Slow Food Vast Wine

Posted by ryan / Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

The Barrel Oak Winery of Delaplane is hosting the Third Annual Slow Food Vast Wine Fundraiser on Saturday, April 30 at 6:30 p.m.

This event has several ambitions and noble cause behind it. Besides promoting lesser-known food and wine producers in the area, all the proceeds go to scholarship programs at the John XXIII Montessori Children’s Center in Front Royal.

Anyone can bid on bottles of exemplary wine or exhilarating getaways in the silent and live auction portion of the fun-filled evening that awaits you.

Attendees can “travel” to three regions of the world with their handy-dandy passport to try award-winning wines paired with epicurean delights. The Virginian, Californian, and the Mediterranean tables are quite different from one another. Each themed area has up to four meals and three different wines to choose from.

David and Stacy Gedney of the Apartment 2G Restaurant are in charge of cooking the tapas-style menu. All ingredients are from local farms that practice “beyond organic agriculture.” These include Ayreshire, Fields of Athenry, Briarmead, Echo Ridge, Brown Stone Ranch, and Polyface, among others.

Event coordinator Mark Accettullo was adamant in his belief that these purveyors deserve our loyalty and support. “All of the producers we highlight are committed to uphold and promote principles that are good for our taste buds, landscapes, animals, and bodies,” he said. “They represent everything that is good and noble about farming.”

The evening is scheduled to end at 11 pm, but not before the dessert underneath the stars. Decadent delights like cream puffs, chocolate pave, and lemon mousse pavlova will be paired with special Ports that have been aged to perfection.

Buy your tickets now in order to attend this exciting event. You can still donate to the cause even if you can’t make it.

Call (540)-660-5641 or e-mail mark@slowfoodvastwine.org for more information.

-Ryan Robertson

(image: John XXIII Montessori)

Open For Business

Posted by ryan / Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

As of April 1, the Hilton of Tysons Corner has opened a new restaurant called Härth. Don’t let the modern decor fool you, Härth specializes in large portions of comfort food.

Executive Chef Thomas Elder wanted to focus his menu on seasonal and locally sourced fresh ingredients. The Organic Butcher, Ayrshire Farm, and Freestate are among the primary suppliers he selected. Freestate is a co-op of family-owned farms throughout Virginia.

The open kitchen possesses a wood-burning granite clad oven that is sure to be utilized for specialty dishes like fire roasted chicken with brussel sprouts, wild mushrooms, and rosemary jus.

Their signature burger has also been recommended. A 100% Angus-beef patty is topped with Talbot Reserve sharp cheddar, roasted onions, and applewood smoked bacon.

The breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus all have their own unique merits.

The adjacent lobby bar is open eighteen hours a day, and it promises to always have an extensive selection of regional beers and wines to go along with the handcrafted cocktails. It also has its own menu with plenty of sharable flatbreads and charcuterie to choose from. Coffee and pastries are served in the morning.

To be more specific, it is located at 7920 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA.

Call (703)-847-5000 for more information.

-Ryan Robertson

(image: Härth)

Veal Appeal

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

This past Monday, I had the privilege of attending a rose veal tasting at Ayrshire Farm in Upperville, VA. Upon entering, everyone seemed to know each other and I quickly realized that most people in the room had been to a tasting before at Ayrshire Farm. As I was quietly observing the pristine and elegant interior of the Edwardian mansion, I was greeted by owner Sandy Lerner. It was a very brief greeting but nevertheless I was awestruck as I have read about her life and the various accomplishments she has achieved and worked diligently for; byproducts of her passions and interests. (Yes, that’s her- one of the co-founders of the famous Cisco Systems, starter of Urban Decay and so forth. But my favorite passion of hers is not only Ayrshire Farm, but also in 1992, she bought and restored an estate once owned by Jane Austen’s brother in England and turned it into a Center for the Study of Early English Women’s Writings.)

As I talked to more people I learned that there have been two veal tasting events before; however, those tastings had veal meat from other farms. This tasting was very special because it only had veal from calves raised by Ayrshire Farm. There were many different people who attended this special occasion, from the press (lots of cameras flashing) and foodies (one told me he was going to go home and make bacon ice-cream that night from scratch) to local butchers and farmers.

Adele Douglas, the CEO of Humane Farm Animal Care spoke a little introduction about being certified humane and how that it is applied with raising calves. Douglas stated that, “veal calves are a by-product of the dairy industry and male calves have no economic value.” She stated that newborn calves that are not certified humane are thrown together, tethered and crated, usually having respiratory problems which causes farmers to inject antibiotics. They are iron-deprived (no grass, no grain in their diet) which causes them to have “white, gray veal” meat.

