Where do you lie on the responsible meat spectrum?

In my opinion a good steak is one of life’s greatest dining pleasures.  Most people’s definition of a good steak is tender with plenty of fat throughout which melts in your mouth.  The cattle industry is mostly made up of Factory Farms and corn-fed cows which is not natural and not the way that cows were meant to be raised.  Humans desire for the ‘perfect’ steak has created the industry this way.  Feeding cows corn for long periods makes them fatter and pumping them full of hormones and other additives makes them grow faster so that they can be sold cheaper and faster.  Fortunately there are steakhouses like Mooo that prove that an amazing tasting steak can come from pasture-raised, grass fed cows like nature intended.

I have had the wonderful fortune to have been to Mooo on multiple occasions.  Located in the Beacon Hill area of Boston the menu is refreshingly transparent, stating the farm and source for each of the steaks.  They even state in some cases whether the cows were totally grass-fed or grass and grain fed in some cases, I will explain the differences later on but this level of detail is hard to find.  It is not my intention to give a restaurant review in this article, there are plenty of reviews online praising the quality of the food, service and everything else that makes this restaurant special.  My objective here is to take a closer look at the sources of the meat on the menu so that people can make an educated choice of the source that best suits their own meat beliefs.

The farms stated on the menu are a who’s who of the cattle farms that are known for raising cows the way they should be – pasture-raised and treated humanely.  Let’s go through them one by one.

Greater Omaha – I have to admit that I passed over this at first and have not tried steaks from this farm.  Factory Farms are primarily located in the mid-west and my immediate response was that this was the same.  A closer read of their website has changed my mind slightly.  The company works with a number of smaller producers who are all located in within 300 miles of Omaha, Nebraska.  There is also a section where some of their producers describe their farm practices.  There are mentions of non-hormone treatment, humane handling, feed yards and growing crops such as corn and alfalfa to feed their animals.  This is where you need to make a decision on where you sit on the meat philosophy spectrum – are you a grass-fed purist or are you satisfied with the small farm that is growing their own crops including corn without hormones to feed their cows (still a much better situation than the a factory farm)?  Within the FAQ section of the website they state that all of the beef is pasture-raised and grain finished.  What does this mean?  This means that for most of the cows life they are eating grass in the pasture but at the end they are fed a grain diet (often including corn) to fatten them up.  There are some farms that are 100% grass-fed (grass-fed grass-finished).  Where do I sit on the spectrum?  I would prefer the 100% grass-fed side and look for those options but I can live with the grass-fed grain-finished from the right farm that is not using the right grain (no animal products, hormones or no-natural additives).

Painted Hills – The menu lets you know that the steaks from this farm are grass-fed, grain-finished.  The Painted Hills website explains the process of transitioning from grass-fed to grain fed – this is a gradual operation where the diet is switched from grass to hay and roughage then corn is slowly introduced until a level of about 70% corn. Also states no added hormones, antibiotics or animal products.  All this happens over 4 months.  On their website you can also buy their products and interestingly they also have 100% grass-fed product line which they state is 100% corn free.  These products will ship from Oregon, my absolute best preference is to buy products locally from farms in Massachusetts or New England.

Creekstone Farms – The menu just says all natural but the Creekstone website states that their cows are pasture-raised then corn-finished (no hormones, antibiotics, animal products).  They also have a product which has been fed non-GMO feed.  The Creekstone HQ and processing takes place in Kansas City and they say that all their farms are in the USA but they don’t say the locations (did find one section which stated that they are in the mid-west) and no mention of when the corn diet starts and how much of the diet is corn.

Australian Ribeye – Menu doesn’t say the farm but says 100% grass-fed.  I asked the waiter did they know the farm and he told me it was on the Darling Downs.  There is a great article published online from NPR in August which says that 75-80% of the 100% grass-fed beef in the US comes from Australia, New Zealand or South American since these regions have large areas of grass land where cattle can graze all year round. Love that they have this 100% grass fed option – would be great if it was from a local farm rather than flying it all the way from Australia, guess this shows how difficult it is to raise 100% grass-fed cattle in the US.

