Reserve your pasture-raised Thanksgiving turkey today! Limited quantities available.

New in the Farm Store: Stone-Ground Staples from Meadowlark and a Special-Release Salami

written by

Anna Pesek

posted on

October 23, 2026

Picture a cold Saturday morning in late fall. Bacon hissing in the cast iron, pancake batter flecked with whole grain, and a pot of beans that has been quietly simmering since breakfast, filling the kitchen with something warm and earthy. That is the kind of kitchen we want to help you stock this season, and we are excited to share that a few new Midwest-made goods have joined our Dairy, Pantry, & Gifts shelf.

Meet Meadowlark Organics

On a farm in Ridgeway, Wisconsin, John and Halee grow and stone-mill organic grains, corn, and beans with a goal we share: building healthy soil, clean water, and a rural community that thrives.

Their story is one we love. John and Halee met cooking in a New York City restaurant kitchen, then moved home to John's hometown of Lancaster, Wisconsin, where they ran a small cafe and started growing dry beans, open-pollinated corn, and wheat. When they went looking for land of their own, Halee found a Craigslist ad from Paul Bickford, a longtime dairyman turned organic farmer who was looking for a forward-thinking couple to join his 950-acre operation. Paul mentored them for years and brought them into ownership of the farm. He passed away in 2022, and John and Halee carry his commitment to organic farming forward every season.

Here is what you will find from Meadowlark in our store:

  • Organic Lonesome Stone Pancake Mix ($8.00). Hearty, nutty, and made for slow weekend mornings. Serve it alongside our Berkshire bacon or breakfast sausage.
  • Organic White Dent Corn Grits ($10.50). Stone-ground and full of real corn flavor. Simmer them low and slow with butter, then top with a fried egg and crumbled sausage, or pile on shredded pork shoulder.
  • Organic Eclipse Black Beans ($5.50). Creamy and rich, perfect for chili with our grass-fed ground beef or a pot of beans to spoon over tacos.
  • Organic Small Red "Cayenne" Beans ($5.50). The classic choice for red beans and rice. Toss in a smoked ham hock or sliced sausage and let the pot do the work.
Meadowlark-Slow-Food-Studio.jpeg

Salami d'Alpage: A Special Release

This one is a treat. Driftless Provisions, a Wisconsin charcuterie maker, teamed up with Uplands Cheese Company to create Salami d'Alpage, a salami made with Uplands' Pleasant Ridge Reserve.

If you have not tasted Pleasant Ridge Reserve, it is one of the most celebrated cheeses in American history. Uplands makes it on their dairy farm in southwest Wisconsin only from May through October, when their cows are out grazing fresh pasture. The name of the salami honors alpage, the French tradition of moving dairy cows up to mountain pastures for the summer, and the cheese is crafted in the same Alpine style.

The result is a salami that is rich, savory, and earthy, carrying the nutty depth of that pasture-grown cheese in every slice. It is two great Wisconsin crafts, charcuterie and artisan cheesemaking, in one stick.

How we would serve it: sliced thin on a board with a wedge of sharp cheese, rye crackers, cornichons, and crisp fall apples. It also makes an easy, impressive appetizer to set out while your Thanksgiving turkey rests.

Salami d'Alpage is $12.50 and this is a limited release, so once it is gone, it is gone.

Why We Carry Them

When you buy from Over the Moon Farm, you are supporting more than our farm. You are supporting a network of small Midwest farmers and makers who care about the land, the animals, and the people they feed. Meadowlark, Uplands, and Driftless Provisions are doing exactly that kind of work, and we are proud to put their food next to ours.

How to Get Them

Our pantry offerings change with the seasons and might not come back, so if something catches your eye, grab it while you can.

