brucesaunders

I can't remember what cut I purchased but it was chop-like, thin and fatty in a good way. That would be the blade steak. I'm heading downtown shortly to meet up with Garden Path Farm. I'll be getting a half pig (Tamsworth, pasture/whey fed) and will be cutting some more of the blade steaks for the shop later today. Also take note, the fire is lit and the 410 lb pigasaurus from Black Eagle Farm (Lovingston, VA) is roasting right now (I hope Cody's got his eye on the fire!). That will be served tomorrow beginning at 4:00PM, along with 2 - 20+ lb briskets from Roseda. Those will be served on fresh baked rolls from Wes Lanham at The Bread Ovens at Quail Creek Farm. Oh yeah, and there will be plenty of very fine beer to wash it all down with.

This Friday, November 12th, Westover Market, The Butcher Shop at Westover Market and Sierra Nevada are teaming up to bring you an evening of beer and BBQ not to be missed! In honor of Sierra Nevada’s 30th anniversary, Westover Market will host a celebration of Sierra’s four anniversary beers plus their classic seasonal Celebration Ale and their ever popular Pale Ale, ON TAP! That’s right, in addition to their old favorites, Celebration and Pale Ales, you can enjoy four special brews created just for the occasion; Fritz & Ken’s Ale, Charlie, Fred & Ken’s Bock, Jack & Ken’s Ale and Brewer’s Reserve Oak Aged Ale, fresh from the keg! And as if great beer wasn’t enough reason to come out, Bruce Saunders of The Butcher Shop at Westover Market will be roasting a whole pig and briskets for some great BBQ to feed you and your hungry friends and family. The festivities are from 4:00 to 8:00 PM Friday at Westover Market, 5863 Washington Blvd, Arlington. Five ounce tasting pours of the special beers will available along with full pints of your favorites. Pulled pork and brisket sandwiches with slaw and a side are $10.50 each, as long as they last. So come out for some great Brew & Que Friday at the Westover Market!

I have some great stuff from Roseda this week; A great rib roast for rib steaks, one of the best NY Strip loins I've seen from them, flanks, boneless chuck roasts that I've rolled and tied, boneless chuck cubes for stews, I'll be marinating some of the chuck cubes in beer and aromatics for and easy, ready-to-go beef ale stew, and for the first time I have hanger steaks! I tried one yesterday and it was delish! I also got some some beef suet in for those Christmas puddings, mincemeats and Yorkshire puddings you've been dying to make. BTW if there's any particular cut that you're looking for, let me know and I'll see about getting it. Also I have more of Bill Jones' Babes in the Woods pork this week. This pig was a little bigger than what I've been getting so the rib rack is especially nice. I can cut you a rib roast or you can take home some very fine rib chops. The loin roast I rolled and tied sold almost immediately yesterday but I do have a whole shoulder if you're into DIY BBQ this weekend. You can have the whole thing or I can cut you a piece that might better fit in your smoker or crock pot. Next week, I have a another special treat for all of you 'swine-o-philes' out there. Next Thursday I'm getting a half pig from Emanuel Kauffman at Garden Path Farm. Emanuel raises Tamsworth pigs that are pastured raised (Tamsworth are known for their heavy grazing on pasture) and he feeds them on whey from a nearby creamery. He mixes the whey with oats and spelt, lets that digest for 2-3 days then offers it up to his pigs. The resulting whey fed/fattened pork has a delicious, unique flavor not to be missed. I should have that in the case and ready for customers by Friday noon. So come by and try some delicious, locally produced foods! Real Food!

Sometimes Bruce will set out a few items, I think, in the refridgerated meat section to the counter's left Early on we experimented with putting out some of our product in the self serve case but I've since stopped doing that (for reasons too lengthy to explain here and now). The owners of Westover Market continue to want to offer a low cost meat product to customers, so what you see in the styrofoam trays in the self serve case is the same commercial quality goods that they have had for years, prior to my coming on board. It's generally Perdue chicken and I'm not sure of the provenance of the beef or pork. So unless you buy it at the butcher counter or unless we start to put our product out again (which would be labeled as such) then just be aware that it's not the same.

Almost forgot, I have some Roseda Farms oxtails. I know it's a labor of love but oxtail soup is one of the most delicious, rich, decadent dishes to be had.

