Early last week one of our good customers, Janice H., made a reference to “pink slime” in an email.  I didn’t really understand it at the time, I just thought it was a generic reference to what might be added to ground meat to keep it “fresh” when it is not frozen.  Janice said,  “I am so thankful to have good meat to feed my family and especially after hearing about that pink slime that goes into a lot of beef, yuk!”  (Sometimes people ask, “Why are you doing this, selling beef???  You can’t make much money doing that!”  Well, maybe there are more important things, like the feeling I get when someone like Janice says something like she did in that email …)

I don’t watch much TV, so every decade or so I miss something important (something that wasn’t on Seinfeld or The Office).  But after Janice’s email I caught the tail end of a news report regarding customers demanding to know whether “pink slime” was in so-and-so store’s ground beef.   I could tell something was up … I needed to get educated, catch up with Janice!

Strangely, I read the Wall Street Journal and Austin’s paper, daily, and I haven’t seen anything on “pink slime”.  In fact, a search done just a few minutes ago yields nothing from either … weird.

So, what’s the story?

Well, a Google search found quite a bit, including a story and video on ABC News.  According to ABC News, a “lean beef product” is added to like 70 percent of all ground beef, and is likely to be found in 25 % of the hamburger patties you eat (unless you eat only our Steakburger, because none of this is in ANY of your Condalia Farms Brand Steakburger!).

So, what is this stuff?  It appears to be the “everything else” that is left on a cow, scoured off, picked up, whatever, then ground fine and extruded through a small diameter nozzle whereupon ammonium hydroxide gas is applied to raise the pH and kill bacteria that might have come from it being on the floor, or whatever!  Wow!  So, some “genius” no doubt had this idea:  everyone wants lean beef, and here is a way you can take stuff that had been wasted or sent to a rendering plant – basically low value – and sell it as part of high-value, lean ground beef!  Imagine, here is a product you can make a lot of, cheaply, and add it to fatty ground beef to yield more expensive, lean beef!  Ironically, many choosy mother’s choose “lean beef” in the grocery store, paying a little more to eat a little healthier – but in this case the lean beef component might make her choice less healthy!

Folks, this is what we are talking about, this is why we are in business!  This is why you need to know where your food comes from.  This “pink slime” operation makes an understatement out of Chipotle’s satire animation of factory meat! (linked in the previous post)

Come join Dirty’s and Lone Star Grassfed for a very important occasion – the annual celebration of the independence of our great state!

On this Friday, from 6 – 9 pm, we will be serving our Condalia Farms Brand Steakburger, cooked to perfection by an Austin tradition since 1926 – Dirty’s!

If you went to school here I am sure you have memories of great times and great food at Dirty’s.  My mother once told me they took hamburgers from Dirty Martin’s Kumback on picnic excursions to the wilds of Lake Austin, in the mid 1930’s.

Lone Star Grassfed will provide the Steakburger, and Dirty’s will provide the trimmings and will have beer available for purchase.

As I am sure you know, Dirty’s is located on Guadalupe, just south of 29th Street.  We will be on the triangular patio.

Only one “catch” – you must let me know by Thursday pm (email preferable) if you will attend, so that we can have the correct amount of Steakburger available, and Dirty’s can plan, as well.

Looking forward to it, and Remember the Alamo!

I thought last night’s Grammy’s were great.  The commercials were almost Superbowl- quality, in my opinion.  Included was one that maybe had run before (I don’t watch much TV), but it was new to me.  It had quite an effect on me.  It tells the factory farm story in an animation, complete with Willie doing Coldplay’s haunting, The Scientist.

Joel Salatin introduced Chipotle to his pasture-based, know-your-farmer concept, and Polyface has been a supplier to Chipotle in their area.  So, you can imagine that Joel inspired, or even edited to some extent, this animation.

Like Chipotle, we’re in this to do the right thing, to eat better, to help others eat better, and make a difference.  And we’re having fun.  (At least that’s what all I tell our accountant!  Hopefully we’ll make a little profit this year, if it rains!)

Check it out, see if it has an impact on you:  Chipotle video.

