Meet Your Meat

I'm continuing my catch-up on events at Bushel and Peck's Local Grocery. A talk was given in late August by Rich Horbaczewski, who is one of the owners of the store, as well as Grass is Greener Gardens. He and Jackie raise chickens/eggs, sheep and turkeys, as well as grow potatoes, herbs and cut flowers. This talk was an opportunity to hear how they started the farm and learn more about the challenges of sustainable farming.

By now, I've read a lot about the difficulties of meeting organic standards, especially for raising meat. Keeping animals healthy while avoiding excessive medication and allowing them plenty of access to pesticide-free grazing is the least of the problems. The National Organics Standard Board requires every step of the way to be certified organically, from the food the animals eat, to the processor that does the butchering. Often times these requirements are beyond what small producers can afford, so the farmers have to forgo the organic label.

It was interesting to hear about it, from some one in "the trenches." Rich pointed out that to get his chickens to the nearest organic butcher, he would have to drive all of them four hours to Decorah, Iowa. If he wanted that label, he would have to completely stress the birds out during the trip. Organic, but not particularly humane. Grass is Greener Gardens has decided to meet as many of the organic standards as possible, but opts to process their meat at Lena Meats in Illinois, just across the border.

Other things I learned:
-Eggs labeled as being from "vegetarian" chickens are not necessarily better. Chickens love to peck in the dirt and eat bugs--there's been studies that find the bug-fueled eggs actually have higher levels of Omega-3s. Go Grubs!
(more on this from Wednesday's New York Times)

-Cornish Cross chickens are a breed developed by Tyson to grow super-fast (6 weeks) with gigantic breasts. They are pretty dumb and slow and, therefore, are a treat to foxes and raccoon and owls who are looking for a midnight snack. Rhode Island Reds (what GGG raises) take a lot longer (10-12 weeks), but they are pretty sharp and keep an eye out for predators. Nonetheless, they are much more expensive to raise because they have to be cared for a fed almost twice as long as the Cornish Cross.

-The best time to have sheep give birth ("throw lambs") is in the winter. If you are avoiding antibiotics, there are no mosquitos/ticks/fleas/etc. to pass on disease or infection. It's pretty rough on the farmer, tho.

-(My favorite anecdote) Because lambs are born in the winter, if a ewe rejects one, there's a chance that it may freeze to death. Rich has found several that were pretty cold, but he brought them inside, put them in a warm tub and eventually "defrosted" them. He says they are pretty bone-headed (one liked to sleep with his head in a bucket), but otherwise fine. They have to be bottle-fed and, therefore, become pretty attached to Rich and a few got to live in the house while Jackie was away. I guess that situation didn't last--especially when the baa-ing in the background drowned out phone conversations.