Last week, Leslie Cole’s story about the PMC, and also about the Ethical Butcher, came out in the Oregonian’s Food Day section. The story brought a lot of attention to PMC, and I’m impressed by the amount of people who have contacted me for more information, to take butchery classes, or two take part in the meat csa. I’ve had a few minor personal set backs in the past few weeks that have found me a little behind with PMC progress, but things should still be launching in the spring, including the website, which will be an integral part of the PMC, as it will be where members go to check out farms, sign up for CSAs and butchery classes, and to get more information about butchery, custom-exempt laws, meat quality, and more.
In addition, a story that I wrote for the Oregonian’s food and drink magazine, MIX, came out. I wrote this story about a good friend of mine, Levi Cole, who kills and grows most of his own food. He kills a pig or two each fall and the story traces that process. As it turns out, I’ve recruited Levi Cole to be a part of the PMC in the form of teacher, among other roles.
Meanwhile I have scheduled three trial PMC classes at Zenger Farm. They are as follows:
Basic Butchery with the Portland Meat Collective
Saturday, February 20th, 1:00pm – 5:00pm
Cost: $200
Learn the lost art of home butchery from the one of Portland Meat Collective’s butchery experts. Learn how to split two sides of pork into primals, and how to cut those primals into cookable cuts like ribs, tenderloins, ham roasts and shoulder roasts. The class will also include tips on how to cook various cuts, and everyone will go home with $100 worth of meat! Portland Meat Collective Instructors: Adam Sappington and Camas Davis
Real Coq au Vin (Chicken slaughter and butchering)
March 27th 2:00 – 6:00pm
Cost: $75
In this course, each student will learn how to kill their own rooster, and how to butcher it in preparation for making coq au vin. Once they have acquired these skills, they’ll learn how to cook coq au vin using this kind of rooster versus the more conventional organic chickens that are sold at retail butchers around town. At end of the course, the class will sit down to a meal of good red wine, coq au vin, and other homemade French treats. *Portland Meat Collective Instructors: Levi Cole and Camas Davis*
Portland Meat Collective’s Easy Home Curing
April 24th: 2:00 – 6:00pm
Cost: $75
Learn how to make your own pancetta and corned beef. Students will learn which cuts of meat are best to use for each curing process, where to find such cuts, which spices and smoking techniques to use, how dry versus wet curing works, and how to ensure you cured meat comes out tasting good. Each student will go home with a sizable portion of tied and spiced pancetta that’s ready to be aged at home. They will also go home with their own cured corned beef, which will need to be aged in their refrigerator for a few weeks before its final preparation. The class will end with a meal of corned beef and cabbage, pancetta-spiked salad, and good wine. * Portland Meat Collective Instructors: Levi Cole and Camas Davis*
To register for any of these classes, visit the Zenger Farm website.
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The “Eating Animals” Panel that was supposed to occur tomorrow night, has been postponed. It will now occur February 11, 2010. 7pm. Smith Student Union, PSU. Room TBA,
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Attention to all you philisophically-minded carnivores: I’ve been asked to take part in a panel discussion at Portland State University’s Portland Center for Humanities. The theme of the discussion will be “Eating Animals” and I’ll be joined by Kathy Hessler, from the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis and Clark, and Ramona Ilea, a professor of philosophy at Pacific University. We’ll each speak for 15 minutes or so, and then open up the room for discussion and questions. I think it should prove to be a lively event. I plan on bringing in a little of the literary, a little something philosophical, a little something anthropological, as well as my thoughts on how the system of meat production could potentially be transformed by small groups of local, ethical carnivores. No live butchery this time, but the conversation is an important one, and I’m honored to be a part of it.
Date: January 21
Time: 7 pm
Place: Room 298, Smith Memorial Union, Portland State University
Info: If you click on the link I have provided, scroll down a little bit, and click on the image that goes with the “Eating Animals” event.
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Today, yet another story in the local media about the Portland Meat Collective and the Livestock event, which debuts tonight to a sold-out crowd. I’m a little embarrassed that I used the words “hot shit” in my interview. You’d think I’d know, being a journalist and all, that when I say stuff like that it will get quoted. Right.
Check it out:
“Ethical Butchers Do It Better” in the Willamette Week
Also, the PMC website is now under construction, so there isn’t much on it yet, but anyone who wishes to check it out, or sign up for more information can go there: www.pdxmeat.com
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Photo by Malia Wollan, author of "Migration, on Ice: How globalization kills chickens for their parts," in the fourth issue of Meatpaper.