Mishima grade Wagyu ribeye – Menu says this is is all natural from Strube ranch.  The Strube ranch website says this Texas-based farm raises their cattle on pasture but once they are weaned (usually at 6 months) they are introduced to a grain based diet over 90 days then moved to an Iowa feedlot for 350-400 days – this is apparently a typical process used in Japan .  Their feed never contains antibiotics, hormones or animal products.  Here the cow is moved to a grain based diet much quicker than described above for Creekstone and Painted Hills and therefore lies further on the spectrum towards a factory farm situation.  The quality of the feed is all-natural but is a long way from the natural way of totally grass-fed.   For me this steps over the line.

Mooo does an amazing job at being transparent with the source of their steaks, as good as any restaurant I have dined at.  They state the farm and even the method which the cow was raised in some cases and most people may not even pay attention to these details (I ate here before I changed my meat philosophy and didn’t pay attention either).  However if you are a Selective Omnivore (or carnivore) and will only eat meat that adheres to certain standards you have multiple options here from 100% grass fed for complete purists to grass-fed but grain finished for a short time to mostly grain fed from all natural grain.  Hopefully this article can help you chose where you sit on the meat spectrum and make you make the best choice for your own meat philosophy.

NOTE:  would like to know if any of my information is incorrect or I missed some details on the farms

Just how good is B.GOOD?

B.GOOD is a casual restaurant chain that promotes itself as ‘Food with Roots’ through responsibly sourced food and a strong connection to the farmers that produce food by developing a community spirit.  Grabbing a quick bite at a casual restaurant is part to modern life.  Most people can’t afford some the fancy farm to table restaurants out there but want to be able to good food with meat raised the right way that doesn’t cost a fortune.  Sometimes you need a good place the take the kids as well when you don’t want to cook or you are on road and traditional fast food options are out since they are notorious for using factory farms for meat.  B.GOOD touts itself as that restaurant and with location in 13 US states (primarily on the East Coast), Germany, Switzerland and Canada deserves a closer look at it’s sourcing practices.  The purpose of this article is not to review the restaurants (I have been to a few locations and the food is great) but to look more closely at the food sources and their farming practices.

The B.GOOD website has a ton of information and there is a storing theme that Animal Welfare is very important here.  This excerpt has some of the key information:

Where We Are at Now
Animal welfare has been an important cornerstone of our business since the beginning, and we are proud to share where we are now:

1. Laying Hens: 100% of our shell eggs come from cage-free laying hens and 73% are Certified Humane.
2. Chicken: 93%* of the chicken in our supply chain were never administered antibiotics and were fed an all vegetarian diet. This product is supplied by the Perdue brand Harvestland.
3. Pigs: 80% of our pork is Certified Humane, which does not allow the use of gestation crates or farrowing crates.
4. Beef: 97%** of the beef in our supply comes from cows that were never administered hormones or antibiotics.
5. Turkey: 95% of the turkey in our supply chain is American Humane Certified.

*Indicates 100% of the protein is antibiotic free
**100% of our beef is hormone free

Commendably they put a percentage of their products that adhere to certain guidelines.  Very honest and one must assume they are targeting 100% in the future, but one can’t help but wonder if you are in the unlucky 3% that happened to get the beef that that was administered antibiotics.  There is an emphasis on attaching percentages to Certified Humane or American Humane Certified so is worth digging deeper into what this means.

Certified Humane is a non-profit organization that aims to improve the lives of farm animals by setting standards for the living conditions and diet of these animals.  A lot of thought and effort has gone into creating documents to set these standards through committees comprising of veterinarians, scientists and farmers.  There is a lot of information of the website and it is not the aim of this article to analyze this work.  From what I can gather the guidelines involve a standard of living that the animals cannot be kept in cages, must have a certain level of space to move around and assume some normal behaviors and must be fed a diet that doesn’t consist of animal by-products, antibiotics or hormones.  This is obviously a big step up from the traditional factory farm situation.  However what it doesn’t mean is that animals have complete access to the outdoors or are raised on pasture.  This link is to the Housing Systems page on the Certified Humane website which shows examples of housing which are allowed and not allowed.  While the chickens are not in cages the conditions are certainly crowded.  I like this link to Consumer reports page on Certified Humane labels.  Similarly the American Humane Certification also doesn’t require that animals have access to the outdoors but there are standards that need to be met there are policies that must be adhered to prevent animal abuse.  I couldn’t find any requirements for diet regarding the use of antibiotics, animal products or hormones. Again this link to the Consumer Reports site concisely outlines the Main benefits and limitations.  There is a lot of information out there and a Google search for both will come up with a plethora of articles written both in favor and criticizing both labels.  My intention here is not to summarize all this information but to provide some food for thought.  What I will say is that this a step in the right direction  the labels ‘Humane’ may mean different things to different people and the consumer should have some knowledge of what they actually mean.

