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A Conversation with Del Holzer of Meyer Natural Angus

When I sat down at Maxwell & Dunne’s to interview executive chef Chris Palmer about steaks, all he wanted to talk about was his recent trip to a cattle ranch in Montana. Located in the Blackfoot Valley of western Montana, the Meyer Ranch sits on 43,000 acres of western beauty, and was where the company’s start in raising Angus cattle began. The protocol owner Robert Meyer started—and continues today, with more than 200 cattle ranchers—is now the standard for raising all-natural beef. After eating a porterhouse of Meyer’s Angus with chef Chris at Maxwell & Dunne’s, I had to find out why this meat made for some of the tastiest steak I have ever had. I called Meyer’s to ask some questions and encountered Del Holzer, upon his return from the ranch:

Del, why are your steaks better than the rest?

We originally set out to consistently provide the best-tasting beef. A simple statement that is complicated by the word “consistently.” Many beef programs produced in a traditional commodity beef environment search for high-quality beef and therefore it is a byproduct of the process and not the driving direction. They will, on occasion, provide a very good eating experience. In the foodservice business, “occasionally” is not preferred. Chefs have been asking for years, “Why can’t I get the same steak every time and why can’t it be a great eating experience?” We heard the chef and have been working to address that need.

What do you do differently on the ranch, then?

We use a much different approach than our huge contemporaries use to provide high quality beef. We do not hope to find quality in the beef plant. We bring the quality in the door. We are convinced that the only way to consistently deliver incredible beef is to invest and manage before the processing plant. We must control what happens to the animal from birth to plate to be certain the quality and consistency the chef demands will always be there. That is clearly the only way to do it.

What kind of cattle do you raise?

Only Angus cattle—real Angus cattle. Our competitors determine Angus simply if the animal’s hide is 51% black. We must have documentation of the Angus breed. This is a huge difference!

What should the canvas reader look for when they go steak shopping?

No hormones, no antibiotics at anytime. The added water weight (which runs out when cooked) and scientifically documented impact on tenderness (all suppliers of the products clearly state that tougher beef will be a result of using growth stimulants) are clearly not going to provide a better eating experience and, quite frankly, are not needed. They should also look for cattle fed on a vegetarian diet. That means no animal-based feeds are allowed at any time. It just makes sense.

What about labeling? How can you tell the animals are treated conscientiously?

You want meat that is Certified Humane. We are the only natural angus company you will find that has the commitment to be involved with a 3rd party to provide transparency to our process (unheard of), guidelines to follow, and ongoing audits to our execution of the plan. We have already proven since being Certified Humane since 2002 that our commitment to humane treatment of the animals has a big impact on consistency and overall quality. It just makes good business sense and is good ol’ common sense at the same time.

• Learn more about the humane process at certifiedhumane.org
• Learn more about Meyers at meyernaturalangus.com
• Eat their steaks at Maxwell & Dunne’s, mdsteakhouse.com

—Chris O’Hara, canvas Tasting Notes columnist

Writing this month’s canvas articles really opened my eyes. Last month, I was taking my old motorboat out for its initial run, after putting it on the mooring in Cold Spring Harbor. With more than 25 years under her belt, the Krusty Krab still plies the local waters confidently, and I was glad to see that everything was running well. I took a run up to the Sand Hole in Lloyd Neck, and noticed some baymen working the mud flats for clams at low tide. It seemed like—if you didn’t have to do it every day for a living—clamming could be a lot of fun. That inspired me to write July’s “Tasting Notes” column about one of my favorite dishes: linguine with white clam sauce, which my wife happens to specialize in. I figured, I would drink a few beers and see how many local clams I could bring home for Jen to cook.

While I was out there, I asked my fellow clammers about techniques and where to hunt them, and was surprised to discover that clamming—and shellfishing in general—was a dying industry on Long Island. I had heard of the brown tides and trouble with the local lobster harvests, but I had simply assumed—what with the “Oyster Festival” and a lengthy Long Island history of shellfishing—that the Island was still a major producer of clams, scallops, and oysters. I discovered that I couldn’t be more wrong.

