Grass Fed Meat

© 2013 Edward C Kern, Jr.

It's not that I don't like hamburgers.... When I was at Harvard GSD I joined the guys in my class (and sometimes the one other gal) for lunch at Bartley's Burgers several times a month.   After Alexandra arrived, restaurant lunches were replaced by picnics in Harvard Yard, and subsequent stories of CAFO feedlots led me to choose a portobello burger over a standard hamburger when dining out.

When Ed and I skied Snowmass recently we found that Ullrhof, a restaurant at the base of the Big Burn (which we frequently choose for convenience rather than food), had been transformed to a "burger - shakes -  fries" stop. While  portobello and mahi mahi  burgers were options so was a locally raised grass fed beef burger;  I opted for the latter and found it quite good, cooked medium rare, and served with lettuce, onions, tomato and house dressing. I could identify with Barbara Kingsolver  (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: A Year of Food Life ) and her family ordering hamburgers at The Farmers Diner (moved to Quechee Vermont, now closed):

"The Vermont-raised hamburger with a side of slaw, home fries, or a salad is $6.50. At any price, it's an unusual experience to order a diner burger that does not come with a side of feedlot remorse.  For our family this was quiet a little red-letter occasion, since we'd stopped eating CAFO-produced beef about ten years earlier..... In Lily's life, this was the first time we'd ever walked into a diner and ordered burgers.  Understandably, she kept throwing me glances - this is really okay?  It was."(1)

As part of writing this post I called Bartley's Burgers and was delighted  to discover that they are now serving grass fed beef.  It really is okay to go there now too.

Right after we arrived home this week I got an e-mail from Alexandra sharing an article on grass fed Oregon beef as well as a link to the website of the farm she and Dan were about to try (pork chops that night).  She reported that the chops were excellent but the pick-up location still problematic.

1  Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: A Year of Food Life, page 149

© 2013 Edward C Kern, Jr.

March 2013:  Riding up the Big Burn chairlift this month, I noticed a factoid: last year the restaurants at the Aspen Skiing Company's four mountains served "43,000 pounds of Milangro Ranch beef." The "classic" Ullrhof hamburger, shown at left and above, is actually two (for faster, more-even cooking) 2.5 ounce patties.







Reviewed 5/7/17