Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Connecting with our Food
CADE (Part 2): The Good Slaughter: A Proud Meat Cutter Shares His Processing Floor from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.
The local food movement is growing in leaps and bounds. Small family farms are springing up all over the country and these farmers are putting clean, safe food back on America's dinner plates. Custom butchers are an integral part of a livestock producer's operation.
I can raise a perfect lamb on grass, but I then need a skilled artisan butcher to take that animal and fabricate it into the lamb chops that will be on your plate for Easter dinner. A poor processor can ruin a whole animal in a very short amount of time and cost a farmer a lot of money. And , yes, I have had that happen.
Butchery and charcuterie are (almost) lost arts. As you will see in this video, processing animals for food takes compassion, skill and pure physical strength. I was honored to meet, talk to and watch inaction, several artisan butchers from the Butcher's Guild at the Carolina Meat Conference.
So think about the work these guys do the next time you put a burger on the grill. Believe me, I do!
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Hey, I am just getting caught up on my followed blogs today... Thank you for posting this, because there IS a lack of custom butchers that don't "butcher". I appreciate the information and I think people should be aware of it. I think this gentleman did it all a service by showing the process... and I hope these young men helping him will be as compassionate towards animals they slaughter in the future. I found this to be a fascinating video!
ReplyDeleteThis is going to sound strange but I found your farm and blog after doing a search on the address of my new North Carolina home in Ashe County. For some strange reason a site called Zvents.com listed your farm name with my address, which is about 55 miles Northwest of you on Phoenix Mt. in Lansing. Thank you for the interesting info on your blog and for the Vimeo on the artisan butcher. I am trying to move away from the "Big 4" food providers and buy local, however, until my mortgage is paid off and I'm down in NC permanently, avoiding the Evil Giants is impossible on Long Island, where I currently live. My NC home is 70 glorious fenced acres and was a former organic sheep farm. I have a 6 acre pasture and was curious about how to maintain it. I found your clover post informative. I'm trying to find a farmer who wants to place a herd on my pasture, sheep, goats or cattle. I don't want money but an exchange of fiber/hide/meat. Currently there is a bunch of deer and turkey and a neighbor's horse frequenting the land. Hope to hear from you and would love to make another NC friend.
ReplyDeletePS, the site zvents just confirmed removing my address from your listing.
ReplyDeleteHope to hear from you.