Virginia Grass fed Beef, Grassfed Lamb, Grass-fed Chicken and Dairy Products

Grass Fed Products from the Shenandoah Valley - The Good is in the Green

Briarmead

Pasture Raised Beef, lamb, pork and cabrito

Grass Fed	Pastured	Artisan
Beef Lamb Cabrito Milk	Chicken Pork Rabbit Eggs	Honey Cheese Sausage Paté

Quantities are
often limited --
be the first in line!

3/1/2010 - NVPG
Pastured Eggs now Available! US Grade AA Eggs from 100% cage-free and Pastured hens. Click on the Egg icon to order your fresh eggs. Available for pick-up at Briarmead farm in Front Royal.

2/11/2010 - Briarmead
At this time of year with much SNOW on the ground and this past season's beef and lamb entirely sold out, we look ahead to warmer weather and our next butchering date in May-June; place your orders now. We appreciate all of the feedback about this year's healthy and delicious beef and lamb. The beef has excellent, rich flavor that has made several customers comment on how it makes conventional feedlot beef taste oh-so-BLAND. Additionally, Briarmead lamb chops are planned as the centerpiece of a local professional chef's upcoming gourmet dinner; sure to please the palates of a group of discriminating guests. We'll let you know how that comes out in March!

11/11/2009 - NVPG
Thanks for the strong support; we have sold out of whole lambs (some cuts available via request), and Beef is sold through December. We are taking orders for January Beef delivery, so do feel free to order for January.

10/4/2009 - NVPG
NY Times - woman paralyzed by eColi in ground beef... read on:

"Ground beef is usually not simply a chunk of meat run through a grinder. Instead, records and interviews show, a single portion of hamburger meat is often an amalgam of various grades of meat from different parts of cows and even from different slaughterhouses... confidential grinding logs and other Cargill records show...the ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria. Using a combination of sources — a practice followed by most large producers of fresh and packaged hamburger — allowed Cargill to spend about 25 percent less than it would have for cuts of whole meat."

Would you pay 25% more to know where your beef comes from and how it is processed?

10/1/2009 - NVPG
Harvest season is upon us and the early fall orders have been fulfilled. Order your Beef, Lamb and Rabbit for the holidays.

8/20/2009 - Notting Hill
New batch of Black Star chicks arrived today; now begins the 22 week process of nurturing them into Laying Hens. A lot of work goes in to producing that first pastured Egg.

7/31/2009 - Fair Knowe
Harvested the Summer honey! Supplies are in high demand, please send us an email if you would like to get on the customer list.

Why a Guild?
A Business of Accountability

Many folks ask us, why a guild? For a new organization that is leading the way to a new food paradigm, why model it after something archaic and gone? Aren’t Unions and Co-ops a more modern equivalent? The answer, of course, is no; no they are not.

A union is a collective that negotiates on the behalf of producers, while a Co-op is a collective that negotiates on behalf of consumers. Both assume tension between the two factions: producers and consumers.

A guild operates along different principles; it is oriented towards the craft it serves.

For producers, a guild means standards of excellence, shared expertise, and the recognition that quality is expected and that quality is measured by your peers.

For consumers, a guild means a product that meets certain standards, and a product that is crafted according to specific best practices, methods and principles—without the short-cuts so common today.

A guild is based upon accountability. Accountability to your peers, to your craft, and to your customers.

The Northern Valley Pastoral Guild upholds the craft of pastured products by providing best practices and support to our growers and providing standards of quality and accountability to our customers.

Mission:

The Northern Valley Pastoral Guild is a regional provider of locally grown Pastured and Grass Finished foods. Based in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, the Guild connects growers directly with consumers as part of the local revival of healthy food and sustainable farming.

The Guild promotes the highest quality grass finished products according to “beyond organic” farming practices that avoid all non-natural inputs including antibiotics, pesticides, hormones, petroleum based fertilizers and Genetically Engineered animals.

Our goal is to provide the finest foods to our customers as well as mutual support and guidance for our growers so that all of us may share in the benefits of healthy food and healthy soils that go beyond the industrialization of the organic label.