Companies like B.GOOD should be commended for their efforts towards providing food that has had some serious thought and effort towards how is was raised.  I definitely like to keep it an option when I need to grab a quick bite with the kids or I just want to have a quick burger or chicken sandwich and know that there was a significant effort to ensure that animal was raised in a humane way.

 

 

 

BBQ pioneer in Boston – Sweet Cheeks Q

One of America’s culinary gifts to the world is BBQ.  Before I came to the US I had no idea how many styles, flavors and techniques there were that make up this delicious, smoky genre.  Traditionally BBQ was used to make less flavorful, cheap cuts of meat more tasty by cooking slow over a smoky fire.  Note the phrase ‘cheap cuts of meat’ – hence it is hard to find BBQ made from grass fed beef, free range chicken or heritage pork.  I love BBQ and have even started smoking and experimenting with different meats myself.  However smoking a pork butt or beef brisket is a long involved process that can take all day and a lot of prep and cleaning up.  Therefore I limit this exercise to 2-3 times per year.  During the other times of the year I needed to find a place to satisfy my BBQ cravings that was in line with my new meat philosophy.  Sweet Cheeks saved me….

This excerpt from their website was music to my ears:

“Doing it right: For us, it’s using the best of everything possible. All of our meats are responsibly sourced and all natural. Most of our beef is “Never Ever”, meaning it’s all sustainably-raised “Super Natural,” premium Black Angus beef that is NEVER EVER treated with hormones, antibiotics, or chemical additives. Other beef options are from small New England farms adhering to similar practices. Our pork is Berkshire, our chicken and turkey are all natural. We use local farms when possible. We’re committed to doing what’s right.”

I was lucky that I found Sweet Cheeks quite quickly during my search for BBQ constructed from responsibly sourced meat.  I haven’t found another BBQ restaurant in Boston that adheres to the same meat standards.  If I was to be real strict on the Meat Philosophy rules then I would need to ensure the the animals are being treated humanely and free-range, the beef needs to be grass-fed not corn-fed.  But the phrase above from their website is very comfortably and checks a lot of boxes.

I have been to Sweet Cheeks four times now and the BBQ is absolutely delicious – I have tried most the meats and they are all delicious.  The menus has plenty of hints to the meat sourcing philosophy – all natural chicken, heritage-breed pulled pork, all-natural pork belly and the phrase above should confirm your confidence to go all out here.  You order a ‘tray’ which usually consists of one meat and 2 sides – one hot and cold.  I suggest to go for the Fat Tray where you get 3 meats and 2 scoops (sides) – try them all and go back for your favorite!

Sweet Cheeks has been a savior for me – amazing BBQ concocted from responsibly sourced meat right here in Boston.  My search for others continues, haven’t found any others yet….

 

 

 

 

 

Legume Bistro – Farm to table gem in Steel City

I was lucky enough to visit Pittsburgh recently and even luckier an old friend was available to meet for dinner.  She said I could pick the restaurant and I picked Legume since their menu mentioned some local farms – we were not disappointed. I was drawn in by this statement on their website:

“To provide customers with high quality food and gracious service in a warm, casual atmosphere at a good value that is, as much as we can know, sourced and produced in a way that nourishes the well-being of our community, as well as the lives of our employees, customers, and people we do business with.”

