Meat guru, Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall, inspired this recipe. In his rendition, he states that, “If you don’t like kidney, or you’re not quite sure, this recipe will convert you.” I fell in the “not quite sure category”, but I also believe it’s important to consume the whole animal, so thought I would give it a try. I was quickly converted. It is a delicious dish, and would make a terrific hors d’oeuvre for your next party. Ingredients: 1 – Wild Idea Buffalo Kidney 1 – cup milk 2 – tablespoons olive oil 1 – teaspoon salt 1 – teaspoon black pepper 1 – cup mushrooms, chopped 2 – tablespoons cider vinegar ¼ – cup red current or plum jelly 1 – cup dry sherry 1 – cup white wine 2 – teaspoons Worcestershire sauce ¼ – teaspoon cayenne, *I added more 1 – tablespoon, Dijon mustard 1 – tablespoon cream or sour cream fresh parsely & chives, chopped Preparation: 1) Rinse kidney, pat dry, and cut into pieces. Place kidney in a bowl and cover with the milk. Soak for 2 to 24 hours. Drain the milk from the kidney and pat dry. 2) In a sauté pan over medium high heat, heat oil. Add the kidney and season with the salt and pepper. Sauté until browned, tossing or stirring occassionally. 3) Stir in the mushrooms and sauté for a couple more minutes. 4) Add the cider vinegar and then the jelly. Stir to incorporate. 5) Add the sherry, wine, Worcestershire, cayenne, and Dijon. Stir to incorporate. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 30minutes. 6) Remove lid and stir in cream. Season to taste, garnish with fresh herbs, and serve with toast points.
The Modern Day Hunter Gatherer
Making healthy food choices for our families should be easy, but instead we are confronted by a morass of slick packaged products that lure us with their misuse of words and images. We are exposed to these food items daily and unless you have a PHD in food science, understanding the truth can be tricky and is most definitely time consuming. Yet, we do our best and hope that what is promoted on the outside, might be true on the inside. But, if we take the time to peak behind the veneer of flashy packages or images, the reality of those products become visible. For the true sustainable/organic agricultural producers, most all of the words that separated us from the non-sustainable/organic producers have been hi-jacked. We are left with having to explain what and who we are with more words, an explanation for the explanation, for the explanation. Another surprise is that over 70% of our crop agriculture is raised to produce feed for confined cows. This greatly alters the nutritional value of the food, as well as disrupts the balance of the eco-system, and reduces or eliminates habitat for other flora and fauna. These costs, along with the subsidized crop costs, fuel costs, and human health costs, are big losses and they are hidden behind the veneer of cheap food. These REAL costs incurred by us all, are not sustainable, they will eventually catch up with us, and someone down the road will have to pay. One of the best preventive medicines is to consume a healthy diet, but the reality of making healthy food choices is no longer easy. We are going to have to take matters into our own hands and go back to our old Paleo ways of hunting and gathering, not literarily of course– but we may have to move away from the “one stop shop” and seek out sustainable farmers that are raising their animals or crops ethically and sustainably. This might cost us more but, nutritionally, delicious, sustainably raised foods should cost more, as they do not come with an IOU. It may also take a little time initially to find and know your farmer/rancher, but once established you will find that you not only have a food supplier, but a friend that cares about what you eat too and will insure that you are getting what you pay for. We too struggle with finding “other” sustainable foods. There are many guides in local communities that can help direct you to sustainable producers and there are also some nationally. A go-to guide for us is eatwellguide.org. Most often though, we learn about sustainable suppliers through word of mouth, so….. if any of you feel like giving Wild Idea Buffalo Company a shout out as your favorite sustainable producer of premium buffalo products, we would really appreciate it! Cheers to your health! Jill
A Case for the Limping Metaphor
