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Friday, March 21, 2008
Where can you buy local, pastured meat?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tim of Nature’s Harmony Farm in Elberton posted earlier this week on the blog about pastured meats, to let me know about the delivery program he’s setting up for buying clubs in Atlanta. That adds one more option for shoppers who’d like to purchase meat produced outside the conventional livestock production system.
As Tim points out, finding chicken, beef, pork and eggs from animals allowed to roam outdoors, soaking up the sun, isn’t as easy as buying locally grown fruits and vegetables. Some of that may be due to lack of processing facilities in Georgia, and regulations governing poultry processing. I’d like to hear from farmers about how this affects them; I’ve already heard a good bit about this from chefs. (Check out Michael Tuohy’s blog, Front Burner, on this topic.)
The good news is, supplies of locally raised produce and meat are increasing.
Several markets carry pastured meat and eggs in season, and a few offer it now. Morningside, open Saturday mornings until 11:30 a.m, usually has eggs, beef and pork. You can find eggs at Spruill every other Wednesday, from 10:30 until noon, if Corinna Garmon hasn’t already presold all the duck and chicken eggs from Garmon Family Farm. Sometimes Gum Creek Farm sells meat at Spruill in the off season.
Once markets open for the season in May, you also can find a selection at the Peachtree Road Market, the Piedmont Park Greenmarket and in Carrollton at the Cotton Mill market., which opens April 26. The Marietta Square market usually has eggs.
And new vendors could be joining these markets or others in May, so keep looking and I’ll try to post an update.
Meanwhile, you can find grass-fed, pastured beef in some supermarkets around Atlanta. Publix sells ground beef from Will Harris, a Georgia Organics board member who operates White Oak Pastures in Early County. And beef cuts from the farm, including steaks and roasts, are available in some Whole Foods and Harry’s Farmers Market stores. Will is opening an on-farm processing facility in late April, which should increase the supply to more Whole Foods locations. Will’s rib eyes won the grand prize this week in the Flavor of Georgia competition, which drew 150 specialty foods from across the state. (If you want to check out winners in other categories, here’s a roundup from the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
And if you swing by Star Provisions, the west Midtown market attached to Bacchanalia, you can usually find eggs from Summerland Farm in Cartersville. That’s the home of the restaurant’s chefs and owners, Anne Quatrano and Cliff Harrison.
Are there places around town that I’m missing? Let me know. Or have you found a good, on-farm source?
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