Grass-fed local meat

Ate some delicious shell steaks last night (I believe this is the cut that looks across the T-bone at the tenderloin. Please correct me if I'm mistaken), with wild caught shrimp & scallops, and pancetta, the ingenious Italian pepper/garlic laden version of bacon.

Other than the few chances I've had to eat game, I think this was the first time I was able to get meat from an animal whose living arrangements I got to see first hand. Despite not having taken part in any activities related to the slaughter or butchering of the animal, I do feel like I'm one step less removed from my food as a result. I've recommended the farm where I got the heritage-breed beef to several people already, and after my first taste, I will be wholeheartedly continuing to do so.

Continuing to read The Butcher's Guide to Well-Raised Meat. Continuing to tell people the knowledge their grandmas knew, that bread and potatoes make you fat, that butter is good for you, that margarine is an abomination, that corn and soy oil belong in paint, not in food, and ultimately that it's better to pay the grocer than the doctor.

Continuing to mystify the bodybuilders at the gym with exercises they can't dream of doing, muscle-ups, ultra-low squats, single-leg squats. (Of course they do things I can't dream of doing as well. Bench-pressing 300 or 400 pounds, among others)  But showing them up in my own mind is sort of entertaining in its own right. And I'm still only mildly tired of explaining the reasons for the Vibrams rather than the cross-trainers.

Vacation's coming up and I plan to get enough vitamin D synthesized to last me until at least Thanksgiving. My refusal to wear sunscreen (other than a large-brimmed hat and long-sleeved shirt) have served me well so far this year. That and the base tan I accumulated in a tanning booth. Of course optimal would be to get real sunlight every day, but a desk job renders that all but impossible.

Navigating the neolithic in a vessel designed for the paleolithic is really the main challenge this blog is devoted to when you get down to it. I don't have logs and rivers available to play with year-round. Or the time. So I pay someone money to let me lift their heavy things and put them back down again. And I pay someone else money to let me use their imitation sunlight. And I pay someone else to raise food the way I would, and they pay someone else to carve it up the way I would. None of it's perfect, but I think I'm doing pretty well considering the circumstances. Hopefully you're reading this trying to make some improvement to how you're doing it. If that's the case, drop me a comment once in a while so I know you're around. I'll gladly tailor the blog to the audience, if I find that I have one!