Update: The creature in the ceiling was definitely NOT the cat. He’s been heard from again, and the cat was in her usual spot sleeping on the bed. Hubby stuck his head up into the ceiling but couldn’t see anything. He did however feel quite a draft, which he thinks is responsible for the moving ceiling tiles. I’m skeptical, but I’d definitely like to believe that the ceiling creature is only a draft.
Back to today’s blog: Over the last few months the thing hubby and I have struggled with the most in all of this is eating “Happy Meat”. Some of you may be wondering what is “Happy Meat”. I don’t have an exact definition, and it probably means different things to different people. I would say that at the very least it means that the animal lived a happy life before it got to your plate. It would have to be free range, and fed a diet of appropriate food. What do I mean by appropriate food? Well a good example is your average cow… farmers feed them on corn because it beefs them up (pun intended) faster, amongst other reasons. This reeks havoc on a cow’s digestive system, as they are not meant to eat a diet that primarily consists of corn. They are meant to eat primarily grass. So a happy cow would be grass fed. Those would be my two main qualifications for defining something as happy meat. Luckily most farmers who are going to take the time to do these two things are going to take it a few steps further. The meat is often (but not always) certified organic. Organic certification is a difficult process from what I understand, so a lot of farmers can’t be bothered getting the certification and that doesn’t mean the meat isn’t just as good. Usually happy meat is hormone and antibiotic free… which means you aren’t ingesting hormones and antibiotics with your burger.
Finding happy meat can be difficult for a few reasons. It’s not usually readily available at the grocery store. Superstore has been advertising a line of hormone and antibiotic free meats recently, but they say nothing of the quality of life the animals lead otherwise. So these animals might be free range, but I suspect that if they were Superstore would be telling you that. I could of course be wrong; it’s been known to happen on occasion. I have no problem going to a local butcher, in fact I prefer it. I like to support local business and the quality of the meat is often better. Then there’s the issue of cost. When you do find meat that fits all the “Happy” criteria it often costs a small fortune.
We’d been dealing with this by eating a lot of bison, and not a lot of other meats. You can pretty much rest assured that when you are purchasing bison in Manitoba, it is happy meat. It is a little to a lot more expensive than beef, depending where you get it and is very low in fat. The problem? Mostly, I miss chicken! Most of your run of the mill grocery store chickens are raised in awful conditions and pumped full of things like estrogen… which in humans can increase risk of breast cancer, which runs rampant in my family. So for obvious reasons I’ve been avoiding things that contribute to raised estrogen levels (this includes soy, for those of you who also have histories of breast cancer).
A few weeks ago a friend told us about a butcher shop called Friggs Natural Meats that sells only Happy Meat. It sounded too good to be true. She told us they carried just about any meat you could raise in Manitoba and that the prices were very reasonable. The only catch, was that they were a fair drive away. Winnipegers are spoiled in this sense, in that we think anything that’s more than about a 20 minute drive is a long ways. We were also without a deep freeze at the time, making it harder to store much meat. Last weekend we won a deep freeze at an old friend’s social (for any non-Manitoban’s out there, think big drink-fest with prize draws, used as a fundraiser for weddings). So this Saturday after a quick trip to the farmer’s market we found ourselves, for the very first time in a LONG time, with a whole day free of plans; and for the first time ever, with a place to store a decent amount of meat. So off to the Friggs we went. It was better than I could have imagined… they carry fresh and frozen meats of all kinds, eggs, cheese, etc. And my GF was right, the prices were not bad at all. They were a little more than the grocery store, but not by a lot. Please remember readers that these farmers are going outside the norm to raise an animal that gets to be treated with dignity, and is also better for you. They are not selling in bulk to major retailers, and they too need to make a living, feed their families, keep up a farm, etc… so please understand that there is a reason this costs more than the angry cow you bought from the supermarket. Over and above the other reasons I want to eat happy meat, it makes me feel happy and proud to support these farmers.
For more info go to Friggs website: http://frigsnaturalmeats.ca/
