In the interest of equal time for carnivores and in response to the recent “Eat Less Meat” graphic in the sidebar, I share with you a marketing message I received today from an organic grass fed beef operation up near Douglas City in Trinity County…
As for me, I’m doing my part for the locavore movement. I get my grass fed beef from the Trautman Family Farm a few miles east of here.
(And I still think it will be better for the planet if all of us omnivores moderate our intake of meat.)
Thanks.
What was it Goldwater said? Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue, but as You say, in most all other endeavors Moderation is a good thing. I agree.
I just cooked up some considerable GREAT beef stock from the shank bones on the last steer. It lives in the freezer for a short time before coming out to blend with tomato juice for GASPACHO (that summertime blessing that uses up masses of tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, little red onions, fresh picked yellow wax beans, and is the prefect ending to a hot summer day (especially with fresh cornbread
into which ears of new corn have been scraped.) The gelatin in beef stock adds depth of flavor, otherwise absent protein,
not to mention that ‘slip’ on the lip that tells our palates “rich”.
Beef vegetable soup (the meat from those shanks), with some toothsome homemade bow-tie pasta, and all the summer veggies overflowing the pantry except the cucumbers, joined the stock in the deep freeze for a welcome 2nd dinner – fast food at it’s best.
That was a good critter we killed last fall. Not only do it’s bones form a structure for meals, but the silky 6″ thick winter pelt warms the floor and is so soft as to tempt nudity. Not to mention the hilly pastures he helped maintain, keeping the sod healthy and mowed and transforming grass to protein on our behalf.
Those who eschew beef altogether abandon a wonderful source of food. Those who eat fast food burgers, asserting (as some school lunch programs have) that the ketchup on them counts as a vegetable serving, might well be reminded that meat and dairy are complements rather than replacements to produce. In that role, they complete flavor and nutrition panels for so many other healthy food, as well as enhancing food choice and off season food storage options.
Betty Jo, I’m inspired! Right now there are stealth zucchinis the size of submarines lurking in the garden, and the onions and peppers are coming in faster than we can use them. Tomatoes got a late start so we are not yet overwhelmed, just comfortably supplied with Sungold cherry tomatoes. And cucumbers? Don’t get me started. Anyway, I think there’s a salsa waiting to happen right now, this afternoon!
It sounds to me like you used everything from that steer except the moo.