Shop Dairy, Pantry, & Gifts

More from the blog

We Talked Bacon Politics on Iowa PBS

We Talked Bacon Politics on Iowa PBS

Last week Anna sat down Paul Yeager on Iowa PBS's Market to Market podcast to talk about Prop 12, the Save Our Bacon Act, and what's at stake for farmers like us who've built a business outside the commodity system. You can listen to the full episode here. What's actually going on Prop 12 is the California law that sets minimum space standards for pork sold in the state. It went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Court upheld it. That should have settled things. Instead, opponents are now pushing the Save Our Bacon Act, a federal bill that would override Prop 12 and laws like it in other states. Iowa has more pigs than people, and it's also home to some of the largest confinement operations in the country. So this isn't an abstract policy fight for us. It's the water we swim in. Where we stand Our pigs are humanely raised in low-stress environments, from birth through finish, right here on our farm near Coggon. We farrow in open pens, not crates. Everyone has access to a barn and to the outdoors. It's a different system than the one most Iowa pork comes from, and it's the reason people choose to buy from us in the first place. In the episode, Anna makes the case against Save Our Bacon: it would overturn a law that voters approved at the ballot box, and it would cement in place an industry that's already deeply consolidated. She also points out something worth sitting with: the money being spent to fight Prop 12 could instead go toward helping farmers transition to higher-welfare practices. That's not a hypothetical trade-off. It's a choice being made right now, by people with a lot of power and a lot of money. The bigger picture The conversation goes beyond hogs. Anna and Paul talk about the stalled farm bill, and what's in it that could actually help farmers like us stay in business, or help a new generation get started at all. Direct-to-consumer is one of the only real entry points left for someone who wants to raise pigs independently. That's not because it's the ideal system. It's because the alternative barely exists anymore. Anna also talks about her path here: growing up in Massachusetts, studying agricultural policy, moving to D.C. after college and realizing pretty quickly that a desk wasn't where she belonged. She took a bus from Chicago to Iowa in 2016 with a suitcase, and never left. Why we're sharing this We don't love being the center of a political fight. We'd rather be talking about jalapeño bacon and BLTs (also covered in the episode, for the record). But how pigs get raised, and who gets to keep raising them independently, is exactly the kind of thing that decides whether farms like ours exist in ten years. If you care about where your food comes from, give the podcast a listen. And if you want to taste the difference a different system can make, you know where to find us.

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Why Buying Local, Ethical Meat Matters, and What It Actually Means to Do It