I’m a big fan of Meatpaper, a print magazine dedicated to art and ideas about meat. After a couple of days spent being whooped by some sort of cold-like-flu-like writhing on the couch, sipping broth, and watching bad movies, I figured I should turn my thoughts back to the Portland Meat Collective website and the words I wanted to use to describe the entire endeavor on the site. In a meandering search for relevant words and phrases that might inspire me, I came across this article in an old Meatpaper issue: “Migration, on Ice
How globalization kills chickens for their parts” by Malia Wollan. The story is about “leg quarter countries” versus “whole chicken countries,” some of which is determined by a culture’s taste preferences and cooking traditions, but much of which is determined in large part by economic preferences. Major poultry producers in America–like Tyson–have managed to find a way to get rid of the darker meat that consumers in western European countries and the United States tend not to want by selling the “other” parts to places like Ghana, Cuba, and Iraq. Getting protein to countries in need seems to be the party line of Tyson, but their global dark meat marketing scheme is putting local producers–you know the people raising chickens in the same town that Tyson is importing to–out of business all together. Wollan writes that inside the meat shops she visited in Ghana, Tyson leg quarters, per pound, were being sold for approximately one-sixth the price of Ghana-grown chicken.
“In a country where more than 30 percent of the population lives in poverty,” writes Wollan, “cheap protein is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it provides affordable nutrition. On the other, it eliminates livelihoods.”
Some choice pullquotes:
“A woman eating a salad at a Wendy’s in Maine could be ingesting the breast of the same chicken whose gizzard flavors a chicken stew in Togo and whose thigh is served with borscht in Moscow and whose excess fat will soon go to a ConocoPhillips refinery in Texas to make synthetic diesel fuel.”
“Globalization and the rising demand for animal protein have turned the chicken into the world’s most mobile and abundant migratory bird. This modern migration isn’t one of whole birds, but rather of dismembered parts — wings in one direction, breasts in another.”
“In America, poultry farmers get corn and soybeans for below the cost of production. Here, humans are competing with chickens for corn. How can Ghana possibly compete?”
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An impressive number of people have contacted me wanting to get on the Portland Meat Collective mailing list. For those of you who aren’t on the list, email me at info@pdxmeat.com. Several chefs and butchers have expressed interest in helping to teach classes, including Adam Sappington of Country Cat, Morgan Brownlow and Aaron Silverman of Tails & Trotters, David Padberg of Park Kitchen, and Jason Barwikowski and Elias Cairo of the soon to be opened charcuterie house and restaurant Olympic Provisions.
The local and national media has also expressed a lot of interest in the Portland Meat Collective. Check out Patrick Coleman’s article about Livestock, which also includes information about the PMC. I’ll let ya’ll in on other articles as they are published!
ABOUT PORTLAND MEAT COLLECTIVE
The Portland Meat Collective brings local meat to local people. It’s a network of Portland citizens who want a cost-effective way to buy meat directly from Oregon’s small ranchers. While PMC is modeled after traditional meat CSAs that are popping up around the country, it is also an up-close-and-personal traveling butchery school. Once PMC procures that whole cow, pig, or lamb, members can take part in master butchery and charcuterie classes with Portland meat masters. They’ll get to decide how they want their animal carved up. They’ll wield knives and bags of curing salts. And they’ll learn what to do with all those specialty cuts once they’re at home in the kitchen. PMC brings a dynamic, local, sustainable approach to buying and eating meat straight to the people.
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I really appreciated this story: “Looking Your Bacon in the Eye: Notes on a Slaughtering Class,” by Jack Lahne on Ethicurian.com.
Some choice words:
“It is easier to disavow knowledge of what goes into slaughter, imagining the process as a black box which mysteriously transforms living animals into consumables. The meat industry caters to this kind of thinking. But by preempting this opportunity to understand and empathize with our food animals we are, I believe, lessening ourselves. As humans we have the ability to empathize with other living beings — it’s what makes slaughter so unpleasant for us — and knowing exactly what an animal goes through, both on the farm and in the slaughterhouse, seems an important factor in the decision to eat meat.”
and
“With a public unwilling to acknowledge the living nature of their food source, the meat industry has been free to institute practices that no compassionate person can countenance.”
Worth the read.
