Tag: Superior Farms

Categories
Superior Farms

Food and Dining Trends for 2022

Superior Farms roast

It’s been decided. 2022 is a year for recovery, rebuilding, and good eating.

Learning about new cuisines and trying experimental flavors show how we’ve all gotten interested in fresh ways of thinking about food, and below, Superior Farms takes a look at some of the latest trends in dining this year.

No-Fuss Food

The pandemic and subsequent lockdown gave us time to develop our culinary skills but now things are returning to normal, we’re seeing a rise in people wanting quick, no-fuss meal solutions.

That’s why 2022 is already seeing a rise in meal kit purchases, high-quality ready-meals, and food solutions that are still tasty and enjoyable, but that don’t require hours of preparation.

Meal prepping ahead of schedule is on the rise, too, however, as we use the weekends and other free time to put together meals for the week.

Staying at Home is Here to Stay

We might not be governmentally mandated to stay home any longer, but while quarantine sanctions have been lifted, many of us are still choosing to dine at home.

It means that restaurants are having to diversify their businesses to not only encourage the return of dine-in customers but greatly improve their takeout and delivery services. This way they don’t lose customers, and customers don’t lose out on their favorite cuisines.

Sustainable Solutions

We’ve all come out of the pandemic more aware of the world around us, and our impact on it. This has led to many of us making more conscious decisions around not just the kind of food we eat, but where it’s sourced.

It’s what’s leading people back to naturally-raised foods, such as fresh lamb from American farms using sustainable and innovative methods in their production, as companies live the change they wish to see in the world.

It’s why we’re seeing a huge rise in mushrooms, too. They’re the food we can’t seem to get enough of now, and it’s so easy to grow them at home and accompany them with our favorite meats or even enjoy them on their own.

Superior Farms children mixing ingredients

Experimenting with Flavors

Restrictions on travel have left us with a wanderlust we’ve not been able to satisfy for a while, but we can go some way to alleviating the craving for the exotic by introducing new spices and flavors in the kitchen.

Whether it’s a hearty lamb broth dashed with paprika and Worcestershire sauce, an umami-rich seaweed salad with garlic-infused hot oil, or a tart, earthy shot of hibiscus in your favorite cocktail, 2022 is a time to experiment with the kinds of flavors we might never have tried before.

Watch out for the ‘swicy’ trend, too – swicy is the buzz word of 2022 and means a mix of sweet and spicy sensations in one.

One thing’s for sure: we’re excited to see where 2022 takes the culinary world, and we’re sure that with the best quality, sustainable ingredients, we’ll be able to enjoy some wonderful dining moments.

Categories
Superior Farms

Superior Farms Discusses Why Families are Opting for Lamb This Holiday Season

Superior Farms

Superior Farms knows that the holidays are looking a bit different this year for many of us. While gatherings may be smaller than usual or facilitated by online means, one thing will remain the same- people still want great food. Turkey is certainly one of the most popular proteins for Thanksgiving, but it is not the only protein that is worthy of gracing the table. American families looking to shake things up this year are looking at a variety of other options, including American lamb, to bring some new flavors to their holiday meal. Here, Superior Farms details a couple reasons why this is the case.

One reason that some families are opting for lamb this holiday season is because it cooks more quickly in the oven than some other proteins. The holidays typically have us preparing a long list of sides, many of which will take up coveted space on the stove or in the oven. With lamb, quicker cook times mean that you can spend less time babysitting your protein and pay more attention to making side dishes just as flavorful. Superior Farms notes that cook time is not the only place where a home chef can shave a few minutes off their mealtimes when cooking with lamb. Because lamb is naturally tender and flavorful, there’s no need to inject it when baking. Basting can be done to keep the lamb moist and absorbing flavor, but marinades, injections, and the constant watching associated with poultry can be avoided by going with lamb instead.

  Another reason that families are adding lamb to their holiday menu is because this year feels like a great time to experiment a bit. We are all aware of the impact COVID-19 is having on many of our holiday celebrations, with some of us opting for smaller scale meetings and others deciding to keep the festivities among members of our immediate household or through online means. With breaking from some elements of tradition, home-chefs are getting more experimental with what they put on the dinner table. For families that eat lamb less often than other proteins, Superior Farms suggests this holiday is the perfect time to discover it. It also has a flavor profile that lends itself to either culinary experimentation or doubling down on tried and true holiday flavors.

There is a wide variety of foods that would be suitable for your table this holiday season, and you and your family cannot go wrong if you are choosing options that bring comfort. Superior Farms hopes that everyone stays safe over the holidays and takes the time to share joy with those who matter most.

Categories
Superior Farms

Superior Farms Explains Why Lamb is a Healthy Choice

Superior Farms lamb in red baking dish

Superior Farms is the leading provider of American lamb. You may have never tried lamb but it is a very versatile red meat that is most common in Mediterranean, and American diets. You may be thinking… is lamb a healthier meat choice? The short answer is Yes. Why? Lamb contains many vital nutrients such as zinc, iron, selenium, and vitamin B12 and is an excellent source of protein. Red meat can sometimes get a bad rep but having high quality grass-fed lamb can be an excellent source of protein and a great part of a balanced diet.

