You know how it goes. The cobbler’s kids have no shoes. The mechanic’s car never runs. And the beef producer never has any steaks. I haven’t had my favorite steak, the ribeye, in months. We sell out so fast that I never get to grab one for myself. I’ve ordered a ribeye here and there at a restaurant to try and at least say I’ve had one but those steaks don’t taste very good to me. They are either flat with no taste, or they have an off taste. I’m spoiled, I know.
Friday first thing I called the processor to make sure I was not showing up too early to pick up our cows. I’m on the schedule and they’d hoped everything would be ready Thursday but for sure on Friday.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Dan from Ninja Cow Farm, just wanted to check and see what time I should be there today to get my beef.”
“You wanted to come today?!”
Oh poo. I had folks stacked up waiting on beef to show up and the processor had somehow gotten mixed up and thought I was coming on Saturday. I explained what people with pitchforks and torches at your door looked like, and that I’d give them all the processor’s address. They said they’d see what they could do, to call back at lunch. Now these guys do a great job and always meet their promises. They also took an extra cow for me this last time so I’m not complaining but I spent the day doing errands, meeting people, and picturing an angry mob burning their farmer in effigy at my door. At 1pm I called and asked again.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Dan again. Just checking on an update. Can I get my meat today?”
“I moved you to the front of the line. We’re working on it now.”
Oh thank God!
“Um, ok, so what time should I be there?”
“We close at 4:30. Be here at 4. ”
They are an hour away. It takes an hour to load, at best. I have to hand load every single piece of meat, and organize it so it’s easy to put away. I’d planned on being there at 8am, now I’ll be getting back to the farm, with 1200 pounds of beef that needs to be put away, at 7pm. And I had no family around so it was just me for dinner. I’d planned on going out to grab a bite to eat but on the ride back I had a thought and I said to myself.
“Self, you have 1200 pounds of beef back there and it’s not frozen. Surely we could spare one ribeye out of all that meat.”
When I arrived, I left the truck with the cooler on to keep everything cold and safe overnight and went straight to the house and into the kitchen.
I made sure to grab a steak from #42 as he’d been pretty crazy and if any steak was going to be off, it would be him. The first bite is always scary because what if I’ve done something wrong. What if the cow didn’t eat right, or was sick and I didn’t know it. What if the processor messed something up? There is two years of work in that first bite and you don’t know till it is on the plate.
The result? I was so busy drooling all over myself that I didn’t think to take a picture for this update till half way through. Rest assured, crazy tastes AWESOME!
It was all quality control. You need to check each cow for quality control, specifically a ribeye from each cow just to make certain you are giving your customers the very best.
You’re right Joelle. Sometimes you just have to take one for the team! I should suffer for all of your benefit. 🙂