Last Saturday Hüsbando and I went to the big farmer’s market in Berkeley around 11 – this is early for us but I was intent on getting to Fatted Calf, the charcuterie I had just read about it in Edible East Bay, before they sold out. I was on a mission for fresh meat.
By 11:30 they almost had sold out (except of things I was not feeling brave enough for), but we were able to score some delicious breakfast sausage (lightly spicy pork, from organic piggies, meant to ask which farm but the line was long) and some fennel sausage. Then we moseyed around looking for the Thai place, intending to get lunch, but they weren’t there so we decided to get the ingredients for a fine breakfast and go back and cook it right away. Which we did. And my oh my, was it delicious.
We bought some eggs from a farmer I had never seen at the market before, B’n'B Organic Farm. The man assured me that these chickens were actually pastured, roaming around on 40 acres of grass. (Hüsbando was dubious, saying he thought the man was telling me what I wanted to hear. Further investigation required.) He had five or six kinds of eggs and I asked him which were the best. He pointed to some ones that were slightly green, like an Easter egg that didn’t soak long enough. They were from South American chickens called Auracanas.
“I usually sell out of these, because the vendors buy them before anyone gets here,” he told me. Well, that did it for me – I bought them. They were $5 per dozen, about $2 more than the Uncle Eddie’s Cage Free I’ve been buying, which I recently discovered to my chagrin are from the massive Petaluma Farms chain that also makes Judy’s and Rock Island. Of course, regular old eggs from battery hens are about 79 cents these days.
Next, we bought some olive bread from Phoenix Pastaficio in order to have a vehicle for the incredible butter I bought at last week’s market from some tiny cheese-making dairy whose name I have temporarily forgotten. (I asked the woman whether the cows were pastured, and she said yes, that they didn’t even have a barn.) At Hüsbando’s request, we picked up some white button mushrooms that he would sauté in aforementioned butter along with some of the green garlic I had bought last week. The mushrooms were pesticide-free and chemical-free but not organic – the seller said for some reason the price would be prohibitive … but they were local. After a few more purchases – like these delicious salmon cakes I couldn’t pass up — we hungrily headed home to cook.
We decided to do a little comparison taste test with the B’n'B and Uncle Eddie’s eggs: Pastoral vs. Big Organic, if you will. The green eggs were different in many ways: the shells felt thicker, and the membrane between the shell and egg was also tougher. The yolk was a brighter orange, and seemed sturdier, more protein-dense in my imagination. You can actually see the difference between them in the pan (maybe not in a picture this size, but they’re on the right). Taste-wise, they were about the same. I couldn’t really tell any difference…but I bet I could if I had some 79-cent Safeway eggs! (Also, on Sunday I made my first ever soufflé from 6 of the remaining green eggs, plus leftover breakfast sausage, aged Gouda, and cheddar from the little dairy. It stood tall and fluffily proud and, if I do say so myself, was one damn fine soufflé. I credit the eggs.)
The breakfast sausage from Fatted Calf was so far beyond any commercial sausage that I have ever had that it was almost like it was a whole different kind of meat. It was fatty and spicy and salty and oh, just carnivorously orgasmic. (Ketut lounged around hoping to get some, but we wouldn’t share.)
Hüsbando’s mushrooms were excellent, too – meaty and buttery and far more mushroomy tasting than I was expecting from the white button kind. Rounded out with the fresh strawberries from the market a few days prior, it was just the most delicious breakfast I have ever had – at home or anywhere else. We took turns patting each other on the back in between bites.
One thing, though – we weren’t sure whether it was simply that the food was so measurably better than supermarket food (I think it was) or whether the fun of “foraging” for it at the market had added a special flavor to the meal. Whatever the secret ingredient was, it was the most satisfying meal I’ve had in a long time.
