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Meat CSA!!!
How do you make the concept of CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) even better?
Make it a Meat CSA!
(Photo from Stillman's website)
A CSA is a great way to support local farmers. The general concept is that you are providing an up-front cash flow to farmers in exchange for their goods, usually produce. A typical CSA works this way: you give the farm of your choice a pre-determined amount of money in late spring or early summer, and then you receive boxes of produce throughout the summer. Each CSA operates differently, some let you pick the produce yourself, some just fill up a box of what is best at the time.
I've always wanted to join one but was unsure if I could actually use and eat everything in a share. Besides, I love going to the farmer's market and selecting my own produce. Summer is always full of travel too, so pickups would be difficult (I think there are year-round CSAs in places like California because of the growing seasons.) I hope that one of these days the circumstances will be right and I'll find one that I will join.
So back to the Meat CSA. We joined the one from our favorite farmstand, Stillman's Farms here in Boston. They always have the best tomatoes, raspberries, and corn, and the owners Aidan and Kate are great people. Besides produce, they started to sell meats from a Turkey Farm they purchased. We've tried sausages and pork chops from them and were impressed by the quality of the meats. They have heirloom varietals, and I love that they're local.
An excerpt from their website: they have a "goal of raising conscientiously-raised, grass-fed and pasture, hormone-free meats and poultry."
How it works: 6 months of meat for $75 a month. Each box comes with 10 pounds of meats, about half high-end cuts like chops and steaks, and the other half cuts like stew meat and ground beef. That comes to $7.50/pound, and everything arrives frozen and vacuum-sealed. We decided to split a share with one of my co-workers so we would alternate months.
We finally picked up our first box. I was giddy with excitement! The meat looked fabulous, I'm hoping to keep you updated with what we do with it all. Here's what we got:
Bacon (400g, 0.88 lbs)
4 Center Cut Thin Bone-In Pork Chops (775g, 1.71 lbs)
4 Lamb Loin Chops (650g, 1.43 lbs)
7 Hot Dogs (425g, 0.94 lbs)
4 Hot Lamb Sausages (575g, 1.27 lbs)
Pork Spareribs (1075g, 2.37 lbs)
Ground Beef (500g, 1.10 lbs)
2 Beef Tenderloin Steaks (317g, .70 lbs)
Total weight: 10.38 pounds
Total Cost for This Share: $75, no tax charged as far as we know
I decided to do a comparison of prices with other stores in the area. Keep in mind that I don't know how much Stillman's charges for each of these things on their own, I only know that they charged $75 for the entire package.
My method was to note the prices per pound at other stores and then calculate everything based on the weights of the meat we received. Sometimes the stores didn't have the exact same product, so I tried my best to find suitable equivalents. This isn't by any means an exact or perfect comparison, but hopefully a good stab at it.
I picked three local stores:
- Total Cost at Whole Foods: $89.80 with tax
(20% more than Meat CSA)
Whole Foods didn't have lamb sausage, but the butcher said they could always make some. I estimated sausage costs based on what the other fancier ones in the case cost. - Total Cost at Savenors: $99.19 with tax
(32% more than Meat CSA)
Savenors is the highest-end butcher here in Boston, well-known for quality meats. Surprisingly, the price differential between Savenors and Whole Foods really only came down to the tenderloin, which was $24.99/lb at Whole Foods but $35.99/lb here because it was prime grade meat. If you removed the tenderloin from the picture, Savenors was only $1.28 more than Whole Foods! I was shocked. It reinforced the fact that I would rather shop here and support a local business. - Total Cost at Shaw's: $61.69 with tax
(18% less than Meat CSA)
For those who don't live on the East Coast, Shaw's is the large chain grocery store, equivalent to Albertson's on the West Coast. While the cost here was much cheaper than options 1 & 2, it was only $16.25 cheaper than the Stillman's CSA.
