Page 87 - Winter2017

morning preparing our tender grass-fed beef chuckrolls, slicing them as staff and even though everything is a serious,
we arrived, the glistening pink slices of meat rolling off his knife as we somber affair, it was clear to all of us that these
sat down to eat, sharing our stories and enjoying the cornucopia of local people approach their career as a sacred task.
squashes, colorful potatoes, caramelized onions and other vegetables Obviously, it is a task that certainly not everyone
from the garden. We broke the sourdough bread and slathered it with could or would do, but they were clearly aware
great gobs of raw farm butter. that they were serving others by the beauty of
The crystal-clear fall day was warming up now and the sun streaming their work.
in the large windows of the restaurant brought us cheer. During lunch, We circled back to Minneapolis as the early
our chef told us how he had become inspired by the WAPF’s uncanny November darkness was falling. Just a mile or
ability to fill the hotel kitchen with over a semi-truck load of fresh local two from our hotel, we continued our explora-
farm food, letting our own specialists invade the kitchen for a few days, tion of the final but equally essential aspect of
working hand-in-hand to prepare all this stunningly healthy food. the farm-to-table movement: the distribution
We also heard from the man who grows free-range turkeys just and direct sales in the cities. We were at The
outside Cannon Falls, over one hundred sixty thousand a year and what Uptown Locavore, an indoor farmers market,
that is like, how different from factory farms. We were then able to visit open year-round, where the farmer doesn’t need
the turkey farm, knowing that it would be virtually turkey-less given our to be present. This private buying club, not open
tour was one week before Thanksgiving. Luckily for us, though, Ferndale to the public, springing from the Minneapolis
Farms has one of the finest local farm stores in Minnesota where we were WAPF chapter, designed and protected by the
able to shop, snoop and sample. Smoked turkey anyone? Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, and
Only a couple of miles away we found ourselves doing something operating fully on the honor system, makes
most people, carnivores included, have never done, and that perhaps some available to its several hundred member families
would not care to do: we visited Lorentz Meat Plant, a USDA slaughter raw milk from cows, goats and sheep; grass-fed
plant, which was in full operation. Rated the most humane slaughter and pastured beef, goat, sheep, chicken, duck,
plant in the U.S., this is the same plant that Michael Pollan described in turkey and eggs; vegetables; a full range of dairy
The Omnivore’s Dilemma as “the glass abattoir.” The fully-windowed products; as well as farm-made products such
viewing observatory straddles the kill floor on one side and is where the as kombucha, fermented krauts, jams, jellies,
highest-ranking and most-respected meat cutters in the plant were killing and much more. We were able to savor our day
bison. On the other side is the fabrication room, where men and women, over local wines and beers, along with raw ice
swaddled in layers of hoodies, long johns and jackets, working all day cream and desserts. And, so, alas, we bid each
at a brisk thirty-five degrees, were cutting, grinding and wrapping meat other au revoir, for another year, another fine
for Thousand Hills Cattle Company. We were able to meet many of the time, and to all a good night.

WAPFers mob Will Wuinter’s Uptown
Paul Reese, of Honeymoon Creamery, Locavore market, an indoor,
showing his grass-fed dairy herd year-round farmers market
to the WAPF farm tour. and private buying club.

Outstanding beef producer, Jon
Luhman, standing in his field.

WINTER 2017 Wise Traditions 87