Well, at least a few people at Meatopia wanted to learn about sustainable meats. Panelists: Peter Hoffman, Jacquie Berger, Bev Eggleston, Alberto Gonzales, Ken Jaffe

Earlier this month I went to a meat-fest on Governor’s Island in NY called Meatopia, organized by food writer Josh Ozersky and restaurateur and Slow Food proponent Jimmy Carbone. The event – which was essentially a giant meat-focused dine-around – was intended to promote sustainably and locally raised meat.

At the event itself, NY beef farmer Ken Jaffe of Slope Farms noted that he wasn’t finding much local meat being served by the 30+ restaurants, a fact he found immensely troubling. He’s not alone, as you can see in this article he passed on to me – super interesting reading.

To me, it’s not the no-sustainable-meat-at-the-sustainable-meat-celebration that’s interesting, it’s the underlying causes of this regrettable — but understandable –occurrence.

I think we’re at the stage in the local food movement where we’ve moved past the warm-and-fuzzy part and we’re into the “ok, if we really mean it, now what” part. Especially in ag-rich places like Portland, it’s hard to find a chef who isn’t trying to source responsibly and deliciously, and we all think it’s a grand concept. But how do we grow beyond the small-scale farmer selling to a small group of quasi-affluent urban consumers? That model probably works for some, but those economics  aren’t sustainable for anyone — I think most farmers would like to make more than $10K a year from farm income, and as we see in the article – and in a forthcoming piece from Leslie Cole in The Oregonian – food service operations have a hard time executing on the local-sustainable promise.

Meat seems to be the paradigm where these issues are screamingly apparent, given the nature of how animals need to be raised (over many months with lot of $$ up front) and how they’re constructed (you can’t just plant a few more rows of tri-tip if you think there will be demand next grilling season).

I think it’s time people get past the mindset of either-or. Either it’s virtuous family farm/CSA-type operations or unacceptable industrial feedlots. But there are options in the middle.

Take Organic Prairie (our client). They raise animals as well and humanely as any small local family farmer because they actually are a bunch of family farmers, but they operate as a coop mostly in the mid-West, so the availability of supply is greater and more flexible. They would be considered local if you live in Wisconsin, for example, but not local if you’re in New York City.

In order to expand the good food system beyond small pockets, it may be necessary to prioritize – satisfying volume, selection, delivery time, local, carbon footprint, humane animal treatment, and overall sustainable agriculture all in one package  (not to mention that the meat needs to be delicious…does anyone talk about flavor anymore?) may not be possible in today’s world, so choosing what matters most and compromising on the rest is not a bad thing.

If the purpose of Meatopia was to showcase local farmers and stimulate the local ag economy, then the meat really needs to be local – in which case you won’t get that 1,000 pounds of skirt steak, as Ken points out. But if the key feature was to promote meat that was humanely and sustainably farmed, then looking to a source like Organic Prairie – what you might call “ag of the middle” – can be a solution that takes the movement to a new place.

Meat’s definitely at the center of Watershed’s plate these days, as we expand on the research we started last year with our study on consumers’ attitudes around meat, called The Carnivore’s Dilemma.

As part of a branding project for our new client Organic Prairie, we spent several weeks examining the cultural context for meat: what the conversations are around meat buying, butchering, cooking, eating, safety, nutrition, meat’s role in environmental issues…even meat as entertainment.

And then we went to the source of all that meat – farm country in Wisconsin, headquarters of Organic Prairie and its parent company Organic Valley – to get a first-hand look at some organic farms and farmer-ranchers, as well as to meet the whole Organic Prairie management team. The most interesting challenge I learned about was the fact that Organic Prairie needs to sell the whole animal, but not in the way a small farmer sells an entire animal to a restaurant or through cow-shares. Organic Prairie is a co-op that raises, processes and sells its own animals, so they’re responsible for finding a market for all the meat from every animal. This is the flip side of having so much quality control over their animals – but we love challenges!

Grilled tri-tip: our blind tasting revealed some surprises

Last month, I saw a fascinating side of the beef industry…namely, SIDES of beef, lots of them, hanging in a butcher’s walk-in. I was part of a small group of chefs (I was the token non-chef) invited by Cory Carman to visit Carman Ranch, her grass-fed beef operation in the Wallowas in eastern Oregon. She and food-writer/beef-guru Lynne Curry organized an awesome butchery demo by Kevin Silveira at Valley Meat Services, who custom-cuts her meats.