My general conclusion from this little analysis was that Stillman's was a great bargain for the quality of meat. It was less than Whole Foods and Savenors, but not that much more than Shaw's, where I would never buy meat if I could help it. My biggest satisfaction comes from the fact that I am putting money directly into a farmer's hands. Plus, I get to interact with him and support my local community.
Of course, since the box varies from month to month, the price comparisons are by no means accurate for future packages. Who knows what the coming months will bring, but I love mysteries and surprises. I can't wait to start using the meat and look forward to the next share!
Bon Appétit!
Picking Problems
"Welcome to Honey-Pot Hill!!!"
It was a little jarring to see two teenaged boys saccharinely greeting and waving cars into Honey-Pot Hill Orchards, an apple picking farm in Stowe, MA. The next surprise was seeing a parking lot as big as an amusement park, filled with hundreds and hundreds of cars.
"Are all of these people here just to pick apples?" was my question that popped out of my mouth.
Turns out they were. What I thought would be an peaceful, idyllic New England excursion turned out to be quite the opposite. The first surprise was seeing the tractor-pulled hayride slide dangerously down a slight incline toward the pond when it pulled loose from its hitch. Luckily, observers quickly pulled all the passengers out over the side in case it kept sliding. No harm done, but a few nervous moments.
Next came the picking policy, prepaying for bags that you fill. I don't really like this policy- the minimum was $16 and yields 1-1/4 pecks of apples (about 12-14 lbs), a lot when you only have two people. I understand that the farms need to make money, but this method forces you to take away more than you need, which also leaves fewer apples behind for later pickers. The price per pound of apples here is quite reasonable, but the policy encourages waste and excess rather than taking only what you need. I much prefer the method of weighing what you pick.
The apple orchards are quite extensive, with many different varietals. As we were going fairly late in the season, however, we had trouble locating any apples at all. We delved deep into the orchards, finally commandeering a ladder that helped us reach those last apples at the tops of the trees. The apples were crisp, delicious, and tart, the freshest they could ever be. Maybe things were looking up. Or not.
I always think of farming as quiet, peaceful work where you can really enjoy the lack of city noise and traffic. Honey-Pot Hill was so busy that we couldn't escape the screams or cries of children around us the entire time we were there. Lest you think I'm anti-children, remember that I teach at a kid's cooking school! Children have every right to be there, but I felt that the farm was so commercialized and dense with pickers that you never were able to really relax and enjoy the experience.
Besides apple picking, Honey-Pot Hill is quite a cash-making machine. They sell cider donuts, hot dogs, cider, pies, hayrides, hedge mazes, even food for the farm animals. Lines are long and tempers can be short towards the end of the day. It's a little discouraging to see how money-driven this operation is. What if someone just wanted to walk around the orchards and learn about apple farming? They wouldn't be able to do so without forking over the $16 minimum picking fee.
The whole experience left me with a dilemma: is a farm like this a positive thing? Pros: local, natural foods, jobs for the neighborhood teenagers, exposure to nature and farming. Cons: a Disneyland-like atmosphere, crowds, high noise levels, a sense of distancing from the farming process, money is valued over educating people about farming.
Does the good outweigh the bad? Am I expecting too much from a farm and not giving the farmers enough slack for trying to survive?
I went apple picking because I wanted to support a local farm and its operations, but left discouraged by the commercialism, even if it was just within the farm itself. It's an interesting wrinkle in the whole "Local is superior" mania going around in the food circles today. I'd love to hear your two cents.
Bon Appétit!
The Joys of Teaching
Summer Farmer's Market Ingredients
It's always encouraging when this is what my cart looks like when I prep for one of my children's cooking class. And yes, we used all of it.
Unless something is spicy, all ingredients in a recipe are mandatory. No exceptions made. "You make it, you taste it, and then you can decide if you like it."
The menu I put together for my Flavors of France class last week:
- Croissant and Prune Bread Pudding with Armagnac
- Basque Chicken and Chorizo Sauté
- Tomato Salad with Vinaigrette
One of my greatest joys is seeing students (in this class, 13-15 years old) make these sophisticated recipes and seeing their faces light up when they taste it. I love my job.
