Farm Trip.

I feel physically shattered. I had a long day yesterday, which ended late for me (10! Yeah, I know that's a wimp time for a real chef on Saturdays....) and started early this morning for me.

Saturday was hitting the ground running, with the hotel full of Cornhuskers (Really NZ, they're called that), and they eat some eggs and potatoes for breakfast, let me tell you. They also drink lots of red beer at night- lager with tomato juice. Yummers.

But in between, I took a couple cooks out to Vashon Island for a farm tour and lunch at Sea Breeze Farm. We took the ferry over, and had the tour where the farmer explained two big ideas to me:

1st, that he's really a grass farmer, and the animals manage the land, and what he gets as a by-product of that management is meat, dairy and eggs. Through careful and thoughtful management, the systems of nature work well.

2nd, and the reason why the products cost more is because you're paying for nature's share too. Keep animals in cages? It keeps them safe from predators. Never feed a calf mother's milk and go straight to milk replacer? That makes them grow differently/faster. Feed them grass? It takes time. No antibiotics? Creatures get sick and can die, and that's a loss.

He had some great view points, and he had a very good chef at the spot, with the farm's meat playing the main role on the menu. Paté, rilletes, and head cheese featured on the charcuterie platter. Sausage, kale, potato soup shined because of an awesome and rich chicken/pork broth. The salad had no meat, but perfect tomatoes, and really good sheep's milk cheese. The porchetta sandwich was the bombdotcom, and the grilled country sausage was perfect with the earthy puy lentils and dijon. They even make wine, and I had a glass of Sauv Blanc that really was not what I expected, but in a good, and interesting way. A deeper color of yellow than I've ever seen, but the honey-tropical fruit notes generally seen in that varietal when grown in the antipodes....

Today was work early, and done early, and then football Sunday with the recently-returned-from-an-Italian-honeymoon Calerys. Mrs. Calery made a nice enchilada pie with homemade chorizo and pork tinga! (Wow! 2 references to slow cooked, national pork dishes in one blog post!)