The chefs — Cathy Whims of Nostrana, Dolan Lane of ClarkLewis, James Green and Mark Harris, both from Bon Appetit Management Co. — were mesmerized by Kevin’s skill, and all the chefs left with a deeper understanding of meat-cutting and  beef quality.

Kevin Silveira shows how to custom-cut

After the demo, Carman used us as a focus group. We did side-by-side blind tastings to test dry-aging vs. wet-aging and fresh vs. frozen beef. The results?  1) The group generally had the same preferences, so the differences truly were discernible,  2) we preferred the dry-aged meat (which is Carman’s standard practice), and 3) we preferred the texture of previously frozen meat…that was a surprise.

But it’s knowledge that may help Carman provide meat year-round, and is of interest to other ranchers, too. Later in the month I spoke with rancher Ken Jaffe of New York’s Slope Farms Beef, who was fascinated with Carman’s findings. He’s experimenting with dry-aging the split cows first, then wet-aging the primals (big sections of meat) for another few weeks, to develop even more tenderness and flavor. I was gratified to learn about all the decisions that go into creating delicious, sustainably raised meat.

Carman burgers and rabbit sausages

We ended the weekend with a cookout, of course, with burgers made from beef that we custom-ground during our butcher session. How’s this for a mix: miscellaneous trim from all the cuts, plus 3 chuck roasts, and about 10 pounds of lusciously fatty short ribs…who needs kobe burgers when you’ve got grass-fed succulence like this?

Downtown gets a taste of the country at the new Pioneer Square farmers market.

Talk about convenience food:  there will be a lovely farmers market at Pioneer Square every Monday; the first one was yesterday. Since that’s just blocks from Watershed’s offices, Monday lunch options are looking good.

The market seems to offer a bit of everything (there are 48 vendors)  — beautiful fresh produce (with tons of cherries and berries as the star at the moment), Rogue Creamery and a couple of other cheese stands, cured meat from Olympic Provisions, breads from Pearl Bakery, excellent cookies from Two Tarts, and several prepared food stands so downtown office workers can pick up some ready-made lunch.

Hood strawberries, so sweet

I like assembling a picnic from the fresh food. Yesterday it was a pint of Hood strawberries from Unger Farms, super-voluptuous Brooks and Rainier cherries from Baird Family Orchards, a loaf of walnut levain from Pearl Bakery, and some lemon-dill goat cheese from a new vendor called Briar Rose.

And a market on Monday means an easy answer to the “what’s for dinner” dilemma — just fill your (reusable) tote with fresh goodies and then enjoy a seasonal supper. The spinach and orach (red spinach) from Gathering Together Farm is awesome — so sweet and tender. I sear-roasted a chicken breast from Dayton Meat’s chicken (not from the market, unfortunately — I got it at Pastaworks, and it’s so good), fried some red potatoes from Gathering Together in the chicken fat that came from the bird, and swirled the spinach through the pan so it was just wilted, then piled it all on our plates. So full of flavor and life!

Hours 10:00 – 2:00, through October 25

A perfect destination for the first berries of the season

We all anticipate the start of Oregon strawberry season, right? Well they’re here at last. Yay.

Problem is, the ones we’ve eaten are sort of, well, sour.

Not yay.

But no worries, we’ve got a recipe that makes the best of tart berries, by turning them into an actual salad. We toss them with an agro-dulce sort of dressing – some sweet from orange juice and a little sweet-sour from balsamic vinegar — and then let them macerate for just a bit.

The sugar draws out juices from the berries and it all balances into a tasty mix that pirouettes between sweet and tart – a perfect way to start an Oregon spring meal.

Strawberries in Peppery Balsamic Vinaigrette With Fresh Mint

Serves 4 to 6

3 tablespoons fresh orange juice

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

3/4 teaspoon granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 tablespoon finely sliced fresh mint leaves

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 pound fresh Oregon strawberries, hulled and sliced

In a bowl that’s big enough to hold the strawberries, whisk together the orange juice, balsamic vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper and cardamom until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Add the mint leaves, and then whisk in the oil a few drops at a time until dressing is creamy and emulsified. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Add the strawberries to the bowl of vinaigrette and toss gently. Let berries macerate at least 15 minutes before serving, but not more than 1 hour.

