In AZ, small ranchers turn back the clock

This story about two small ranchers in Arizona who are opting out of the grain-finished beef production line and have returned to producing beef the way it was produced 100 years ago on the Arizona ranges -- 100% grass-fed using rotational grazing, which protects the animal and the environment -- would be worth clicking to if it weren't for the incredibly annoying animated advertisements on the website. If you decide it's still worth a visit, don't say I didn't warn you.

News from Australia

Not local news, but news of locavorism: In Stirling, South Australia a new cafe called The Locavore, which sources all ingredients from within a 100-mile radius or doesn't use them.

Chalk Food + Wine to focus on local, seasonal ingredients

According to a press release today, Jean-Robert de Cavel's Pho Paris at 118 Greenup Street in Covington will reopen January 15th as Chalk Food + Wine with a menu

using the best fresh ingredients from the season and trying to use local products as much as possible, making everything from scratch.

For reservations call 859.643.1234, and soon the restaurant will be added to OpenTable.

Cheap Food is not an American Tradition

When I hear people complaining about how expensive food is -- and especially about how eating locally is too expensive for the average American -- I like to annoyingly helpfully point out that we spend a smaller percentage of our disposable income than any previous generation.

From a USDA chart showing the percentage of disposable income spent by the average American on food (including food consumed both at home and away from home):


Food -- the food we get from supermarket, the processed and refined food that does us no good, harms the environment, and doesn't provide enough income for small farmers to keep body and soul together -- is cheap. Cheaper than it's ever been, in fact. So cheap that the poor are more likely to be obese than hungry.

Good food -- the sustainably-grown, fresh, tasty food we get from small local farmers -- costs a bit more than the commercially-produced similar items bought in the supermarket. How rich do we really have to be to justify spending what our parents spent for food instead of settling for cheap stuff?

No worries -- the danger is only to the farm and its workers

This response (scroll down to the second Q&A) to a question about whether a gardener who uses his Christmas tree branches as mulch on his strawberries should be concerned about pesticide residues appeared just before Christmas in the New York Times:

A: Probably, but probably not enough for serious concern, especially if you remove the boughs in spring before the needles drop.

The use of pesticides on Christmas trees is decreasing, and most are applied in the growing season. This does not magically render them benign, but it does mean that they largely migrate or degrade before the tree is marketed. Any ill effects fall primarily on the farm, its workers and its environs, not on your strawberries.

Oh, well then. Carry on.

NPR on the demand for hormone-free milk

National Public Radio's Morning Edition included a story this morning on the demand for milk produced without use of artificial hormones which the government insists are harmless to humans.

CAFO'd pigs 'mix' viruses, pass them on to humans

In case you needed another reason to source your pork from local, pastured, sustainably-raised, closed-herd animals, this article in the Dec 19 issue of Meat & Poultry, the business journal for meat and poultry producers, warns pork producers that a new strain of swine influenza holds an ominous difference from earlier versions:

...this new strain has a molecular twist: It is composed of avian and swine influenza genes.

These findings provide further evidence that swine have the potential to serve as a "mixing vessel" for influenza viruses carried by birds, pigs and humans. It also supports the need to continue monitoring swine ― and livestock workers ― for H2-subtype viruses and other influenza strains that might someday threaten swine and human health.

Or possibly we could consider whether the CAFO business model is simply a failed experiment.

Ham from Mohr Animal Acres

I picked up a ham for Christmas brunch from Mohr Animal Acres last time they made their once-a-month winter dropoff in Hyde Park. I wanted to see exactly how it tasted, so Christmas morning I simply put it onto a rack and into a 325 oven until the thermometer read 140, no marinading, glazing or basting. This is the true test of a ham -- can it stand on its own with no overnight marinades, honey-marsala glazes, studdings of cloves, pineapple rings, or every-fifteen-minutes bastings? If it can, it's a darn good ham. Well, this ham was excellent. Several folks commented on how moist, tender, and flavorful it was.

Next time, I'll probably go ahead and gild the lily with a glaze, but if I'm ever short on time and need to just be able to put a piece of meat into a slow oven and serve it two hours later, I'll know I'm safe with a ham from Mohr.

Boulder Belt farm

I drove up to Boulder Belt in Eaton (just west of Dayton) last Friday to visit their farm store. They have a very cool setup, with a separate building right on the road for the store. Boulder Belt is growing in hoophouses and under row covers this winter, so they had a surprising variety of veggies including a large selection of lettuces, leeks, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, parsnips, beets, and radishes. I also bought three cornish game hens (small young chickens) which I roasted in a clay pot and were delicious. No spinach, as that particular row cover was frozen to the ground with last week's snow, and farmer Lucy says the carrots are about over for the season.

I'd been hoping to walk around a bit and take pictures, but the ground was so wet and mushy that it wasn't meant to be. Next time I visit I'll try to pick a drier day and ask for the full tour!

For the locavore who has everything

This is a very cool little cart for running around the farmers' markets.






It folds up to store in your car.







Too bad it's $60. Might be a nice gift for your childless rich foodie uncle, though!