Anderson Family Biscuit and Gravy Breakfast

Craving flaky golden biscuits loaded with hearty sausage gravy for breakfast? Life on a farming operation requires long hours, especially in the growing and harvest seasons. So a filling breakfast is not only essential to start the day, but a treasured time for family to gather and spend special time together. For Jessica Anderson, a traditional sausage gravy breakfast evokes special memories of family mornings on the farm. 

“I think some of the best memories and connections you can make with family is sitting around the table with a good meal." – Jessica Anderson

Biscuit Ingredients:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 dash salt
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1.5 cup buttermilk

Gravy Ingredients:

• 2 pounds sausage
• 1/2 cup flour
• 6 cups milk
• Salt & Pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a bowl. Cut in 1/2 cup butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix in the buttermilk. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, roll out, & cut out biscuits. Place on a cookie sheet or in a cast iron skillet.
3. Bake for 13-15 minutes in the oven or until the tops look golden brown.
4. Prepare the gravy by browning the sausage in a large cast iron skillet.
5. Once brown, turn down the heat & add flour. Whisk it in with the sausage & drippings.
6. Once mixed, slowly add milk while continuously stirring. Keep stirring until it comes to a simmer & thickens–about 5-10 minutes.
7. Add salt & pepper to taste, and then serve over your biscuits.

Behind-the-Scenes at the Anderson Family Farm

Farming and ranching is more than the cattle drives and the harvest season. Countless hours of behind-the-scenes work go into filling livestock tanks, greasing the equipment, and even feeding a hungry army of farmhands.

Jessica Anderson, wife of Dan Anderson and co-owner of the Anderson Farm in Fillmore, Utah, has her hands full helping on the farm, chasing busy farm kids, and keeping everyone fed.

There's a lot of time and energy put into feeding all these hungry farmers,” Jessica says. She fuels the heart of the Anderson operation by making meals and being the designated farm “Uber Eats” driver, taking food out to the fields.

“It’s a whole operation with a million working parts,” Jessica says of all the behind-the-scenes work she and her young children do to keep things running smoothly. “There are many little ways for everybody to be involved if they want to.”

Along with crops, cattle, and a blossoming meat-packing business, Jessica and her family also tend a garden, chickens, and a handful of small animals that keep her and the young Anderson farmhands busy around their homestead.

Jessica and Dan believe helping with tasks around the farm is the best way to teach their children important values. “We love that we can teach them values like hard work and honesty,” Jessica says.

As the kids grow, so do their roles in the everyday tasks around the farm. Carson, the eldest of the Anderson kids, has gotten more involved in farm operations, trapping pests, cutting thistles around the fields, and even helping care for and run the farm equipment. “I like having a job I can do,” Carson says. “I like being involved.”

“Helping with the equipment is more for the older kids,” Jessica says, but each Anderson kid contributes to the farm by collecting fresh eggs and feeding the many small animals nearby.

Although it always feels like a busy season on the Anderson Farm, Jessica and Dan are grateful for time with their family and the lessons their children will learn as they contribute to all the behind-the-scenes tasks that keep their operation running.

Find out how IFA is helping grow the Anderson Family Farm

Written by Mikyla Bagley. Recipe courtesy of Jessica Anderson and originally published in the IFA Cooperator magazine (vol. 90, no. 1) Spring 2024.