On Monday afternoon, since I had the day off work, I headed over to Blue Goose Produce in Loomis, CA. My reason for doing this was not to get fresh, locally grown produce as you may expect from a store with such a name, but rather to pick up some of their grass-fed beef. While there, I had the opportunity to pick up some pork from another local producer – Coffee Pot Ranch. I had the good fortune to run into Bob from Coffee Pot selling his wares at the Foothills Farmers Market yesterday afternoon. I asked him if it was a regular occurrence and he confirmed that it was. Pickings were a little slim due to the late hour, but I did score some pork fajita meat for a nice price. There was a little over a pound in the package and about half of it became my breakfast this morning.

This particular farmers market is held in the same parking lot as Whole Foods, who have started to promote a new supposedly healthy eating initiative. Unfortunately, it’s the same old low-fat nonsense that has made Americans fatter and sicker over the last 20 years. This is a shame, because Whole Foods is one of the few places I can find grass-fed beef and other high quality meats. In fact, it’s where I got the bacon I ate for breakfast with the pork. Hopefully their new found enthusiasm for the way of eating they’re promoting doesn’t stop them stocking the good quality meats they carry. If they do, Bob and I will get much better acquainted, which is probably a good thing.

I’ve been eating a lot of grass fed, pasture raised beef recently (more on that soon). The flavor is by far more intense than “regular” grain feed, feed lot raised beef. I often see so called “natural” beef being sold in stores, touting “all vegetarian diets” and proclaiming that the beef is “corn fed”, as if that’s a good thing. The “all vegetarian” point is a no-brainer. What else do herbivores eat? On the other hand, corn, wheat and soy aren’t good for cows. Eating these types of grains makes them fat and unhealthy. Combine this with a life kept in close proximity to hundreds of other similarly fed cattle and it’s a recipe for disaster.

I grew up eating grass fed beef. I grew up in the west of Ireland and we didn’t call it “grass fed, pasture raised” – it was just “beef”. We weren’t exactly short on fields of grass for the cows to munch on. The dairy and beef marketing folks also know that this is how cows are supposed to live. Look at any advertising for beef or dairy – the Real California Cheese or similar milk campaign is a prime example (pun not entirely intended). The cows depicted live on rolling hills, chewing on grass. Ask any child where cows live and what they eat. Unless they have been indoctrinated, either by modern agri-business or hippy dippy parents like me, they’ll tell you that cows live in fields and eat grass.

If all you know is grain fed beef, do yourself a huge favor and track down a grass fed steak. If at all possible, look for something as local as you can. It won’t be as fatty (but the fat will be of much higher quality), so it can dry out more quickly. Sear it in a rocket hot cast iron pan and cook it to medium, medium well if you absolutely must, but no more. If you can do medium rare or rare, so much the better. This is a joy I only came to know once I moved to the US. As I look back now, I find it somewhat ironic that I grew up eating some of the best beef in the world, but had it cooked to oblivion. I guess we live and learn and some times we need to go back to some of the first things we learned, like where cows live and what they eat.