Why Buying Local, Ethical Meat Matters, and What It Actually Means to Do It

We want to be upfront about something before you read this post. We are Iowa farmers who sell meat directly to families across Iowa and nationwide. We have a clear interest in you buying from us. But we also have a clear interest in being honest with you. And the honest version of this conversation is more interesting and more important than a simple sales pitch. So here is what we actually think about why buying local, ethical meat matters, and what that phrase even means in practice. What Is Happening in the Meat Industry Right Now Most Americans buy their meat at a grocery store without thinking too much about where it came from. That is not a criticism. It is how the system was designed to work. The supply chain between a live animal and a plastic-wrapped package on a refrigerated shelf is long, complicated, and deliberately opaque. Here is what that supply chain actually looks like in most cases. Four companies control roughly 85 percent of the beef processing in the United States. A similarly concentrated group controls most pork and chicken processing. These are not small family businesses. They are multinational corporations with operations spanning multiple countries, multiple continents, and supply chains so complex that even the companies themselves sometimes cannot tell you exactly where a specific cut of meat originated. This is not a conspiracy theory. It is a documented market structure that has been the subject of congressional hearings, Department of Justice investigations, and ongoing antitrust scrutiny. We know because Anna has testified at briefings on Capitol Hill about exactly this issue. The practical result for the person standing in a grocery store is this: the label on the package may say "Product of USA" while the animal was born in another country, imported to the United States for a brief period of time, and then processed here. Current labeling laws allow this. Most consumers do not know it. Recent news about beef imports from Argentina and other countries has brought this reality into focus for a lot of people who had never thought about it before. The question people are now asking, where does my meat actually come from, is one we have been trying to answer for seven years. What "Local and Ethical" Actually Means, and What It Does Not The food industry has done an excellent job of making words like "natural," "humanely raised," and even "local" feel meaningful while defining them as loosely as possible. "Natural" has no meaningful legal definition when applied to meat. It cannot tell you anything about how an animal was raised, what it ate, or whether it ever saw the outdoors. "Humanely raised" is better but still varies widely depending on who is certifying it and what standards they apply. Some certifications are rigorous. Others are not. "Local" is perhaps the most misused of all. A national grocery chain running a "local" promotion may define local as anything produced within a few hundred miles, processed at a regional facility, and distributed through the same national supply chain as everything else. We are not saying these labels are always meaningless. We are saying they require scrutiny. And we are saying there is a simpler, more reliable alternative to parsing labels: buy directly from a farmer you can actually contact, whose name you know, who will answer your questions. That is what direct-to-farm purchasing looks like. And it is what we offer. What Ethical Meat Looks Like on Our Farm When we say our meat is raised ethically, here is exactly what we mean. Our Berkshire pork is raised on our farm in Coggon, Delaware County, Iowa. Our hogs live in spacious deep-bedded barns, outdoor lots, and on pasture. They root, move around, and behave like pigs. There are no gestation crates. There is no confinement that prevents natural behavior. Shae checks on them every single day. We know every animal. Our pasture-raised chicken and turkey are moved outside to pasture once they are fully feathered. They have access to fresh air, natural forage, and room to move. This is what pasture-raised actually means in practice on our farm. Our grass-fed beef comes from Millie and Elston at Pine View Angus Beef in Stuart, Iowa. They practice rotational grazing, which means their cattle move regularly across different pastures, the land gets to rest and recover, and the animals eat the diet they were built to eat. We visited this farm. We know these farmers by name. We trust them completely. Our pastured lamb is seasonal and raised to the same standards. None of this is certified by a third-party label you have to decode. It is transparent because we tell you directly, because you can visit, because you can email us and we will answer. That is a different kind of accountability than a sticker on a package. Why It Matters Beyond Your Dinner Table We understand that not everyone who buys ethical meat does so primarily because of food system politics. A lot of people just want meat that tastes better and comes from animals that were treated well. Those are completely valid reasons and they are reasons enough. But there are broader stakes worth naming. It keeps independent farms viable. When you buy directly from us, the money goes to our farm. Not to a distributor. Not to a processor. Not to a corporation headquartered somewhere else. Independent farms like ours are a small but important part of a more resilient food system. Every order we receive is a vote for that system continuing to exist. It supports humane animal care at scale. The practices that dominate industrial meat production, confinement, gestation crates, concentrated animal feeding operations, exist because they are the most economically efficient way to produce cheap meat at massive scale. The only market signal that changes that calculus is consumer demand. When people pay a premium for humanely raised meat and small farms that practice it stay in business, it shifts what the industry has to respond to. It keeps dollars in local communities. The Iowa farm economy is not well served by a system in which a handful of national corporations control most of the processing and most of the margin. When you buy from Over the Moon Farm, you support a business in Coggon, Iowa that employs people in Delaware County, pays taxes in Iowa, and participates in the local food economy of eastern Iowa. It builds food system resilience. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of a meat supply chain concentrated in a small number of massive processing facilities. When a few plants shut down, the whole system buckled. A more distributed network of smaller farms and local processors is simply more resilient. Every small farm that stays in business is part of that resilience. The Honest Conversation About Price Ethical, locally raised meat costs more than grocery store meat. We are not going to pretend otherwise. Our heritage-breed Berkshire pork costs more per pound than the pork in the refrigerated case at your grocery store. Our pasture-raised chicken costs more than commodity chicken. Our grass-fed Iowa beef costs more than beef that may have originated in South America. Here is how we think about that honestly. The cheap meat at the grocery store is cheap because the real costs are distributed elsewhere. To the workers in processing plants who bear significant health and safety risks. To the communities near concentrated animal feeding operations that bear environmental impacts. To the animals themselves who live in conditions that most people would find troubling if they saw them. The price you pay at the grocery store does not include those costs. The price you pay for our meat does. What you are paying for is a supply chain that is shorter, more transparent, and more humane, one where the farmers, the animals, and the land are all being treated as things that have value beyond their contribution to a profit margin. We also believe, and our customers consistently confirm, that the food tastes significantly better. That is not incidental. Heritage-breed Berkshire pork has more marbling and more flavor than commodity pork because it is a different animal raised differently. Pasture-raised chicken has a texture and depth of flavor that grocery store chicken simply cannot match. Grass-fed beef from animals raised on Iowa pasture tastes like beef used to taste. That difference in flavor is a real return on the premium you pay. But the premium also reflects something more important than flavor. It reflects a set of values about how food should be produced and who should benefit from its production. How to Actually Buy Local Ethical Meat in Iowa and Beyond If you are in eastern Iowa, the easiest path is direct delivery. We deliver every Thursday to eastern Iowa, free. Order by 8pm Wednesday at overthemoonmeat.com. If you are elsewhere in Iowa or the Midwest, we ship every Monday. Midwest shipping is $25 or free over $150. If you are anywhere else in the country, we ship nationwide. Nationwide shipping is $49.99 or free over $250. Order by 8pm Sunday. If you want to go deeper, we offer whole and half hog packages processed by Nimrod Meats in Iowa Falls, and quarter and half beef shares. These are the most economical way to buy from us and the most direct connection to where your food comes from. One purchase, a full freezer, months of great meals. If you are not in our delivery area and are looking for other local options, we would suggest starting at your local farmers market, asking around at a locally owned butcher if one exists in your area, or checking directories like Local Harvest or Eat Wild which connect consumers with farms that sell directly. The point is not that you have to buy from us specifically. The point is that buying directly from a farmer you can name, wherever you are, is a meaningfully different choice than buying from a supply chain you cannot see. A Farm for a Different Iowa We started Over the Moon Farm because we believed, and still believe, that families should not have to choose between convenience and values. We built this farm to be a farm for a different Iowa, one with healthy food, humane animal care, clean water, thriving communities, and diversity. Seven years in, we have also learned that the customers who find us and stay with us are not just buying meat. They are participating in something they believe in. They are casting a small, practical vote for a food system that works differently. We think that matters. And we think there are a lot more people who would make that vote if they knew how easy it was. If you are one of them, we would be honored to be your farmers. Over the Moon Farm raises heritage-breed Berkshire pork, pasture-raised chicken, grass-fed beef, and pastured lamb in Coggon, Delaware County, Iowa. We offer free local home delivery across eastern Iowa every Thursday and nationwide shipping every Monday. Shop at overthemoonmeat.com or learn more about our farm practices at overthemoonmeat.com/farm-practices.

