The Quest for Kosher Grass Fed Beef, second in a series

Where to buy Kosher Beef on the Peninsula

Northern California is tough for a kosher Jew. There is one elegant kosher restaurant (Kitchen Table). There are two chains that stock some fresh and frozen kosher meat and poultry (Mollie Stones, Trader Joes). And there are some kosher butchers – in San Francisco and in Oakland – but neither of these are convenient for a working mom on the Peninsula. And NONE supply kosher grass fed beef. In fact, there is no information on how their beef is raised other than it’s healthy and kosher slaughtered.

About a year ago, a ranch in Colorado began marketing Glatt Kosher beef mail-order.  Having tried other mail order in order to get more variety than rib-eye, stew and ground beef (the Mollie Stones with variety is in Palo Alto – and you have to go when the shipment arrives because everyone knows they have the only variety in cuts), I knew the shipping could be egregious.  But Golden West Glatt deep freezers their cuts and ships 3-day ground.  Their products are delicious.  And the shipping is almost reasonable.

Learning about the feeding of my food

Naturally, the first email went to Golden West Glatt.  After getting through the form letter response, their customer service rep and I had a 6 email exchange.

“We are proud of the taste and quality of our product.”

“You should be.  It’s good.  Is it 100% grass fed?”

“The cattle are grass fed until the last 4-6 weeks before harvesting.”

Pause. I didn’t know the impact of 4-6 weeks of non-grass feed. I needed someone who did know.

So I reached out to Professor Cindy Daley of the University of California-Chico. And she responded within an hour – amazing.

The lipid profile of the beef changes within 30 days of changing the feed.  And she shared with me research she is publishing showing the lipid profiles of cattle with different feeds. Since this is not yet published, I won’t post here – but trust me, unless your cattle is being fed grass or rice bran/almond hulls, the beef is effectively ruined from a nutritional (specifically fats) perspective.

Back to Golden West.

“What’s the feed for those last 4-6 weeks?  I’d really like to buy your product.  By the way, here’s the impact of those last 4-6 weeks, by feed, from Professor Daley.”

“Working on it.”

And that’s where we stand with Golden West.  Here’s what Mark’s Daily Apple says about these feeds - http://www.marksdailyapple.com/concentrated-animal-feeding-operations/

Seeing as Golden West isn’t grass fed (yet, but I’m hoping), I needed to widen my search.

Tune in tomorrow for my round up of all the options so far to solve this dilemma.