Farmer's Market

[Brenda86]

So I am really wanting to try out some grass-fed meat and I did see the US Wellness Meats link on the Life Without Bread thread. Their prices are very good, but you do have to wait for shipping and I am not able to buy in bulk quite yet - we need a new fridge/freezer!!

BUT it turns out we have a real farmer's market downtown in my city and I scoped out the vendor list and there is an all organic, grass-fed farm that sells their meat there on Saturdays. The ground beef is about $8/lb but pork and chicken look like they are about $3-$5/lb depending on what you get exactly.

I'm going to go take a look this Saturday. Oh and it looks like they do have some organ meats, too, which are a bit cheaper, though I've never had ANY before. I do think I will give some a try a little at a time though! Anyway I'm excited. I've never been to a real farmer's market so I'll be checking out the produce as well and this is only about 15-20 minutes drive my home so I could go every week if I needed to.

 

[SeekinTruth]

That's great, Brenda86. Just a note that organ meats really work out to be the best value because they are cheaper AND the most nutrient dense. You can search for recipes on how to prepare/cook them. There's a liver and bacon recipe by Laura, and some others. Usually, cooking liver with lots of lard, butter or ghee and LOTS of onions is really delicious if the liver is good quality. And you can have two "tiers" of onions. Some that's cooked more and soaks up a lot of the fat and then add a few rings at the end that are only half cooked for a more pungent taste. You can also eat it after cooking with a big slab of butter. Really great combination.

You can experiment to your taste, as well. Another thing I'm going to try soon is sheep's brains with bacon. First dipping the brains in scrambled eggs and then frying them with the bacon and probably some onions. I haven't had brains in years so I'm looking forward to experimenting with them again.

 

[Foxx]

Glad to hear that you found a farmers market, Brenda86! I second SeekinTruth--organ meats are great. Just this morning, I ate pork liver and onions cooked in lard with salt, two pastured eggs, and a side of butter. I like the butter combination with liver--it cuts the taste a bit and the fat from the butter gives a nice mouth texture with the liver. I think a bacon combination is also a great choice.

I recall from one thread (probably Life Without Bread) that Laura said that pork and calf liver was superior to beef liver, I think specifically regarding taste, FWIW. I've been eating pork liver recently and feeling pretty good from it and, in fact, I think I was deficient in something when I went without eating it for a stint. For that reason, I'd definitely recommend it.

 

[Brenda86]

Thanks Foxx! The pork liver is probably a little less costly, too, though they are both cheaper than other cuts of meat for sure!

I am so excited to go to a market that only has real food!

 

[theos]

It's good you found a local source, Brenda. You may want to ask if the meat is grass fed and grass finished. Sometimes the farmers will feed the animals grain to fatten them up right before they're sent off to the slaughterhouse.

If you find lamb's liver do try it. It's quite delicious with more of a "tangy" flavor than beef liver. One of my favorite dishes is pate with lots of butter and sometimes scrambled eggs mixed in...can't stand to just eat a slice of liver nowadays. I also have some beef heart stew in the fridge I've been eating for a couple days. If your supplier doesn't have organ meats handy you may ask them to save you some for future purchase.

 

[Piotrek]

[quote author=Odyssey]
If you find lamb's liver do try it. It's quite delicious with more of a "tangy" flavor than beef liver.
[/quote]
I second that!
Lamb liver is a bit more delicate, as well.

If you get a chance, Brenda, I wholeheartedly recommend getting a sample of some pure ground pork.
Make a couple of thin patties out of it and fry them up on some lard (medium heat) in the morning with a single scrambled egg (on another pan, with butter).
I don't know if your experience will end up being the same, but the ground pork ends up being so sweet, yet spicy, almost no seasoning is necessary (HEAVEN! :P).
That is something my wife and I have every morning (and have been having it throughout her pregnancy) and find it not only gives us energy, but we end up feeling content (not full, mind you, just content).
Again, this might be a subjective/personal experience, but if you feel like experimenting, I do recommend trying it.

Farmer's markets are a great place to find out some cool recipes, too.
The experience accumulated by true, organic, earth-friendly farmers is priceless.
Talk to them and listen to their stories (don't be afraid to ask "what's in that?" if you're not sure what's inside the package).

Good luck and best wishes!
P

 

[bngenoh]

I ate my first brain the day before yesterday. It was beef brain, and since I didn't know how it was gonna taste, I mixed it with some beef liver because I luv the taste of beef liver. I cooked it in suet (kidney fat beef) butter, & coconut oil. The texture leaves much to be desired and takes some getting used to, it's too damn soft, having a similar texture to goat meat which I despise.

