What's it like to "grocery shop" at a 4-H auction?

The Fallon 4-H kids will be auctioning off the animals they've raised soon, so it's a good time to buy beef, pork, or goat meat. Our family cowpools so I know about buying and storing in bulk, but our farmer takes care of everything for us; we just take delivery of the boxes and put the meat in the freezer. So I need to know: How does the animal get from auction yard to the freezer? How would a buyer know if the meat is pasture or grain fed, organic or conventionally raised? Who does the driving?

First thing, talk to the farmer, or in this case, the 4-H'er. They'll be able to tell you all about their animal and will be available all day Friday and Saturday up until auction time. When you find one raised according to your values, for example, grass versus grain fed, conventional or organic, bid on it. Next question...

Grow For Me personal farmer program - an expanded CSA

General local food knowledge says that if everyone purchased as little as 10% of their food from local farmers communities could nurture and maintain small farms in their region and farmers could stay on the farm rather than work two or three jobs. It takes remarkably little effort to eat 10% in Nevada during “the season”, especially if the family diet is vegetarian. Each year it gets easier as more new or established farmers offer CSAs. For those looking to get even more variety in their CSA, here’s a great new program.

Introducing the Grow For Me Personal Farmer program. This is a one-stop-shop (mostly), sustainable, chemical-free CSA that will include veggies, fruit, eggs, meat (beef, chicken, lamb, and pork), and milk! For a few hundred bucks a month, depending on the payment plan a family chooses, it is possible to eat way more than 10%. Bonus, going “grocery shopping” could be a visit to the farm where kids (or you!) can see where food really comes from and only 20 miles or so from Reno and Sparks. Gotta love that!

There are other benefits as well, too numerous to go into here so check out the Grow For Me website.

Supper in the Barn

Gary & Kim Romano of Sierra Valley Farms, and Mark Estees of Moody’s have put together a series of dinners called Supper in the Barn. The meals are prepared and served by Moody’s and served in the Romano barn. They've held a couple of them already, which they report have been really successful. We thought so too!


We drove out to the farm Sunday night for the special Slow Food dinner, where we ate a fantastic meal with good wine and good company, toured the farm, and learned the Romano-farm story. Did you know that Sierra Valley Farms holds the only on-the-farm farmer’s market in California? And, each week different local chefs hold demonstrations right there in the market. Checkout the LFNN calendar for dates.

The Romano family and Mark are among a growing number of people who are developing mutually beneficial restaurant/grower relationships that result in local, earth-friendly, and delicious food for those who seek them out. For example Romano’s are transitioning some of their 65 acres to crops their customers are asking for, some that are in line with the permaculture principle like perennial asparagus and strawberries (both organic). And they’re growing wasabe! Mark is working with a local farmer who will raise pigs for the pork dishes you’ll find at Moody’s later on in the year.

If you're looking for a way to spend a really great afternoon, eating great food in an unusual and beautiful spot with the people who grow and cook your food, I highly recommend Supper in the Barn.

Wolf Pack Meats

UNR sells meat! Who knew!? Diversity is the key to a sustainable local food system so anyone who produces locally raised food should get some attention, right? But universities engage in research and that makes me nervous when it comes to my dinner, so last week I called Mike Holcomb of Wolf Pack Meats to ask him about my concerns and some of my hopes.

Wolf Pack Meats website will answer many questions so I’ll blog only about those of particular interest to me and my friends and family.

Who makes the processed meats, for example, sausage? UNR livestock is used to produce things like sausage, ham and smoked bacon on-site. Mike is very involved in this area of production. Wolf Pack Meats also sells smoked turkeys. The turkeys are not local, but the smoking is.

Does Wolf Pack Meats sell any milk produced at the facility? No, and Mike does not personally know of anyone in Nevada who sells dairy. That’s scary! No Nevada cheese for us.

Does the livestock receive hormones or antibiotics? Wolf Pack Meats does not administer additional hormones or antibiotics.

Is the beef grass-fed or grass-finished? It is grass-finished.

What kind of research are these animals involved in? The animals sold for human consumption are used for agricultural research and education only. UNR agricultural staff and students engage in research activities that affect animal growth. They experiment with the everyday living conditions of the animals, for example, beef is fed a certain type of grass for a certain amount of time, and then they observe the results. According to Mike, no products sold through Wolf Pack have been involved in anything like GMO or science-lab-type research. Whew!

In my view, this type of agricultural program is very valuable to those of us who live in the Truckee Meadows and Northern Nevada. Why? Because if Nevada is going to continue to develop and sustain a strong local food system we need more future farmers and ranchers, and UNR educates future farmers. Mike tells me that during the summer there are about 20-25 young people at the facility, learning about food production. These students could play a significant part in Nevada’s food future.