Douglas said that her organization wrote standards for raising calves humanely, and “the only farm that fit the standard was Ayrshire Farm and it’s sad [that more farms cannot fit the standard]”.  When a farm is certified humane, “it assures the consumer that the animal has been raised in a healthful and low-stress environment necessary for a good quality of life.” This certification is developed by a panel of animal scientists and recognized by USDA, ASPCA and HSUS. Ayrshire Farm calves are free-ranged and bottle fed. They are able to roam around the field until they are slaughtered. Because they have a balanced diet with the freedom to exercise and play, their meat is colored rosy and pink. Douglas encouraged guests to demand certified humane veal at restaurants to help raise the demand for it in general.

After the short introduction, we were able to enter the kitchen of the lustrous mansion and were presented with different dishes of veal. The menu included veal meatballs in broth, veal scallopini marsala, grilled veal loin, braised veal shoulder with cherry citrus chutney and my favorite, osso bucco (braised shanks with house-made gnocchi). Yum! All the dishes were delicious. The veal was very tender and savory (especially the braised veal shoulder). The meatballs were flavorful and juicy and the grilled veal loin was very soft and easy to chew.

All dishes were prepared by Ayrshire Farm Catering Company Executive Chef Rob Townsend and Executive Sous Chef Missy Chaffins. I had a brief talk with them and asked them more about veal at Ayrshire Farm’s Hunter’s Head restaurant. Chef Townsend said that the veal from Ayrshire Farm is available to everyone at any time of the year. He also said that veal is always on the menu at Hunter’s Head and that “the menu changes every month, but there will always be a veal dish offered.”  Chef Chaffins said that the “aged-beef [aged at Ayrshire Farm, of course] and the veal are my favorites.” She also said that it is hard but important to find certified humane meat. Collectively, they stated that consumers could find Ayrshire Farm veal at Mom’s Organic Market, Nora’s, and Let’s Meat on the Ave.

As I sat there tasting the dishes among the other guests, I met Abby Porter from Berkeley Springs, WV. She is from the Local Economy Network which is made up of a group of local residents whose purpose is to increase the availability of high quality local food among many other endeavors. She said that she knows “good” meat and how it is supposed to taste because she grew up on a farm. Porter only eats meat once or twice a week and says she is more inclined to eat rose veal because it actually tastes good, unlike any meat from the grocery store that may be questionable. She also said that calves that are not raised certified humane have bad energy because they were raised in a stressful environment with a low quality of life.

Tanya Cauthen, a butcher from Belmont Butchery, said that the rose veal from Ayrshire Farm tastes good and is flavorful as well. She also stated that visibly, the rose veal is pink and blush, whereas veal from any other non- certified humane farm is gray, white and flavorless. All I can say is that I believe her because butchers know meat, like mothers know their children.

Unfortunately I was not able to see the calves running around in the field next to the mansion as many people who attended had seen from past tastings. Thank you Ayrshire Farm for having an event for us to taste the luscious, sapid veal that most of us have been deprived of. I will be sure to demand certified humane rose veal the next time I order veal at a restaurant.

Mom’s Organic Market
3831 Mt. Vernon Ave
Alexandria, VA 22305
703-535-5980

Let’s Meat on the Ave
2403 Mt Vernon Ave
Alexandria, VA 22301
703-836-6328

Nora Restaurant
2132 Florida Avenue N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20008
202-462-5143

-Rebecca Kim

Red Meat: Derek Luhowiak

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

Though he’s been trained to work with knives, chef Derek Luhowiak is more of a stick-to-your-guns type toque:

An alumnus of heritage breed-haven Ayrshire Farm, Luhowiak took local dining on the road a few years back with his winery-roving food cart, Local Sixfortyseven. But when Hollywood–okay, Canadian television–came a-callin’ last summer, Luhowiak shunned the spotlight, took his mobile kitchen out of rotation and spent some time reflecting on exactly what he wanted to do with his time and talents.

I’m happy to report that he’s back in action–having taken control of the kitchen at Millwood’s Locke Store this past fall–and already hard at work “preserving” his culinary legacy.

WR: Salt. Pepper. What other spices/herbs could you not live without?

DL: Dried chili’s [sic]. Grow them every year and dry them in the Virginia sunshine. Sneak them into all my curries, pastas and greens.

WR: What’s the very first dish you ever mastered? How long did it take? Do you still make it today?

