Sustainable Agriculture and Woodberry Kitchen

Yesterday I participated in a sustainable agriculture task force through the EFC of University of Maryland, College Park. We had an amazing discussion on how to improve the local food options in Maryland's 157 municipalities. Ultimately we will create several action items for municipalities to complete to achieve the Sustainable Maryland Certified recognition. I got to meet several intelligent and interesting people who work in all aspects of the food system. One lady in particular was Joan Norman of One Straw Farm which is the largest certified organic vegetable farm in Maryland. I spoke with Joan about my plans of visiting Woodberry Kitchen for dinner to which she said ever since they opened they have been buying from her.

After the meeting I drove to downtown Baltimore to walk around and kill time until Mike, an old friend of mine, got off work. We had discussed dinner options and once Woodberry came up I was sold. Being a farm-to-table restaurant, I knew that if we went anywhere else I would regret it. And having read the menu online my mouth was already watering thinking of all the awesome offerings.

Upon seating, I immediately apologized to my friend for any perceived gluttony. I ended up starting with the Veal Cheek and Farro soup, followed by the Butcher's Board. The board contained all sorts of charcuterie, including beef, veal, and pork. It was explained to me that they do all of the butchering in house. I do not know why I was surprised by this, but upon thinking about it longer, it gives the chef almost complete control over the meat. And you can definitely taste it! I shared several pieces of each with Mike who found himself highly impressed with it all, especially the corned beef tongue.

For the main course (as if I had not eaten enough already), I got the Truck Patch Farms Pork Chop with buttered cabbage and pork belly. As if things could not have gotten tastier. Once I had consumed every the meal I actually deviated from my 60+ day strict paleo challenge and soaked up the last of the juices with a bit of their homemade bread. Well worth it in my opinion.

I can not recommend this place enough. The staff, especially our waitress Amanda, were extremely friendly and the atmosphere was quite classy and relaxing. Many paleo friendly options. If you are ever in Baltimore, eat here.

Turkey Day 2 of 3: Processing the Birds

Saturday I helped Greenbranch with the slaughter and processing of their 157 turkeys. As I mentioned in my previous post, one of these birds will be going home with me and will be the centerpiece of Thanksgiving this year. One of my goals has been to 'meet my meat' and I am honored to have been able to help out and extremely satisfied to have learned so much.

The farmers eyeing the flock

I arrived at 8am and helped get everything set up. The process basically involved catching a bird and placing in a cone, killing and letting them bleed out, steeping in a scalder, placing in a de-feathering device, evisceration, soaking in cold water, and then bagging. I managed to participate in each of these steps throughout the day. Here are my experiences and thoughts with each.

Catching The Bird

In the begining with so many birds it was easy to catch them, but as the day went on they had more room to run. Or maybe we selected the slower birds and in the end had all the speed demons that had escaped capture thus far. Usually a lunge for a foot was enough to snag one. I eventually stopped this part of the process as I realized I am not quite as quick with my knee as it is. Anyway, this is a great workout.

A Spanish Black Turkey

A Narragansett Turkey

The Kill

Once caught, the birds would be placed upside down in metal cones. Their heads would stick out of the bottom where they would be killed with a knife and bleed into a bucket. I have participated in this part of the process before with chickens, so other than everything being bigger, the kill process is the same. There are many ways to cut the throat and the one I have found to be the quickest was the stick method. In the morning when we had fewer people I did most of the killing... I was titled The Executioner. It was in the morning that we did all of the heritage birds and they definitely felt different than their white cousins. Around noon we took a break, which I desparately needed. I was able to kill many without incident, but one of the last heritage birds got to me. I cannot really explain it, not sure if it was a moral dilemma or what, but I had to stop. In the afternoon and into the night there were more people so I was able to move on to other sections. At the end of the night I went back to this part and did both the killing and the foot holding.

Heritage birds in the cones

As the bird dies you had to hold the feet

Bled out

The Rest

Once the bird has been bled out, it then goes into the scalder for about 40 seconds. The feathers can mostly be pulled out by hand at this point, but there is a device that does it far quicker. After all the feathers are gone it is then eviscerated. It was this step that I was most curious to learn but at the same time most afraid to try. A part of cleaning the birds is to keep them presentable, and the last thing I wanted to do was mangle several of the birds as I learned. After a few examples, I feel I picked it up quickly. It was this process and the killing that I spent most of the day doing. The basic process involved cutting off the head and feet, cutting off the neck and an oil gland near the tail, and pulling out the guts, keeping the liver and heart. I feel that with each bird I got better and better and overall it was this part that I felt the most satisfation and walked away much more confident. I feel like I could gut a deer now with no problems. Once clean, the birds went into an ice bath before bagging and being weighed.