Excellent Source of Iron

The iron contained in lamb is Heme iron, Heme iron is the more absorbable form of iron so consuming this specific iron may help improve and prevent iron deficiency and anemia symptoms.

Vitamin B Power House

Lamb is a great source of B12. Only 3 ounces of lamb meat will provide half of most people’s daily B12 requirements. Other than B12 lamb is loaded with many other essential B vitamins such as vitamin B6, niacin vitamin B3, riboflavin vitamin B2, and pantothenic acid B5. B vitamins help cell health, energy levels, good eyesight, healthy brain function, good digestion, healthy appetite, proper nerve function.

Incredibly Nutrient Dense, and Benefits Immune System

Lamb contains zinc which is an immune boosting vitamin that is essential to your immune health. The amount of healthy fats and nutrients in lambs make it incredibly nutrient dense.

Anti-Inflammatory Effects

Lamb also contains a significant amount of Omega-3 fatty acids which have anti-inflammatory effects. Grass-fed lamb like Superior Farms helps provide conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). CLA is essentially a group of chemicals found in fatty acid called linoleic acid. CLA has been proven to aid in fat loss, improve lean muscle mass, and be a potential cancer fighter.

Protein Power House

The protein content of lean, cooked lamb is usually 25-26% which means it can be very beneficial to consume for muscle recovery. Protein has so many amazing benefits including slow burning sustainable fuel for humans, muscle recovery and building muscle. The protein found in lamb is made of essential amino acids that are essential to most diets.

If you have not yet given lamb a chance you should. Lamb has so many incredible benefits, which make it a healthy alternative to other red meats. Superior Farms prides itself on providing high quality grass-fed lamb to their customers in order to give them the best nutrients.

Categories
Superior Farms

Superior Farms Discusses its Commitment to Rising to the Challenge

Superior Farms lamb
Source: vipavlenkoff

Superior Farms would like to extend its most sincere sympathies to individuals that have been negatively affected either physically, financially, or emotionally by the current crisis. At Superior Farms, the continued safety of its employee-owners is immensely important. Because of this, very early on in the crisis, extraordinary precautions were taken to ensure their wellbeing, and the company is fortunate to find that none of its more than 470 employee-owners have been seriously affected the COVID-19 crisis as of late.

Superior Farms recognizes that this pandemic presents a host of difficulties for both its food service customers and the American lamb industry. In the last week of March, as stay at home orders and social distancing measures were implemented across the country almost overnight, restaurants all over shut their doors and as much as 50 percent of the industry’s revenue was impacted. The implications of this reality are not lost on Superior Farms, and the company has established a list of core objectives during this time. For example, Superior Farms has noted the increase in demand in retail demand for American lamb and has worked tirelessly to meet these demands to the benefit of consumers across the country. To this point, Superior Farms has also made it an objective to get its product to retail customers quickly by efficiently processing as much lamb as possible at its facilities. Ensuring that the company can support food service customers in any way possible and devote the necessary energy to prepare for their eventual reopening is another objective that Superior Farms upholds through the ever-changing landscape of the current situation.

Superior Farms is optimistic that these challenging times can be successfully navigated. Optimism can seem naïve to some, but Superior Farms and its dedicated team choose optimism as their preferred way to respond to the challenges that the COVID-19 crisis present to them. This is because Superior Farms acknowledges how much more powerful resolving to do something in response to tough situations is than saying that there is nothing that can be done to change the tide of an unfortunate situation. Every day, each of Superior Farms’ employee-owners do everything that they can to ensure that the company can meet the growing needs of our valued, loyal customers. As the COVID-19 crisis continues, it is important to remember that we are in this together and that we, together, will continue do what is necessary to succeed and come out of this stronger than ever.

Categories
Superior Farms

Superior Farms and Expanding Potential

Superior Farms

Superior Farms is always operating from the standpoint that the limitations that we place upon ourselves undoubtedly play a role in effecting our potential. In a story told by Nick Saban, acclaimed college football coach, the topic is touched upon in a humorous but effective way. In the story, Saban depicts his childhood in West Virginia, being unable to catch any fish despite his best efforts. An older child nearby was not having the same problem, catching a wide variety of sized fish but, puzzlingly, throwing the bigger fish back into the river. When Saban finally reached the point of frustration, he asked the older boy why he was keeping the small fish as opposed to the large ones. The boy’s reply was that it was because he only had a 9-inch frying pan—he wouldn’t have enough room to cook larger fish.

The small anecdote brings one to the conclusion that the arbitrary limitations that we impose on ourselves in life can impact our growth, potential, and results. With restrictions comes untapped capacity for going above and beyond, but there is always the ability to grow our frying pan by venturing out of our comfort zone in pursuit of higher ambitions and results.

