Grass-fed beef on the menu

[grassfarmer]

Made a little dent on the "conventional" beef system this weekend when I delivered a 32 day dry-aged, grass-fed Luing beef to a highly rated steakhouse in Calgary. Their regular fare is 50 day wet aged Angus grain-fed beef.
You can try it out at either the Vintage Chophouse and Tavern or Rush Restaurant this week. Executive chef at both is Andrew Stevens the "East Coast Chef" - reckoned to be one of the top young chefs in Canada.
I'm just so happy that guys like this are interested in sourcing top quality, local food and are prepared to step outside the mainstream way of doing things and deal direct with the little people growing the food.
I'd love to see a bigger segment of the industry go grass-fed because I believe the demand is there for it.

[rkaiser]

awesome stuff GF

[ALLFARMER]

Ya good stuff Grassfarmer congrats!

-32 here tonight already glad son 2 of 3 helped
open gates and everybody got bedded today.

[kato]

Excellent!

[perfecho]

Congrats! The Local movement is certainly moving forward and good to see more people taking a keener interest in their food.

[Happytrails]

More power to you GF. However I can't help but wonder how you rationalize support for the CWB monopoly which would threaten jail for anyone delivering a bushel of homegrown wheat to a restaurant.

[grassfarmer]

Keep telling lies HT and eventually a few people will believe you - seems to have worked quite well for the AB Government too on this issue. Truth is you always could market your wheat to a pasta maker or a restaurant in the US if you wanted to, albeit there was a procedure to go through with the board to accomplish this.

Pleased to see you back - I thought you'd got lost looking for an atlas - I'm still eagerly awaiting the name of one country that has indicated they would buy more eggs/milk/beef/wheat from us if we destroyed Canada's supply management systems.

[Happytrails]

Boy am I ever glad I'm not near you and a fan. Sorry for the bother. HT

[grassfarmer]

So that's a "yes" to caught out lying on the CWB issue and "no" on coming up with any country that would buy things from us if we scrapped SM?

[ASRG]

grassfarmer: Just a question? When you dry age a beef for that length of time is there much trim needed?
Personally I prefer grass fed beef......don't like all the lard.
I home butchered a yearling grasser this year and I found her overly fat (for my taste)....aged ten days...and very tender (red angus). Great beef.

[Happytrails]

Can't say that having you call me a liar is sitting that well, but it says more about you than me.

Check out the link below if you doubt that you can be jailed for selling wheat.

http://www.quebecoislibre.org/021123-7.htm

If our supply management is acceptable to our trading partners why have they demanded it be put on the table at the WTO negotiations?

There is none so blind as he who will not see.

[grassfarmer]

ASRG - You mean trim in terms of throwing away the crusty outside stuff? It looked fine actually - little different than our regular 16 day aged stuff although it would likely have shrunk more.
I'd rather eat the outside of my dry aged than any of the 50 day wet aged in a bag stuff - I understand they spray the outside of it with some type of chemical to prevent bacterial growth. That sounds gross to me.

[grassfarmer]

HT, the only people jailed for selling wheat were breaking the law. Tell me why you can't sell some of your wheat to a pasta maker or restaurant owner by going through the board's procedures set up for that specific purpose.
Your link didn't work by the way.

Ah, the Canadian naivity on trade negotiations. It's all a game of bluff and Canada is a very poor player of the game. Our negotiators tend to throw away their hand at the earliest opportunity and get nothing in return - just look at the NAFTA agreement. So I ask you again which of our "trading partners that is demanding SM be put on the table" is offering us something in return? Who has said they will import more of our beef, pork, dairy, eggs or grain if we sacrifice the only consistantly profitable sector of Canadian agriculture?

[Happytrails]

Re: last post. Point made. Sure am glad that it isn't illegal to sell cattle and beef tho.

[ALLFARMER]

Anyone who supports the wheat must feel wheat
and barley are "special" stuff. Just can't figure
how guys can grow canola, peas, oats and make
any money??????Just how do they do it??
Must be bullied by some big grain company to do
it ....forced against their will!!

I look forward to the value added that will come
in the next few years. We have lots of canola
crushers a few oat plants, pea and lental plants.
Now that the middle man is getting the boot
companies like Rahr Malting are talking
expansion.