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March 1st, 2008 at 9:06 am
For the record there is absolutely no difference in taste between an organic product and a “regular supermarket product”. I am a farmer in Iowa with a degree in animal science from Iowa State University who has raised organic, drug free, certified angus, and “regular” cattle for many years. Beleive me after talking with numerous cattle buyers and being a buyer myself for tyson for seven years, there is absolutely no difference in the taste of the product due to the animal being organic. You were correct, however, in the sense that colored eggs have a different taste and structure, because they are from a different breed than commercial chickens. I currently am raising five hundred head of organic cattle. This means no drugs, corn grown with no pesticides (which also is stupid since all pesticides in use today in the U.S. are tested and completely safe to never contaminate), and no implants. I myself do not and will not waste the money to buy organic beef when commercial beef is exactly the same. In fact when cattle are grass fed they never grade as well. Corn gives the animals their marbling. You will have to search far and wide and be willing to pay lots of cash to find a U.S.D.A. grade prime grass fed animal.
March 1st, 2008 at 11:18 am
PoorCityFolks: For the record, there absolutely is a difference between direct-from-farm and supermarket-bought — in taste, in freshness, in nutrients. This difference is most obvious in eggs like the ones I ate in this breakfast for the post.
Now, you’re right - there’s probably no difference in taste between organic corn-fed beef and “regular” corn-fed beef. But most people who read this blog would agree that organic beef should not be cornfed — it’s a travesty to feed grains to ruminants. That well-marbled fat you’re bragging about? It’s not healthy fat — your cattle are as obese as a fast-food-fattened teenager. And your pesticide comment is just ignorant: can you really say the government’s chemical-testing safety record is impressive?
And by the way, strictly grass-fed and grass-finished beef can taste fantastic, raised right.
Clearly you are raising organic beef for the price premium it commands rather than the values the organic label was originally intended to protect and promote. I wish you luck attracting and retaining customers who actually believe in those values. As people get more informed about this stuff, the organic label is not going to be enough to get them to buy your beef.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:28 pm
If grass-fed cattle have such different marbling that they don’t grade the same as corn-fed cattle, how can you say there is no difference in taste? Or do you just mean that cattle fed organic corn and cattle fed GMO corn taste the same?
And yes, it may be true that the main difference in taste between organic and non-organic foods is the variety. Perhaps certain varieties of vegetables, breeds of chickens, etc. fare better under organic agriculture. In any case, that difference does exist, and it IS noticeable, because as consumers, the only way to get these varieties is to buy organic.
Curiously, I notice the taste difference the most after “going back” to non-organic foods. I’ll be wondering why my carrots taste of chemicals, or why my eggs taste like sulphur, and it hits me…these aren’t organic.
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:33 am
I am curious, Bonnie, why do you say it is a “travesty” to feed grain to ruminants?
See below the definition of grain, from wikipedia. Not complete but a good accurate start.
‘Cereal crops or grains are mostly grasses cultivated for their edible grains or fruit seeds.’
I find your statement confusing, when you promote grass-fed cows and screech at grain-fed. Cows out in the pasture are eating grain when they eat grass. What part of this is so hard to understand?
These are the types of sweeping statements by supposedly knowledgeable organic consumers which cause farmers everywhere to throw their hands up in despair.
Grass and grain are not mutually exclusive things. Grain often comes from grasses. When ruminants eat grass in the pasture, they are eating grain.
I am a farmer. I am pro-organic where possible, but I will never be certified, because I am also for humane treatment (which I firmly believe should include antibiotics WHEN NECESSARY), I am for obeying the spirit and not the often pointless letter of organic requirements. I am for sunshine and exercise. And most importantly I am for promoting the dignity of farm animals, which will never cease to amaze you when you work with them every day.
I am against feeding ruminants or any other naturally vegetarian animal blood, bone, or other body parts in order to supply protein cheaply. I am against Monsanto and GMO corn, GMO alfalfa, GMO and cloned animals (Monsanto’s next plan).
I am not against GRAIN as a category. I do not understand why it has become a dirty word. It comes (often) from GRASSES.
Respectfully, before encouraging others to get informed, perhaps you should do some basic research yourself.
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:57 am
Lynn: Respectfully, I think either you did not read the full exchange above, or are deliberately choosing to misunderstand it.
