Good morning Reader, I hope you're enjoying these last beautiful weeks of summer. I always love this time of year on the farm. There's so much to notice.

A few of our neighbor's soybean fields are beginning to turn yellow. Those fuzzy black-and-brown caterpillars are everywhere, and hundreds of sparrows are flocking along the electrical line beside our driveway. Summer, it would seem, is beginning to make way for fall.

I was up early this morning with Benj, and together we loaded up a steer headed to the processor for our CSA customers. As we were working the cattle, I found myself thinking about just how much time and care goes into the meat that eventually arrives at your family's table.

A female calf is born, raised and cared for here on the farm. Around two years of age, she has a male calf on pasture. We then raise that calf slowly for another two years, allowing him to spend his life on clean, diverse pastures. We check our cows several times a day, making sure they have fresh water, good forage, and are healthy.

When it is time, we gather the animal directly from pasture (as we did this morning) and trailer it to our meat processor. The beef hangs for about ten days before it is carefully cut and packaged. Then I drive back to pick it all up.

I inventory the entire animal—every cut and every pound—and sort it into 18-pound bundles for our CSA customers. Each month, those bundles make their way up to Eden Prairie and into the freezers of our dear families.

There is a lot of work in that process. But there is also so much love.

I love knowing that the beef you're eating came from an animal that spent its life outside, moving across pasture and eating the grasses grown here on our soil. I love being part of the intentional process that turns sunshine, rain, soil and grass into food for your family.

It is a labor of love, and I am so grateful that I get to do it.

And in the spirit of using the whole animal, I am currently cooking my way through . . . LIVER.

I'll be honest. I don't love the taste, and I'm not particularly fond of the texture either.

But liver has been prized for generations as an incredibly nutrient-dense food, and I don't want good food going to waste simply because I haven't figured out how to prepare it in a way that I enjoy.

So September is going to be my month of liver experimentation.

I'm going to try several different recipes, save the ones that are worth making again, and then share my favorites—and my very honest reviews—with you in October.

If you have a liver recipe you love, please send it my way!

And if you ask me how it's going . . . I'll answer truthfully.

Until then, enjoy these last beautiful days of summer. Notice the changing fields. Listen for the insects. And maybe take a little time to appreciate all the hands, animals, soil, sunshine and care that go into the food on your table.

I'm so glad you're here.

Leah