Local beef

Local rib steak dinner

A cool change with the much bigger farmers’ market we’re at this year is the easy access to lots more local food from other market vendors. We’re there every Saturday, and so are they! (Nothing better for really appreciating a farmers’ market than being both a seller and a buyer…).

The biggest change for me is, suddenly, there’s all sorts of LOCAL MEAT. There’s beef, bison, chicken, emu, rhea (ostrich-like), plus a cured-meat-and-sausage vendor, a butcher, and more (venison and elk, I think, and there must be pork in there as well). Still haven’t gone through it all, but I have started to taste my way through the beef. This week, I’m on to a second beef farm.

My sampling approach is simple: buy a steak cut (I prefer rib) and some ground, expensive and…less so. In the first taste test, the beef was certified organic and 100% grass-fed. Today’s, also certified, is fed a combination of grass (pasture in summer, hay in winter, of course) and corn silage, all grown on their farm.

The meal is pretty local: rib steak, grilled to medium-rare and lightly salted, topped with grilled garlic scapes, tossed in a salt, pepper and olive oil, and our all-lettuce mesclun, just cut, with a drizzle of olive oil and a splash of apple cider vinegar.

The scapes are from our market stand neighbors (it’s so sad not having our own fall-planted garlic in the garden this year!), happen to be organic, gotten on a trade for mesclun. The beef was purchased for full price (vendors give each other a 10% discount here, but I didn’t bother to identify myself just for the savings, I’m sure we’ll get to know each other over the summer…!).

All in all, totally tasty, and even easier to buy and cook than to write about! :)

6 thoughts on “Local beef”

  1. Yummy beef! We’ve just started buying grass-fed and neither of us expected it to be as great as it is. Plus, we’re keeping it local, just as the other poster said. Even better, we’ve started getting local pastured milk delivered to our house. In GLASS bottles!

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  2. The first farmer’s market I ever patronized was almost all meat. I remember pining for a local carrot (many tons rumbled past my door each year) but at least I could buy a whole month’s worth of local, organic meats (beef, poultry, deer, pork, boar, fish) directly from the farmers. Now I’m in an amazing beef growing area- all on pasture and hay but I can’t buy any for love nor money. Enjoy your bounty!

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