How could you not be?  And I loved this:

“We proudly source 100% of the pork, chicken, lamb and goat we serve from Western PA.  We occasionally  work with non-local meat and poultry items which aren’t commonly raised in Western PA, including antelope, goose, duck, veal, and pheasant.  Most of the beef we use is also from Western PA and we sometimes supplement with hormone-free antibiotic-free that is less local, as indicated on the menu. We receive deliveries of fresh seafood six days a week.”

They also change their menu daily and post it at 5pm every day.  The night we were there they had a Ribeye from Jubilee Hilltop Ranch (which my friend chose) and a Jamison Farms Lab Leg (which I chose).  Both were absolutely delicious.

I am going to let the words from the Jubilee Hilltop Ranch website describe their practices:

“The herds of grass-fed cattle raised at the Jubilee Hilltop Ranch produce only the finest all-natural angus beef. With carefully-chosen grasses for optimal nutrition, humane farming practices and rotational grazing in our pastures on the beautiful hillsides of southern Pennsylvania, we take the utmost care of our livestock. All of this preparation leads to a number of health, taste and environmental benefits that we pass along to our customers”

It looks like they do offer their beef to retail customers through a share but you will have to pick it up or call it get it shipped.  They are about a 2 hour drive east of Pittsburgh.

From the Jamison Farms website:

“The rolling Appalachian foothills are home to John & Sukey Jamison and their flock of sheep and lambs. There the sheep and lambs frolic and nibble on bluegrass, white clover, wild flowers and seasonal grass pastures with access to freechoice haybales throughout the winter months. Their 100% natural diet and free range lifestyle yield meat that is lean, firm, tender, delicate and pink, free of hormones, antibiotics, herbicides and insecticides.”

The website lists a bunch of different cuts for sale and also sausages, pie’s etc which can be shipped.  They are located in Latrobe, PA which is about an hour drive east of Pittsburgh.

A check of the menu today showed that they also listed the Jubilee Hilltop ranch ribeye on yesterday’s menu.  They also listed other meat dishes such as Grass-fed tartare, halibut, Scottish trout, Jamaican Pork stew and chicken under a skillet. Unfortunately they did not list the actual source of the proteins for these dishes.  We can assume that they are from local sources according to their website but would be good to list just like they listed the Jubilee Hilltop ranch ribeye.

Next door they have a more casual bar called Butterjoint that also served food.  On their menu they have pierogies (it is Pittsburgh), appetizers (beef tartare but doesn’t say grass fed) and burgers.  The meat from the burgers is from Thoma beef according to the menu today which is a meat market in Western PA.  Their website says that they source all their meat from local farmers and livestock auctions.  No mention of specific farms and I guess we can assume these are all pasture and humanely raised animals?

I love what they are doing at Legume needs to be more of it and the more transparency the better.

 

 

An oasis in a desert – Stuffed Grass Fed Burger – Montclair, NJ

My recent obsession with finding true grass fed beef has resulted in spending way too much time looking for places that advertise grass-fed on their menu so that I can satisfy my cravings for burgers without feeling to guilty that I contributed to Factory Farms profits.  When I adopted this philosophy I also started to think about when I eat out and since I travel for work quite frequently I started to think about where I would eat when I travel.  One of the areas of the US that I travel to frequently encompasses a radius of about 10 miles around Newark, NJ.  This area includes town such as Rahway, South Plainfield, Florham Park – not known for its scenery – more known for strip malls and industrial areas.   One day in September I was in this area for work and had time for a late lunch and I found a place called Stuffed Grass Fed Burgers in Montclair, NJ which is about 15 miles north of Newark airport.  With a name like that I had to check it out.

The restaurant is in a small strip mall and would be easy for you to drive by and not notice.  The seating area is small and casual, the menu clearly states:  100% Grass Fed Beef, Antibiotic and Hormone Free.  Their thing is that they stuff the burgers with cheese and that is the default option so if you don’t want that you have to ask.  I ordered a plain cheeseburger with the fixings (I learned my lesson to keep it simple if I truly want to judge the taste).  After I ordered I asked the young guy behind the counter (who I believe was the owner’s son) where they get their beef from. He replied that it all comes from Australia, when I asked why Australia he replied that it is cheaper and he thought it tasted better than US grass fed.  Fair enough.