DL: Properly cooking al dente pasta. I was the young kid at a well known Italian restaurant in Pittsburgh, PA and worked with all old Italian guys who would not even speak English to me. But boy I learned to cook a proper toothsome al dente pasta.

WR: What seasonal ingredient(s) get your creative juices flowing?

DL: There are so many, but venison. Fauquier County has some of the best venison I have ever had. They graze right along side of the cows. We make jerky, smoke sausages, roasts you name it. It just really feels like fall and winter to tuck into a bowl of venison stew and a stout.

WR: My latest cookbook obsession is …

DL: My seed catalogs. I get crazy excited about planting. I know its not a cookbook per se but I cant wait to harvest for new dishes. I have green radishes on my mind this year.

WR: What’s the most challenging dish you’ve ever attempted? Would you make it again?

DL: Turducken. HATE THEM! Had to make them for a holiday season and not that they are overly hard but they look like Frankenstein’s baby when your done! Try making that look appealing. No offense to all you turducken fans. A big no to making them again!!!!

WR: If I could the spend the day working alongside any local chef, I’d love to collaborate with …

DL: I would love to get Tarver King of the Ashby [Inn], Rob Townsend of Ayrshire and myself together for a informal, backyard whole-hog cook-off!!!!! Let the beer and pork flow!!

WR: What’s the easiest/quickest–but still wholly satisfying–meal you make for yourself?

DL: Greens and beans.

WR: In the next six months you won’t want to miss my …

DL: We have been working on a partnership with the Locke Store and I have been slowly introducing a fresh meat case with local lamb, beef and pork, as well as my own sausage creations (Merguez, sweet fennel and orange, many others). Local Sixfortyseven is going to launch a small batch artisanal line of pickles and preserves of all sorts made from what we are growing in our gardens, so they will be in small supply. They will be available at the Locke Store as well as [by] contacting us directly. Check us out on Facebook for all our info.

WR: It’s quitting time. I’m pouring myself …

DL: Right now, winter time, totally digging on Stone Brewery’s Old Guardian barley wine.

————————————————————————————————————————————————

A hearty bowl of venison stew and snifter of barley wine sounds like the perfect prescription for weathering today’s foul climate. Thanks for the idea, chef Luhowiak!

Come back next Tuesday for another helping of Red Meat.

–WR

Countdown to Turkey Time

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, November 8th, 2010

It’s time to start thinking about your Thanksgiving turkey.  Whether you buy one from the store, or order turkey out at dinner, most of us will be having turkey this Thanksgiving.  It is said that 90% of households eat turkey on Thanksgiving.

(Image: SheKnows)

There are usually extras after the Thanksgiving feast, so we end up eating turkey for awhile after Thanksgiving Day.  Turkey soup, sandwiches, and omelets are served until not a bite of turkey is left to waste.

(Image: Heart at Home)

I always like to know where my turkey came from.  I try to buy organic and if it is a locally raised turkey, even better.  You can order a fresh or frozen certified organic, humane, heritage-breed, pasture-raised turkey from Ayrshire Farm this year.  Turkeys are available anywhere from 10 to over 20 pounds!  Also available from Ayrshire Farm: beef, certified humane veal, pork, poultry and sausage.

If you are unsure about cooking a turkey, How to Cook a Thanksgiving Turkey will help with step by step instructions.  If you want more information on buying fresh and local in Virginia, Buy Local Virginia will help you find what you are looking for.  Start preparing now, there are only 16 days until turkey time!

-Liz Stevenson

A Fresh Finale

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, October 18th, 2010

After a day of wine tasting and balloon searching at the Shenandoah Valley Hot Air Balloon & Wine Festival at Historic Long Branch this weekend, it was time to find some good food.  I was disappointed that I didn’t get to see even one hot air balloon, but word was that it was too windy for the balloons to take flight.

We did get to try a delicious Johnsonville Bratwurst from the “World’s Largest Grill” at the festival for lunch, but all the walking around lead us to want something more substantial as dinnertime approached.

We decided to head to Hunter’s Head Tavern in Upperville.  Hunter’s Head Tavern serves local organic meats and produce from nearby Ayrshire Farm.  This is where the real eating began.  This was my first time at Hunter’s Head and we sat outside on the patio complete with a tent and heaters for the outdoor chill.  A basket of fresh bread was too good for words and we took our time with our wine before getting up to order.

