Meat Seeking Minivan

We're still on the search for good meat.

We've been trying out different grocery stores. Right down the street from our house is Macey's, which is a sort of family-oriented, stack 'em high sell 'em cheap kind of place. Good selection. Awesome south-of-the-border aisle.

We don't eat much meat, and IMHO, meat should be a little scarcer and a lot better than it is. Good meat costs more. That's OK. We roast whole chickens and eat ground bison, and try to hook up with some happy-face-pig bacon, salted, but uncured (nitrites are something I'd generally prefer to do without). Right now, there is some kind of national bison craze, so what used to be $5 or $6 a pound for ground bison is now as high as $11. It's good, but not that good. I'd rather eat 5 pounds of tofu for that much. I'll sprinkle bison-flavor-flakes on it.

We've been to Winco, Fresh Market (which I think is Albertson's in Utah) and now Harmon's. Harmon's has bison, and if you ask the guys at the meat counter, they can go in the back and get you sliced pork side meat - which is uncured bacon. It is meat of uncertain origin, which is generally sad factory pigs. I bought it anyway.

Other than that, Harmon's is just overpriced for no particular reason, and doesn't really make up for it in selection or service. It is an indistinguishably decent grocery store - though they do have samples, which is good. The employees offering the samples either have a terrifying foreman (like that angry elf with the goatee in the Rudolph stop-action holiday show) or they get some awesome commission on jam and crab salad, because they will cheerfully and relentlessly chase you ten or twenty feet insisting on all the reasons you need to buy the thing you just nibbled RIGHT NOW.

We're going back to Macey's. I have a pound-and-a-half of side meat to last until I can locate a happy-pig farm. Then we can get a shoat for side meat.

We tried to locate some loose leaf tea today, also. We're off to the Fermentation Station to get some.

UPDATE: We found some commercially-available ground bison and nitrite-free bacon at Smith's on Harrison.

The Hippie Food Saga

Before coming to Ogden, we lived in the Champlain Valley of New York State, where we were spoiled by CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture farms) and locally raised meat (shout out to DaCy Meadow and Ben Weaver!) The down side of the area was the general remoteness to everything else you might need in the way of healthy groceries, fresh produce in the off-season, bulk Earl Grey tea and whatnot.

We might travel to Middlebury, Vermont, which had its very posh co-op, which is sort of a member of the now-nationally-recognizable successful co-op trope, with the open HVAC ducts, the earth-tone accents on the architecture, and a penchant for gourmet items. It was an hour away, and the roads weren't the best, even in summer.

I just read that Utah is the most urban of all the western states, with 85% of its population living in urban areas. 80% of the total population lives along the Wasatch Front, stretching from the southern burbs of Salt Lake City to the northern reaches of Ogden and North Ogden and North North Ogden. Past that, there is a mysterious land called the Cache Valley which apparently has some great farms, but I haven't made it up there yet.

I figured with a million or so people living along the 100 mile stretch of Interstate 15 between Provo and Brigham City, one might find a decent co-op for the outdoorsy-hippie-collegey types, but so far efforts have only turned up this disappointment.

On the upside, Ogden has a store called Good Earth Natural Market on Riverdale that scratches some of those itches, and, of course, there is a Whole Foods in Salt Lake City (which probably muscles out the co-op opportunities). We also found Cali's Natural Food Warehouse - which has its own unique brand of awesomeness, but be prepared that it is not like a typical grocery-store experience. It's really pretty much a small warehouse. The woman at the register the day we went was wonderful and helpful, and they have some cool stuff in there.

Unfortunately, we were on the prowl for some grass-fed-living-large-well-loved-died-of-mild-surprise beef, poultry, or bison - which have proved elusive...though I got a hot tip from the Paradise Valley Orchard that the mythical Cache Valley has a farm which might satisfy our meaty desires...