Sunday, July 26, 2009

Local Beef?


About seven years ago I answered an ad in the local Cuero paper about free kittens. When I called, the cat owner told me he and his family would be out of town that day but come by and pick out a cat. He gave me directions and I drove to a beautiful ranch property, pipe fence galore, big in-ground swimming pool, and a bunch of friendly dogs. I picked out our cat now known as Mousemaster and have always appreciated this man's trust in strangers and the obvious good care he took of the livestock and pets in his charge.

This family recently opened a restaurant and meat market about twelve miles from us. Tom and I made it over for lunch today and the atmosphere was pleasant and the food the usual fare in small towns, all off the Benny ? truck that supplies all the ready to heat and serve food products. I thought that maybe their steaks would be good since they had found a market to sell their own beef.

That is not to be the case, however, as when we visited the meat market next door we were told that all the meat came from IBP . Which means my somewhat-distant neighbor sells his beef at a local auction, the animals are probably shipped hundreds of miles to a feed lot, and then on to IBP. So I guess its possible that some of the beef in the case is off his own ranch, but highly improbable. Like the man running the meat market told us, there are just no local processors around anymore, and even though one is rumored to have re-opened 50 miles away, getting organized to get it set up to sell their own local beef will take some doing.

Don't I know that!