Produce in your region (including meat & fish)

We need a similar thread for meats. One of the things Texas really does produce that is outstanding is beef. A properly raised Texas Angus steak is really hard to beat -- especially US Grade Choice or Prime. I watch a video of a top Yurripein chef like Gordon Ramsey cook a steak, and can't help but think, "Where the %^&! did he get that meat?"

CD
 
Guernsey used to be 'famous' for its tomatoes, the Guernsey Tom. Flying into the island it seemed to glitter due to all the greenhouses (which were known locally as vineries as they used to be used for growing grapes.)
I still fondly remember, as a young boy, the smell of 'steaming'. A large boiler on wheels would be hired and a gang of workers would work, often through the night, to dig metal frames into the tomato beds which were then covered with the earth removed digging them in. Steam would then be forced through the metal frames sterilising the earth. They would then be dug up again and put into the next row, and so on.

Growers either used 'cold' houses or heated houses, with the heated houses cropping forced tomatoes early when the price was high. However it was generally agreed that the cold houses produced the better tasting tomato.

The tomato industry began dying out in the 70's due to rapidly increasing oil prices, heavily subsidised competition from the Netherlands and the advent of the finance industry in Guernsey.

Now, the tomato industry is all but non existent.

The Guernsey Tom - guernseydonkey.com


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caseydog said:
We need a similar thread for meats. One of the things Texas really does produce that is outstanding is beef. A properly raised Texas Angus steak is really hard to beat -- especially US Grade Choice or Prime. I watch a video of a top Yurripein chef like Gordon Ramsey cook a steak, and can't help but think, "Where the %^&! did he get that meat?"

CD
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Produce includes meat...
 
TastyReuben said:
Not so much here, "produce" (at least to a layperson) is generally understood to mean fruit and veg. That's why we don't find pork chops in the Produce section at the grocery store. :)
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Language difference again. We don't have something called a produce section in supermrkets. That would be the fresh fruit & veg section. Regional produce in the UK means anything produced in your region. I've added to the title of the thread to make that clear.
 
Morning Glory said:
Language difference again. We don't have something called a produce section in supermrkets. That would be the fresh fruit & veg section. Regional produce in the UK means anything produced in your region. I've added to the title of the thread to make that clear.
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Yes, it is another cultural difference. "Produce" in the US means fruits and veggies. Just one more way we speak the same language, and somehow manage to not understand each other. :laugh:

CD
 
As far as meat/dairy goes, I don't think we're number one in anything, but usually in the top 10 or 15 states for most things. I take that back...we're 16th for beef. :)

We produce a lot of eggs and broiler chickens, and a lot of pork. Also, we have a pretty substantial cheese industry here (Ohio is the leading maker of Swiss cheese in the US).

One other thing I just learned, we're one of only four states to be classified as having more than 50% of our land designated as "prime agricultural land." Hmmm.

I mentioned wine earlier...though we lost the number one spot many, many decades ago, Ohio is still in the top 10, coming in at 6th place for US wine production. I do know, just driving around, that we seem to have our fair share of wineries. This is the one closest to us:

Valley Vineyards | Winery & brewery in Morrow, OH

Maybe 15 minutes from the house. I must admit, we haven't gone there in years because when we first moved here, we went three times, and every time, I got in an argument with one of the employees. :laugh:
 
caseydog said:
Seriously? What about pigs? It is how Les Nessman won the Buckeye News Hawk Award.

CD
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We come in at number 8 for pork. Had Les worked in, say, Iowa, he'd have been the state's leading news anchor.
 
Now that I think of it, we do have a lot of industrial chicken farms in Northeast Texas. Ever driven close to one? The smell will put you off eating for a few hours. Not something to be proud of.

Then again, cattle "feed lots" are really nasty, too. Lots of those in West Texas. They are the main reason I spend extra money for grass fed and finished beef. All cattle are grass fed, until the last months of their lives. Many are sent to "feed lots" where they live in mud and their own feces, while gorging themselves with feed corn to fatten them up for sale. Those cattle are pumped full of antibiotics -- because they are living in mud and their own feces.

Sorry if this bothers anyone, but it is something we all need to know -- at least in countries like the US where this practice is allowed (and financially rewarded). Feed lots are like sweatshops in manufacturing. Whether it is meat or a pair of shoes, we try not to think about it, as long as we get them cheap.

CD
 
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caseydog said:
Now that I think of it, we do have a lot of industrial chicken farms in Northeast Texas. Ever driven close to one? The smell will put you off eating for a few hours. Not something to be proud of.

Then again, cattle "feed lots" are really nasty, too. Lots of those in West Texas. They are the main reason I spend extra money for grass fed and finished beef. All cattle are grass fed, until the last months of their lives. Many are sent to "feed lots" where they live in mud and their own feces, while gorging themselves with feed corn to fatten them up for sale. Those cattle are pumped full of antibiotics -- because they are living in mud and their own feces.

Sorry if this bothers anyone, but it is something we all need to know -- at least in countries like the US where this practice is allowed (and financially rewarded). Feed lots are like sweatshops in manufacturing. Whether it is meat or a pair of shoes, we try not to think about it, as long as we get them cheap.

CD
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Ours are grass reared, fed Lucerne hay in winter and as far as I know sent to the "works" to be despatched. The only injection they get are wormers. I had a 10 acre block when I bred horses.
I kept the odd cow as well.
I believe our beef is up there with the best, we export a lot.

Russ
 
caseydog said:
Now that I think of it, we do have a lot of industrial chicken farms in Northeast Texas. Ever driven close to one? The smell will put you off eating for a few hours. Not something to be proud of.

Then again, cattle "feed lots" are really nasty, too. Lots of those in West Texas. They are the main reason I spend extra money for grass fed and finished beef. All cattle are grass fed, until the last months of their lives. Many are sent to "feed lots" where they live in mud and their own feces, while gorging themselves with feed corn to fatten them up for sale. Those cattle are pumped full of antibiotics -- because they are living in mud and their own feces.

Sorry if this bothers anyone, but it is something we all need to know -- at least in countries like the US where this practice is allowed (and financially rewarded). Feed lots are like sweatshops in manufacturing. Whether it is meat or a pair of shoes, we try not to think about it, as long as we get them cheap.

CD
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This is a hot topic over here at the moment. Currently under EU law these practices are not allowed. There are real worries that, despite his election pledge, Bungling Boris may lower standards post Brexit as part of a wider deal with the US. This would seriously undermine UK farmers, who bear the costs of much higher animal welfare practices.
 
epicuric said:
This is a hot topic over here at the moment. Currently under EU law these practices are not allowed. There are real worries that, despite his election pledge, Bungling Boris may lower standards post Brexit as part of a wider deal with the US. This would seriously undermine UK farmers, who bear the costs of much higher animal welfare practices.
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Yes, I've heard EU laws are pretty tight on feed lots and antibiotics. Over here, there are some ranchers and farmers charging more for grass fed and finished beef, and humanely raised chicken. Many of them are doing very well with that business model.

Retired baseball pitcher for the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers, and MLB hall of fame member, Nolan Ryan, is now a rancher and beef producer with his sons. They sell excellent beef, and it if fed grass from day one, until the day it is humanely slaughtered. So, informed consumers can make a choice, but uninformed consumers who just buy on price, don't make.

CD
 
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