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Pasture-Raised Turkeys in Iowa: Why Over the Moon Farm Turkeys Taste Different

Pasture-Raised Turkeys in Iowa: Why Over the Moon Farm Turkeys Taste Different

The first frost usually hits Coggon, Iowa, in late September or early October, and our turkeys are still out on pasture, moving through fresh grass every day, doing exactly what turkeys are supposed to do. That right there is the difference.  If you've been searching for pasture-raised turkey in Iowa, or you're planning ahead for a Thanksgiving turkey that actually tastes like something, here's what makes ours worth the drive, the delivery, or the shipping box. What "Pasture-Raised" Actually Means A lot of turkey labels get thrown around loosely. "Free-range" can mean a door to the outdoors that never opens. "Natural" just means no artificial ingredients were added after slaughter, it says nothing about how the bird lived. Pasture-raised, on our farm, means our turkeys spend their days on open Iowa pasture, moving between fresh paddocks, eating grass, bugs, and a locally sourced grain supplement. They get sunlight, space to roam, and room to act like turkeys. That movement and varied diet builds a bird with deeper flavor and better texture than anything raised in a barn. Why Pasture-Raised Turkey Tastes Better Turkeys that walk, forage, and forge their own path across a pasture develop muscle differently than turkeys packed into a confinement barn. The result on your table: Richer flavor. A varied diet of grass and bugs, not just a single formulated feed, builds complexity you can taste.Better texture. Active birds develop firmer meat with less of the mushy quality common in fast-grown, confinement-raised turkeys.Higher fat quality. Pasture access changes the fat composition of the bird, which is a big part of why the meat browns and roasts so well. Ask anyone who has roasted one of our birds for a holiday table. They notice before you even explain why. Raised in Coggon, Iowa, Sold Across Iowa and the Midwest We raise a limited number of turkeys each year on our farm here in Coggon, in eastern Iowa. That means every bird we sell is one we know personally, not a number from a hatchery contract. Most of our turkeys stay close to home. If you're in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Marion, or anywhere near our Thursday delivery route, you can get a pasture-raised turkey delivered straight to your door, or picked up at our retail partner, Buffalo Ridge Orchard Farm Store in Central City. For folks outside our delivery zone, we ship turkeys across the Midwest and beyond, so a pasture-raised Thanksgiving turkey is not just an Iowa thing. Wherever you're hosting this year, we can get one to you. How to Reserve Your Turkey We raise a limited number of turkeys every season, and Thanksgiving reservations fill up well before the holiday. If you want a bird on your table this year: Reserve early. Turkeys are limited, and local Iowa delivery slots go first.Choose delivery or shipping. Local customers can get Thursday delivery or pick up at Buffalo Ridge Orchard Farm Store. Everyone else, we'll ship.Plan your size. Let us know your headcount and we'll help you pick the right bird. A Turkey Worth Talking About There's a reason people who try a pasture-raised turkey rarely go back to the grocery store version. It's not nostalgia, it's the difference an actual pasture makes. Our turkeys walk, forage, and grow at their own pace on our farm in Coggon, and that shows up in every bite. Reserve your pasture-raised turkey from Over the Moon Farm today, whether you're picking up locally in eastern Iowa or having one shipped to your door anywhere in the Midwest.  For pictures and updates of our turkeys on pasture, make sure you are following Over the Moon on Instagram and Facebook! 

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Over the Moon Farm

Over the Moon Farm

Pasture-Raised Meat From Our Iowa Farm

We're a women-owned, family-run farm for a different Iowa — one with healthy food, humane animal care, clean water, thriving communities, and diversity.

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