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Month: October 2006

Meat by the Box

Meat by the Box

I’ve been meaning to write about this article, BACK TO THE RANCH: Consumers are going to the source for pastured beef, pork, poultry and eggs in the SF Chronicle food section since it came out (which to my horror, was a month ago). Anyhow, looks like more and more families in the Bay Area are buying meat directly from ranchers — I’ve written before about knowing your meat, and my astonishment that most Americans are totally freaked out by this idea. When Patrick and I lived in the Bay Area we talked about finding someone to buy a side or a quarter of beef from, and Patrick’s friend Kiwi Paul the Stonemason turned out to be a great source of real eggs, but we never quite got our act together to buy meat. It is a little tricky. You have to know a rancher, or know someone who knows a rancher. Perhaps now with the internet, and organizations like our own local Corporation for the Northern Rockies who can help you make the connection, it’s a little easier, but I doubt that if Patrick and I hadn’t had a grandmother with a farm, a grandmother who always bought a share of a steer (or who in recent years has traded beef for pasturage — yes, those black angus out there lolling under the old elm trees are going to be next winter’s dinner) that it even would have occurred to us to look for meat by the animal.

And no one’s making it any easier. When we were kids, my grandmother kept her meat in the meat locker at the little store in town.

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Zucchini as Big as My Leg

Zucchini as Big as My Leg

zucchini as big as my leg Look what I found once the frost killed off all the foliage — a zucchini as big as my leg! I thought I’d done a pretty good job keeping up with them but this one was lurking in the back, hidden by the cucumber trellis. I may try to save some seeds from it — for now I just pose it places and take pictures.

The garden is pretty much done. My other big surprise of the season was these beautiful raddiccio heads. I took them to a party where first we admired the pretty colors, and then the visiting chef cut them into wedges, drizzled them with very good balsamic vinegar and roasted them in a hot hot oven. They were delicious, and a wonderful surprise because I’d given up on them about half way through the summer — they just didn’t look like they were ever going to form heads. So I thinned them out, and just ignored them. The cool weather set in and one day, when I was watering I noticed they’d formed heads! Quelle suprise. They were probably the loveliest things I grew all summer.

radicchio