The trip back from a grazing seminar took me right through the center of the Black Hills. Jill was in the seat beside me, but we didn’t talk much. We were all talked out from spending most of the week in a classroom setting considering a holistic way of looking at buffalo grazing on the Great Plains. There were a dozen other people in attendance and so there was a lot of talking. It was a late winter afternoon and the roads were deserted. We were content with watching the Black Hills grow larger in the windshield. When Jill fell asleep, I turned on the radio but could only find a few country stations. I fiddled with the dial until I found one that played the old, classic stuff. Johnny Cash was walking the line, Bob Wills was singing about the yellow rose of Texas, and I was flipping back through the ideas in the grazing seminar. A lot of the topics concerned how grass grows and how buffalo eat it. That process is more complicated than you might think – it has a lot to do with the symbiosis that results from co-evolution. There had been a few “Christians” in the class and I wondered how they squared their professed faith with the evolutionary bedrock of life on the Great Plains. Soon after Jill and I entered the Hills, we passed through an 83,500 acre area of forest that burned in 2000. It was called the Jasper Fire and it burned hot and fast through country that I had surveyed 30 years before for peregrine falcons. That evening we drove through miles and miles of barren slopes. The hills looked like the Land of Oz where the wicked witch lived, but I noticed scores of white-tailed deer grazing on the grassy slopes between the charred remains of ponderosa pines. We did not find peregrines back in the 1980’s but we spent weeks walking the bottom of Hell Canyon and, in all that time, I didn’t remember seeing a single white-tailed deer. The Jasper and Hell Canyon area isn’t a grassland, but some of the same concepts that we talked about in our grazing seminar applied. Plants and animals have a natural succession in the way they regrow after devastating events that are common in natural settings. In the eyes of humans, fires, floods, and droughts are catastrophic, but nature simply begins again. Life forms with the lowest requirements stand ready to lead the charge. Years before, the Jasper fire area had begun its comeback with small annual plants. Those plants began to stabilize the soil with their roots and more complicated plants had gotten toe-holds in an empty environmental niche. The perennial grasses that the white-tailed deer were munching on came next. Now they were giving way to small brushy plants that would eventually allow the ponderosa pine to re-start. It was the same with The Green, Green Grass of Home that Porter Wagoner was singing about on the radio. Most prairie plants respond to stress by growing vigorously. One of the main concepts of the grazing seminar was that Great Plains grasses need the grazing stress from large herbivores. Those grasses were originally dependent on the pressure of the buffalo as the buffalo were dependent on them. The wolves and grizzly bears were dependent on the buffalo, and the coyotes were dependent on the larger predators. Everything broke down the sun’s energy that was stored in the plants and animals – the prairie dogs, the snakes, the toads, frogs, and all the ground nesting birds. Even microbes preform …
Sustainable Practices?
I am sometimes astounded by how little people know about agriculture. But when I stop to think about the immense demographic changes in the United States since its founding, I begin to see how such a tragic loss of human knowledge could come about. From a country of nearly all farmers we have become a nation of 83% city dwellers. Our rural population declines by about 1.5% every year and with that decrease comes an erosion of the intimacy with land that makes us human. Before 1960, most farms were small, integrated operations growing a garden and some small grains with a few cows, hogs, chickens, maybe a couple turkeys and sheep. Those animals would roam around the farm all summer, choosing their diet from the vegetative biodiversity offered up by the land. They ate a diet that they had evolved to eat – a lot of grasses, forbs, and sedges that came ripe depending on the weather in that particular year and at that particular location. They ate leaves, and seeds, and insects, and nuts, and berries they found growing on their farm. In the winter they ate forage, mostly in the form of dried grasses that the farmer called hay. The forage was cut from local fields during the growing season. The animals ate excess or waist grain that the farmer couldn’t sell or use for food for his family. They didn’t eat much grain; they did not get terribly fat. The animals moved around their farm and spread their manure (sometimes with the help of the farmer) across the land so that the sun and rain could break down nutrients and dissolve them back into the soil. Energy from the sun worked its way through the plants and animals on the farm, from the microbes in the soil to the final product the farmers ate or sold. Things staid in a rough equilibrium and the biodiversity of the farm was not threatened. That is the way grazing operations like Wild Idea still work. All that should be common knowledge, but we have visitors to the Wild Idea ranches who ask where the buffalo’s food comes from. Do we replant the grass every year? What do all the birds, prairie dogs, antelope, and deer eat? Of course the only additives to our ranches are sunlight and the nitrogen that the plants pull from the