I started to look into the situation further, and ended up talking with the head of the New York Seafood Council, Roger Tollefsen. He explained that Long Island, which once was the leading exporter of bay scallops, has been comparatively bereft of shellfish for the past quarter-century. I was surprised to learn that the harvests are so small, that New York no longer exports its shellfish. With the massive local focus on the environment—especially around Peconic Bay, which has become one of the world’s most pristine estuary systems—I had imagined Long Island would be teeming with seafood. I couldn’t be more wrong. Roger explained that the problem was that Peconic Bay had become too clean.

I wondered if it was really possible for an ecosystem to be too clean? Roger’s take on the situation was highly compelling. Basically, he argues that by taking out all of the pollution out of Peconic Bay, the scallops and clams have nothing left to eat.The science seems to bear out the argument. So, I guess we are stuck with a very pristine Bay, but decimated seafood industry. As someone who loves the environment and shellfish, it makes for a tough choice. Like the proverbial beat of the butterfly’s wing, everything we do in a closed system affects everything else. In the Peconic Bay, taking all of the nitrogen out of the water makes it very difficult for shellfish to spawn and grow naturally.

I don’t know whether or not adding more waste into the bay and bringing back the shellfish is the right thing to do, but it’s going to require a lot of thought and hard choices. The solutions that are correct for other estuary systems may not be right for ours. As a writer for the leading magazine on Long Island covering sustainability, it would be easy to simply present The Nature Conservancy’s stance, which is the politically correct viewpoint. I think it is more interesting to see how real people are affected by environmental policies, and learn more.

I don’t know if putting more waste into our bays to promote shellfish is the right thing to do, but I know that a Long Island without a decent oyster is just wrong. Food for thought.

By Chris O’Hara, canvas Tasting Notes columnist

With an 8 year old son and a 6 year old daughter, my wife and I were a little bit rusty when little Mia came last September. After not seeing a diaper for four years, getting used to having a baby in the house again took some getting used to. Luckily, Mia went easy on us. In many ways, muscle memory takes over. Making bottles, changing diapers, and burping babies seem to be skills akin to riding a bike; once learned, they aren’t easily forgotten.

But, how much different is the baby landscape today than it was 6 years ago? Well, Sesame Street is still on, and Alan, Maria, and the gang don’t look too much older. Baby Formula and diapers are still outrageously expensive. The “bouncie seats,” “excersaucers,” and play pens seem a bit fancier, but relatively the same. Except the food. Back when my other kids were babies, you seemed to have a choice between making your own baby food, and spooning from a gar of Gerber’s. Any parent worth their salt has sampled most of the jarred flavors, and I know of few parents that are dying for another spoonful of jarred “Mac and Beef” or “Chicken with Vegetables” after they’ve temperature-tested the first one.

Imagine my surprise, then, when my wife exclaimed, “yum!” after sampling a spoonful of baby food. The sample in question was Tasty Baby’s Corn in the USA. Jen took another spoonful and insisted that I try some myself. The pureed corn was so unbelievably fresh—and smelled so good—that I couldn’t believe this was actually baby food. I tasted several spoonfuls and pronounced it fit for Mia’s consumption. Welcome to the new age in baby food: where fresh-frozen, really tasty 100% organic meals come right out of your freezer, rather than the pantry. With the assistance of my very hungry 8 month old daughter Mia, Canvas put three of today’s popular frozen baby food brands to the test. Here are the results.

HappyBaby

Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, HappyBaby is one of the more popular fresh-frozen organic baby foods on the market, and widely available through Babies R Us, Fresh Direct, and many local markets. Packages come with two flavors to serve together. Mia tried Smarter Squash and Wiser Apple and also sampled the Super Salmon and Regular Prunes and the Grreat Greens and Easy Going Greens. Everything with the exception of the salmon was enjoyed heartily—and gobbled down.

When taken out of the package, the food comes in a plastic ice-cube tray, with individual portions that can be divided to customize the meal. For Mia, who has an unusually large appetite, 3 cubes of greens and 3 of apples made for a hearty meal. Having the portions relatively small means being able to introduce a lot of variety in a single meal also. One drawback was that the cubes are not individually marked, so (unless you write on them), it is not easy to distinguish a cube of, say, Super Salmon from Smarter Squash.

