Our weekends are chock full of activity, and this one was no exception. We picked up our 1/4 cow from the meat processor Saturday morning; it was from a steer that had been raised by a local farmer. The Delmonico steaks we had for dinner that night were fantastic – so tender and full of flavor, despite our grill having scorched them somewhat! (I really need to pull it apart to clean it ASAP.)
We went cherry picking at the local orchard, and to be honest, since their trees were opened to the public last weekend, they were pretty picked over. But, we were able to pick a peck of Queen Anne sweet cherries, with considerable effort!
I pitted them yesterday, using my nifty Cherry Pitter that was made in West Germany, so that would be pre-1990.
But I know it’s quite a bit older than that, because of the price tag (I purchased this at an estate sale some years back, but they had kindly left the original price tag intact.)
Hudson’s was a downtown Detroit fixture until 1983, when it closed its famous multi-story department store there. The company did live on for some time, until ultimately being bought out by Macy’s in 2006. I really dig having some items from the original store, though, and this is one of a few in my collection. Unless a vintage item is no longer viable or unsafe to use, it is put to work in our home! I’ll be making preserves from the pitted cherries, but I’ll be using my modern All-American Pressure Canner for that process. (I use it as a hot-water bath canner, and just don’t seal the lid.)
I’ve been thinking quite a lot about our food sources the past few days, and re-watching Food, Inc. has just propelled those thoughts even further. The beef we purchased, for instance – it took almost three weeks from the time we ordered it until it was ready for pickup. We’re concerned that the farmer may have used that time to stuff the cows full of grain to fatten them up to a higher hanging weight. We were really hoping for grass-fed beef. Did you know that feeding cows corn has contributed to the problems with e-coli breakouts? Furthermore, when factory cows are taken off of grain, put on pasture, and spend 5 days eating grass, the e-coli in their systems is reduced by 80%. That’s pretty significant. We’re happy with the flavor of the beef so far, and certainly with the lower price, versus buying it all in the supermarket. But, we are hoping that the next time we do this, we can insure that there wasn’t a last-minute gorging of the animal on grain.
We’re also interested in getting some heritage breed pork, and finding a local source for chicken meat. In answer to the inevitable question, yes, we could raise our own birds for meat, but we are really only focusing on egg-layers, and so we’ll be happy to support another local farmer in that regard. I think we’re due for a trip to the Flint Farmer’s Market soon.
Related Images:
Leave a Reply