I sat there waiting to be handed a menu, until I was informed that you had to go inside where the menu was displayed on blackboards to view the dinner menu and order from there.  Then, when the food was ready, it would be brought out to your table number which was displayed on a wooden spoon.

Everything sounded good, but I finally chose the Skinny Apple Cider Chicken.  My dinner companions chose the Shepherd’s Pie, the Ayrshire Guinness Beef Stew and the Dry-Aged Burger with Chips.  We all ate in silence because the food was so good and there was no room for chatting.

My chicken was unlike any chicken I had ever had.  It came falling off the bone and was tender and juicy.  There was a definite hint of cider in the meat and it was surrounded by dried pears, wild rice and sweet baby carrots.

Of course, none of us were still hungry, but we just had to have dessert.  The homemade German Chocolate Cake was moist and big enough for four of us to get our share.  I am certain that I will be back for the Fish and Chips in the near future.  I am also interested in checking out the Home Farm Store which is a gourmet retail shop that sells fresh meats and produce from Ayrshire Farm and other local farms.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, Ayrshire Farm has their organic turkeys for sale.  If their turkey is anything like their chicken, I suggest you order one now.

-Liz Stevenson

Eye on NoVA: Food Shows Feast on Local Talent

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, July 12th, 2010

View NoVA Food Show Tapings in a larger map

Seems you can’t throw a rock these days without hitting a reality TV/cooking show camera.

Of course, if you’ve been dining at any of the buzzy eateries above–or now plan to hightail it out to one of the upcoming tapings–you’ll have no one to blame but yourself when Joel McHale gleefully mocks you on The Soup.

–Warren

Local Flavor Tastes Great

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

The Local Flavor warehouse in Amissville, VA

Mark Reinhardt and Laurie Smith of The Local Flavor

On Saturday I went to the Meet Your Farmer Event hosted by The Local Flavor for its Farm Buyer’s Club in Amissville, Virginia.  I met some of the farmers, bakers, and winemakers that supply the food to the Club, including the father of an old classmate of mine and tasted some of their products, which I must say were all really good.

Everyone seemed to know each other, mingling about and tasting each other’s foods.

The event is a smart marketing tool, as I left with 4 items: honeycomb from Windsong Apiaries, pork bratwurst from Blue Ridge Meats, a slice of gluten-free carrot cake from Triple Oak Bakery, and handmade salad tongs from Handmade by Noah.  All are gifts, with the exception of the honey. 

They deliver to several Northern Virginia locations.

Mark Reinhardt and Laurie Smith started the Club after a visit to Mount Vernon Farm in Sperryville.  They realized that the farmers’ products should be available to more customers and thus began the idea of the Local Flavor Farm Buyer’s Club. 

Products include grass-fed beef and lamb; free range eggs; local, raw honey; handmade salsas and mustards; chutneys and jams; and locally roasted fair-trade coffees from Rappahannock County and the surrounding areas.  The club does not charge membership dues or require a minimum purchase; however, there is a small charge for deliveries.

• Producers present or that provided products at the Meet Your Farmer Event included:
• -Mount Vernon Farm (grass-fed, grass finished lamb, beef and pastured pork and poultry)
• -Ayrshire Farm (Local, USDA -inspected, Certified Organic & Humane Raised Meats)
• -Central Coffee Roasters (their Rwanda AA was ridiculously good, especially since I was able to drink it without cream which is very rare for me)
• -Waterpenny Farm
• -The Farm at Sunnyside
• -The Farm Garden (Heritage Farm)
• -Herban Avenues (organic teas and wellness products)
• -Belle Meade Farm, School, and Inn (wish I knew about this when I was a kid)
• -Greenway Beef
• -Triple Oak Bakery (Gluten-free bakery)
• -Virginia Chutney (huge fan)
• -Oak Shade Farm
• -Blue Ridge Meats (USDA and Certified Humane butcher)
• -Gadino Cellars
• -The Remington Pepper Company
• -Oak Spring Dairy (Cheese, including raw milk cheeses, and owner of the prizewinning cow, Snickerdoodle)
• -Windsong Apiaries
• -Too Many Paws Farm (Pasture Raised chicken/Eggs)
• -Handmade by Noah (Handmade cutting boards and salad tongs from local reclaimed wood)

Gadino Cellars tasting

Mike and Cindy Clark of Greenway Beef

Windsong Apiaries

–Aisha Salazar

OitF Returns to NoVA this Fall

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, March 22nd, 2010

(Image: Turtle Rock Farm)

The Outstanding in the Field bus will roll back into town this September (9/10 – 9/12) for a trio of farm-to-fork extravaganzas hosted by Ayrshire Farm and Potomac Vegetable Farms.

