What’s in Season: Lobster Hill Farm’s ham steak

Andrew Jarrett of Lobster Hill Farm  in Brewster with his ham steaks. Amy Sowder PHotos

By AMY SOWDER

In the woodlands of Brewster about 20 minutes north of Katonah, pigs grunt and snort their satisfaction as they root under the branches and fallen leaves for insects and other foraged food.

This is the backdrop where the Jarrett family live and work their 75-acre Lobster Hill Farm. It’s a regenerative farm offering pasture-raised meats including lamb, pork and poultry; pasture-raised eggs; small-batch goat dairy products; farm shares; and on-farm activities. (Ask about the spring goat-snuggling events.) The beef is raised at a nearby farm in Dutchess County.

The other steak

For something different in pork, ham steak is where it’s at.

So says Andrew Jarrett, who sells their locally-raised food at area markets on his days off from his weekday job while his wife, Jessica, runs the farm operation, plus homeschools their five children. 

In early March, Jarrett manned the Lobster Hill Farm booth at the new Bedford Hills Community Market, hosted monthly at the hamlet’s train depot. The next market is Saturday, April 4, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.. Lobster Hill Farm will also have a booth at the North Salem Farmers Market when it returns May 9 and the farmers market at Honeybee Grove Flower Farm when it returns June 7.

Pulling out a 1.6-pound, vacuum-sealed slab of marbled meat from his red coolers, Jarrett extols the joys of ham steak. 

“Ham steak. It’s not overly common,” he said. “A lot of people look at me funny when I talk about it. Everyone sees the word ‘steak’ and thinks beef.”

Ham steak is smoked like a holiday ham and sliced 1 to 2 inches thick. “You have a nice little bit of fat all around that crisps up like bacon,” Jarrett said.

Cooking a ham steak is much easier than a holiday ham, though. Just throw it in a cast iron pan and heat it up. After all, it’s already smoked. 

This piece of meat is tender, too. “The kids devour it,” he said.

Don’t cut off the bordering fat before you cook the steak, Jarrett advises.

“Don’t let it go to waste. Cook it down and use it like bacon,” or use it as cooking fat for collard greens or green beans.

A regenerative way of raising meat

The Jarrett family’s pork is raised in the woods, not feedlots. They supplement the pigs’ natural omnivorous foraging diets (roots, tubers, worms, beetles, mushrooms, nuts, seeds and an occasional small animal) with grain rations and scraps.

It’s all a part of the regenerative mission on this farm.

Regenerative farming restores soil health, improves water retention and adds biodiversity through rotational grazing, cover cropping and integrating livestock. These strategies rebuild ecosystems rather than depleting them over time, building topsoil instead of eroding it, the farm founders say. Healthy soil stores more water, reducing runoff during heavy rains.

While grass-fed cattle, goats, sheep and poultry do their thing, pasture-raised pigs root and turn soil, preparing areas for planting. Like the other animals, there’s no confinement or routine antibiotics, Jarrett said. The pigs’ natural diet of foraging builds muscle and more fat naturally for better marbling, richer flavor and more nutrient density.

Their pigs also help minimize food waste by feeding on food scraps from Second Chance Foods, a hunger relief organization in Brewster. 

“We try to minimize not only our own food waste, but the community’s food waste too,” Jarrett said.

When the heritage and crossbred pigs reach 250 to 300 pounds, they’re ready for market. Cuts more common than ham steak include chops, roasts, ribs, bacon, sausage and ground pork. The meat is processed at a USDA-inspected facility and then vacuum-sealed.

About that lobster

As for the question on everyone’s mind? No, they don’t catch, farm or sell lobster. 

The family lived in Portland, Maine, for some time, where lobster is embedded in the culture. Then they moved to rural New York in 2020 and started farming.

“It was a fun hobby farm that turned into a locally sourced food farm,” Jarrett said. “We lived on a hill in Lake Carmel and had a small garden and chickens and sold our food at the edge of our driveway. Then it expanded.”

Despite the lack of its namesake seafood, this landlocked farm shines at producing great eggs and juicy meat — especially those ham steaks.

“I think this is a very underrated way to have ham,” Jarrett said.

Lobster Hill Farm is located at 300 Foggington Road, Brewster. For more information, visit lobsterhhillfarm.com.