From Martha Holmberg, originally developed for and published in FOODday

Yes, Portland has cemented its position as a swine-loving, cracklin’-crunching, squeal-munching city – some would rename it Porkland – with a fabulous showing at Cochon 555, Sunday evening at The Governor Hotel.

This is the second year that the traveling event – which is intended to raise awareness for heritage breed pigs and family-owned farms — has come to Portland. The other cities on the tour this year are Napa, New York, Boston, Stillwater, OK, (don’t hear much about Stillwater these days…), Atlanta, Des Moines, DC, Seattle, and San Francisco – with the winners of each city competing for king or queen of pork at the Food and Wine Classic in Aspen.

Chef Cathy Whims of Nostrana

The 555 conceit comes from “5 chefs, 5 pigs and 5 winemakers.” Our 5 chefs were Naomi Pomeroy/Beast, Gabriel Rucker/Le Pigeon, Andy Ricker/Pok Pok, Jason Barwikowski/Olympic Provisions, and our own Cathy Whims/Nostrana, who turned a Duroc pig into about 5 delicious dishes.

Event-goers washed down the fantastic pork creations (including an herb-laminated handkerchief pasta draped over the most adamantly luscious Bolognese you could ever imagine, from Cathy) with mighty fine drinks, including beer from Hood River’s awesome Double Mountain and wines from Bethel Heights, Soter, Elk Cove, Domaine Drouhin, and Domaine Serene.

Adding to the fascinating/crazy/cool/educational aspect of the event (yes, it was all those things) was a tour de force butchering of a whole Berkshire hog by SF butcher Ryan Farr. One minute, a pig was stretched out on the table, the proverbial nose to tail still connected, then about an hour later were enough tidy and tasty-looking cuts of meat to fill a butcher case for a month. Too bad the room wasn’t set up better so that more people could see and hear this craftsman at work.

Chef Adam Sappington of The Country Cat

And thank god we had another meat guru on the program after Ryan, namely butcher boy Adam Sappington from The Country Cat. He had roasted a whole pig, which he deftly dispatched into succulent portions, served with cheesey mashed potatoes. And biscuits. And BBQ sauce. Now, where’s my Double Mountain…

p.s. To get the full flavor and scope of the event, read up on the “incident” that ocurred later in the evening:

–from Martha Holmberg

My favorite sound in early spring isn’t the cheerful chatter of birds, tho that’s nice, but rather the clack-clack of wooden Portland Farmers Market tokens being counted into a ziplock bag for me at the info booth. I never have cash so I always start my market morning with a handy swipe of my debit card—the tokens make me feel like I’m getting all that wonderful stuff for free, except, um, I’m not.

My first market shop was this past Saturday, and while I felt bad about missing opening day, I felt righteous as I huddled against the highly unpleasantly driving rain and did my shopping.

Yet all was not dreary, the food is fantastic and makes me so happy. And the market has expanded, too! I’m curious to see how the extra space plays out once the crowds return – I will love being able to stroll rather than rugby-scrum the aisles in June.

My lettuce, though not really from the farmers market--for illustrative purposes only!

My score? I start with my ritual breakfast of a crab cocktail from Linda Brand Crab (hey, where’s the friendly guy with the good blond highlights? Hope he’s back later this season). Then I bought:

-       Coppa roast from Tails n Trotters, (plus a couple small pieces of pork butt that are in the freezer awaiting my command. I swear that the fat does taste like hazelnuts, which is the main food source for the hogs).

-       Nettles from the Osmogaia guy, which turned into a shockingly delicious soup with some spinach and a potato.

-       Young and lovely lettuce from him too, that I dolloped with the following pretty green dressing (I didn’t measure, so use your improv skills):

In a mortar and pestle or food processor, mash an anchovy or two, about a half a small clove of garlic, some grated lemon zest, lots of salt. Add some lemon juice, then start mashing in some ripe avocado – I used a half a medium one to make dressing for 4. Once you get a thickish puree, start working in a bit of buttermilk. When you have a nice ranch-dressing consistency, taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt and lemon and a shake or two of hot sauce. If you have nice tender herbs such as parsley, chervil, chives, or dill, you could throw in a sprinkling of them, too.