Didn’t take long for the burger to arrive – cooked to order, you can see the kitchen.  My first bite ejected a stream of molten cheese into my mouth which burned like the fires of hell.  Was painful too.

After the burn subsided and I could taste again, I have to say it tasted very good – could defiantly taste the difference.  They had a bunch of other interesting burgers on the menu – apparently they are well known for their Bacon Jam burger (Seasoned Grass Fed Beef, Stuffed with Havarti Cheese topped with Bacon Jam) which I would get next time.  They also have a Berlin’s Donut Burger which is as it suggests a burger with a glazed donut instead of a bun – that to me sounds disgusting but I can see how it would be popular.   I was kicking myself later on after looking at the menu more carefully that I didn’t get the Bacon Jam fries.  They also have a grass fed hot dog topped with grass fed chili (get the point!) which should make feel better about eating one of the most unhealthy foods you can think of (except the donut burger).  Sounded delicious to me.  I left feeling quite satisfied with my choice and felt as though I would definitely come back if I was in the area.

Later on I thought about the guy behind the counter comment about Australian grass fed beef.  I quick search came up with an article from NPR titled: ” Why lots of grass fed beef in the US comes from Down Under” – sounds like a good place to start.  The article confirms that Australian beef is less expensive and says why.  In Australia the weather allows cattle to graze on grass all year round.  Also there is a lot more open land which is in less demand than the US.  It really comes down to the price of grass.  In Australia pasture-raised cattle is the norm, its cheaper to feed a cow grass than grain there.  In the US there is a big push to support local farmers and the import of overseas grass fed beef is frowned upon with purists.  The question is how can US farmers compete with overseas prices?  A common dilemma in many industries.  We should also consider the environmental costs of shipping food all the way across the world.

Oh and I bought this t-shirt too (not kidding)….

Search for grass-fed beef – BRED gourmet

Recently I wrote a post about the definition of grass-fed beef.  Now that we are (sort-of) clear on the definitions, where can we find grass-fed beef at a restaurant?  Well you won’t have to look too hard to find the term grass-fed on a menu.   Very few restaurants state the actual farm they get their meat from (there are some exceptions, stay tuned for future posts) but there are plenty of restaurants that will state grass-fed beef on their menu, particularly for burgers.  So how can can you know for sure?

One day I was home with the kids (school holiday) and we went bowling in the morning to kill some time and get them out of the house on rainy day.  I was looking for a place to take them to lunch and I found – Bred Gourmet, a burger place in Lower Mills Dorchester, close to my house.   They had “grass-fed beef”  all over their menu and good reviews on Yelp, and a kids menu!  We were there at lunchtime and it was not that busy.  They had a small eat-in area and the menu looked interesting –  three grass-fed burger options, a hormone-free turkey burger, bison burger, salmon burger and a veggie option and you can also add a free-range egg.  Lots of the right terms being used here for sure.  I decided to go for the Maui burger, the combination of grilled pineapple,  plantains and BBQ sauce was intriguing to me, but I decided to omit the ham.  Kids got a plain cheeseburger.  Everything was made to order and while I was waiting I asked the young lady behind the counter, where did they get their grass-fed beef?  She replied that she couldn’t tell me, I said ‘can you not tell me or do you not know?’  Turns out she didn’t  know – fair enough.

The burgers were delicious, you could taste the quality for sure.  I wish that I got a plain cheeseburger after tasting my kids’ burgers so that I could really appreciate the taste of the beef.  The flavors of the Maui burger were awesome but I have found with good grass fed beef you don’t need too many other flavors.  The real taste test was the kids, I asked whether the liked BRED burger or Wendy’s and they overwhelmingly said Bred – must say I was a little surprised since they loved Wendy’s (which is now off the list by the way).

When I got home I did some research on BRED – there is a good video on Youtube with a review by Phantom Gourmet.  They show most of the menu and they look so good! In this video they mention that the meat is from Maine Family Farms.  A search came up with a website that mentioned that they buy grass-fed beef from farms throughout Maine.  I emailed them to ask if all their beef is pasture-raised and grass fed and got a prompt reply that is was.  I also emailed BRED gourmet to ask if they still use Maine Family Farms for their ground beef since the video was a few years old (still waiting for a reply).

