Happy Easter!

 

For the first time that I can remember, the Japanese cherry blossoms are blooming, the fruit cherries are blooming and the apple trees are blooming all at the same time. Oh, and the rose bushes and azaleas are bursting with bloom.  And there are wild flowers everywhere.  I especially like the little shy ones hiding in the shade.

There are bumble bees buzzing all over the flowers, and I even saw an earthworm after a shower!    Meadow larks are everywhere, as are song sparrows and the mornings are a delight of birdsong.  The humming birds are flitting and flashing among the blooms.  They even check out the red on my gloves and hat.  I've felt the breath of their wings on my face.  There is even an astonishingly beautiful stray cat who has decided to adopt our back porch and the dogs have decided he's okay, as have the other cats.

I mentioned the other day that we were thinking about getting out of the cattle business (after 150 years!), but I found out that that a Japanese firm, on hearing of this, invested a substantial sum to ensure that we don't.  Japan is our biggest export market for beef.  A few restaurants that serve our beef are Ikinari, Matsuzaka and Kurauzo in Tokyo.  Oh, and a place called the Meat Winery.  On Okinawa, O's Steakhouse serves our beef.  I'm sure there are others.  South Korea is our second largest export customer, followed by China.

I was reading some guy's blog where he was complaining that American beef was the worst in the world.  Oh, really?  Then he was lauding grass-fed beef, which I don't think he understood what was.  I don't know if you can actually get real grass-fed beef outside of the US and maybe Canada.  There's not much of a market for it.  It's very lean with no marbling.  The taste is very gamey.  And it's kind of tough.  Gonna need that steak knife.  Usually so-called grass-fed beef is only
sort of.  If you read the label, it typically says "grass fed, grain finished," meaning they trotted the cow brutes through a meadow then sent them on to a feed lot.  Our grass-fed beef is certified to be 100% grass fed.  Each individual creature is so proved to be by individual inspection.  And it's expensive, about three-times what grain-fed beef costs.  We're a member of the National Sustainable Agricultural Coalition and that helps us understand and comply with the USDA's AMS standards.  We're also a member of the American Grassfed Association, that certifies each one of our cattle to be genuinely grass fed.

Grass-fed beef on the hoof.

The very opposite of grass-fed beef is Kobe and Wagyu beef, very richly marbled and tender.  I doubt such cattle ever see a blade of grass.  Outside of Japan and...maybe...South Korea I would be leery of eating Oriental beef.  Besides the notorious cruelty towards animals those people display, especially the Chinese, God knows what they feed them.  And Europe is not much better.  After all, the outbreak of mad cow disease in Britain was caused by them feeding offal from slaughter houses, especially the brains of other cattle, to their livestock.  Gawd.  Here in Uncle Sam land we have PETA to raise hell if we stray from the straight and narrow.  A lot of righties don't like PETA but I am a member and think they do good work.  We've also worked with Mary Temple Grandin, the autistic lady who helps improve the emotional lives (yes!) of livestock.  I've read her writing and find her a valuable and interesting resource.  In Asia, outside of Japan, most livestock is treated the way East Asians treat PoWs.   It's shameful and sad.