atmosphere. Everything on the place evolved to eat the grass or something else that eats the grass. Our brand of agriculture could be described as the maintenance of the natural biodiversity of the landscape. Then came the use of the technologies that made industrial farming possible. For the most part those technologies had to do with ways to manipulate the natural flora and fauna. Suddenly farmers had powerful tractors to plow up the ground and alter it from a bio diverse farm to a field, where only one species could grow. All other plants, animals, or insects could be destroyed with chemicals or mechanical cultivation. If the natural fertilization systems were destroyed in the process, they could be replaced by chemical fertilizers. Fertile farms became monocultures where tremendous amounts of one crop were grown. Driven by the machinery and chemical companies, legislation was passed to make this transition from fertility to sterility easy and profitable for farmers. They were able to exchange the lifestyle of farming for the businesses of industrial agriculture. The age of the row crops was born. Row crops can be about any plant that is planted in rows with space left between for cultivating out the wild competitors that steal water and …
Conversations with the Vegetable Guy
This is a short keynote address given to the Mill City Farmer’s Market in Minneapolis on Sept. 8, 2013. A dozen years ago, during a semester when I was teaching at Carleton College, I wandered down to the Co-op to see what it was all about. I had never been inside a food co-op and I was curious to know what drove the people who worked there. I found the vegetable guy way in the back stocking the coolers. He had been one of the founding members and he knew a lot about food, the food industry, and how tough it was to compete with the factory farms. He was an older, hippy-type that barely raised his head to look at me as he stocked the lettuce, green beans, squash, and rutabagas. He wore his graying hair in a ponytail with a hair net. “The big food companies just do everything as cheaply as they can,” he said. “That’s kind of the idea isn’t it?” I’d been thinking a lot about business lately and I was sincere in what I said, but he looked up at me with deep exasperation in his grey eyes. “Your view of business is the standard party line: Markets will work everything out.” My comment had touched a nerve. “That idea only works if you add in ALL the costs.” He had a rutabaga in his hand and tossed it up and down like a pitcher contemplating a fast ball. “At the top of Monsanto’s list of crimes, misdemeanors, sins, and oversights is the accounting error of grabbing profits while pushing the costs down the line.” “Like to the next generation.” “Like to the next generation. Bull’s eye.” He was still tossing the rutabaga up and down. “Now take this humble vegetable. It was grown about six miles from here. No pesticides, herbicides to worry about cleaning up. No water stolen from some imperiled fish.” He stopped tossing the rutabaga, held it in front of his eyes like Hamlet considering the skull of Yorick. “This is a rutabaga that comes with no I.O.Us. It is what it appears to be. A simple rutabaga. No future medical bills attached. No animals, plants, or microbes have been abused in its production. The world has not changed because it has come to be.” He tossed it into the air one more time, caught it neatly, and placed it on the growing pyramid of rutabagas. The vegetable guy told me that he had been in the sustainability business since the late sixties when he dropped out of college to join a commune in New Hampshire. “Been at it a long time,” he told me. “Composting, biological controls, organic, free range, local, polycultures, CSA’s, farmer’s markets.” He waived his free hand to indicate there were a lot more labels that he just couldn’t think of right then. “You name it, I’ve been there.” His eyes went wistful and his arms stopped moving. “Started off working with Caesar Chavez. I ran the mimeograph machine.” He gently picked up another rutabaga and I knew that he was thinking back over the years since he had first peeled himself away from the direction that American agriculture was heading. I wondered how he thought of himself and the choices he’d made. “Are you doing any good?” I asked. He was dreamy again and it took a moment for him to come back to our conversation. When his eyes finally found mine, they could not quite latch on. “I don’t know,” he said. There was a tiny shake of his head. “It depends on the …
Organic Gardening on the Great Plains Comes With It's Challenges
