I've seen a similar thing before. I think instead of or in addition to the bacon in the middle, cheese was added. (not paleo but still!). This looks so amazing!

Went to the farmer's market this morning and picked up some local, organic meat and some fresh garden tomatoes.

Tonight's dinner is roasted boneless lamb shoulder stuffed with butter-simmered mint and rosemary. And for the side just a couple of tomatoes so sweet you'd think they were fruit. (Oh, wait, they are.) Never mind.

Plane
Sometimes simple is best. Mmmmm

Oh good Lord you guys... Farmer's Market day today & I am in the climax of a total mouthgasm

This morning I had an egg from the ladies & then went to the farmers market to pick up meat & oh boy! One of my favourite farms (Sea Breeze Farms) had smoked the most amazing porchetta. Despite it being roasted over wood the porchetta has little smoke flavor. It's pure, sweet pork marbled with sage and fennel that imbeds itself into the fat. The fat on this pork is outrageous - it tastes like sweet cream and whey... incredible.

This is on the top 5 foods I would have on my deathbed. I hope they have it again next week, but if not - I will always remember it. God bless them all, good pigs and good farmers alike.


I bought two huge slabs of porchetta, wine & raw milk + raw milk cheese (yeah, yeah). I also scored a roasting hen at a great price, the most gorgeous rib-eyes I've ever seen and a new cut we're going to try - a huge Mangalitsa ham hock for the bbq. I don't know what is going on, but the farmers are cutting prices like crazy this year! Usually I stick with cheaper cuts, so this will be quite a treat! It's amazing!

I also had a most horrible thing happen though. I set my bag of foraged wild vine blackberries and red huckleberries down as I was packing my cooler & LEFT THEM at the market. I didn't realized until I was on my way home & almost cried. At least we have a million raspberries outside. I probably shouldn't have bought them in the first place, but it's hard to resist this window of native berries.

SO! Lunch was porccetta, a most spectacular cucumber and lettuces from our garden with salt (a spoonful of raw milk bleu cheese may have been involved with that cucumber action).

Tonight is a whole salmon, right from the boat this a.m., grilled with... you guessed it! CHARD AND RADISHES - I'm going to sautee them alongside that amazing pork fat that I'll cracklin' up before I add the vegetables.

This next week is going to be a most delicious one... I can't wait to try this new pork. We'd only bought cuts from his cross-breeds before, which are more economical, but sometimes you just have to go for it, right? It's a huge cut & will hopefully keep us in meat for a couple days. My favourite snack!

I'll keep an eye out for porchetta. This time of year around here is not good for pork. That's later in the year. People were getting rid of beef because they're about to have another round of butchering so were trying to get rid of the last cows. I got a beautiful set of beef ribs I'm going to have to cook for days.

When I talked to the lamb guy I asked him about lamb fat. He said to email him and he'll put it on his custom list so when they take the next batch of lambs to the processor (this fall), he'll make sure and get me some fat. I thought about 5-10 pounds should be enough to render down. I also asked for leg bones for soup and a wonderful recipe I have for Armenian lamb chops that requires extra bones.

I love farmer's markets. The one over in Raleigh has a place that makes the best andouille. I cook it as a stir fry with blanched green beans, a sliced onion and some sriracha hot sauce to make Szichuan Green Beans a la New Orleans.

Plane
Yeah, low-carb eating is so boring. Just hamburgers and bacon. Ho hum.

I so jealous. Our farmer's markets in SD really don't carry meat at all, just veggies and fruits and flowers. *cry*

Oh, we have two different farmers market here in Ann Arbor that I know of. One seems to be veggies and crafts, the other has the good meat! The farmers who sell meat all seem to be happy to get requests before hand (email is a wonderful thing). I didn't go this week since I'm expecting my quarter cow, but my freezer is AWFULLY empty. Fall is the best time here as well for pork and beef and lamb -- I'm debating whether to get one or two lambs. They're very seasonal.

Horrible feeling ain't it? I have a huge freezer and my small half cow hardly made a dent. Now I'm going bow hunting for whitetail for the first time ever starting this season!

Breakfast: rustic pate *dies*

Lunch: porchetta, salad greens

Dinner: leftover salmon, avocado, salad greens (no chard OR radishes... I needed a break!)

Dessert: homemade peach-oregano-lavender-rosepetal-nasturtium ice cream. Little munchkin picked through the garden for ingredients It's a surprisingly delicious combination! Addictive! Must eat it all so there's none left for tomorrow

HA! You people and your freezers! Not only do I not have a chest freezer, I also have the worlds smallest fridge/freezer with a broken bottom shelf, a cracked "crisper" & 2 missing door compartments.

I'm too frugal to go buy a new one when it still technically "functions," but my fingers are crossed that it completely dies soon. That will be a beautiful day.

Anyway! Jealousy! Jealousy!

That's handy! Most farms here only take reservations for turkey & 1/4/1/2/whole. The rest is what they have when they have it! Sometimes Sea Breeze has butter. Sometimes they have porchetta. etc There is a HUGE demand for farm fresh products here. For example, the markets are open at 9 & everyone is out of eggs within in minutes. I'm sure farmers make arrangements with friends, but for the rest of us - we have to wait in line!

We get delicious meat from the markets year round here. I guess the Pacific Northwest has some benefits

The first of the foraged chantrelles are in next week! So excited!

I did buy a little chest freezer, smallest one they had a Costco and it's been a great investment! Under $200 I believe.

Oh, I wish I lived in the Pacific NW; Michigan is going through such rough times, but we also have some weird laws when it comes to agriculture.

The farmers here who take requests will take it into consideration for what they bring. Especially when it comes to bundles; or they'll hold the bundles for you for a few hours. The farmer I buy my chickens from NEEDS the order ahead of time and has a 10 chicken minimum.

My husband and I are considering getting a second freezer. Right now our overflow goes to my parent's house, but they are now beginning to buy their meat in bulk as well so it won't be an option in the fall.

Buying smaller quantities of meat is just so much more expensive. Even our meat bought in bulk most people would probably consider crazy expensive, but our options here are so limited and none of these farmers are getting rich.

If you can afford it, don't wait! A chest freezer does not replace a regular refrigerator. We have a small apartment fridge and a smallish chest freezer, and I still wish we had more freezer space.

When we can afford it, we will get a full-size fridge. We have 2 adults and 3 small children in our house, and we can only manage because there are a lot of things I don't refrigerate at all - fermented foods go in the basement, eggs stay out of the fridge, vegetables only go in when they really need to, we don't have much dairy (my wife and 2 of the kids still use it), and meat thaws on the counter.

Weird. We have had much less need for a freezer over the last few years. We have some berries, lard and seafood in the freezer and that's about it.

We buy our meat fresh each week and try to eat it before freezing it.

I guess it would be different if we bought half a cow at a time, but our grass-fed beef butcher is great and I look forward to going there each week.

No kidding? I'll have to find someone with a membership...