Superior Farms knows that the recipe for growing our proverbial frying pan is often linked to failure. Commonly, the best way to learn the skills that allow us to take the limiters off our own performance is to fail fast and frequently, adapting from these failures in a way that pushes us towards a forward trajectory. Our frying pan can also be grown by progression, letting ourselves and our biases be changed by new ideas and experiences, consuming inspirational material, and meeting people that inspire our drive.

Superior Farms and its employee-owners are always learning from these mantras—acknowledging that with the discomfort that comes from leaving our complacent ways comes a natural progression that expands our pan. This is why Superior Farms is frequently engaging in new technological opportunities, ventures into new markets and consistently working toward creating both new products and improving upon mainstays. Sometimes there are failures or missteps along the way, but they all allow us to learn and use these lessons for the benefit of both our customers and industry partners. Superior Farms thanks all readers and customers for their continued support of American lamb and the industry.

Categories
Superior Farms

Superior Farms Discusses Retail Grocery Trends

Superior Farms

Companies such as Amazon have been making large investments into the home grocery delivery service industry, as noted with the continued growth of Amazon Fresh and similar resources for online orders. These strides have been ever prevalent since 2017, when Amazon acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, solidifying their foray into the grocery sector. Other retail giants, such as Walmart and Kroger, are similarly following suit and emphasizing online grocery sales in their own ways as well.

These changes inevitably cause consumers to wonder what the developments mean for brick-and-mortar stores with most agreeing that, while physical stores are certainly not going anywhere anytime soon, the growth in online sales revenue from home deliveries points to interesting changes in a once fairly static industry.  For example, CNBC has reported that Walmart experienced a 41 percent increase in online sales in 2019’s third quarter, anticipating a growth of 35 percent for the full year when compared to that of 2018. Walmart and Kroger predict that, by 2025, ten percent of total sales will come as a result of online delivery service. These findings point to the population’s growing acceptance of online grocery deliveries.

Superior Farms, as America’s leading lamb marketer and processor, has seen changes due to the developing trend of online grocery service as well in the past year as well. For example, Superior Farms experienced a 28 percent growth in sales in 2019 when compared to 2018, in part due to Amazon Fresh’s online delivering strategy. Superior Farms expects that the trend will only continue, as lamb’s popularity and versatility as a protein becomes more evident and more online grocery delivery sales include lamb as Walmart and Kroger take leaps into the online grocery sector.

The home grocery delivery space is not without its challenges, however, as some consumers hesitate to trust a deliverer to peruse fresh items such as meat and produce and select the best quality available. Still, the intrinsic benefits of online ordering are largely winning out, as consumers are enticed by quite a few aspects of the practice. Most notably, the convenience factor of ordering online and having groceries delivered is very appealing.  Consumers also cite benefits such as the ability to keep track of spending as contributing factors to their increasing acceptance of online grocery delivery.  In addition to monitoring spending habits, consumers are becoming more at ease with having their fresh meat and produce selected by a delivery worker.

While some of the projections for the grocery industry and online grocery delivery are speculative, one thing that is for certain is that Superior Farms continues to provide top-quality product to customers, whether those customers be brick-and-mortar retailers or online.

Categories
Superior Farms

Superior Farms Puts Care for Their Animals and Customers Above All Else

Superior Farms lamb

Superior Farms believes that to live up to the name of superior they must make every effort to handle their lambs with the proper care. It all stems from how the lambs that come from Superior Farms are raised. Certain newborn lambs are provided with a specially designed probiotic paste that been proven to help the lambs grow up healthy and active. It’s not just about what the lamb is able to eat, it’s about how the flocks are able to live. In order to be a rancher with Superior Farms, there must be a commitment to allowing the lambs to roam freely and live off the land.

Superior Farms goes a step further to ensure the health of the flock by offering their ranchers genetic testing through the Flock54 program. This allows producers to test their flock’s DNA for animal parentage and traits associated with disease, production and meat quality, helping to ensure that Superior Farms produces healthy lamb. And lastly, no lambs from Superior Farms are given added hormones.

The animal care at Superior Farms extends to handling. In order to provide the best processing facility possible, Superior Farms contracted Templin Grandin of Colorado State University. Grandin’s input helped with the design of Superior Farms handling facilities as well as how the facilities are run. One of the best examples of the superiority of these facilities is the Dixon, California Superior Farms facility. The North American Meat Institute, also commonly referred to as NAMI, featured the facility as an example of how a modern meat processing facility should look and operate to maximize efficiency and sustainability.

It’s not enough to offer lambs a great life on the ranch. Superior Farms takes their responsibility to run humane facilities extremely seriously. Superior Farms facilities regularly undergo audits from The British Retail Consortium. This audit is known as one of the strictest audits in the food safety industry. Additionally, Superior Farms facilities has USDA inspectors on the premises, partnering directly with facility staff to ensure the highest compliance with safety and standards.

Once the meat is processed, Superior Farms provides airtight packaging. Airtight packaging is utilized to ensure that all lamb products only need to be packaged once, which eliminates waste. In addition to this, the airtight packages help food stay fresh for a longer duration of time. This allows the lamb to be consumed safely for longer periods of time.