Grass Fed Beef That's Tender: It Exists!

We just purchased a side of grass fed beef from Shagbark Mountain Cattle in Maryland/ West Virginia. It is amazingly tender and absolutely delicious. John and I happily enjoyed our rib steaks the other night, especially since we'd been eating only chicken since ordering our beef a month ago. The flavor of this grass-fed beef is excellent, in my opinion, with an incredible tenderness.

Finally, we've found beef that meets the high standards we're used to after being spoiled by John's family's grass fed beef in Kentucky. We previously bought beef from another farm, in Virginia, a half one summer and last fall, but the results were not as good. The meat had a gamy taste to it and while the ground meat was good, the steaks and roasts tended toward dryness. Even rare, the meat was not as tender or flavorful as we expected.

My friend Anne (who got me into Nourishing Traditions in the first place ... but that's another story) found the Shagbark Mountain through EatWild.com and spoke at length with the rancher before placing an order for a whole animal, which we split.

According to their listing, Shagbark Mountain raises "Black Angus and Simental cattle on over 200 acres of clover, broome and orchard grass—naturally without hormones or chemical fertilizers." We enjoyed meeting the owner and his sons, who kindly showed our kids the goats, kids, sheep and donkey near the office while we completed the transaction.

We ended up with 191 pounds of meat, and 5 pounds of organ meats. The price per pound, packaged in the freezer, came to $3.87. (Hanging weight price was $2.85/ lb.) That's ground meat to sirloin steak, and everything in between. I didn't even include the soup bones and suet in that price calculation, although the butcher delivered them as promised.

There are several grass-fed beef ranches near us, but we're so pleased I expect we'll order from Shagbark Mountian again, if we don't have our own cattle by then. We've even recommended them to our friends already -- some things are too good to keep secret.

I'm looking forward to marinating and grilling and spicing and roasting our meat over the coming months. My friend Anne recommends the Grassfed Gourmet cookbook, which I will buy as soon as the budget allows.

What's your favorite source for grass fed beef? I'd love to hear from you!

Making Bread with Fermented (Soaked) Flour

One of the principles of traditional diets is that whole grains must be soaked, sprouted, or fermented before cooking and eating.

When life is busy, this is one of the hardest steps to do since it requires planning ahead and knowing what you will back days before you make it.

I have recently gotten into a rhythm with my bread making, however, and begin soaking the flour for the next day's bread while the previous loaf is baking. Now, we don't run out of bread and the process is painless for me as it has become habitual.

This is my recipe for soaked grain bread:

1 cup water (warm)
1/4 cup butter or coconut oil
1 TB whey (or 1/4 c yogurt)
3 cups whole wheat flour (fresh ground at home is best)

1 TB Rapadura (succanat)
1 TB honey
1 tsp warm water
1 1/2 tsp yeast

1 egg, beaten
1 tsp sea salt
extra flour as needed

First, combine first 4 ingredients to form a dough. I use the bread machine and allow it to mix them into a dough before unplugging it. Allow to soak/ferment for 18-24 hours.

Remove dough from mixer/ bread machine. In mixer/ bread machine, combine next four ingredients (sweeteners, yeast, warm tsp. water). Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes. Add egg and salt.

Begin breaking the dough into small pieces and add a few to the machine. Turn on and keep adding more pieces of the dough until incorporated. You will need to add a little flour to get the right consistency. For this, Sally would be ok with unbleached white flour, you could also do sprouted grain flour if you have it. I just use wheat.

After the dough forms, allow the bread machine to continue on dough setting. When done, remove and put in buttered floured loaf pan and rise for 45 mins or until doubled and bake for 30 mins. on 350 F.

I hope that recipe works for you; you will likely need to experiment a little. I adapted it from Sally Fallon's recipe as well as my conventional bread machine recipe. If you have a KitchenAid but not a bread machine, you should allow it to rise for about an hour after it forms a good dough and is kneaded for about five minutes. After the hour, punch down and form into a loaf, then continue as directed.

Local Harvest: Finding Natural and Organic Food Near You

Local Harvest is an incredible concept and an excellent resource for locating natural foods nearby. It is similar to the website Eat Wild, but seems to have a more extensive listing of local farms and also features a Local Harvest blog, Local Harvest Newsletter, information on Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), a web forum and more.

The Local Harvest slogan is "real food, real farmers, real community," all three aspects of which are dear to my own heart. I want to feed my family real food, the way God intended it, not the way some Big Ag company decided to make the most money off of it. I want to support real farmers when I can't produce the food myself (currently, that's 100% of the time). And in supporting real farmers, I want to be better connected to my community.

I put in my zip code on Local Harvest and found two farm listings of people I already know, several farms I'd heard of or done business with, and plenty more I'd like to explore. The chickens at Beatrix Farm (photo on right) are happy and healthy in their grass pasture. What's available in your Local Harvest?

Staying Healthy with Raw Milk

It's almost December, and thankfully, none of the five of us -- two adults and three children under age 5 -- has even had a cold yet.

The secret is the raw, organic milk.

Kevin has a bit of a runny nose, but he gets that when he's teething. Otherwise, we are blessed with robust health that I do not take for granted.

We drink six gallons of raw milk each week. If money were no object, we'd consume eight or nine... maybe make yogurt out of some of it, but probably drink it before I would have the chance, if I know my family.

Megan likes to flex her little arms and say "I'm SOOOO strong! 'Cause I drink raw milk!" The funniest part is that she is naturally very petite, so to hear her say that she is getting "So HUGE!" from consuming the delicious superfood makes me smile. I don't disapoint her, however, as I reply that she is so big, she's going to be taller than Mama soon.

Cod Liver Oil: Start Young!

By Maria June 26th, 2007
Family and friends over for a visit are amazed by the ease in which our young children take their cod liver oil– they are shocked to hear the children come up to us after the evening meal and remind their father excitedly, “Oil time! Oil time!” Their exuberance matches that of children asking for a popsicle, and our guests are surprised to see the appearance of the supplement and not some processed sugar product.
Jack (4) and Megan (2) have been taking liquid high-vitamin cod liver oil daily for the past eight months. We began by letting them watch my husband and I take a spoonful, and we spoke highly about the benefits of the supplement, explaining why we thought it was important. We offered them each a taste, so they could get used to the oil before being given a whole teaspoon. For a few days, they got used to the taste and texture by just having a drop of the oil, followed by a chewable vitamin C. Soon enouh, the oil was being licked from the spoon in whole doses.
Many of our grown friends and relatives have a very hard time taking cod liver oil; however, those who received it as children can take it easily now, even if decades of their lives in between were deprived of the supplement. It is encouraging to know that not only are we building our children’s health with the food we give them, but we are shaping their knowledge and their ability to recognize and appreciate that which will nourish their bodies.
Excellent article from the Weston A. Price Foundation, by Krispin Sullivan, CN: Cod Liver Oil: The Number One Superfood