Guess what? beef brains taste like chicken. when I was preparing it, I was actively picking out the glial cell manufactured white matter and the neurons (gray matter) I was like "this is so cool, Anatomy & Physiology rocks." It was my first time actually handling a brain in real life.

I bought it about 2 weeks ago I think, along with about 12 pounds of beef liver. It all came to ~$45.00, needless to say that is cheap as hell considering that there are about 3 slices in one bag and there are about 10 bags of varying sizes. I can eat for a couple of weeks. The only thing that has to be bought is butter, coconut oil, salt, etc and even that is every once in a while.

Btw, the secret to eating suet, is cutting it up very finely, salting and black peppering it, then heating it on low till the pieces become nice and brown, then you turn off the heat and let it sit for a while, then you turn on the heat again on low and cook your meat on it, this is where I add spices like turmeric, thyme, curry, etc. I prefer my meat towards the very rare end of the spectrum, so I don't cook it very long. I have always had a taste for blood anyways. :D

This is definitely a very economical means of nourishment, plus you get healthy which is also useful.

 

[ScottD]

US Wellness ships overnight and is well worth the expense to me. Plus they have free shipping (plus 7 dollars handling) if you order enough. I have ordered from them multiple times and have yet to be disappointed. If you sign up to their newsletter you can get 15% off discount codes quite often. I tend to buy up the 75% ground beef packs when they're on sale and their no-sugar bacon (since it's hard to find anyone that doesn't use sugar). I'll also buy their primal cuts and make my own steaks to be placed in the freezer.

We have a couple farmer's markets in town as well that I try and support and can always find some decent deals especially on soup bones and pastured eggs. It has become our weekly event, planning our meals out, and then heading to the markets.

I have yet to try liver. Organ meats gross me out and I have always had issues eating even fatty meats (until I found grass fed meats). Instant gag reflex. I think I'll pass on the brains and head cheese though until I can concquer at least some liver.

 

[Foxx]

I have yet to try liver. Organ meats gross me out and I have always had issues eating even fatty meats (until I found grass fed meats). Instant gag reflex. I think I'll pass on the brains and head cheese though until I can concquer at least some liver.

This combination has been posted elsewhere, but if you haven't read yet, bacon makes liver much more palatable.

I cook the bacon first, then add onions and liver to the bacon fat in the pan (sometimes I might also add garlic, mushrooms, and/or a fried egg--yum!), then a good amount of salt and cook the liver until it's medium or so--the middle is pink or light brown, but not tough or overdone. I eat pork liver and usually cut it fairly thin to cook faster and move evenly. Then I usually try and get a combination of bacon, onions, and liver per bite and it tastes pretty good. I still don't really "like" liver, but the results are indisputable in terms of my health so I try and eat it at least once a week anyway.

It can be challenging to get over the "organ meats are gross" programming, but they're so incredibly nutritious that I think it's an important one to overcome. At times, I think that after so many years of poor health and diet, it may be wisest for me to simply live off roughly equal quantities of bacon and liver (with a few extras) for an extended period of time to replenish. I still may do this.

I haven't done brains or head cheese yet :)

 

[bngenoh]

I have yet to try liver. Organ meats gross me out and I have always had issues eating even fatty meats (until I found grass fed meats). Instant gag reflex. I think I'll pass on the brains and head cheese though until I can concquer at least some liver.

Yeah, the gag reflex is certainly a thing to be overcome. I never had a gag reflex with liver, just fat. The first time I cooked with suet, I made the mistake of not cutting it fine enough, and the gag reflex was definitely strong. Lesson learned, now it tastes absolutely delicious. The body does need some time to adjust, for me it was about 2 days, but depending on your make up it may take longer or shorter.

I eat purely for fuel & nutrition, if it tastes good that's just a useful plus. Organ meats are definitely a thing to include in one's diet, osit.

 

[ScottD]

I had seen a recipe on one of the Paleo websites that I frequent for a liver/bacon meatball and I was willing to try that. I love bacon and consume it daily but the added liver might make for a decent breakfast. Even if I conquer liver I am still leery of other organ meats like sweetbreads (pancreas) or anything else foreign to me. I grew up eating a lot of meats since Dad was a hunter but we never ate organs (they were usually left in for forest after field dressing). I was also considering giving the US Wellness Liverwurst a try. To me that is more palatable than a slab of gelatinous guts on my chopping block but I'll continue to work towards beating my irrational fears and gag reflexes to ingest what my body requires.

My trip to the farmer's market this week might end with me and some liver and some heart or something else experimental :) Thanks for the recipe Foxx and for the encouragement bngenoh.