Sourcing Food Locally

[Pool Boy]

Just bought 6 pork chops, 3 lbs of pork 'stir fry', 6 breakfast sausages, two gorgeous ham steaks and a 5 lb Boston Butt from this West Virginia producer --

Forest Fed Pork

We're make the chops tonight with some melted leeks, a side of roasted baby broccoli and my mashed potatoes.

You should see this pork, it is so deep and gorgeous in color it is almost red. Must be the nuts and mushrooms and other things they let the pigs eat in their 3-pigs per acre of forest 'farm'.

[Pool Boy]

I cannot even begin to tell you how fine a meal those pork chops were. Unbelievably good. Best pork I have ever had. So pure, so nutty, so earthy and still retaining the inherent sweetness of the meat.

We gobbled down the breakfast sausages (they were large) yesterday morning and they were quite, quite fine. Just a slowly built level of heat in them that made your mouth glow. Made Gruyere cheesy egg scramble in the sausage grease with salt, pepper, some chive and a hint of summer savory, too.

Tonight I go to pick up a mixed box of lamb from Good Fork Foods.

They have a drop off point in Silver Spring, MD, which is convenient enough for me. They have several other drop off points, too. Their method of distributing beef is a bit heavy handed (mixed box, too, but 20+lbs at a time), so I am looking for a better option there. I hope I get a lamb segment with this order (no ability to call out exactly what I want with the lamb either). But I am willing to make a leap of faith here. If this lamb is even half as good as the pork I recently got, I will be very, very happy.

[monavano]

I cannot even begin to tell you how fine a meal those pork chops were. Unbelievably good. Best pork I have ever had. So pure, so nutty, so earthy and still retaining the inherent sweetness of the meat.

We gobbled down the breakfast sausages (they were large) yesterday morning and they were quite, quite fine. Just a slowly built level of heat in them that made your mouth glow. Made Gruyere cheesy egg scramble in the sausage grease with salt, pepper, some chive and a hint of summer savory, too.

Tonight I go to pick up a mixed box of lamb from Good Fork Foods.

They have a drop off point in Silver Spring, MD, which is convenient enough for me. They have several other drop off points, too. Their method of distributing beef is a bit heavy handed (mixed box, too, but 20+lbs at a time), so I am looking for a better option there. I hope I get a lamb segment with this order (no ability to call out exactly what I want with the lamb either). But I am willing to make a leap of faith here. If this lamb is even half as good as the pork I recently got, I will be very, very happy.

I had noted how wonderful Forest Fed's pork is in previous entries on DR, including a pork ragu (sourced from FF) enjoyed at Rustico, then a decent replica at home. I'm glad word is spreading about FF's pork. The meat is rich and flavored by the terrior-I was amazed to taste this for perhaps the first time. I also wanted to note that FF is the website name, and the provider is Babes in the Wood from Dillwyn, VA.

Pics and recipe here:

http://houndstoothgourmet.com/ragu-not-the-stuff-in-a-jar/

eta: to further plug you can purchase the pork at the Alexandria Farmers Market on Sat.'s (and Clarendon on Wed. according to the website)