A friend of mine from grad school shared a link on Facebook to her sister’s business – “The Burger Bus”, which is a local, grass-fed burger business on wheels. I love the linked video, where Cheryl describes her business in terms of “locals selling local food”. The burgers also look absolutely delicious (I’m going to try making my own CBJ – Cheeseburger and Jelly – asap). I thought this might spur some local entrepreneurs to open a mobile restaurant of their own — I just happened to know a good supplier of local, grass-fed ground beef. And if you’re in Santa Barbara, by all means, head over to their web site (http://www.theburgerbus.com) and find out where they’re going to be for lunch tomorrow!

The Burger Bus experience:http://vendr.tv/video/burger-bus/

One of the keys to this movement is finding ways to get more people connected with farms and their food, so it is inspirational to see businesses like this spring up to help make that happen. There are only a certain number of people that are going to go out of their way to find local foods… how many of those Burger Bus customers were going to make the effort to go to a farm or even a farmer’s market to buy their food?

Last Sunday, we had a big birthday party here at the house for our oldest daughter.  It was a great chance for us to get together with a bunch of families we really like, and definitely provided as much fun for the grownups (about 10) as for the kids (about 20).  But, as we finished setting up the buffet line, I realized that our spread of lunch food was not really all that healthy–and that we were about to serve it to some of the people most supportive of and inspiring to us in raising what?…healthy food!

I thought “Ugh!  How inconsistent!  I guess I’m showing my true colors here.  I mean, what am I looking forward to the most from this feast?  Sliced tomatoes? Nope, I want the cool-whip-marshmallow frosting and chocolate cake!”  I was a little embarrassed as all the kids ran out back and lunged for the red Gatorade and Yoo-Hoo (though someone else brought that, so I can’t be held responsible).

But, pretty soon it occurred to me that we are doing this whole “natural and sustainable” thing gradually and taking much joy in it, and that we will have a million more opportunities to learn to throw a party without compromising on the quality of the food we celebrate with.  Next time I’ll remember that happy children will run around in the yard like a bunch of puppies having the time of their lives even if there are no sugary drinks.  And next time, I’ll plan ahead to make it pot-luck so we don’t end up needing to rely on so many handy-dandy processed foods to feed a crowd.

Gradually, Chris and I are learning to do things differently from the way we were raised.  This whole sustainability thing doesn’t happen overnight for anyone, and there is always more that we could do.  But rather than dwelling on the fact that we served corn chips that were most likely GMO corn at our party, we’ll continue down the path of “adding in” new stuff that we think is really great, like home-cured bacon, sweet-potato pie, and bulk quantities of wheat (from the Greens) as soon as we get a flour grinder.

I generally like the idea of helping a small business, and these two guys definitely seemed to constitute “small”.  Since I already have a freezer full of chicken and pork, I decided to take a look at their beef.  So they pulled out a box of beef and told me that “this is the same stuff they sell at places like Chili’s or Applebee’s”.  So they had some 6 oz bacon-wrapped filets, 10 oz new york strips, and a whole lot of 4 oz hamburger “steaks”.  They shot me a price, and my first question was how much per pound.  They only wanted to talk about price per steak, but that’s not how I think about price on meat.  I want to be able to compare the price to what I’d pay in the grocery store.  The fact that they weren’t willing to facilitate that head-to-head conversation really turned me off and made me doubt any other claims about their products.

I think it is critical that those of us in the slow/transparent/local/organic+ food movement need to be really careful about this same thing.  My goal is to help my customers understand exactly what they’d be paying at the grocery store for the same cuts of meat that they are buying from me.  If I happen to be more expensive than they expected for “farm direct prices” (some expect it to be 1/3 of the grocery store!), then I’ll try and win them over on value, rather than by talking about the price per pound of live animal or the hanging weight price, or on a “per steak” basis.  Those tactics are just avoiding the issue, and for many people (myself included), avoiding the direct comparison just makes the seller out to be a huckster.

Join us as we share the adventures of two intrepid young (beginning) farmers and families on a mission to produce healthy food and care for our animals in the spirit of humble St. Francis.