Heartstone Farms & Sourcing Ingredients
This is not so much a recipe post as it is some advice about sourcing meat and poultry. There is no question that prices are through the roof on pretty much everything. Then there are all these warnings about contaminated meat & produce.
As you all know, I participated in a CSA this past summer and it was an adventure preparing foods I otherwise might not have tried. The best part was not being afraid to eat the lettuce because of some kind of contaminant. I of coursed washed everything, but sometimes even washed produce when eaten raw can be dangerous. Now that the CSA has ended, I am a bit edgy about produce from the supermarket.
Where meat and poultry is concerned, I learned of Heartstone Farms here in Charleston, Maine. They are a local farm who offers mail-order meat subscriptions. They offer everything from beef and pork to poultry to some prepared side dishes and desserts. All the products they supply are locally sourced in New England -- except for Alaskan which, DUH, has to come from Alaska. After a little trip around their website, I signed up for the starter box and selected a mix of beef, chicken and pork.
Having been pretty spoiled with D'ameri Acres Farm Market within walking distance to our home in southern Maine, I was excited about sourcing meat that tastes like meat and not all the drugs and hormones industrial farmers use. I describe it as something missing -- that should be missing -- from the flavor. I was not disappointed when I started using what I had purchased from Heartstone.
At my location -- about 35 miles from Bangor, as long as I place an order by Tuesday, it's delivered by FedEx packed in dry-ice on that Friday, and with the subscription, I can set the cadence and change the contents as I like.
Breakfast sausage and and uncured bacon were in my first box. The sausage were delicious with just the right amount of sage and savoriness. The bacon was absolutely stand-out! I had a houseful of guests when my first box arrived and because of that had the opportunity to fry both store-bought (high-end) bacon and the Heartstone bacon -- separate pans of course -- and do a side-by-side tasting. The Heartstone bacon actually tasted like pork and not a salt-lick. With 7 guests visiting that weekend, there were plenty of 'tasters' as we went through literally 5 pounds of breakfast meat. You know who the winner was!
On to lunchy stuff. It's a no-brainer that the 85% ground beef produced delicious grilled burgers, and sheetpan roasted boneless chicken thighs were delicious on sandwiches and in salad.
Heartstone offers an 'Ancestral' blend ground beef that is 90% beef with
5% each of heart and liver offering a 'nutritional boost without compromising the beef flavor'. I used that for a meatloaf. The flavor was a bit strong for me; I'm glad I didn't use it for burgers, but for meatloaf and I assume meatballs that are typically highly seasoned, it is a great way to get that nutrition boost.
The sweet Italian sausage went into a couple of recipes. I made what I'm calling a CSA potato soup and added some of the bacon and cooked sweet Italian to give the soup a protein boost. I also used thinly sliced sausage coins on a hot honey focaccia, and finally some chunks in a risotto variation experiment. (the recipes coming soon). We also grilled a sirloin tip steak that was the perfect size for the two of us and the quality was beyond exceptional.
Full disclosure here; the links I've included for Heartstone will not only get you to their site, but offer a $30 coupon from me. Don't worry, if you order, I get a coupon too! It's been really nice not to have to pick through the offerings at the supermarket and wonder where they come from, and when push comes to shove, while Heartstone
is a bit pricier, it's not a ton difference and beyond worth the quality and supporting local farmers.
Now if I could just find an indoor produce farm to help me avoid that aisle in the supermarket.