This week I have more fabu Babes in the Woods Pork, a nice selection of Roseda Farms Beef... flank steaks, NY Strips, Rib steaks, a whole tenderloin, chuck for pot roast or stews, eye of round, and fresh chicken cut ups. And something NEW, I have fresh shucked oysters from Jimmy & Page @ Busters Seafood. Come & get it!

the maple-bacon and the...chili-something bacon were FANTASTIC Bruce.. Glad you liked the bacon. Much more of that to come. We're trying on a lot of new and creative flavors for the bacon, several made with beers from the Great Wall of Beer in the store. Also I want to let everyone know that I have a nice batch of beef short ribs from Roseda so speaking of cooking with beer, short ribs marinated and braised in beer is REALLY DELISH! One of my personal faves is Scottish Ale but any beer with a nice malty body would work. Also for the first time I have some of Bill Jones' Forest Fed, Babes in the Woods (www.forestfed.com) pork at the shop this week. I'm excited to offer this product. I talked to Bill last week and his fine swine is feeding heavily on a bumper crop of fall mast including acorns, hickory nuts, even wild mushrooms as they pop up. So come by a try some forest finished pork. It's a great fall treat!

Sorry for the delay in getting back to this conversation. I'll try to cover as many of these questions and comments as possible. First of all the feed/finishing. According to Roseda, their primary finishing feeds are sileage and spent grains from two local breweries, Troegs and Clipper City. The grains from the breweries will primarily be barley and maybe a fewer other grains in lesser quantities (think wheat beer). These grains go through a process called malting whereby the grains are moistened and then gently warmed so that they begin to sprout. This sprouting process converts starches to sugars that can be digested by the beer yeasts. Once the sugars are extracted (a process called sparging) you're left with a waste product of whole grains minus most of the sugar. Sileage is a corn based feed produced by mowing down the whole corn plant (stalk, leaves, ears and all) and chopping them into small pieces. A single machine does this in the field, spewing the chopped plants into a dump truck which is taken to a location to be stockpiled (usually just long piles on the ground, covered with plastic). The sileage begins to ferment almost immediately . I worked on an angus farm when I was a kid and when we would go to the sileage piles in the winter, a big plume of steam would rise up as you dug into it from the bacterial activity (not unlike your mulch pile). According to Roseda they feed very little corn (beyond the corn kernels in the sileage) because a) corn has become very expensive and they have this source of feed from the breweries that is nutritious and available at little cost other than hauling. And while I have no scientific proof to back this theory up, I suspect that the malting process in the beer grains and the natural fermentation of the sileage makes both of these feeds more readily digestible to the animals than straight, dried grains which is the norm for grain based animal feeds (think lactofermentation, see cover story in the Post Food Section a couple of weeks ago). The finishing takes place at a local feedlot in PA so as Zora pointed out, this negates the need for long distance shipping to the midwest feedlots, thus minimizinging the carbon footprint in that process. With regard to medications, as you noted from Roseda's literature, they administer meds only on an as needed basis. This differentiates them from the industry in that the industry practice in commercial feedlots is to administer meds prophylactily with medicated feeds. Consequently it's a given that every animal passing throught that system is dosed with probiotics throughout their entire time at the feedlot. In my conversation with Roseda, they indicate that approximately 3 out of every 10 animals actually ever require meds. As Chaofun has pointed out, I believe that Roseda has a genuine concern for their animal's welfare and for stewardship of the land. And I also agree that there is a customer base that prefers the taste and other qualities of the grain finished product. As a business person trying to operate a small business, I have to take that into account along with other practical matters of product price and availability. I have had grass finished beef from several different sources and I can agree that if not properly aged, the meat can have some negative attributes. Fresh, it can be somewhat tart in character and more often than not, just downright tough. And most people are not willing to take the time and incur the expense it takes to properly dry age an all-grass-fed beef (think 60-80 days of hanging/aging time) I personally think the best piece of beef available in this area is EcoFriendly Food's grass finished, dry aged beef (disclosure: for those of you who don't know me, I am a long time associate of Bev's and a co-owner of EFF). But I also know that there have been times when that product is unavailable and the price point is very difficult for me to offer it at a reasonable price to my customers. So as a small business I have to consider price and availability in my equation to try to make this business work. Believe me it has not been a quick or easy decision to go outside the grass finished model that I have supported for so long. But I've come to believe that Roseda's practice is sound enough and the needs and desires of my customers warrant offering their product.

Good Morning Everyone. As Chaofun mentioned The Butcher Shop at Westover Market will be offering beef from Roseda Farm (www.rosedabeef.com) starting this week. Many of you may be familiar with Roseda already. They have a great reputation for their angus beef raised at their Monktown, MD farm and at other affiliated farms in the Mid-Atlantic region. It is a bit of a departure for us to carry grain finished beef, but after research and conversations with Roseda, I feel like their overall farming practices warrant offering their products to our customers. If the response is good then we'll carry their products on a regular basis. This week I have rib eyes, NY strips and a nice sirloin. Also I got a GORGEOUS brisket, untrimmed, heavily marbled and weighing in at 22+ pounds (I'll cut you a smaller piece) it's looking for a good smoker to call home for the weekend! So come by and taste a great piece of beef from a local producer.