In addition to the beating prairie wind, lack of moisture, and this year’s triple digit temperatures, the grasshoppers have found their way to Jilian & Colton’s country garden. Dressed in their colorful suits of armor, they can destroy your garden or yard in a couple of days. The chickens and young Guinea’s do their best to keep up, but we are looking for preventive ways to manage for next year. Any suggestions (other then eating them) on how to organically rid or keep grasshopper populations down would be greatly appreciated. Even with the grasshopper infestation, we are starting to reap the benefits of our gardens. We make batches of Basil Pesto, and keep a jar on hand to jazz up salads, pastas, and sandwiches. Below is my recipe for non-pine nut, but extra cheesy Basil Pesto. Great to use on Buffalo Salami Anti Pasto Pasta Salad! See recipe. Basil Pesto: Ingredients: 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed 2 cups shredded parmesan cheese 3 garlic cloves, chopped 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. pepper (I like a little more) 1 Tb. lemon juice (I like a little more) 1 cup olive oil Place all ingredients in blender and puree until smooth. Refrigerate. Buffalo Antipasto Pasta Salad Substitute ingredients according to what you have on hand or what you like. A great summertime meal! Ingredients: 1 lb. Buffalo Salami, cut into pieces 1 cup, fresh mozzarella, shredded or cubed 1 each red, yellow and orange bell peppers, diced 1 bunch green onions, chopped 1 can artichoke hearts, drained & chopped 1 cup pepperoncini, sliced ½ cup olives, sliced (prefer Kalamata) ¾ cup sundried tomatoes, julienned ½ lb. pasta, cooked el dente and drained ¼ cup basil pesto ¼ cup olive oil ¼ cup rice or cider vinegar 2 tsp. ground fennel salt & pepper to taste. Put all ingredients in large bowl and toss! Can be refrigerated for up to a week, however you may need to add a bit more olive oil or dressing before serving. We continue with our weekly tours at the ranch, with some repeat guests/friends (Kathy, Bill and family, the Peach preserves were delicious!), and new guests/friends. Alsion & Mile brought their young family, including their cute little cowgirl, and friends to checkout “where their buffalo meat comes from”. Even though it was hotter then a pistol, the buffalo stayed cool with a dip in the playa, and we took refuge under an old cottonwood for lunch. On the menu, “Pulled Buffalo B.B.Q.”! Click here for recipe. The later part of July has kept the sky full of thunder and lightening. Which brought, beautiful magic light, many grassfires, and finally rain. This morning, for the first time in over a month, the ceiling fans are quiet. We stepped outside and gratefully watched the early morning light color the newly dampened prairie grasses with hues of green, while steam from our hot coffee mugs drifted into the slightly chilly air. Cheers! Jill
Ranch Beautification & Beauty
Our annual spring clean up has been pushed into overdrive with the upcoming wedding. We’ve been busy moving dirt, tilling weeds, planting grass seed and trimming trees. Dan kids me and says; “It’s a good place for a country club!” Erney pitched in too, with Henry as his assistant.”] —— —— —— —— —— ————***————With the ranch beatification in full swing, I’ve taken little time to cook. This is when I rely on methods that take little effort and the results are delicious! Below is my Recipe for Faux Smoked Buffalo Brisket. Smoked Buffalo Brisket Serves 6 – Active time 10 minutes I have tried smoking buffalo briskets in a smoker, to achieve that smoky pit flavor. My attempts were unsuccessful, as the lean, healthy, buffalo meat becomes dry. This faux smoked technique achieves the tenderness and the flavor of slow smoked meat. Leftovers make excellent cold sandwiches. Ingredients: 1 3 lb. Buffalo Brisket 1 tablespoon liquid smoke 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon paprika or smoked paprika 2 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 tablespoon cider vinegar Rinse brisket and pat dry, and place on sheet of foil, with the fattiest side up. Mix liquid smoke, olive oil and spices together. Rub the seasoning into the brisket. Fold the foil around the brisket, pour vinegar under brisket on foil and seal foil edges. Reinforce with an additional sheet of foil, sealing tightly. This can be done up to 24 hours ahead of grilling time. Let roast rest at room temperature 2 hours before grilling. For Char Grill: Start a large amount of coals in half of the grill, coals are ready when half have become ashen colored. Place roast on grill rack opposite coals, and cover leaving vent open. Grill for 1 hour, and close vents. Continue to grill for 3 more hours. Add a few more coals half way through cooking to maintain heat temperature. Turn brisket at his time. Remove roast from grill and let rest for 10 minutes. Uncover and slice. Serve with juices that have accumulated in foil. For Gas Grill: Allow grill to come to 400*. Place foil wrapped brisket in center of grill, and turn off burners directly under brisket, leaving burners on each side on high. Grill for 1 hour. Turn burners down and maintain heat of 350*. Continue to grill for 3 hours. Turn brisket halfway through cooking time. Remove roast from grill and let rest for 10 minutes. Uncover, slice or pull apart. Serve with juices that have accumulated in foil.
