Local Meat

I recently determined to find a local source of meat.  I live in a rural area within an easy drive of a metropolitan area. There are open fields and working farms near where I live.  But, finding local meat is not as easy as I had hoped.   There is a butchers shop in the country not far from where live, rural Clark County, Washington.  I mean, it is a little building on its own with nothing else around it.  I stopped by it a couple days ago and was delighted to see a lovely big butchers counter and refrigerated cases.  I asked where the meat comes from.  The lady said "Iowa."  They just cut it up and sell it. 

I asked where the chicken comes from.  She said "Its Foster Farms."  They buy whole chickens and cut them up just like Safeway does!  I asked whether there was any meat that was local in their shop.  Seems the meat for the sausage comes from Charlton, Oregon.   They add the seasoning and make the sausage on site.  Well that's not too bad, so I bought some.  And she put me on her list for the next time they had local meat.

It should be feasible for local ranchers and farmers to market what they grow.  Isn't it?  I want there to be small entrepreneurs producing a needed product with pride and selling it to their neighbors.  That's where money comes from, not the government.  I want children of business owners to learn to be productive and self sufficient people.  You can't buy prosperity at Starbucks.  I want to know and have some control over where my food comes from. 

But this is where I find myself on a bright sunny day doing the first grilling of the season.  

The big grill is still stored in the shed, but the smoker works just fine.  Husband has it heating.  We are both happy, talking about good times.   

We are joking that the neighbors will be jealous. 

Yum.

Now for the salad.  Caesar salad with homemade Caesar dressing and homemade croutons.  I'm all over croutons, but I'm still tweaking with the dressing recipe, so I'll come back to it later. 

The Romaine came from Safeway.  Then, I dropped by Diane's only to find out that she had perfectly acceptable Romaine!

This buying local food thing can be hard.  Now I have Romaine planted in raised bed 1, so we'll be eating this Caesar salad for a while. 

At last, spring seems to be coming.  All is well at Casa Osborne. 

Remember to live a real life and question the matrix.