The week before last I was up at the processor, watching them process the most recent harvest of two beeves.  As I watched them filet out the ribeyes from the ribs, I thought, “Whoa!  Look at all that wonderful meat on the ribs, next to the ribeye!”  So, on the next beef I had them leave the rib on the ribeyes.   Of course, we had to try one to make sure it was OK – wow!  Another learning experience.  These are sometimes called “rib steaks”, but to avoid confusion and new terminology (or old terminology), we’ll just call them Ribeyes, bone-on.

Joe T. S. reports from the San Angelo auction last week that 600 + lb calves are bringing $1.60/lb, 3 – 400lb calves, $2.17/lb.  Wow!  A manifestation of the drought and reduction in herds last year, as well as the high cost of grain to feed them out (not us, of course!).

Joe and I recently drove to E. Texas, LA, MS, AR, OK, KS and CO.  Yeah, wow on that too.   What did we see?  More like what did we not see – we did not see many cattle …

Hey folks, thanks to David, we now have Steakburger patties available.  A meat market and hamburger restaurant in Brownwood requested them, so we got it done.  These patties currently come in boxes of 40 – quarter pound patties, which is ten pounds of Steakburger.

It sure does make it fast and easy to cook burgers.  Last night we tried some – we seasoned them with a little sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, garlic powder and Worchestershire sauce, then gas grilled them – they were great.  The patties are well-formed, and are separated by wax paper, stacked in a nice cardboard box.  $5.99/lb.

It got cold, and we all got busy, so we haven’t yet had our Steakburger party at Dirty’s.  When to have it?  How about Texas Independence Day, on or around March 2 (which is a Friday night)?  Texas Independence Day is special for … Texans, but also Kappa Sigs who went to UT, like me.  Why, that’s where I learned to grow this neat mustache, during the ugly beard competition (how I finished is a secret).  Anyway, we will try to pull this off, look for details, forthcoming.

David reported in mid December that weaned calves in the 5 -600# had set new records, namely $1.50 – $1.60/lb.  (Although the prices fluctuate, normally they center around $1/lb).  Even wilder, an 830# steer brought $1.30/lb.  Normally prices go down, as weights go up.

Then, this week, 5-600# calves are $2.00/lb, and the above steer would fetch $1.50/lb!  All this brought on by a shortage of calves, and the substantial expenses that feeders incur when feeding calves out on near record-priced corn (they can pay more for the weight already on the animal).

Good thing you know someone in the bidness!  Buy the Beef!

Recently we spent an interesting day working on wood gasifiers. Among our projects, a stove that gasifies woodchips using a primary and secondary air supply. The wood is partially burned with the primary air, then the gaseous products are burned cleanly using the secondary. Sound complicated? Well, it is pretty sophisticated, but Drs. Reed and Anderson have done much of the hard work for us, working out the geometries for making the stove out of “obtanium”, mainly junk. In our case, Ray mentored my oldest son, who built his stove from a large metal coffee can and a cheap stainless pot I found at HEB, plus a few other parts, like the extra top of an expensive German rainfilter which I had been saving… for this.  Stove below shown with a stick in the primary air supply, to regulate it.

What in the world does this have to do with grassfed beef?  Thought you’d never ask.  Well, for supper we cooked 3 # of Steakburger in a cast iron skillet, with canola oil.  When folks are looking for tiny bits of residual meat in the skillet, you know it was good.  Served hamburger steak-style, with brussel sprouts, Ray exclaimed, “This Steakburger is better than the steaks we normally get at the store!”  Nuff said!

I just can’t say enough about these London Broils.  We seasoned this one ala Pam S. with olive oil & Montreal Steak Seasoning, cooked it at 350 F for 15 minutes, 475 F for 10 minutes.  It was absolutely wonderful!  Peter H. tells me he and his brother “were raised on London Broil”.  (have heard the same thing from Joe S.)  Peter is going to try to dig up his family recipe for cooking London Broil on the BBQ pit.

Then, shown below is the first brisket we have cooked.  We cooked it on our Redi-smoke smoker, with a minimum of seasoning – just a little oil and salt and pepper.  It had a nice covering of fat on top of it, but little in the meat itself.  Really lean, great meat (if we do say so, ourselves.)  I know I have been disappointed with some store-bought briskets – they tend to be so fatty.  Try one of these briskets ($4.99/lb) – money-back if you don’t like it!