Yes, of course I am aware that cows eat some grain naturally when they are out in pasture. I also know farmers who say they “grain finish” their grass-fed animals with more fiber-rich cereal grains such as rye and barley, and their beef tends to taste somewhere in between grassfed and cornfed, with more marbling. But when we talk about “grain fed” versus “grass fed” cows, as in the discussion with PoorCityFolks above, it’s pretty clear that we’re talking about what the bulk of the diet is: corn and soy in a feedlot environment.
I am not a farmer and freely admit I have no firsthand experience whatsoever with farm animals. Note that the post being commented on above is almost two years old. If you read this blog regularly, I think you know that I have since done rather more than “basic research” — including reading ag-science papers and hundreds of comments from farmers and industry to the USDA on its new “grass fed” label, as well as talking to several ranchers personally.
I agree with you that “grain” as a category is not all “bad.” What I am calling a travesty is any diet that makes cows sick in order to make them tastier to us. (Which can often result in making us sick.)
I have no problem with ranchers like you who raise animals humanely, out on pasture, and feed them additional grain that they can tolerate to get a better finish. I personally like and seek out 100% grass-fed beef, but who knows — maybe the beef I’m buying was raised on pastures with lots of grain-producing grasses.
March 4th, 2008 at 6:38 am
My point is that it is important to say what you mean. If you leave it for others to interpret what you mean based on the idea that they have read two years’ worth of your blog posts (I don’t read this blog regularly, I came to it through a link from another site, as I’m sure many do), you leave yourself open to misinterpretation. If you are against feedlotting, say that. If you are against corn, or GMO corn, say that. Saying you are against grain, when it comes to cattle or any other ruminant, is so vague as to be meaningless.
This to me is as ridiculous as a blanket statement that organic is better/healthier than any other kind of (for example) milk. People say they don’t want milk from any animal that has ever been treated with antibiotics. They have not been on the dairy line where “organic” cows are kept producing with horrible cases of mastitis and other infection because once they are treated with antibiotics they are off the line forever. Sick, injured, who cares - plug ‘em in and then just pasteurize the hell out of it.
On the other hand, if you are just preaching to the choir - or to the people who have been reading your posts for two years - then sing on. No need for facts or clarity, in that case. Everyone agrees with you and knows how to read between the lines for your real meaning.
March 4th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Lynn: I’ll be more careful in the future. But I think that reading an isolated comment on an unfamiliar blog and ahem, quickly spanking the author of it, is the equivalent of walking up to a strangers’ group conversation at a party, overhearing something you don’t like, and telling that person off. Not the best way to win friends and influence people.
March 4th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I’m sure that Bonnie would agree to retract her choice of the word “travesty” if Lynn would retract the diatribe. Sound reasonable? I’m a lay person when it comes to raising livestock, but I think that Bonnie is a lot more on the money about the grass/grain issue than Lynn. Lynn wrote - When ruminants eat grass in the pasture, they are eating grain - no, I don’t think so, not in the sense that grass and grain are equivalent in that setting. Pasture/grass systems with grain supplementation are not the same as confinement grain/silage systems. Grain is pumped into animals to maximize gain and yield. That has consequences for the living animal, as well as the meat and milk. It also dictates that millions of acres of American farmland are planted in continuous corn. Trying to discredit the messenger because she doesn’t come from a farming background won’t change that. I recommend drinking raw milk and eating meat from grass raised ruminantss. Thousands of year’s of human experience supports the virtues of doing so.
I wanted to respond - constructively - to Bonnie’s earlier response to PoorCityFolk: “Clearly you are raising organic beef for the price premium it commands rather than the values the organic label was originally intended to protect and promote.” Values have NOTHING to do with organic standards; nobody can or should try to look into the heart of a certified farmer. WHY they are farming organically is irrelevant. All that matters and all that is verifiable is compliance with the standards. This is why it is so urgent that the USDA organic standards need to be significantly improved. This is essential for pasture. It’s also important that consumers don’t associate organic certification with values; you can’t guarantee the preservation of small farms, or fair wages, or local farming by buying organic. Even animal welfare can only be protected by clear, precise standards, and even then there will be exceptions - nothing is airtight.
And if anybody is still reading this, please be kind and respectful when responding to comments you don’t agree with - doing otherwise is depressing AND a dead end.