Catching my breath after the holiday

What a busy month! I finished up the Fall semester well, with an A in all my classes. I also managed to get some more organization done in the house, and moved some projects further along. We also made our first wheel of Farmhouse Cheddar cheese (it's lopsided, but we have high hopes for the flavor!) and are planning our next batches in the coming week. The vinegar was a real success, especially the plum vinegar. The apple cider vinegar was a bit weak, but usable for marinade. I added some more cider and a cup of sugar to the vinegar crock to work some more, and hopefully come out with a bit more kick. The wines have all moved downstairs to finish settling. The beer turned out beer-y, although not quite what I had expected! I'm going to try another batch soon, and use a lighter malt.

With the new year, I'm trying to increase our consumption of local foods from our current 25% to 50% or more. It's been a challenge, but some new research over the past three weeks has yielded some great resources - and some change to my mindset. Up until about a week ago, I had been concentrating on finding local resources for the things I would normally purchase in the grocery store - especially the meats. While looking around for local meat dealers, I had a sudden epiphany - why not put some effort into finding products that this area naturally grows? Instead of beef - why not elk? Why not buffalo? And, while on the subject, why not try using farm raised trout instead of eating other fish? A little more searching led to some good local sources for these meats, at prices not too much more than what I'd pay for beef (at least some of which is probably grown overseas in sensitive environments by the most destructive means) in the grocery store, and in some cases actually less!

For instance, our family loves a Basque dish called pickled tongue - but beef tongue in the grocery store (if you can even find it these days) is extraordinarily expensive. Buffalo tongue, which should be pretty much the same in taste and texture, apparently sells for about half of that or less. Buffalo and Elk chuck roast can be had for about the average on sale grocery store price. Shanks for stew, a bit less. Ground elk, about the same as average priced extra lean ground beef. Buffalo or elk short ribs, a bit less than average sale prices. The meat, from what I've been reading, is much better for you, with less fat and more protein than factory beef, with fewer hormones and antibiotics, if any. Overall, it seems to be a very environmentally sound, healthy, and budget-conscious choice for local eating.

It actually makes sense - what grows naturally here *should* be more efficient, and as a result, less harmful to the environment. It also has to travel much less distance from the ranch to our table. In addition, what grows naturally usually has had fewer intrusive inputs - less conventionally farmed grain, fewer hormones, little by the way of antibiotics. All of these are good reasons to eat more from the local food chain.

So now I have to wonder why it took me so long to make this connection.