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I’m very pleased to announce this really exciting literary butchery event, which I’ll be co-producing alongside Watershed Communications in Portland, Oregon this November:
NEWS RELEASE
Media Contacts:
Watershed Communications
Jackie Zeider / Jackie@watershedcom.com / 503.827.6564
Michael Phillips / Michael@watershedcom.com /503.827.6564
First Ever Livestock To Piggyback On Wordstock
Two New Culinary Events To Spur Sustainable Farm-To-Fork Conversation Through Literary Arts And Live Butchery Demonstrations
Portland, OR (September 23, 2009) – Watershed Culinary Productions, in collaboration with Camas Davis, food writer and founder of the soon-to-be-launched Portland Meat Collective, is pleased to present the first ever Livestock, an urban conversation designed to explore the literary and literal aspects of killing our dinner. Livestock will be held on two consecutive Wednesdays, November 4th and 11th, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Portland. Tickets are $25 each with $10 from every ticket sold going to Friends of Family Farmers, an organization working to promote and protect socially responsible agriculture in Oregon.
“I wanted to produce an educational experience that brought the discussions happening around food safety and animal welfare to life in a thoughtful, and poetic way,” says Lisa Donoughe, executive producer of Watershed Culinary Productions.
At Livestock Cathy Whims of Nostrana and Adam Sappington of Country Cat Dinnerhouse & Bar will respectfully display their butchery craft as ranchers share their bond to the land, and writers present short stories exploring the food politics and emotions embedded in eating meat. Both evenings of Livestock will include a question and answer session where guests are encouraged to actively participate in the greater debate surrounding our food and where it comes from. The evenings will wrap up with a terroir tasting of a flight of beef or pig from three local farms cooked by the evening’s featured chef, with the purpose of showcasing place and encouraging conversation.
Livestock will emulate Wordstock, an annual festival of books, writers, and storytelling in Portland, Oregon. To date Wordstock has hosted over 550 writers, who have read and performed for nearly 55,000 people at past festivals. “One of the literary developments that excites us most is the growing crossover between the experience of food and the experience of writing,” says Greg Netzer, executive director of Wordstock. “We’re thrilled to partner with Livestock to showcase more of this work in Portland, which is lucky enough to enjoy a very rich culture in both.”
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Local writers, chefs, and other artists are encouraged to submit personal essays of no more than 1200 words for consideration as part of the Livestock. Essays can explore anything from the politics of eating (or not eating) meat to the emotional (or unemotional) context of killing (or not killing) your dinner. Submissions might only explore the chop or the rib, or they might go as deep as the tail or the trotter, but metaphor and style will be prized above technicalities and generalities of any sort. Six finalists will be chosen to read their essays at the event. An honorarium will be offered to each author, along with all the charcuterie they can consume in one evening. To submit please contact Camas Davis by October 12th at: camas.davis@gmail.com
Space is limited so please call (503) 827-6564 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. to reserve your place. Pay by Visa, MasterCard, American Express or cash. Sorry no checks.
Livestock 1: The Butchery of a Cow
What: Country Cat Chef Adam Sappington and Sweet Briar Farms, with readings & butchery demonstration. Chef Sappington will prepare three cuts from three different farms, and guests will be invited to compare and contrast flavors.
When: November 4, 2009 from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Where: The International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Portland
34 NW 8th Ave
Portland OR 97209
(503) 228-6528
Cost: Tickets are $25 each. Please call (503) 827-6564 to reserve your seat.
Livestock 2: The Butchery of a Pig
What: Nostrana Chef Cathy Whims and Laughing Stock Farm, with readings & butchery demonstration. Chef Whims will prepare a flight of meat and invite guests to compare and contrast flavors.
When: November 11, 2009 from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Where: The International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Portland
34 NW 8th Ave
Portland OR 97209
(503) 228-6528
Cost: Tickets are $25 each. Please call (503) 827-6564 to reserve your seat.
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ABOUT LIVESTOCK
Livestock was developed by Watershed Culinary Productions as a collaboration with Camas Davis of the Portland Meat Collective (PMC). Sponsors of Livestock 2009 include The Art Institute of Portland, The Country Cat, Nostrana, Laughing Stock Farm, Sweet Briar Farms. Wine will be donated by local wineries.
ABOUT PORTLAND MEAT COLLECTIVE
The Portland Meat Collective brings local meat to local people. It’s a network of Portland citizens who want a cost-effective way to buy meat directly from Oregon’s small ranchers. While PMC is modeled after traditional meat CSAs that are popping up around the country, it is also an up-close-and-personal traveling butchery school. Once PMC procures that whole cow, pig, or lamb, members can take part in master butchery and charcuterie classes with Portland meat masters. They’ll get to decide how they want their animal carved up. They’ll wield knives and bags of curing salts. And they’ll learn what to do with all those specialty cuts once they’re at home in the kitchen. PMC brings a dynamic, local, sustainable approach to buying and eating meat straight to the people.