Bon Appétit!
Pearl Oyster Bar, NYC
Sometimes I get quite jealous when I read other people's blog posts. It's usually when they have wonderful connections in the food industry that I wish I had ("Why, I just had the most fabulous afternoon shopping at the Farmer's Market with Alice Waters!" etc.) I can't even name any restaurant where I know someone working there well enough to say it would make any difference on my dining experience.
Well, these days are over my friends. Hooray!
One of our best friends, T, from cooking school now works as the oyster shucker at Pearl Oyster Bar in New York. Since we were going to NYC mainly to catch up with her and lament that we no longer live in Paris, we of course had to check out her restaurant. Not that we needed much prodding: it is the famed Pearl Oyster Bar after all. I couldn't wait to try Chef Rebecca Charles' food and see how it compared to the New England seafood scene here in Boston.
The place isn't large, with an open kitchen, long bar, and some tables. I almost felt like a celebrity: we didn't have to wait in line because we were T's friends, and we were introduced to the chef herself, very gracious and inviting. We also got the best seats in the house, the last two bar seats closest to the kitchen. You can see all the action there: Chef Charles at the pass, inspecting and garnishing every item leaving her kitchen. You get to see the oysters being shucked, the seafood being fried, the lobsters being steamed, the lobster rolls being stuffed. A few times we got to chat with the chef and also watch her do even the most mundane tasks like putting away clean glasses.
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Chef Charles and our friend T
The energy level in there is incredible. The staff has very little turnover and buzzes around so efficiently you wonder if you ever have to ask for anything because they will anticipate it. I haven't seen this much youthful energy in a restaurant since we went to Au Pied de Cochon in Montréal.
6 Oysters
Of course we had to start with raw oysters, 6 on the half shell. My one critique of the menu is that there is only one selection of oyster offered each night, so it seems to contradict the name "Oyster Bar." But they were delicious, briny, and came with a great cocktail sauce and mignonette sauce.
Fried Oysters
Chef Charles sent us a little treat next: a taste of her fried oysters. They were amazingly light, crunchy, and full of ocean taste inside. I also really enjoyed the homemade tartar sauce, rich and with the relish cut slightly larger so that they offered a nice tart contrast to the oysters.
Steamers
I never had steamers until I moved to Boston. These are clams that have little feet on them. You have to peel off this black layer of skin around each one, then swirl it in some clam broth to remove any remnants of sand. Then the whole thing is dunked in melted butter before it goes into your mouth. Such a weird thing, and I never would've guessed how you're supposed to eat them- for some reason they assume you know how to eat them. Thank goodness I have native New Englanders to indoctrinate me in their wise ways! The steamers here were the largest I'd ever seen, but juicy and full of flavor.
Salt Crusted Shrimp
Next came another small plate, 3 gigantic salt crusted shrimp. They were deep fried with their shells on, just like in many Asian cuisines. I love the taste and texture of fried shrimp shells, and they are purported to help you develop strong nails. I just like them because they're tasty.
Skate with Fresh Corn, Peppers, and Snow Peas
A bit of advice: always check the blackboard menu to see what the special is. We had a hard time deciding between the cod or the skate, but went with skate because it's not often seen on menus. This was a huge portion, fried in highly seasoned flour and garnished with only a wedge of lemon. The vegetable medley sang of summer: crisp, steaming hot, and simply prepared.
Unfortunately, we didn't try the famed lobster roll. We'll save that for our next trip. We had their famous apple crisp for dessert, but I guess I was too excited about it to take a photo. Either that or food coma was setting in.
For New York, the prices were quite reasonable, with entrees around $20 unless you got something with lobster in it. I love the fact that you can share tons of things and not have to take out a second mortgage.
We hung out after they closed to wait for our friend to break down her station, and all we did was dreamily nurse our glasses of wine and chat with the other staff about the celebrities that come through the door. What more could you ask for?
Pearl Oyster Bar
18 Cornelia St.
New York, NY 10014
(212) 691-8211
Bon Appétit!
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