Scalding

Feather Removal

Evisceration

Bagging

Conclusion

After 10 hours at the farm I drove home both physically and mentally wiped, not to mention covered in blood. The dogs thought I was the best thing ever... like one big blood popcicle. As I mentioned above, I was extremely honored I got to help and definitely feel I could check off that I met my meat. It was an amazing experience and I will gladly help out next year if they need me. And I have to mention that as a way of saying thanks, each one of the helpers was given a bird. And where I stayed the entire day I was told that my heritage bird would be free! That was so awesome of them. So, as I say often, and will continue to say: go meet your farmers. Volunteering and helping out has its perks. It is events like this where farmers could use an extra hand and if you are lucky, you will walk away feeling closer to your food, learned a lot, and get some goodies. And, if you are especially lucky like me, you will make some amazing friends in the process. In addition to the bird, I took many of the heads and feet for dog food. When I bagged them all up to put in my chest freezer I calculated that it provides me with a month of food for both dogs. Combined with the venison I received recently, I will not have to buy food for the dogs in a long time. Needless to say, I went to bed and slept like a baby.

Taking a break after killing

One of the helpers caught red handed

For dog food and/or voodoo

Turkey Day 1 of 3: Meeting the Birds

About a month ago I called up my grandmother who usually picks out a turkey from the grocery store. I told her the local farm near me is raising turkeys and I would like for us to get one from them. Grandma gave the green light.

At Greenbranch Farm, no more than a half mile from my house, they started letting people sign up for either a heritage bird or a normal 'butterball' bird (my quotation). They pasture/grassfeed all their animals, so either way you are getting a quality bird. The heritage breeds are, if I am correct, Spanish Black and Bourbon Red.

Pastured

Some of the heritage birds

$5 per pound. Quite pricey as compared to what you can get in the grocery stores this time of year. For feeding the dogs I usually go store to store and stock up on the biggest birds I can find when they are down to 29 to 39 cents per pound. They usually come frozen and injected with what I will call a capitalist 'brine' - Injected to make the crap meat taste better, using the cheapest ingredients possible to do so, and increasing the overall weight so that you pay more. I usually soak out as much of the industrial brine as possible before feeding to the dogs. Do not get me wrong, in an age of convenience, having a pre-brined bird is nice. And for so cheap too! But brines are easy to make... all you need is time and salt.

But yes, $5 per pound... working out to roughly $75 to $100 per bird. I can see that making most people balk. Hell, when I have bought countless for only $10-15, I cannot help but cringe just a little. However, knowing that these birds have been pastured raised, living with plenty of space and being moved frequently to new grounds, and they will not come with some horrible brine helps make the price sound a little more reasonable. Also, this is a once a year meal, so why not get the best I can get? Lastly, I contacted a few of my relatives who are a little more quality focused and they've offered to pitch in. Quite doable for most people and definitely worth it.

This will be a three part series. The second post shall be on tomorrow's event: processing the birds. I've helped this farm process chickens before... but everyone I spoke with who helped with the turkeys last year spoke of having nightmares the following nights. Fun fun.

Posing in front of their frankenturkey brethren

Deer Season!

You know it is deer season at my home when the backyard is filled with bones and sometimes larger uneaten portions of deer.

Got head?

A few days before my first surgery I got a call from my uncle about a large buck that had been hit recently near his house. He told me it was quite large and had only been dead a few hours. He has supplied me with venison before and also hates to see anything go to waste, so he called me and suggested it would make great dog food. Now I have never fed my dogs roadkill, but this sounded too good to let go.

Shaman going to town

So this buck was not technically part of deer season, but I've already starting getting set up to receive more meat, bones and organs for myself and the dogs. In the past the dogs tend to eat 95% of the venison I get, but this year I hope to get enough that I can fully supply the dogs for some time while also providing quite a bit for myself. I've not cooked either the heart or liver of a deer, so I look forward to trying that this winter.

Cyprus examining her dinner.

In regards to how much, or what, to feed the dogs I really cannot say. I tend to know approximately how much to feed from experience and tend to view their dietary intake over a week rather than day to day. So I give them various amounts and make sure they never get too skinny or too fat. But what parts of the deer do I not feed them... I usually let them tell me. I've give them a week, sometimes two, to let me know if they will or will not eat something. In the case of throwing a whole head out on my deck, I still fed them regularly, but would let them eat to satiety by gnawing away on the head. Great exercise for them and amazing at cleaning their teeth!

I imagine this is a bit disgusting for some people. But as an advocate of nose to tail eating I will gladly argue the benefits of them eating something like this versus industrial meat or kibble (bleh).

Strict Paleo and a F**k'd Up Knee

About a month ago, while playing with my club soccer team, I ran into a goalkeeper and wrecked my knee. With one of at least two surgeries down I realized that I would not be running or exercising in general anytime soon. To avoid weight gain from inactivity I decided to go strict Paleo for a few months.

Post Surgery

Whereas previously I would have a periodic beer or slice of pizza, I always knew I could run it off. Currently I am two and a half weeks into it and things are going quite smooth. I am getting plenty of sleep and am definitely in ketosis (ketostix verified!). Not being as mobile does make me a bit anxious and not having an immediate avenue to run the dogs is causing minor issues. However, I am looking forward to the challenge of staying strict, especially with the holidays on the way.

On New Years I will reflect and review on what the 60+ days has accomplished in a Robb Wolf look/feel/perform way. I may reincorporate a few things depending on the results, like whole milk (grass-fed) and coffee (organic).

In the coming days and weeks I will periodically update on the things I am doing (besides limping around) and what, if any, results I am noticing. Also I have some planned posts on topics ranging from deer being awesome dog food to making this Thanksgiving turkey dinner extra special.