Bison Foie Gras Burgers
As the economic downturn continues, and as a way of living more sustainably, many people are returning to growing their own gardens, canning, and using interesting cuts of meat. On the garden front, we live in a climate that grows buffalo a lot better then vegetables, but, we gave it a go anyway. My canning took me most of the day, created a big mess, and resulted in 8 jars of glorious tomatoes, 6 jars of pickles, and an aromatic batch of basil pesto. My line-up of jars seemed puny for the effort; but that night (nothing like waiting for winter), as I cracked open one of the jars of tomatoes to add to my Buffalo Italian Sausage, I knew my time had been well spent. Great ingredients make for great dishes with little added effort. On the meat front, it is once again important to use the whole animal, for sustainability purposes and to help stretch the dollar by using more economical cuts. Nuevo Cuisine restaurants have jumped on the whole animal band wagon too, and are now serving heart, tongue, and tripe. And, fancy chef cookbooks list organ meat recipes as “home-style favorites” that our grandparents ate. Over the years I have incorporated heart, tongue and liver into dishes. I have served theses culinary delicacies at fancy receptions, or added them to make a dish go a little further. The below recipe is one of my favorites. The taste is delicious and is as impressive as the name! Hope you enjoy it too. Ingredients 2 Tb. Olive Oil 2 tsp. Salt 1 Tb. Black Pepper ½ tsp. Smoked Paprika 1 tsp. Onion Powder 1 tsp. Garlic Powder ¼ lb. Buffalo Liver (deveined, soaked in milk and blotted dry) 1 lb. Wild Idea Ground Buffalo ½ cup Panco Crumbs Remove any veins from liver, rinse under cold water and place in a milk bath for 4 hours. Remove from milk bath and pat dry. Place liver in food processor along with all of the seasonings. Flash process until smooth. Add ground buffalo in pieces and flash process – just to incorporate. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Dust hands with panco crumbs and portion meat into 6 burgers, shaping into patties, about 3/4” thick. Dust both sides of patties with panco crumbs. On stovetop in heavy pan over medium heat, heat oil. Add burgers and cook for 2 minutes on each side. Serve Bison Foie Gras Burgers open face on toasted whole grain or wheat bread. Top with caramelized onions, diced apples and tomato jam. * I also like to serve these at cocktail parties as petite sliders. Follow recipe above, make patties 1 to 2 oz. portions and serve on toasted baguettes. Can also be made under the broiler in the oven. Wine Pairing Valley of the Moon, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Glen Ellen, Sonoma County, CA The sweet richness of the added liver to this burger requires a full robust wine. I couldn’t resist choosing a “Jack London” stomping ground cabernet as an accompaniment!
