Beef: It's What's for Dinner

For about six months, our home has been meat free. I say 'our home' because Ryan has eaten meat outside our home fairly regularly... and I, on occasion have sampled a little chicken. Jude though - he's been a trooper and not eaten any.

Not too long ago I started doing a little research and looking for local farms that meet my meat standards. I want free range - but not just free range, free roaming chickens. I wanted grass fed beef - not beef raised in a dust bowl and fed corn from a trough. I want sustainable farming - not farming for a single purpose which ultimately strips a piece of land of it's nutrients. I want ethical treatment of the animals by caring individuals - not a 'farmer' who owns hundreds (or thousands) of cows and treats them as though they are disposable (you might say 'but they're killing them, so they are treating them as disposable" - I mean for a farmer raising less than 100 cows, each cow has more value than a factory farmer mass producing thousands) . Finally, I want ethical as possible 'processing' (aka - slaughter). I want to be able to see where my meat is coming from, talk to the farmers and have my family appreciate where meat comes from, what it means to eat it and what it took for us to consume it.

I found a couple farms that peaked my interest and then through conversation with others came across one that meets my standards. On this farm, they process their own chickens and grass feed their cows and all that other hippie crap. I told myself that I'd visit this farm before buying any meat, but caved the other day and visited a local store that retails some of the meat from this farm. I bought just over a pound of ground beef to try first (I still plan to visit before going crazy).

When I went into the store, I talked to the clerk. I REALLY was hoping to get some chicken and so I was engaging her in a conversation about where their chicken comes from to get some info. She basically said that during the winter, finding chicken that meets my standards is pretty impossible for their store - so beef it was. We talked about other farm options, but through talking to her, she pretty much implied that Rumbleway was the best option - which was great, because that's what I went in planning to buy. So, I bought just a little.

Since neither Jude nor I have consumed any (considerable amount) of meat since September, I wanted to start of light. While I've been craving a big juicy hamburger, I knew that just diving into eating a 1/4lb of beef alone might not be the best idea - especially for Jude. So, I made some meat sauce for spaghetti. I'm pretty sure I could have come up with something a little more creative to do with my $9.00 (for just over a pound!) worth of ground beef, but figured this would allow us both to get it into our system without over loading us. I thought for sure it'd be some majestic meal, but really, it wasn't that big of a deal at all.

Now that we've taken the plunge, we still don't plan to go back to our previous meat eating habits. We don't plan to have some form of meat with every (or almost every) meal - after all, we couldn't afford it. I will still avoid eating meat at restaurants, and Jude will still eat tofu and beans for his main source of protein, but we will eat meat. "Good" meat. Ethical meat. And appreciate it.