HappyBaby was founded by Shazi VisramI, a Mom who wanted better prepared choices for her baby. According to Shazi, “I dedicated myself to offering parents an alternative to processed jarred foods once I became aware of the lack of nutritious store-bought options for baby foods and the desire of so many moms to make their own foods though they simply don’t have the time. Feeding baby the best variety of fresh whole foods truly impacts the eating habits and taste profiles that stay with your child for life, yet the norm since the 1930’s has been a jar of food that can sit on a shelf for three years! Along with Dr Sears, our belief is that the purity of organics and the freshness in taste, texture and color are extremely important in growing a healthy eater.”

Mia couldn’t agree more! (We understand that HappyBites toddler meals, with “hidden veggies in every bite” are coming to Whole Foods soon, so parents of older kids may want to look out for that).

Plum Organics

Started by Gigi Chang (whose current title is “Founder and Mom of Cato”), we found Plum Organics in Whole Foods. Gig talked to Canvas about the company and where it’s going: “Seeing my son when he was 9 months old so engaged in eating and the joy he had for mealtime was what led me to start Plum Organics. Even though he is 4 now, he is still my inspiration-every day. After starting Plum Organics, I have learned so much about the impact our actions make on our environment. As a company, we are proud to be the only baby food partner of Healthy Child Healthy World and strive to minimize our carbon footprint. For example, our new Kids line uses a biodegradable tray that is the first of its kind. We are also using a paperboard that is 100% carbon neutral because of the materials it uses and the energy used to produce it. Packaging is one of the most wasteful parts of a food product so I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to do to make our packaging better.”

Sounds good, but what did Mia think? Mia sampled a large variety of Plum Organics, trying offerings ranging from the simple (“super greens” and “pears and apples”) to the more robust (“chicken whole grain pasta” and “red lentil veggie”). Like me, Mia enjoyed the basics, like the greens and fruit, was slightly more resistant to some of the healthier fare, like the lentils. That being said, the meals kept disappearing into her tiny belly. Packaged in small plastic bowls, the Plum Organics meals are very easy to defrost (keep in the fridge overnight, or a quick blast in the microwave), and the portions are well-sized.

TastyBaby

Unless you are from Los Angeles, you probably haven’t head of TastyBaby, but this brand of frozen organic baby food was started by Liane Weintraub, a former New Yorker, and Shannan Swanson, who has strong roots in the world of frozen food (yes, that Swanson). Anyway, the name really does say it all: they make one heck of a tasty baby food. Mia has been devouring Bangos (Mango banana puree), Sweetie Pie (a sweet potato, apple, and cinnamon mix), and Corn in the USA like it’s going to be outlawed tomorrow.

The food is honestly so fresh and delicious that TastyBaby offers adult recipes. I tried the Life’s a Peach bellini recipe and found the cold, pureed peaches the ultimate accompaniment to soarkling wine. I also found myself sharing Mia’s Corn in the USA. If Mia has a favorite of all the brands, it was probably TastyBaby’s Bangos.

Although available via Boxed Greens, the excellent organic online store, TastyBaby is coming to the Food Emporium in Manhattan—and will hopefully be in Whole Foods soon.

By Chris O’Hara

Although my wife Jennifer and I have been trying to get “greener” around the kitchen over the past few years (using the smaller, energy efficient drawer-style dishwasher more; recycling more; using CFLs instead of conventional light bulbs, etc), we weren’t 100% ready to commit to green cleaning products. For my recent canvas article, we put a variety of cleaning products to the test to see whether ammonia and bleach-free cleaning products would get the job done. For them to pass the “Jen test” they would have to be pretty tough.