Also found this article on the founder Tambo Burrow.   I like that he is a young guy from the neighborhood that is trying to make a difference making good food.

Why eat grass-fed beef?

Cows aren’t meant to eat grain and corn – they have evolved to eat grass.  Seems logical right?  Then why is it so hard to find true grass-fed beef?  Factory Farm cows are fed a complex mixture of ingredients that are far away from a cows natural diet of grass.  I won’t go into the whole story of what goes into this feed but here is a link if you want to know more.  What I will say is that in order for factory farms to trick a cows digestive system to eat a diet based on grains they need to be pumped up with drugs and you can imagine what that does to their digestive systems and overall health.  I used to get serious heartburn from drinking coffee (I used to drink 5-6 cups a day) and one day I asked my doctor what I could do to stop the heartburn.  He said, ‘I am not going to prescribe a pill to stop your heartburn, if you want to stop your heartburn stop drinking coffee’. Good point.  So I stopped drinking coffee and haven’t had a cup since.  If I would have taken Zantac to keep drinking coffee my stomach would have been ruined.  This is what is happening to factory farm cows we are giving them drugs to enable them to consume foods that are making them sick so they can produce meat and milk.  Why would we want to eat sick cows?

So it seems that it would be preferable to eat a cow that was fed its natural diet – cows don’t only eat grass they eat a mixture of vegetation here is a link that explains.  How do we find beef from such cows?  Not as easy as you may think. It should be noted that all cows begin their lives in more or less the same way – they all start out living on a farm, pasture-raised, as natural as can be.  It’s what happens at around 3-4 months that makes the difference.  Factory farm cows gradually get switched to a grain based diet in order to put on as much weight as quickly as possible.  A number of other possibilities exist for the grass-fed cow.  Firstly, they can be grass-fed but still on a feedlot in cramped conditions similar to a factory farm cow.  Diet is much better but living conditions are not.  This leads to another commonly used term, pasture-raised.  All cows begin their lives pasture-raised.  Factory farm cows are then shipped to these farms and gradually transitioned to a grain diet.  Also cows can be grass-fed, pasture-raised but grain finished – for the last 2-3 months of their lives they ate grain to fatten them up.  It is also very difficult for cows in colder climates (eg. New England) to have a 100% pasture-raised, grass-fed diet, they often need some grain supplement – which leads to another term – organic-grain or non-GMO grain diet.  Confused yet?

Meet the farmer – DaSilva Farm

Previously I had written about my experience with a couple of mail order meat services: Walden Meat Co and Crowd Cow.  Both good experiences, customer service was excellent, meat tastes great but the extra charge for shipping makes it even more expensive.  I also thought that the good done supporting a small farm was slightly offset by the wasted resources taken by shipping chicken breasts from Alabama to Massachusetts.

This then lead me to look for local farms in the Massachusetts or New Hampshire area where I could purchase from directly, saving money on shipping and saving the environment by not putting meat on plane.  I quickly found that there are a lot of farms in the area that practice sustainable farming for all types of meat and eggs.  Many are within a couple of hours drive from my house as well.  Even better was that I found that there are some of these farms at some of the local farmers markets close to where I live.

One of the farms that I found was DaSilva Farm located in Portsmouth, Rhode Island – 60 miles from where I live.  Their website states that they pasture-raise their poultry and pigs, chemical and antibiotic free.  Even better they have a stand at the Braintree Farmers market every Saturday – only 5 miles from where I live! Checks all the boxes for feel good meat – responsibly raised, local small family farm that doesn’t have to be shipped – there is also a cute photo of the farmer and his family– how can you not support them!  So one September Saturday morning I took my oldest son to the Braintree Farmers market as we were on our way to soccer.

Sure enough manning the DaSilva stand himself was the farmer Joshua DaSilva (I recognized him from the photos from his website).  He mentioned that he was short on produce right now but would be completely re-stocked in 3 weeks – so I bought a pack of maple pork breakfast sausages, a 4lb pack of bone in pork chops and some ground beef.  I packed them in the cooler I brought (everything was frozen) and went to soccer feeling pretty good that I supported that nice family farm.

