Raw Animal Foods Workshop in Burlington, Vermont (USA)

[Projectile Vomit]

The Burlington Weston A. Price Chapter invited me to offer a ~30 minute workshop on including raw animal foods in our diets. Details are below, for those who live near that area.


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Please join us at the Second Sunday gathering of the Burlington chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation:

Sunday, November 10th
3:30-5 p.m.
Fletcher Free Library

3:30-4 p.m - Exploring Raw Animal Foods as Part of a Healthy Diet
Join local chapter member and dedicated raw foodist Eric Garza for a short workshop on the benefits associated with eating raw animal foods, including muscle meats, fat and organs. Eric will bring some 100% grass-fed meat, organs and fat to offer those in attendance a sampling of the variety of tastes and textures available from raw animal foods. 

4-4:30 p.m. - Traditional Foods Tasting and Recipe Swap!
Instead of a traditional foods swap like we had talked about at previous meetings, I thought - let's keep this simple and do a traditional foods TASTING and simply swap the recipes/instructions! (it can be as simple as a link or a cookbook reference, or you can bring photocopies). That way, we can spend the time being curious about other people's kitchen practices and taste and ask questions, and not slave over making 12 of something to bring in! Got it? So if you want to participate, come with a traditional food you made in YOUR kitchen that you're willing to sample out and tell us how you made it! I will supply paper plates, napkins, and small cups/bowls for sampling.

4:30-5 p.m. - Looking for Members to Lead the Chapter!
I am becoming too busy to continue as the chapter leader at present, and would like to see a person or ideally a group of persons take on the responsibilities for the chapter leadership so I can step back. Are you interested in taking on a greater role in the Burlington chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation? Come to this meeting and talk about the future!

Hope to see you there!
Caroline

[TylerDurden]

Thanks. This is the sort of thing that members could do on their own. Admittedly, WAPF chapters are not that frequent outside the US. I hope you will focus on matters like heat-created toxins such as AGEs, PAHs, nitrosamines and HCAs.  Also a wide variety of raw animal foods from raw wildcaught shellfish/fish to raw wild deer marrow  etc. would be enticing.

[Projectile Vomit]

I will talk about the heat created toxins briefly, although I'll spend most of my time talking about the different foods I bring. Right now I'm planning on bringing some lamb and beef muscle meats, as well as lamb liver, lamb heart and, if I feel daring, maybe testicle. As far as fat goes, I'll bring beef suet and some beef bone marrow. I personally don't eat much in the way of seafoods and they aren't available locally harvested here, so I don't intend to bring any.

[PaleoPhil]

Cool, I'll try to make it, thanks, Eric.

"cookbook reference"? ;-)

I hear you on the seafoods. Vermont is not exactly a seafood state.

The Weston Price people and Shelburne Farms seem to be the only organizations in the state talking about and offering samples of raw meats (aside from gourmet restaurants). They had some at the Vermont Traditional Foods and Health Symposium we went to also, as you probably noticed.

[Ioanna]

wow, i love this!  it gives me something to point to, for family and friends, as i 'come out of the closet' slowwwwllllyyyy  

[Projectile Vomit]

I did this workshop yesterday afternoon. Attendance was a bit lower at the meeting than normal, but there were a number of people who emailed me or the organizer ahead of time letting us know they wanted to attend but couldn't for various reasons. I failed to realize that the International Weston A. Price Foundation Convention was held this same weekend, so a couple of our local chapter members were there and so had to miss my workshop. At any rate, we had a good discussion about the risks and benefits of eating raw animal foods, and I passed around samples of raw grass fed heart, liver, suet, marrow and flank steak. I also brought some fermented vegetables with lots of ginger as a palate cleanser between tastings, and Caroline, the local chapter's organizer, brought some of her fermented fruit beverages. Overall it went very well, and I'll probably offer another similar workshop at some point in the future, perhaps early next year. If there's interest, I might also offer a workshop on 'high' meat.

[PaleoPhil]

It was nicely done, Eric, and your Hardwick suet was definitely not chalky in the slightest. It was interestingly soft and buttery and melted in my mouth like you said. You mentioned that you bought it early in the summer, I think? I've noticed that Kerrygold butter, which they call a "summer butter," is also softer than ordinary butter. They claim it's due to the grass being at its lushest in Ireland in the summer and as a consequence producing a higher ratio of monounsaturated fats to saturated fats.

I still had some leftover of the chalky suet I mentioned. It is the only very chalky suet I've had. It was indeed the Laplatte farm suet (which you explained was grain-finished, and I had expected as much when I bought it, because it wasn't labeled as 100% grassfed, but it was so cheap and it looked reasonably good--I suspect because they chopped off the bad bits--and it's the only suet I've ever seen sold at City Market when I've been there, I thought at the time I'd give it a try--it's so bad it has just been sitting in my freezer ever since). Good call. You have a wealth of knowledge and experience.

[Projectile Vomit]

I've seen a few different brands of suet at City Market, although I admittedly visit the coop fairly often. You might talk to someone in the meat department to see if they would special order suet from Hardwick or North Country Farms for you? In the past when I've put in special orders they've usually been able to fill them. I don't touch anything from LaPlatte, so yeah unless you have a non-food use for their nasty suet I'd probably toss it in the compost bucket.

I got a call from someone I met at a local WAPF chapter meeting a couple months ago early this morning inviting me to come to her farm. They were slaughtering three steer, and she said if I offered a hand she'd let me take whatever I wanted from the gut pile. I got the spleens from all three animals, as well as their testicles, one lung, one full liver, all of the kidneys and some suet. I'll process everything tomorrow (I somehow managed to fit it all in my refrigerator). They'll slaughter three more steer next Tuesday, so I'll probably go back again and take advantage of the same deal. Their cattle are 100% grass fed and have never seen grain in their entire lives, and their pastures are really nice.

They don't sell commercially, just raise 6-10 steer each year for themselves, friends and family. I've come to believe that the best quality food isn't available commercially.