saintpaulitan
by nick and patty

Be forewarned, this post is probably going to sound like an advertisement. Not that anyone would pay me for my endorsement of anything. I’ve been wanting to try grass-fed beef for a while now after learning about the health benefits. Grass-fed beef has a dramatically lower fat content, and more of the “good fat” that’s found in salmon and nuts.

At the Living Green Expo I joined a long line of people who waited for a sample of Cannon Falls-based Thousand Hills Cattle Company’s grass-fed beef and in the process learned that in addition to providing 100 percent grass-fed beef, the company’s also really committed to treating their animals humanely. The company representative said that anyone who wants to can go to Cannon Falls and watch the meat being processed. Don’t think I’ll take him up on that.

Anyway, the beef is sold at quite a few stores around the metro, but buying direct from the company made it a little cheaper ($4.69/pound of ground beef when you buy 16 pounds.) I looked for an online order form on the company’s Web site, but didn’t find one, so I called the number listed and talked with Director of Operations Kevin Kubat.

He told me the company considered taking orders online, but decided for now they really wanted to interact with their customers.

Now to the point of the story … the meat was really tasty, but more importantly, we could definitely tell it was healthier. As Nick put it, “You don’t feel gross after you eat it.”

For Mother’s Day, I wanted to do something a little more original for my stepmother than just buy her a run-of-the-mill Hallmark card, so I decided to check out the St. Paul Farmers’ Market and see what they had to offer.

My wife goes here virtually every weekend. It’s a pretty cool farmers’ market, if only for the reason that it has its own dedicated space right in the middle of downtown. Patty also says they have rules about how far away the products can come from — as opposed to other Twin Cities farmers’ markets, some of which apparently allow produce from as far away as California.

The pictures I took didn’t turn out so well, in part because I was in a hurry and in part because the lighting was a little challenging. Also, I’m not a very good photographer… Anyway, I bought my stepmother a pair of handmade soap bars from the White Bear Soap Company (sorry, no Web site) and a jar of Moroccan Orange Chocolate Sauce from the River Chocolate Company. Hopefully she likes them. Either way, the St. Paul Farmers’ Market is worth checking out.