When I got home I couldn’t wait to try some of the DaSilva farm meat that I bought.  Something I noticed was that the meat was processed at Northeast Kingdom Processing from St Johnsbury, Vermont.  Not unusual that a small farm wouldn’t process their own meat but it should be noted that this meat did travel from Rhode Island to Vermont and back to Rhode Island (500 miles).  Definitely not the same magnitude as factory farm meat which can me shipped from the midwest or even Australia.  I also noticed from the website that they didn’t mention that they raised cows (only poultry and pigs) but they sold ground beef – makes me wonder did they raise these cows themselves?

 

 

Walden Meat Company -responsible meat delivered!

Where to start in my search for sustainable meat?  Google of course!  One of the first places that pops up was a site called Walden Meat Co. (https://waldenlocalmeat.com/).  I am guessing this came up as a top search since I live in the Boston area and this company is marketed towards local farms in New England and New York and they are based in the Boston area.  They even have a butcher shop in the South End neighborhood of Boston.

The website does a great job explaining their standards which tick all the boxes:  “grass-fed and finished”, “raised outdoors on herbicide and pesticide-free pasture”, “never received antibiotics or hormones”, “humanely handled without the use of electric prods”.  There are a lot of options to choose from ranging from just ground meat to picking what meat and cuts you want (to some degree will explain later).

The Just Grind, Basics and Complete Options they pick what you get as described.  The Custom option you have a lot more control over what you get.  I went for the custom option.  Based on their recommendation for our family (I only counted 4 people since our 3 kids don’t eat a full serving) they recommended  20-21 lbs per month which are about to 10 meals (according to the website).  Around 2 lbs per meal sounds right. For the custom option, you need to make selections from each of the following: Base Cuts (pick at least 2), Middle Cuts (pick at least 5) and End-Cuts (pick at least 5).  There are a lot of options.  You will not get all of your choices, you will get a selection of your choices depending on what is available.  For example, you can’t just load up on ground beef and chicken breasts to fulfill your 20 lbs.

Got to say I was a little excited to see what I would get with my delivery.  The box above arrived exactly as expected – everything was packed in dry ice.  We ended up getting: ground beef, sausage of the month, hot Italian sausage, pork chops, beef sirloin steaks, beef brisket, beef roast, chicken legs.  I also got the bacon, eggs, and butter as an add-on. Each was well packaged and labeled – the meat like the steaks and chicken were also labeled with the farmer and farm where it came from – this was a big selling point for me since the transparency of knowing that it comes from a farm that has good practices is important.  For example, the chicken leg quarters were from Ben and Ruth Kane from Alton, NH.  A Google search for them comes up with their blog and website (http://crunchyfarm.blogspot.com/).  Great, they are a real local farm and all of their values look to be well represented.

However, when I looked at the ground beef I didn’t see a farmer or farm name listed.

So I decided to email Walden and ask them for a list of farms that they work with by product.  This was their response (very rapidly):

Hi David,

 Thanks for your question! Because the list of farms we work with changes often, we don’t publish a list. However all of our products with the exception of ground beef, sausage, ham and bacon will have a farm of origin listed on the packaging! Please let us know if you have any further questions!

Best,

Ceilidh

Not exactly the answer I wanted.  Would be good to know that their ground beef is also coming from a particular farm that is doing the right thing.

Onto the next, very important, question – How does it taste?  In my opinion, this meat is some of the best tasting meat that I have cooked myself.  You can definitely taste the difference.  How much of this is placebo effect…

In summary, this is a great service but may not be for everyone.  You have to be open to getting some cuts that you may not usually buy – could be a good thing since you will end up cooking meals that you wouldn’t usually cook – if that’s your thing.  It’s also quite expensive, 21 lbs/$234=$11/lb.  Also, this covers about 3 meals per week – for the rest of the meals you either need to supplement with other sources of meat or eat vegetarian.  Or you need to double the amount you order which gets very expensive.  But it will be some of the best tasting meat you have ever cooked and you will feel good about yourself.