I just talked to Cody at the shop and he had made himself a BLT with the new bacon. He says SOOOOO - WEEEEEE!

The short answer to all of these is, yes, always ask. We sometimes have things in the back that are not on display. Being a small shop and a new business, I'm always looking for a balance between getting a good representative sample of the products in the display and keeping things as fresh as possible by holding them wrapped and in the walk-in cooler. And yes, if you want a thinner pork chop, ask. We can often accommodate. I do have some bones that are available for stock making but mostly I use them for making stock myself. Historically that has gone into other products like the BBQ sauce or soups, but starting this week, you'll be able to purchase our ready made chicken stock to take home. With re: to getting the word out, just tell everyone you know and send them over. We're open Wednesday through Saturday, noon until 7:00 PM. I try to have a limited selection of self serve product packaged and available in the case immediately to the left of our regular display case. I've had troubles with our vacuum seal machine recently and that has hindered that effort a couple of times. Hosting a BBQ would be something to consider as a promotional event. We did a whole pig roast in early June at the store and may do more of those. Thanks for your support and interest in our products!

We're open Wednesday thru Saturday, noon until 7:oo PM. On Sunday's I stock the reach-in case immediately to the left of our butcher display case with some self-serve products in vacuum sealed packages. Tomorrow for example there will be top sirloin steaks, ground beef, a couple of exceptional thick cut beef rib steaks, pork loin chops, breakfast sausage, boneless skinless chicken breasts, whole chicken legs, pork blade steaks and probably a few other things I'm not remembering. Like brat burgers. These are really good and are quickly becoming a bestseller at the shop. We're seasoning fresh ground pork with bratwurst seasoning and forming it into patties which you prepare and serve just like a hamburger. Also we're beginning to offer some prepared products along side the other self serve items. There's some lard, pork cracklins and my Homemade BBQ sauce. Thanks to everyone for your wonderful support!

Right date, wrong day of the week. We will open Friday the 14th at noon. Many thanks for everyone's support! No worries. You've been a great supporter for many years.

Good Morning Pool Boy, Bruce here with EcoFriendly Foods. I thought I'd weigh into this conversation from the EcoFriendly perspective. Our fresh poultry season generally runs from mid to late May through November, depending on the weather conditions. I'll give you a brief explanation of why weather is a factor which will also give you some insights on our growing protocols. All of our birds are raised on pasture in moveable pens (ala the Polyface Farm/Joel Salatin method). In the spring, weather conditions can vary a great deal from day to day and young chicks can quickly succumb to the cold wet conditions. Also the pastures have to be in a growth mode in order to provide the birds with the fresh young grass that they graze on (yes chickens graze). Likewise at the end of the season, an early winter can bring a halt to poultry production. So all that being said, we try to have extra harvests and larger harvests in the late fall in order to have a supply of birds to sell at our markets over the winter. As you can imagine by this time of the year we've drawn down those stocks and ideally by the time the new harvest season starts we'd like to have sold all of the previous seasons supply. This past week I had a few whole birds available and parts such as legs, french cut breasts and some stock making parts such as necks. I also had hearts and livers. I appreciate your wanting to do your comparative dinner but you've picked a tough time of the year to do it with poultry. I believe our first harvest will be May 18. If you'd like to contact me via email, I can see what I have and what I could get you this weekend. A couple of other quick notes about availability, I'm not familiar with the the farm doing poultry at Foggy Bottom but I do know that there's no poultry at the Thursday Penn Qtr. market (I work there for Endless Summer Harvest). Also as you plan your tasting, I'd like to ask you something. A couple of years ago the Post Magazine did an article on chicken farms. The farm they picked was a grow-out operation for one of the big producers (aka polluters) on the eastern shore, Tysons, Purdue, one of those. In the article was a picture in one of the confinement barns where thousands of chickens are housed and in the picture, were 3-4 workers. Each of them HAD to wear a full hazmat suit due to the polluted, fecal dust filled air inside the barn. Do you really want to eat this stuff? At EcoFriendly we represent several different small family farms that follow our pasture raised protocol. I can taste a difference in each of these products from the different producers and I have my preferences as to which I like better. What if your tasting compared local, pasture raised birds from several different farms, instead of comparing things that you may not want to eat and IMHO shouldn't be eating? Just a thought. Let me know if I can help out.

The short answer re: Roseda is yes, I want to talk to them, find out more about their growing standards. I know Nathan over at Red Apron is using them and his charcuterie kicks butt. Likewise Gunpowder. Glad the pork shoulder worked out. I hope you smoked that shank too. Great addition to your next bean pot or collard greens. brs