Photo by law_keven/FlickrCC
As warm weather creeps in, our thoughts naturally turn to what follows: the re-emergence and growth of things green. Many of us will return to toiling in our gardens and begin eagerly anticipating the pending arrival of bounteous harvests at our local farmers' markets. We know that strawberries and asparagus will be among the earliest treasures, that blueberries and green beans will start showing up mid-summer, and that the growing season will wind down with bushels of apples and squashes. The seasonality of fruits and vegetables--while obscured by the unchanging, year-round offerings of supermarkets--is at least still vaguely understood by most Americans.
But turn to the topic of meat and suddenly many people will give you a blank stare. Meat (along with dairy, fish, and eggs) has become widely regarded as something that should be available and unvarying 365 days of the year. The one exception to this is wild game, which is generally understood to be more abundant and in peak condition at certain moments on the calendar. The expectation that foods from farmed animals will be uniform throughout the year is logical because, to the extent that farm animals are raised in metal buildings with artificial lighting and fed mass-produced feeds in automated systems, the foods they produce will be quite uniform. And bland. Such foods will no more reflect changing seasons or regional terroirs than do the flavorless, hard strawberries available in supermarkets in January.
The most environmentally sustainable, humane animal farming is based on grass. Like other vegetation, grass has a season of plenty and a time of retreat.If we are seeking something better from our food and our food system, however, we must begin regarding meat and other foods derived from animals as among foods that have a season. That's because the most environmentally sustainable, humane animal farming is based on grass. Like other vegetation, grass has a season of plenty, a time of growth, reproduction, and then retreat. The best animal farming is based on, and in harmony with, those cycles. All animals--cattle, pigs, chickens, turkeys--benefit from being on pasture. Time spent on pasture gives an animal exercise and fresh air, minerals, vitamins, and fiber. It also tremendously enhances to flavor and healthfulness of the foods they produce.
Here on our ranch, we raise cattle, goats, and heritage breed turkeys. Cattle and goats are ruminants who can get all the nutrition they need from naturally occurring vegetation, and our cattle and goats spend all of their time on pasture. Turkeys, like chickens and pigs, are omnivores and cannot live on grass alone. But they graze extensively when given access to pasture, and it keeps them healthy. Our turkeys begin spending time on pasture when they're about 13 weeks. It's fun to watch them rip into the grass, peck the ground for seeds, and hunt for bugs. We believe that the time our turkeys spend on pasture helps tremendously to keep our flock healthy. We also believe that the food we produce is healthier and tastier because our animals live on grass.
Raising animals this way means that there is a season for their meat.
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Once again, thank you for putting a face (and a timeline) to the meat that winds up on our plates. Ironically, I was at Bi-Rite last weekend buying pork shoulder, and I noticed the lack of goat shanks.
I am glad to know that the absence is based on seasons, not a vanished business.
As someone who has lived in the Bay Area for over 1/3 of my lifetime, I am VERY conscious of buying my vegetables seasonally. I would NEVER consider making an asparagus risotto in October or a peach cobbler in January.
And now I am happy to pay more attention to the seasons when it comes to livestock. I'll celebrate their arrival and mourn their departure.
Most importantly, I'll appreciate all the work you do to bring us happy meat.
Cheers!
Great article, thanks so much! We buy all of our meat from the farmers markets (directly from the farmer) and yes, the first time we tried to buy oriental ribs and they just didn't have any it was a bit shocking. This was back when we had just started buying from them (as opposed to the supermarket) and it was an adjustment. However the quality of the meat is worth the sacrifice of not having certain cuts at certain times of year.
Just like finding joys of eating root vegetables in winter, you need to find the joy in having chickens in May but not in December. The trick is keeping things interesting by finding new flavor combinations and new preparation methods. Eating this way brings you closer to the land and really makes you appreciate your food even more.
While I do like these posts.
And I do like my oganic-grassfed-hippy blah blah blah meat…
Something’s been troubling me about the Niman’s posts for a while and I think I’ve put my finger on the thing:
They are sort of an idealized manifesto from and to a world that simply doesn’t exist. Today is April the 7th and I can hop on the intertubes and order me up a bunch of Niman Ranch meats.