ABOUT WATERSHED (Formerly LAD communications)
Watershed is a strategic editorial services company specializing in the restaurant, beverage, and hospitality industries. With deep expertise in natural foods, beverages and products, Watershed promotes national brands as well as regional companies with a strong appetite for growth. Watershed’s special expertise is in helping place-based brands (such as farms, ranchers and wineries) take that big leap up to the national scene. Livestock is the autumn event for Watershed Culinary Productions, producers of the Indie Wine Festival.
A package arrived in the mail today. I had sent it to myself from France and it was full of cans of foie gras, and duck pâté, prune liqueur, and rillettes. But during the two weeks I waited for the box to arrive, I most anticipated finally being able to open up the jars of pork pâté that I had made during my last week in France.
Photo by Eugenie Frerichs
As a kind of final test, Kate, Jonathan and I acquired a half pig from the Chapolards for our final days in Gascony. The Chapolards cut it into thirds for us, we loaded the pieces into plastic bags, then into the back of our tiny white car, and headed home. It was cooler that day than it had been for a week or two, but we were still going to be butchering in less-than-ideal conditions (i.e. without temperature regulation) in Kate’s kitchen, so we were all operating under a certain sense of urgency.
While Jonathan worked on the jambon, I set about cutting up the middle third. Without guidance and under pressure to get everything cut up so none of it went bad, I was a little nervous, and while I removed the ribs and the spine without too much trouble, I also shaved a bit too much off of the main roast. I managed to get the little tenderloins out of the carcass still intact and we cooked them up for lunch, placing them between slices of French bread smothered with hot sauce. But since I didn’t have a skin-removing machine, I probably took too much fat off the belly trying to get the skin off with my knife. Actually, I think all the pieces I cut up had a few extra grams of meat from the other parts located next to them: My ribs were all rib and a little coppa. My coppa was missing part of its side. My belly missed its good friend, pig fat.
When it’s said that someone has “butchered” something other than an animal, when the verb is used in figurative terms, it often implies someone has botched something. In the dictionary it means :
1a: a person who slaughters animals or dresses their flesh b : a dealer in meat
2 : one that kills ruthlessly or brutally
3 : one that bungles or botches
None of these definitions sums up the process of butchery. In fact, butchery is an art. Or at least it should be, though watching supermarket meat counter employees use an electric saw to cut your porkchops hardly counts as art. During my last butchery test in France, I was undoubtedly butchering a pig in the roughest sense of the word, but it was the art of butchery that I held as my standard even if it’s going to take me a little more practice to actually master it. My butchery mentors touched knife to flesh with grace and finesse and speed. It was a choreographed, subtle dance between pig and human. Watching a skilled butcher approach a half pig has given me chills and even once brought me to tears (though I don’t think my butchery mentors saw them). I hope such a sight still will as I try to find my way in the butchery world of Portland, Oregon.
After moving our way through the thirds, it was time to start preserving. I cooked up some North Carolina pulled pork so that Kate would have enough jars to provide her with a taste of summer through the winter months. Kate prepared a deliciously sweet and nutty estouffade–a kind of herbaceous French version of American pulled pork–with herbs from her garden. We also slow-cooked several batches of Jambon de Tonneins, hunks of ham that are cooked in an autoclave with vegetables, spices, wine, and black pepper, and then usually sold geléed in glass jars. We salted the belly and let it cure in the fridge and rolled up the skin to be used for stews and roasts later in the year. And we used any scraps of meat I found to make a lot of pâté spiked with leeks, pepper, salt, and a little red wine.
When the jars of pâté finally arrived in the mail, I opened one to share with Chris, who helped make my trip to France possible in so many ways. I took another to Levi Cole’s house, who, along with Robert Reynolds, originally inspired me–whether they know it or not–to learn how to butcher pigs in France. Watching Robert and Levi spread the rough pâté onto crunchy slices of bread brought me great pleasure. It was the perfect way to thank them. And tonight, I will share the last of the pâté with old friends who have been good to me over the years. We might open a jar of foie gras too, and then grill chorizo that I made on Monday with the help of a new mentor and friend–Mary Gehring. For dessert tonight, we’ll raise glasses of sweet and bracing prune liqueur from Gascony, and toast whatever lies next.
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Check out this website: http://goingwholehog.blogspot.com/. It was put together a few years ago, but revived by my lovely friend Kate Hill’s (a la France) and her culinary partner in crime, Judy Witts Francini (a la Italy). They’re putting together a series of classes and events all about the pig both here in the States and in their respective countries. All worth signing up for.
Also, Kate Hill, who made my pig butchery fantasy become reality in France, is in the process of launching her new website and programs (complete with a charcuterie focused apprenticeship program). It’s still under construction, but worth following: www.kitchen-at-camont.com
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