Knowing Where your food Comes From

So now I’ve moved back to the country my sources for locally produced food from the Peace have all but dried up; something to do with the new shortsighted rules for farm gate sales. I’ve started to look for food closer too home which is smart given our current world wide crisis (there are plenty to choose from)

My first thought was I would have to construct a fenced in hen house, buy a bunch of baby chicks for eggs as well as the cooking pot and maybe a DIY book to ease my new parent anxieties. I really was not looking forward to it even though I know, in a couple of years, the whole enterprise would pay me back, in the taste department as well as my pocket book. Then, I saw a sign on the community bulletin board for free range eggs, score.

Turns out the hens live just around the corner from me, double score. I got my first dozen eggs for free, to see if I liked them, we did, triple score. Now I have a cold room and freezer, full of tasty vegetables from my garden, fruit from the farm down the road, and free range eggs from around the corner. The next thing was to find a source for locally produced meat.

I decided the best tactic was to place a free add on cragslist, something like, wanting to buy pasture raised lamb, beef and chicken. In less than a day I had a response from someone in Beaverly, west of town. After a long chat on the phone where I quizzed him about what he fed them and what their living arrangements were, the sheep. I decided it was what I wanted so I bought a whole butchered lamb. It was a very reasonable price.

Yesterday I cut up potatoes, carrots, beets, onions and garlic into a pan. Brushed them with olive oil and put a small lamb roast on top, added lots of fresh rosemary, salt and pepper and put it into the oven. I programmed the oven to start cooking before I got home so It would be ready to eat. I’ve never used the program function on my oven before. It worked and as I write this I'm thinking of other useful programs I could write and store in my ovens memory for future cooking.

The lamb taste fabulous. I talked to someone else, who raises cattle just north of here. I agreed with her farming practices but I won't be able to get any beef until early next spring when the steers will be big enough to turn into roasts and steaks .