Cameron English interviewed me recently for his blog, the Eldorado County Conservative Examiner.
You can read part one here. Part two will appear later.
Meanwhile, I’m happy to report that we’ve been enjoying grass-fed meats from a local farm here in Tennessee. (The stuff tastes exactly like meat.) Tonight’s dinner was lamb steaks. Earlier in the week, I covered a burger with some melted raw-milk cheese I bought at the local farmers market. More on that later.
If you enjoy my posts, please consider a small donation to the Fat Head Kids GoFundMe campaign.
Raw milk cheese is just awesome. Gonna try to make some in the not too distant future.
People make the stuff? I thought farmers collected it from under the cows, after collecting eggs from the chickens. I guess that clears up one question: I was wondering where the farmer got a baby Swiss cow.
Man, I have a lot to learn …
My wife and I buy a lot of grass-fed meat and raw cheese from local farmers in Virginia and one in Pennsylvania. It’s nice to have personal relationships with the people who sell food to you. The grass-fed meat angle is one that needs to be emphasized more in low-carb diets. Thankfully, I think we’re seeing a good change in this regard.
It’s the same couple manning the booth at the farmers market every week. There is indeed something refreshing about knowing the people who raised your food.
Maybe it’s a placebo effect, but I swear I felt full sooner on the grass-fed meat. If so, perhaps my body felt nourished and said that’s enough.
Tom, can I ask you how you cooked your burger? I tried some grass fed once and the texture was kind of strange but I think I may have overcooked it.
I believe my wife fried it in a pan after sauteeing some onions in butter. The texture was fine.
We recently made the switch to grass-fed beef (bought 1/2 a cow from a farmer who lives 75 miles away). The flavor is great, but the first roast we over-cooked. Found out afterwards that grass-fed beef should be cooked 50 degrees lower than corn-fed beef. I don’t notice it making a difference with hamburger though.
Tom, we have a nephew who lives in Franklin. Next time we visit I’m going to buy you a cup of coffee or something.
My wife was told to back off on the cooking time a bit and did, apparently.
Let me know when you’re coming this way.
Grass fed meat seems to cook different. When I cook burgers, I have to watch close. When it’s still pink in the middle, I stop. It continues to cook until it’s almost not pink at all. It is easier to overcook grass fed beef. That being said, I don’t worry too much about eating it rare, being that they aren’t raised in crowded, conditions and are butchered locally one at a time, and not in cow-factory type conditions.
I like my steaks pink-to-red in the middle, so I definitely feel safer with the locally-raised variety. Plus that humburger I ate probably came from a single cow.
“I swear I felt full sooner on the grass-fed meat.”
Anecdotally, I find that too. I’m on an all grass dairy farm and get all of the grass fed beef and full fat (cream included) raw milk I can consume. Hence the desire to make some raw milk cheese. At a restaurant I can eat a big 1lb steak easy enough, but on the farm I often struggle.
If you can track down some jersey (breed of dairy cow) meat then try it. The fat is yellow and tastes distinctly different than what you get from store bought stuff. This may be difficult for you as I believe most of the dairy cattle in your neck of the woods are Holstein-Fresians.
I’m not sure on the type of cattle, but I definitely find the grass-fed meat more satisfying.
Links to the examiner interviews don’t work