you to buy their food. Purchase your food from farms that you can visit. Talk to your farmer and ask him/her questions about how your food is raised, and make sure they know WHY they follow the practices they follow. It is now more important than ever to have food you can trust. Click the link below and contact us to schedule a farm visit today! Talk to a farmer you can trust today! Red Hill Harvest Phone:(570) 900-1566 Email: info@redhillharvest.com

Farm Stewardship at Red Hill Harvest

Last Easter, I shared the fact that we always try our best to nurture our community and environment through decisions based on our faith, ancestorial knowledge, and new information gained from experience and education. I want to share with you, exactly how we do this day in and day out on our farm.

How We Make Cooking for A Crowd Easier with the Best Beef and Potatoes

The Best Food for A Crowd Starts with the Best Ingredients

Our Favorite Beef Recipes for a Crowd

Delicious Potato Recipes for a Crowd

More from the blog

From field to barn! How we harvest potatoes at Red Hill Harvest!

3 reasons why you should (NOT!) go vegan.

Farm Stewardship at Red Hill Harvest

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