Father's Day Food for Thought

They always say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so this year we decided to say Happy Father's Day with food. I just ordered a gift box containing two New York strip steaks and two pounds of ground beef to be delivered to my dad in south Texas. I ordered it from Burgundy Pasture Beef, which is where we order most of our household meat as well. They are a local ranch providing 100% grass-fed beef, raised sustainably and butchered on-site with USDA approval. They also offer grass-fed sustainable pork, lamb, chicken, and eggs provided through other local farms. I became interested in buying pastured meat after reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. I could go on a long rant about the way our country handles food production, but I won't beleaguer you with that. I'll just say after reading Pollan's book, along with various news articles, viewing the documentary Food, Inc., and later reading Mark Bittman's book Food Matters, that I was very interested in opting out of the commercial meat industry when possible. Pastured meat does cost us more, but since we were already eating meat much less frequently we can more easily absorb the increase in price into our grocery budget. I also feel better about our decision because it allows us to support local farmers. Not to mention that our meat just tastes so much better. Before we made the switch I hated handling ground beef. It smelled atrocious to me. From the very first use of the pastured beef I could tell a big difference. There was no off-putting odor, and in fact it actually smelled pleasant to me. We have ordered ground beef, ground pork, steaks, bacon, whole chicken, and pork shoulder before and been happy with everything but the bacon. I think that was mostly a personal preference with the way it was cut, but either way we purchase naturally raised bacon at the store now. I still have some pork sausage and a chuck roast in the freezer to be tried, but I have no doubt they will turn out just as delicious as all the previous products have. My mom loves the pork chops she gets. If you've considered trying pastured meat before, but have been put off at the thought of having to buy a large quantity at one time then an outfit like Burgundy could be a better option. I can buy by the cut, and don't have to have any additional freezer space for 1/4 of a cow or the like. They offer $5 delivery throughout most of the metroplex with a 10 pound order minimum. My mom and I place our orders together to take advantage of this delivery option without having to order quite as much at one time, and we split the delivery cost. They also offer nationwide shipping. It is only costing me $10 for overnight delivery of our gift box. So there you have it- we don't eat a lot of meat, but when we do we chose to order locally produced, grass-fed whenever possible. It's better for our local economy, better for our environment, better for our health, and (most importantly if you ask me) better for our tastebuds.