I also like Emu burgers. They are very low in fat. I remember reading once that people the live off of emu meat need to supliment their diet with fat.
For the last week I've switched to ground turkey instead of ground beef and a 3:1 egg-white-to-egg ratio. It's more expensive, but with spices, onions and garlic tastes as good (though different). I'm intrigued. Slightly tangential....I'm thinking of joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture, I think?) of a farm 3 miles from my house....where I pay in advance and get a bag of fresh-from-the-farm produce every week. Anyone ever done this? Great stuff, horror stories, etc.? I understand the inherent risks of bad weather, bad crop, etc., but I'm intrigued both by helping out a neighbor and their philanthropy stuff...I think they'd be a good resource for our church's food bank (we have plenty of "pantry" stuff...very little fresh). http://www.whistlingtrainfarm.com/
I've had a couple of Emu burgers and they where good. A little to hard to find for me to enjoy on a consistent basis.
I participate in a CSA. I've done this twice, actually. The first one I used did not list in advance what was in the box. In a way that was fun, sort of like a treasure hunt, but then I'd get carrots after I just bought carrots, etc. The one I use now does announce in advance what is in the box and has a lot of different options. On the whole I am satisfied, although they've had a couple of screw ups (once sent me a totally wrong box, but the credited me for it). I get what is called "fast and fresh" which are things that require little or no cooking, mostly fruit and salad type stuff. This week I got: Blueberries Melon Lettuce Carrots Cucumbers Nectarines Swiss Chard Check out different groups in your area and select what works best for you. Nearly all will let you stop at any time if you are not happy. BTW, heard buffalo is good but never tried it. I made turkey burgers for today's lunch.
Thanks for the heads-up. My concern isn't necessarily that I won't get exactly what I want (the "treasure hunt" aspect does seem kind of fun) but that our family on the whole is used to canned corn and green beans being our "vegetables". I've recently started getting more spinach salads, and we have the occasional homemade pesto, but I'm not sure I'd know what the heck to do with "Swiss Chard" or a box of cucumbers. Not that I'm not ready to learn, but I'd hate for fresh veggies and fruit to go to waste...especially if I'm paying $600 for a year of it. The part I like about Whistle Train Farms is that, even though historically the Kent Valley has been a big farming region, most of the CSAs that deliver to the Seattle area are from east of the mountains...different growing seasons, gas and delivery costs involved, etc. This farm is almost the only one within 15 miles of my house that I could find, and I like the aspect of it being local and looking out for local families. Along with the microclimate to harvest 10 months out of the year.
Saw Food, Inc a few weeks ago, and I gotta say it was pretty revolting. My dad is a part-time farmer and I hunt, so it's not like I'm squeamish. I'm just tired of feeding my 2 and 4 year old boys animals that have been treated like dog shit their short, miserable lives. We're actually getting a few chickens in the next few weeks. (We can keep up to 3 in Boise, provided they aren't roosters.) It'll be kind of fun teaching the boys about eggs. When I was a kid, we had a coop and my brother and I had to get eggs. Ricky the Rooster was a bad mother fucker. One of us would distract him (let him chase us around the house) while the other kid scrambled through the coop grabbing eggs ASAP. Neither job was much fun, because Ricky could always give up on the chase and then you were fucking cornered if you were the egg-grabber. So one day we go to the cabin, and my dad is supposed to meet up with us that night, after he gets home from the office day job and collects eggs. He shows up at our cabin and he's got fucking chicken scratches all over his bald lawyer head. He's got a small ice chest. "That's Ricky", he says with a grin. Apparently, dad went out wearing nothing but a bathrobe to get eggs, and that dumb rooster got the drop on him and nailed him really well. So dad goes back inside, grabs his 9mm, comes out and shoots the fucking chicken's head off. It was stringy as hell, but I still remember that as the best chicken dinner I ever had. So definitely no roosters for our home egg farm. Anyway, I'm also planning on getting a stand up freezer and buying frozen beef and pork online through a ranch here in Idaho. It's going to cost about twice as much as store-bought meat, but there is the convenience factor of always having it handy. As far as grass-fed vs corn-fed, I really don't care that much. I'm at a point in life where I can afford a few luxuries, and for me it's worth the extra money to have the clear conscience.
If you don't know "how to cook them" see if you can get a fast/fresh option, most of them would be things you'd eat raw. Cooks Illustrated has a really good Vegetable cookbook that will tell you what to do with Swiss chard: vegetables and it's on sale.
Buffalo is readily available here in Colorado. It's a bit gamier than beef, which I like. If you haven't had the opportunity to taste buffalo for yourself, give it a try.
Nature is not really nice, very few wild animals die a peaceful old age (elephants an exception). Nearly all animals are killed by predators, parasites, disease or starvation. And extinction is the ultimate fate of all species. But IMHO there is a big difference between watching a tiger kill an antelope on a Nature show, or watch my cat kill a rat, really the same thing, and see animals penned knee high in shit eating food they can't digest, or seeing animals choking and drowning in spilled oil. Nature is not really cruel, just indifferent. But we have the choice to care.
I've had buffalo burgers too. It's good stuff. I would be curious as to how the steaks would be, but the burgers are top notch.
See, I disagree with this. We're at the top of the food chain so we can do what we want. Have you ever seen Orcas play with baby seals? Not a pretty sight...
Yeah, we can do whatever we like. Just like if you slip a sorority chick some rufies you can do whatever you like. (Hey--just look at all kinds of animals--rape is a fact of nature!) Just because we can do something doesn't mean we should.
Questionable at best. Most females have a breeding season and/or estrus and it is very rare for a male to attempt a mating at other times. You certainly see no animal equivalent of Sudan, for example, or Bosnia. Actually, in the big majority of species, the females are larger than the males. We think it otherwise because we are vertebrates, but among arthropods, by far the largest group of animals, males are insignificant and often eaten by their mates.
Good time as any to bring up TheOatmeal.com. I present to you the most depraved sex slave on the planet, the male angler fish: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/angler
I don't think efficiency is the most important ingredient to a well-lived life. We may just see things differently.