Local toques recruited for the 2010 tour include:

* 9/10: Vidalia chef RJ Cooper;

* 9/11: Ayrshire Farm chef Rob Townsend (check out his tribute to Sicilian chard in our April issue); and,

* 9/12: Vermilion chef and three-time OitF contributor Tony Chittum.

Tickets for each dinner are priced at $220 per person and will go on sale this Saturday (3/27) at 11 a.m.

–Warren

Humane for the Holidays

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

If you’re considering something special for the holiday table this year, seeking out a “Certified Humane Raised and Handled ®” ham, rib roast or turkey may just fit the bill for the celebratory season.

My own turkey this past Thanksgiving was a heritage breed bird, humanely raised on terra firma with plenty of room to poke around the outdoors, access to drinking water and a smorgasbord of bugs; he was “processed”  a mere two days before we ate him.

Some have come to the certified humane movement simply because the meat they purchase from producers who practice humane farming make a product that is more flavorful.

But increasingly foodie consumers who want to see how local they can go are taking living la vida  locavore with fruits and vegetables to the next level, and finding out where and how their meat is processed as well.

Adele Douglas is chief executive officer of Humane Farm Animal Care, the only farm animal welfare and food labeling program in the United States whose job it is to certify farm practices as “humane” and bestow the trademark “Certified Humane Raised and Handled ®.” She cooks a certified humane turkey every year for the holidays.

“The certified humane turkeys are raised and fed what turkeys are supposed to eat, they exercise… If I ever thought of not buying one for Thanksgiving, my children and grandchildren would rebel,” Douglas suggested.

The certified humane designation specifically means that the producer has given his or her farm animals “ample space, shelter and gentle handling to limit stress; ample fresh water and a healthy diet of feed free from antibiotics or hormones” according to Humane Farm Animal Care’s web site.

Many of the regular trappings of factory farming are forbidden accoutrement of certified humane meat producers such as cages, crates and tie stalls. In other words, animals must be able to enjoy the outdoors and exhibit natural behaviors—pigs must be able to root and play, chickens must be able to roam and spread their wings, and cattle must be able to chew their cud in a pasture all without the hormones or antibiotics that are the staples of a factory-farmed animal’s diet.

Indeed, many consumers come to the certified humane movement not only for a more flavorful food experience, but because they oppose the methods of factory farming. The humane farming movement occupies a strange philosophical intersection at the moment, however. The push towards more responsible farming is bemoaned by hardcore vegetarians as just another psychological device to make ourselves feel less guilty about murdering an animal for meat, while farm animal activists champion the practice of humane farming as an enlightened path to the future of animal husbandry—a guilt-free pass to let us have our cake and eat it too, so to speak.

Certifiable

If you’re considering buying a piece of meat for the holidays from a farm that practices humane farming, like Ayrshire Farm, you might be taken aback by the cost to play food philosopher.

Ayrshire founder Sandy Lerner runs an agricultural operation that is a rare combination of certified organic, humane and predator-friendly farming practices that don’t always necessarily co-exist on the same property. Even the cats at Ayrshire Farm are part and parcel of their “organic” designation, since the felines keep pests like rodents under control without harmful chemicals.

The turkey I purchased from them this past holiday was under 10 pounds and cost $97. I can currently go to Giant’s web site and order a complete turkey dinner for four for $39.99.

Though I utilized my God-given right as an American to vote with my designer knock-off wallet against factory farming, my turkey was about three times what I would pay at a regular grocery store.

Higher prices for humanely raised meat are justified as the “true” cost of what meat should be sold for at your grocery store.

According to Lerner, “There are no other hidden costs such as the environmental clean-up of the air, land, and water, associated human health issues, degradation of antibiotic effectiveness, hormone effects through the food-chain, etc.  I leave the air, land, and water in better shape each year than I found it, and the food is just food—no drugs, chemicals [or] hormones.”

The simplicity of Lerner’s explanation belies a system that actually makes it difficult to operate a for-profit farming operation when raising animals for food. It’s actually much easier to farm in a way that depends on antibiotics, produces harmful environmental byproducts, and considers animals commodities, like widgets.

Large-scale operations such as North Carolina-based Smithfield Foods is the largest hog processing operation on the planet, and produces inordinate amounts of excrement with damaging consequences to the environment. In fact, Smithfield was fined $12.6 million in 1997—the largest fee in Clean Water Act history—for polluting the Pagan River.

