This afternoon D, her boss and I drove out to Windy Meadows Farm to
pick up some chicken and lamb. It's one of those "trans-organic"
pastured meat farms that won't be certified organic because that's too
easy. Not really. Rather being certified organic by the USDA means
agreeing with a system they believe is unacceptable for a variety of
reasons. some of the farmers in this area actually proclaim they are
not certified oganic to make a point about not playing ball with the
Man and not settling for lower standards. Organic isn't good enough
for them.

We've bought Windy Meadows meats before, but it's been a while since I
was out there. My, the place has grown. The first time I bought
chicken from them one of the kids schlepped the birds up from a deep
freeze downstairs. Now they have a steel out building with three
walk-in freezers and serious looking setups for dispatching their
feathered flock -- stainless steel cones (chicken goes in head down to
meet its fate), lotsa plumbing, assorted plastic-handled knives, an
overhead motorized conveyor system, stainless steel tables, etc.)

I'd known they were prospering ever since I saw their chicken listed
on the menu in a good quality Dallas restaurant:
http://eatsguide.com/salum/menu/dinner.html The restaurant's home
page is he http://www.salumrestaurant.com/ And I knew they were in
a consortium with like-minded farmers who sell their meats at the
Dallas farmers' market on weekends. But I wasn't aware of how well
they're doing.

We bought six whole chickens, eight lamb chops, and a lamb shoulder
for ourselves and a couple of chops and a lamb shoulder for a friend.
D's boss bought some chops, and a shoulder and some chickens, too. The
young lady who was serving us wasn't the most efficient person for the
job. She couldn't find us a leg of lamb, only shoulders. And waiting
for her to tally the bill was like watching mammalian evolution in
real time. (D said every time she buys from them she calls a day
ahead to place an order, and every time they lose it over night) But
the farm girl did uncover a package of chicken livers which D's boss
snapped up murmuring something about paté in his Italian-accented
English.

I'm going to cook one of the chickens for dinner tomorrow. It'll
spend a brief time in a brine in the morning, get a spice rub of some
sort (TBD), and then into the smoker it'll go.

Here's a site to use to find farmers like this in other areas:
http://www.eatwellguide.org/i.php?pd=Home
You can set the search function to find places within 20, 50, 100
miles or more from your zip code.

Windy Meadows is in my zip code.
--
modom

ambitious when it comes to fiddling with meat