Category Archives: Meat CSA
Meeting Our Meat
For the past year and a half, we have belonged to the Chestnut Farms Meat CSA. Over the past several years, I’ve been reading quite a bit about meat (including beef, pork, and chicken) that comes out of the large agribusiness corporations. Since I started cooking for myself in college, I’ve never eaten that much meat, but the disturbing pictures exposed in the books caused me to step back and reconsider eating any at all.
I shared some of the books with Howard. We discussed various options. One thing we were sure about was that we didn’t want to become complete vegetarians. One option, of course, is to eat less meat. At home, between the two of us, we only eat three to five pounds a month. We’re on the higher end in the summer because we like to grill when the weather is nice. We eat less meat in the colder months when we make more stews and casseroles, and I will often double the vegetables and beans and halve the meat.
Another option was to seek out local farmers that raise animals in a humane and sustainable way. These animals would be pasture-fed, leading a healthy outdoor life. Pasture-fed meat costs more per pound, but if we’re eating less of it, it’s not extravagant. In the summer, it’s easy to find farmers at the local farmers’ markets, but, year-round, the options are more limited.
Fortunately for us, we were able to join Chestnut Farms Meat CSA. Each month, we go to a parking lot in Arlington Center where we meet Farmer Kim and pick up a cooler filled with 10 pounds of frozen assorted meats, including beef, pork, chicken, and in the fall, lamb. Occasionally, we can also purchase goat or additional cuts, bones and offal for the dog, and, if we get there early enough, there are also farm fresh eggs. For Thanksgiving, there is also an option to order a fresh turkey.
After a few months, we realized, the meat supply was building up in the freezer as we don’t eat 10 pounds a month. This was solved by finding a friend to share our share. We now alternate monthly pickups and it’s working out much better. At this point, at least 90% of the meat we eat at home is from Chestnut Farms.
Sunday, we took a trip to Chestnut Farms for their semi-annual Open Barn Day. The drive to Hardwick, in Central Massachusetts, was lovely. I think we’re past peak foliage, but the colors were still nice. I also spotted a hawk hanging out on top of a dead tree stump, a huge pumpkin patch, and a few glimpses of the Quabbin Reservoir (our water supply).
We parked the car, Kim gave us a map and some directions, and we set out to explore the farm. In the barn, there were sows with recently-born piglets nursing. There were also some young cows and sheep and a giant boar. We patted them all. Farmer Rich let me go into a pen with some baby pigs, but they were afraid of me until I crouched down to their height. There were also some week and a half year old Araucana chicks, the kind that lays blue eggs. I held one of the baby chicks for a while. So cute!
In the pasture, we also saw the pigs and two kinds of goats, earless La Mancha and Boer with floppy ears. The pigs and goats happily ate our spent apple cores. We also visited the turkeys getting ready for Thanksgiving.
They’ve set up an old schoolbus as a chicken coop for laying hens. The door is open so the hens can go in and out during the day. At night, they get locked up, safely away from predators.
We had an enjoyable afternoon visiting Kim, Rich, and Chestnut Farms. It is reassuring to see for ourselves that the animals that eventually become our meat have lived good lives and thrive under Kim and Rich’s stewardship. It confirms for us that the choices we have made about the meat we eat feel right for us. And one thing I forgot to mention, the meat is really delicious!
If you are interested in reading some of the books we’ve read, a bibliography is listed here.
Ciao to Corn
We had a great weekend visit with my dad and my stepmother Susan. People from my side of the family don’t visit very often, so it was a great treat.
Susan is an interior decorator, so she helped me spruce up a couple of rooms. No major changes, but the details matter a lot. We repositioned the furniture and added a new lamp and some tasseled tiebacks for the curtains and replanted a planter filled with dead plants. It looks great!
They also brought one of our family treasures: a full-length painting that my grandmother posed for when she was a young woman. It always hung in her apartment. My dad’s had for a while, but now it’s hanging in our living room.
On Saturday (the only sunny day of the weekend), we went to Concord Center. They have such a vibrant town center. The stores are interesting and not like “everywhere else”. Lexington Center is dull in comparison. I’m jealous. My favorite spots are Nesting (a funky antique shop), Muse’s Window (a great craft shop that used to be in Lexington), the Concord Cheese Stop, and the Concord Bookshop.
We ate well – nothing new, really, just a lot of tried and true favorites. My dad is not the most adventurous eater, and has strong opinions about what he won’t eat. We had chili, crab cakes, steak (with potato salad and creamed spinach), and fancy hot dogs from our Chestnut Farms CSA. We had corn on the cob with every meal, probably some of the last of the corn this season.
I made it to the Lexington Farmers’ Market yesterday. I won gift certificates at a raffle on a super-rainy day in August, so I wanted to spend them. The tide has shifted from summer to fall produce. The squash and apples were plentiful, tomatoes dwindling and corn nonexistent. I bought salmon from Globe Fish, delicata and acorn squash and carrots from Blue Heron Farm, and poblano peppers and leeks from Stillman Farms.
To start off the week, I also made a pot of soup. This is one of the late-season tomato soups that I saw in the Boston Globe magazine a few weeks ago – the Roasted Tomato Bisque with Corn and Basil. I’d give the soup mixed reviews. The bisque itself was excellent! I thought six cups of corn was too much. If I make it again (next year, corn and tomato season is pretty much over) I would use half the corn.
I will try to make the tomato bisque with roasted canned tomatoes over the winter though. I’ve made a side dish from roasted canned tomatoes before, and the flavor is similarly intense to the roasted fresh ones. I think they’d work in the soup. I still have plenty of basil in the garden, so when I harvest it this weekend, I plan to freeze it to preserve some off-season bursts of summer.
Roasted Tomato Bisque with Corn and Basil
From this recipe from the Boston Globe
Makes about 3 quarts
3 pounds (about 6 medium) tomatoes, halved crosswise
2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
6 cups chicken broth or corn stock
1/3 cup long grain-white rice
½ cup chopped fresh basil
3 cups corn kernels, cut off 3 or 4 medium ears
½ cup half-and-half
Set the oven rack in the middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Squeeze tomato halves into a sieve set over a bowl to remove seeds; save the juice. Line a baking sheet with foil, place the tomato halves on it cut sides down, and roast until tomatoes are collapsed and browned, about 55 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through cooking time. When the tomatoes cool, slip off and discard the skins and set the tomato halves aside. (I did this the day before and put the tomatoes in the fridge.)
Melt the butter in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and ½ teaspoon salt, and cook, stirring frequently, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, about 30 seconds. Add the broth, rice, roasted tomatoes and their juices, and the reserved tomato juice, increase the heat to high, and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the rice is tender, about 25 minutes. Stir in the chopped basil.
In a blender, puree the tomato mixture until smooth, return to the pot, and add corn kernels, half-and-half, 1½ teaspoons salt, and pepper to taste. Heat over medium-low, stirring occasionally, until corn is cooked through, about 8 minutes. Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning, if necessary, and serve, garnishing with more basil.
A Plateful of Happiness 