I found a bunch of products I liked, but two that really stood out:

• Simple Green: They say that necessity is the mother of invention. In 1978, long before “green” products were on anyone’s radar, a man named FaBrizio was trying to figure out how to remove tannin from coffee roasting machines without using toxic chemicals. After three years, he came up with a biodegradable, nontoxic, non-abrasive solution he called Simple Green. He began to sell the product in 55-gallon drums to automobile shops and factories, and many years later, into consumer stores. Now the “Sunshine Makers” company has one of the most popular and diversified natural cleaning product lines in the world. I found the concentrated formula to be the most effective—and cost effective—of all the “green” cleaning products.
• Seventh Generation: Seventh Generation products include everything from chlorine-free baby diapers to recycled napkins, and everything in between. I wanted to see how the Ben and Jerry’s of household cleaning products handled the mess I created making Cincinnati chili. As the author of several popular cooking books, including one on chili, I feel obligated to cook in a manner that makes me look as talented as the pictures that accompany my recipes. In other words, to needlessly shake pans, toss ingredients up into the air, and make as much noise and mess as possible. Jen tells me that this doesn’t add anything to my cooking but, since I usually clean it up anyway, she abides my foolishness. But, would Seventh Generation’s “natural all-purpose cleaner” be up to the task of degreasing a very greasy Garland stove? I put 7G’s citrusy cleaner to the test against both Fantastic and my home-diluted mixture of Mr. Clean, and found that it held its own.

A month later, we are still working our way around the kitchen, and for the most part we have found that the green cleaners can do the job 9 times out of 10. With a third grade boy in the house, plenty of bleach-based products are still called upon for regular bathroom maintenance, however. That being said, with green surface cleaners, dishwashing detergent and soap, and even biodegradable laundry detergent, there are a lot of ways to avoid putting chemicals back into the ground. And that’s some “clean living” that’s really easy to do!

LINKS USED IN THIS ARTICLE:

http://www.greenhomeguide.com/index.php/knowhow/entry/649

http://www.fisherpaykel.co.nz/dishwashing/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp

http://www.simplegreen.com

http://www.seventhgeneration.com

http://www.ecookbooks.com/p-2168-ultimate-chili-book.aspx

http://transcendentalfloss.com/media/images/2006/mr-clean.jpg

By Chris O’Hara

I have had a long association with coffee, going back to my first cup in high school. Served black and sweet, in the ubiquitous “It’s Our Pleasure to Serve You” paper container, that first cup was 25 years ago. I still drink it the same way—and preferably in that Greek takeout cup whenever I can get it.

Back when I got by first editorial job in 1995, Starbucks was three years into its IPO, and opening a few stores a day, slowly creeping over to the East Coast. My job was with a trade publisher, and one of the titles was called Tea and Coffee Trade Journal. I got to learn a lot about coffee, and even got to visit a few coffee companies in Central America and the Caribbean. I saw some of the back-end of the coffee business first hand, and it amazed me how much sweat equity went into it. With over 500 billion cups of coffee consumed every single day, it takes an estimated 25 million small producers to bring it to the market. Growing and picking coffee beans is probably one of the most back-breaking and labor-intensive jobs in the world, and it all happens in the extremely poor parts of the world. That means the potential for a lot of abuse for both the land and the people working it.

So, how to make your daily cup of Joe better for you and the planet? Here are three things to look for:

• Organic certified: Many chains (even my favorite Dunkin Donuts) are starting to make sure a portion of the whole beans and brewed coffee drinks they serve come from certified organic growers. Since the specialty coffee movement basically grew up in progressive Seattle in the early 1970s, the coffee business has always been on the forefront of the organic movement, which lessens small producers’ impact on the environment.

• Fair Trade: There is a healthy debate on how much “Fair Trade” certification is helping small producers in the 3^rd world but, for now, it’s one of the few ways to try and make sure your morning cup of coffee isn’t coming at the expensive of slave labor. Fair trade coffee is purchased at a guaranteed $1.41 per pound, which means that even tiny producers are paid a living wage.

• Bird Friendly: Want to step it up a notch, and make your coffee good for your fair feathered friends? Insist on Bird-Friendly coffee, which comes exclusively from shade coffee plantations that are friendly habitats for migratory birds.

LINKS USED IN THIS ARTICLE

http://www.retroplanet.com/PROD/23792?cpid=GDF100∏=23792

http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/csrannualreport.asp

http://www.teaandcoffee.net

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams.fetchTemplateData.do?template=TemplateA&navID=NationalOrganicProgram&leftNav=NationalOrganicProgram&page=NOPNationalOrganicProgramHome&acct=nop

http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/coffee/

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/MigratoryBirds/Coffee/