In an effort to illustrate the scale of factory farming versus family-owned farming such as Lerner’s, consider that Jonathan Safran Foer pegs Smithfield as processing approximately 31 million pigs annually (up from the 27 million animals per year Jeff Tietz touted in his 2006 Smithfield expose for Rolling Stone) in his new book, “Eating Animals.” This translates to upwards of 500,000 animals per week or roughly 84,000 animals per day. A lot of pig excrement to be sure, but consider that a slaughterweight hog on average is 250 pounds and processing that many animals is surely impossible to do in a healthy, let alone humane manner.

Ayrshire processes a whopping four pigs per week.

For the animals, humane farm practices translate to a much less stressful existence.

Don Schneider of Ayrshire Farm informed journalists during the farm’s Second Annual Beef tasting in October, “I think keeping that stress low gives us a good product.”

Low production does not only equal low stress, it also means that from a food safety perspective, animals on this farm can be more easily tracked. The ability to track an animal is no small achievement in an era of deadly e-coli outbreaks and other illnesses the general public is subjected to due to poor animal processing practices.

“I can tell you when [a specific] cow was born,” Schneider said. “It gives us a lot of control to maintain our quality.”

What does certified humane mean for your holiday table? “This helps farmers create a better product, it benefits consumers,” Douglas said. “We are a food-producing country. We should be producing the Rolls Royce of foods.”

‘Angelic’ Beef

If you’ve sampled one of the heavenly hamburgers from Local SixFortySeven (Derek Luhowiak, Local SixFortySeven’s roving chef, used to cook at Ayrshire), you’re acquainted with Angelic Beef.

Doug Linton said he and wife, Debbie, embraced cattle rearing “because we were disgusted with what we were eating in the grocery store.” And although they lack Ayrshire’s certified humane stamp, Angelic Beef farm does apply humane methods to their stocks:

“They’re may be some folks who think we’re over the top on what we do, but we’ve seen the difference in the animals,” Debbie said of their horses and 1-copy (i.e., one parent) Piedmontese cattle.

While Doug Linton claims the primary motivation for his cattle ranching was to improve the food supply, it’s clear he has a relationship with his cattle a factory farmer never could, or perhaps would want to.  (At one point, he shares a worry about one of his bulls; he thinks the problem could be burrs on the animal’s penis, and he is going to have to figure out a way to pick them off.)

One of the other things that happens on the Linton farm that would never happen in a factory farming environment is the ability of the calves to choose when they are weaned. Linton points out a couple younger cows that actually made their way back to their mothers after he had moved them to a different pasture. Instead of forcibly separating mother and calf for a second time, he let them be.

According to the Lintons, treating the animals emotionally is just as important as treating any physical ailments they might have.

“With homeopathy there is always an emotional piece,” Debbie said. “As far as the cattle, my part is figuring out what we need to give the cow. Even handling them can be stressful [for the animals].”

Debbie is a registered nurse and now currently works as an equine dentist. She often uses flower essences and other homeopathy to treat animals (both cows and horses) on the farm, which Debbie maintains greatly reduces the need for the use of antibiotics (all Angelic-raised animals are hormone-free). While she doesn’t eschew traditional veterinary medicine, Debbie said she has seen the effectiveness of nontraditional medicine on the animals she cares for, and this is why some of the Linton cows and horses are treated by medicinal herbs that many humans have yet to experience.

According to Debbie, homeopathy and flower essences bolster the animals own healing abilities, speeding them back on the path to wellness. She recalls an instance recently of a heifer that had bruised her shoulder and was dragging her arm around. Debbie administered hypericum, or St. John’s Wort as it is commonly known, and the heifer recovered nicely. Cows who experience difficult births also receive a flower essence product called “Rescue Remedy” which is marketed to women for its “calming and centering energy.”

As one last act of compassion, Doug lets his cattle remain in the pasture the night before they are harvested. He can do this because his slaughter facility is only four miles away.

As I leave they tell me they are expecting an acupuncturist around three that afternoon—for one of the horses.

Relationships are the reason we gather at the holidays with family and friends. And as you plan your holiday menu, consider that purchasing a humanely raised animal may be the perfect representation of the farmer-consumer relationship.

“The holidays are traditionally a time to reflect on one’s own blessings and to reach out to those less fortunate,” Sandy Lerner said. “Animals in factory farms are among the most miserable souls on the planet. I see an increased consciousness across-the-board for the welfare of farmed animals. ”

Indeed, I would also include the animal in that relationship.

–Amy Loeffler