Back from the Holidays: A Look at 2019
I’m still not used to retail life around the holidays. It’s like I’ve been aboard the Millennium Falcon for the last six weeks, Hyperspacing (if that’s a verb) from planet to planet of work, family, and friends, just holding on tight so I don’t fly right through a holiday Turkey, or bounce too close to a Christmas present.
But as frantically as they arrive, the holidays pack up their bags and leave us. I can’t help but feel like some giant Santa Claus-like insect has stealthily injected me with a warm Christmas Spirit only to have it slowly dissolved my insides, so they can be succked out, leaving me a hollow, exhausted shell.…ya feel me?
Needless to say, I needed a break.
Every year when we finish out the Holiday Season, Electric City Butcher closes its doors for a few days to rest and recharge. During that time, I catch up on email, news, and sleep. I also get to look back at the things that excited, concerned or downright scared me about the previous year hoping they may influence the way I see the next. Here are a few reflections on the things that got me thinking for 2019.
Grass-Fed Beef Sucks Down Carbon
The biggest bombshell for my year, and absolutely the #1 conversation piece at the holiday dinner table, was that the delicious Stemple Creek beef rib roast we were all scarfing down on for Christmas was actually absolved our carbon-munching sins one bite at a time. That’s right, if you haven’t read my blog post on the subject, a recent Pepsi vs. Coke comparison of beef and fake meat found that cows raised on grassy pastures their whole lives actually reduced more CO2 than they make. More ironically, the fake meat stuff, laden with GMO-soy, actually created the same amount of CO2 that Grass-Fed Beef sequesters. Soooo……every bite of (regenerative) beef we ingest is saving the planet from vegans. Go figure!
I don’t know where I’ve been for the last year, but Chris Newman of Montross, Viriginia-based Sylvanaqua Farms is turning heads in the regenerative farm movement. If you are as out of the loop as I am, you probably didn’t read his popular article that shares a dirty little secret. Small, regenerative and responsible family farms selling to your local farmers’ markets aren’t the answer to solving climate change. This is a bit surprising coming from Chris considering that he is the owner of a small, regenerative and responsible family farm selling to farmers markets. No, he isn’t the leader of some new self-loathing, neo-liberal agrarian cult. He’s just making an important point that small farms can’t go it alone, and that competing solo against highly centralized, industrialized, and annoyingly efficient factory farms isn’t profitable. Until folks start collaborating on the things that don’t benefit from being small (marketing, distribution, sales, etc.), they just aren’t going to make a buck. Chris sees co-operatives as the only way small family farmers will survive in the 21st Century, and after reading more about the work he’s doing, I am going to spend some time un 2020 thinking about how ECB can contribute.
Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History
Ever since reading the book American Serengeti by natural historian Dan Flores, I’ve been a bit obsessed with America’s proto-pooch, the Coyote. So is Flores apparently, because he wrote an entire book about the subjection. In the pages of Coyote America, not only do you learn that the US Government still sponsors the systematic killing of more than a half million coyotes every year, but even more astonishingly, the wily omnivorous predator has managed to thrive and expand its range into every state in the Continental US. How has it done this? By mostly by fleeing to urban environments. Sound familiar? There are a lot of parallels with human kind for sure.
There are so many parallels in this book to the state of American agro-politics. First, America’s growing obsession with carnivore crucifixion, our celebrated detachment from nature and our food systems, and culture-wide belief that ignoring or eradicating “problems” results in viable solutions. Coyote America reminds me that we need to identify and treat the sources of our agricultural problems, rather than chase and “fix” the symptoms. I’m already building my 2020 soap box on this one.
We were honored to receive the top honor of Best Butcher Shop in Orange County from OC Weekly back in October. However, the accolade was bitter sweet when only a few weeks later we learned that the publication, with more than a quarter century of history, was shuttering its doors. OC Weekly has been such an advocate for what we do here at Electric City Butcher. It’s been an important fixture in the conversation about Orange County’s changing and evolving food scene, and the need for better and more sustainable food options throughout Southern California. We continue to call many of the publication’s staff our friends, like Cynthia Rebolledo and Gustavo Arellano, but OC Weekly’s departure will be a silence felt for a long while. Here’s to hoping another publication, with an even greater focus on food, tries to fill its historic shoes.
If you told me ten years ago that Michelin would award a star to an Orange County restaurant in a mall, I’d probably think you were high. If you then said it would be a taqueria, I’d ask you to have passed the joint. If you followed behind me and shouted that my business would be providing them some of their meats, I wouldn’t know if I should thank you for the compliment or unfriend you on Facebook.
But thank God, it’s all true.
Chef Carlos Salgado has created a temple to Alta California cuisine that he calls a “conversation between the generation of cook and farmers who nurtured the traditions of our home table.” And for the last few months, Electric City Butcher has sourced and delivered to Taco Maria many of the sustainably-raised meats we carry in the shop like PastureBird and Rancho Llano Seco. We are over the moon thatour farmers’ proteins end up on diner’s plates and look forward to helping more restaurants source their proteins more responsibly.
The Butcher Show on History Channel
Did you even watch it? I know a lot of us in the shop don’t want to admit we did, but….. It was probably because, deep down, we wondered why we weren’t invited to compete. It was great to see so many familiar faces on the TV each night, even if they were breaking down an ostrich with a tomahawk, or skinning and prepping an iguana steak. Despite all the Hollywood glitter getting in my eyes, it was more encouraging to see so many faces we didn’t know. It was exciting that there was a motley crew of whole animal butchers (some better than others) out there trying to make a go of our craft. Watching them never got old.
The Interweb is still very cagey about a second season of The Butcher. I have to be honest, if they renew, a part of me hopes we’ll get our chance in the spotlight too.
Looking to 2020
For the year ahead, there are a lot of exciting new things in store for Electric City Butcher. We can’t wait to share them with you, your family, and friends.
I can’t help but think about a favorite quote from the late Anthony Bordain that sums up my hopes for everyone in 2020.
"As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life — and travel — leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks — on your body or on your heart — are beautiful."
Here’s to leaving a few marks of our own!