When people think of farms, they usually picture neat rows of vegetables or picturesque red barns with spotted cows grazing from the pasture. Yet the growing “localvore” movement has led to an increase in an often forgotten farming community: the local beef farmers. America’s obsession with meat has fed a huge industrial beef market consisting of 33.3 million cows last year with an estimated retail value of $73 billion. For one of my classes, I’m working on a group project on Connecticut pasture-raised beef farms, so this past Monday we took a trip to a local farm that started selling meat at the Wesleyan Farmers Market this year.
Four Mile River Farm is run by Nunzio and Irene Corsino in Old Lyme, Conn., about a half hour away from campus. On Monday, we found Nunzio and five other people working in a converted garage processing three steers, or male bovines. They had been up since 5 a.m. chopping, slicing and packaging the different types of meat. Every Monday, they process meat to keep up with the ever-increasing demand that comes from across Connecticut, including restaurants such as River Tavern and Firebox as well as the University of Connecticut and farmers’ markets around the area.
Nunzio explained to us the delicate process of slicing a steer into different cuts of meat ready to be sold. He sends his steers when they are around two years old to a slaughterhouse in Rhode Island and they are returned to the farm hung and quartered. The main operator, Dave, has worked in this industry his whole life, and recently retired from another processing unit. He works once a week to help pass on his skills to Nunzio’s operation.
“They aren’t the kind of skills you can learn in a school or university,” Nunzio said. “You have to learn them through doing, and Dave is the best in his field.”
Dave sliced the hind leg of a steer into different cuts of meat, while Nunzio named the different types: tenderloin, porterhouse, T-bone, New York strip. He pointed out the brisket and the pieces of bone that many chefs use as a base in soups. The ribs are cut into short ribs and prime ribs for different markets. The extra cuttings are tossed into a meat grinder and are sold in five-pound bags as ground beef.
At larger industrial farms, a man like Dave doesn’t manually cut a steer and instead the process is a lot sloppier with many cuts of meat are not sliced as finely. The ground beef you can buy at store like Stop & Shop is not from a steer, but from an old heifer who has stopped milking. That’s why the beef is chewier and less flavorful. If you sampled the burgers at the outdoor Wesleyan Farmers Market last week, you were able to try some of Nunzio’s prized ground beef, which he sells for upwards of ———–six dollars per pound.
“It’s a dying art,” Nunzio explained. “You are paying for what you get. You are paying for quality.”
Nunzio raises his cows at a scenic farm located five miles down the road from the processing barn at his house. He currently has about 50 steers, although he is continuously buying animals from auctions and sending them to the slaughterhouse. His animals are pasture-raised in the summer and feed on hay and corn silage in the winter.
“Grass-fed steers don’t get enough protein,” Nunzio said. “Normally when you hear of grass-fed beef they are really being fed different types of greens like legumes and soy, not just grass.”
Nunzio explained how hard it is to keep up with the high demand for local meat right now. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, he and his staff have been working harder than ever to fill orders. Look for them next Wednesday when the Farmers’ Market moves indoors to fulfill your steak and hamburger cravings.
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