The Ah Ha! Moment
If you’re like me, you didn’t grow up eating locally sourced pasture raised meats. Our meat came from the grocery store. My mom could pick up dinner in one aisle and toilet bowl cleaner in the next. Even as an adult, especially as a poor college student, I relied on cheap meats from the grocery store, often heavily discounted because they were mere hours from expiring. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it was an ignorant thing. I just didn’t know any better.
A short time later, a life altering shift was about to occur, and it began with eggs. We were fortunate to have chickens that provided us with eggs growing up, but it had been some years since I had lived at home and I had reverted back to store bought eggs. We introduced day old chicks to our farm, and within 20 weeks time we were eating eggs that were not only beautifully vibrant in color but had actual flavor. Fueled by our discovery (or, rediscovery) of the delicious farm fresh egg, we raised meat chickens and lo and behold, the chicken had a richness of flavor that was undeniably different than what we were used to. This really piqued our curiosity, and me being a pork lover, purchased 1/2 of a pasture raised pig from a local farm. First impression? It was unrecognizable. The meat was dark and red, it cooked up closer to a steak than white meat chicken, and the delicious depth of the flavor had me vowing to never buy pork from the grocery store again. We went on to purchase grass fed and finished beef from another local farm, and the narrative remained. Could it be that this is how food is supposed to taste...?
If you’ve ever eaten a tomato picked straight off the vine, you know exactly what I am talking about. There is no comparison to that savory, sweet, slightly warmed from the sun tomato. Bursting with flavor and much more nutrient dense than its counterparts, that tomato is the perfect example of the difference between a locally grown and mass produced products. REAL food just tastes better, plain and simple.