It’s all just a couple of steps too far. Yes, produce is seasonal. Yes, meat is too. But we humans no longer are bound to suffer the wintertime depravations of surviving solely on that which each can stock up. What I’d really like to see is a manifesto for fitting the ideal (eg: seasonal meat) into actual life (eg: seasonal production/slaughter for year round consumption…both as an individual process and a business model).
Sorry to sound cranky, I do intend this constructively.
In response to Lemon Boy's concern that we're writing about some impossibly utopian hippie world, I simply could not disagree more. Our blogs, including this one, are based on years of empirical research as well as first hand experience in animal farming. As an environmental lawyer who has now spent close to a decade researching the serious environmental and human health problems caused by our current, industrialized methods of meat production, it could not be clearer that the present system cannot continue. Anyone who doubts this should read my book Righteous Porkchop, in which I painstakingly document these problems as well as the unacceptable animal welfare problems caused by industrial confinement animal farming. What we are writing about is not some nostalgic vision of an unattainable past, it's a hopeful vision for the future, one that is based on a deep knowledge of animal farming in all its forms, including the future that is entirely possible for American animal farming, given the public support that we believe will develop as people become more and more aware of the facts and ideas we are writing about.
I believe the key phrase in your post would be "hopeful vision."
Good luck trying to implement this one.
I apologize for getting your dander up, that was not my intent. I am not in any way making a point for industrial type fresh meat production:
If meat is seasonal and as your post argues its availability should be as well, how then can I go buy a whole range of Niman products today, in April?
That is the step too far. You’ve adapted your business to the demands placed upon it for year round meat. My criticism is that you’re arguing for this sort of seasonal ideal instead of arguing (marketing/agitating whatever) for the adoption of a useable paradigm (one your business clearly uses to an extent) by which we can fit an optimally produced and seasonably harvested food into the reigning paradigm by which humans are now able to use technology (very broadly conceived) to break the tyranny and famine of true seasonal living.
Meat, much more so than produce is, pardon the pun, ripe for such integration: meat can be frozen with little to no loss of quality and/or cured,at a boon to its quality. A return if you will to the celebration of truly fresh meat in season, cured meat and local (now also home) meat lockers for less seasonal consumption.
The Stockman Grass Farmer is a great resource for the "how to" of pastured meat production.
I appreciate the point of view. Meat seasonality makes a lot of sense. I find it similar to cheese seasonality. I'm curious though about the differences between dried grasses (and other flora) from the same farm on which the ruminants could munch during the winter months. Is this of sufficient nutritional value to keep the quality of their meat up - is there much of a difference? Is this still considered grass-fed? Also, wouldn't the limited season of meat consumption devastate the small farmer? I think it would put many a cheesemaker out of business if they could only use milk from the animals fed on pasture. Perhaps as with many choices in food production and consumption, it will be just that - a choice. some farms who can arrange and afford to do it will and they will likely charge a bundle more for their meat - and they will likely have devoted customers who can pay it. But it also seems to me that there will need to be other choices that may not be quite as utopian (if indeed it is when extrapolated out) nor as expensive.
You don't explain exactly what you mean by seasonal meat. Do you mean that the animals should be slaughtered in the fall when grass becomes scarce? Why not feed the animals hay through the winter and slaughter them whenever their meat is needed?
I agree with Cecilia that an explanation of seasonal meat is needed.
There are plenty of consumers out there (I count myself among them) who would like nothing more than to buy meat that is freshest and tastiest based on seasonality, but there are no easily available guidelines. I love food, but I don't have time for a research project on meat seasonality!
Ranchers and food purveyors that want to encourage consumption of seasonal meats should provide easy to use calendars and charts so that consumers can know what is 'in season' and when. For those consumers that want a bit more information, let them know 'why' certain meats are in season at different times of the year.
And I'd like to see those same purveyors embrace traditional preserving techniques such as canning, smoking and freezing to give us the opportunity to use our seasonal meat whenever we want to.
Just like I can make a peach pie for Thanksgiving using fruits I froze the previous summer, I want the option to get a chicken that was slaughtered at the peak of flavor any time of the year, even if that means pulling it from my freezer.
In other words, please educate us, don't just proselytize!