The All-American Hamburger?

A few times a year I get a craving for a hamburger that cannot be ignored. Sometimes I get a craving and if I put it off for a few days it goes away. But not this time. For the last few days I really have wanted a hamburger. Nothing fancy--just a regular sort of hamburger.

Well, regular in some respects. I guess that in many respects my hamburger was anything but ordinary. It was grass-fed beef from a ranch/farm about 70 miles from where I live. And I know, not well, but I do know, the people who raised it. Nothing that cow ate wasn't grass on their land or hay or potatoes (in the winter) that they grew on their land. No hormones, no antibiotics either. This is real pastured beef. There is some good scientific evidence that grass-fed beef (rather than grain fed) is better for you health-wise and there is little disputing that it is better for the cattle and better for the environment, too. It might be a little pricier than factory farmed ground beef, but that's an extra dollar or so a pound that I am willing to pay and I know what it goes for. If you think about it, it really isn't a lot of extra money for the extra space the cattle get, the access to a much more normal life for cattle and for the farmers who do the work to make this possible.

In fact, an awful lot of my lunch today came from that same farm. I have been buying potatoes from Olsen Farms at the farmers market for years now. They grow dozens of interesting varieties with interesting colors. And I am still eating the potatoes I bought last fall to hold over the winter. I had been thinking I had better get through them fast since new potatoes are showing up at the market, so yesterday I made potato salad. Their potatoes are interesting and tasty. These were German Butterball potatoes that I boiled up. They make great mashed potatoes, too. There is a variety for just about every purpose. Occasionally when I am feeling patriotic I will make fries with red, blue and white potatoes just for kicks. And that's only possible because of the varieties from Olsen Farms.

And the lettuce on the burger was bought yesterday at their farmers market stall, too. It was such a pretty head of red leaf lettuce I bought it even though I already had bought a head of green leaf lettuce at another favorite stall of mine.

This is one of the great things about eating local food. Through eating, which I am going to do anyway, I can support local farmers, who in turn give me something else I want -- access to information about the food I eat. They say knowledge is power, and here I see evidence that it is.

(And since the meat comes frozen, I didn't want to re-freeze the hamburger when I thawed it to make one hamburger. The rest of the pound went into making meatballs that I will freeze now that they have been baked. That will make for a nice treat with pasta some night, but not anytime soon given we're expecting 90+ degree days for the next week or so!)