Bison Foie Gras Burgers
The sweet richness of the bison liver, create an intense, yet elegant flavor. Serve Bison Foie Gras Burgers open face on toasted french bread, and top with caramelized onions, diced apples and tomato jam. * I also like to serve these at cocktail parties as petite sliders. Follow recipe below, but make patties into 1 to 2 oz. portions, and serve on toasted baguettes. Can also be made under the broiler in the oven. Ingredients: 2 Tb. Olive Oil 2 tsp. Salt 1 Tb. Black Pepper ½ tsp. Smoked Paprika 1 tsp. Onion Powder 1 tsp. Garlic Powder ¼ lb. Buffalo Liver (deveined, soaked in milk and blotted dry) 1 lb. Wild Idea Ground Buffalo ½ cup Panco Crumbs Remove any veins from liver, rinse under cold water and place in a milk bath for 4 hours. Remove from milk bath and pat dry. Place liver in food processor along with all of the seasonings. Flash process until smooth. Add ground buffalo in pieces and flash process – just to incorporate. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Dust hands with panco crumbs and portion meat into 6 burgers, shaping into patties, about 3/4” thick. Dust both sides of patties with panco crumbs. On stovetop in heavy pan over medium heat, heat oil. Add burgers and cook for 2 minutes on each side. Wine Pairing Valley of the Moon, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Glen Ellen, Sonoma County, CA The sweet richness of the added liver to this burger requires a full robust wine. I couldn’t resist choosing a “Jack London” stomping ground cabernet as an accompaniment!
Dan O'Brien asked to testify as a proponent for the proposed Indian Creek Wilderness area
Testimony of Dan O’Brien South Dakota rancher Hermosa, South Dakota Before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests Regarding S. 3310 The Tony Dean Cheyenne River Valley Conservation Act of 2010 June 16, 2010 – Washington, DC Mr. Chairman, it’s an honor to speak to the committee today in support of S. 3310. My name is Dan O’Brien and I live on and operate a ranch adjacent to the Indian Creek area. My wife and I run both cattle and buffalo and hold the largest grazing permit in the Indiana Creek area. My livelihood is dependent upon the grasslands that surround my home, so I have a huge stake in this legislation. I bought my first cattle in 1974. I have long been a member of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association and am an avid hunter. I have lived on the Great Plains all of my adult life. I have weathered the winters and the droughts. I have experienced the violent swings in cattle prices and the stresses of severe credit crunches. While I am a proud member of the community that will be most directly affected by wilderness, I have always had an interest in western South Dakota as it relates – historically, socially, economically, and environmentally – to the rest of the nation and, indeed, to the larger world. In addition to ranching, I have worked as a biologist, a teacher, and a writer. My area of consuming interest is the northern Great Plains and I have researched and written a dozen books on the subject. In addition to my point of view of an in-the-trenches rancher, I bring a unique perspective to the question of Great Plains wilderness. It is my considered opinion that no American grassland better fits the spirit of the Wilderness Act than Indian Creek Visitors to Indian Creek are uniformly awestruck by the beauty and the silence. From many of the high spots you can see Mount Rushmore. It is too far away to see the faces but I can feel Teddy Roosevelt staring down at me. I know that good Republican president, war hero, and self proclaimed “Dakota Man” would approve of this bill. He was one of the first men of power to recognize that “increasing population, accompanied by expansion of settlement and growing mechanization” were grave threats to the silence and solitude that helps keep us all sane. It is unfortunate that the debate over managing public lands has become so divisive that testifying is uncomfortable. Though the majority of South Dakotans are in favor of the Indian Creek Wilderness, some are adamant in their opposition. Acrimonious disagreements between neighbors are particularly unproductive. They can be intimidating in a close- knit community and they tend to tamp down valuable debate. The fact is that nearly all South Dakotas share the desire to keep our land wild, healthy, free, quiet, and grazed. The rub comes in management of our lands. I am a believer in American and in the democratic government we are participating in today. The Forest Service is part of that government and I believe that, considering the present low profile of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, they do a good job. Is it perfect? Of course not. Would I like to see it done better? Absolutely. I appreciate the language that Senator Johnson has inserted into S. 3310 concerning the management of invasive species, fire, prairie dogs, as well as other issues important to ranchers. I believe management problems do not stem from a lack of Forest Service expertise or from complacent staff, …