What Most People Don’t Know About Buying Quality Meat with Butcher Michael Puglisi

Michael Puglisi is the Senior Director and In-House Butcher at Herd & Grace, where he leads the company’s culinary vision and oversees its signature steak tasting experiences. With a career rooted in craftsmanship and a deep respect for whole-animal butchery, Michael has worked across the country refining his expertise in kitchens and butcher programs at the highest level of the culinary world.

Throughout his career, Michael has trained and worked alongside some of the industry’s most respected chefs, including serving as Executive Sous Chef for Michelin-starred chef Thomas Keller. He has also worked as a butcher and charcutier for multiple James Beard Award-winning chefs, honing his skills in traditional meat preparation, curing techniques, and nose-to-tail cooking.

After building a reputation for excellence in the butcher world, Michael brought his passion and expertise to Herd & Grace. Today, he oversees all culinary operations, curates the company’s immersive steak tasting experiences, and educates guests on the art of premium beef, from sourcing and aging to precision butchery and cooking techniques.

Michael’s approach blends technical mastery with storytelling, creating unforgettable dining experiences that celebrate the craft of butchery and the beauty of exceptional meat.

In This Episode, We Explore:

• How understanding where your meat comes from helps you make better decisions about quality, sustainability, and ethical sourcing.
• The difference between common meat labels like grass-fed, grass-finished, organic, and no antibiotics, and what they actually mean for quality and nutrition.
• Why personal dietary needs and preferences should guide your meat choices and how to find the best protein sources for your body.
• How seasonality impacts meat quality, flavor, and nutrient density, especially when it comes to grass-fed beef.
• The value of building relationships with trusted butchers, farmers, and suppliers to ensure transparency and consistently high-quality meat.

Follow Michael Puglisi on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/michaelfpuglisi/?hl=en

Shop Herd & Grace here: https://herdandgrace.com/ 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the High Vibration Living Podcast. I'm your host, Chef Whitney Aronoff, health supportive chef, founder of Starsea Kitchen, and creator of nourishing food rooted in real ingredients, intuition, and intention. This podcast is a space where food, wellness, spirituality, and everyday living meet. We explore how what you eat, how you live, and what you believe all shape your energy, health, and overall sense of well-being. You have a physical body, a mental body, an emotional body, and a spiritual body. And all need to be recognized and nourished so you can feel balanced and truly thrive. Only you know what your body truly needs. Let this be your reminder that you already have the wisdom to tune in to your food, your self-care, and your spiritual practices and choose what supports you best. Through personal insights and conversations with experts across food, wellness, and spirituality, we'll explore how to nourish the physical, emotional, spiritual, and energetic layers of who you are so you can feel your best and live with clarity, vitality, and purpose. Let's get started. Hi friends, welcome back to the podcast. Today I'm joined by Michael Polisi, a chef, a butcher, and really a sourcing expert who previously owned and operated Electric City Butcher in Orange County and now works with Heard Grace, an online and Los Angeles-based butcher shop, partnering with nine carefully selected suppliers across Australia and Tasmania. In this episode, we get to learn from Michael's expertise. We talk about how to shop for meat online and at farmers market, the keywords to look for before you buy, what to know before placing your first farm share order, and our current favorite cuts of meat. If you've been a little intimidated when you're at the butcher store or you are at a farmer's market with the type of questions you should be asking, this is a great episode for you. I learned so much, so I know you will too. And I'm really already looking forward to having Michael back on just so we can continue to become better consumers. So we learned about how to shop for meat for our health and for pleasure, because if we aren't enjoying the steaks and the beef that we're making for dinner, it defeats the purpose. It needs to be a balance of both. And then we also learn in this episode just more about how we can support the farmer, how we can support the rancher, how the cuts of meats that we order and how we order really benefit the person that we're purchasing from, as well as what and why meat costs what it does. When you hear and learn from this episode, you'll find out that you're really getting a deal on the cost of meat. So without further ado, here is my episode with Michael. I hope you found it as supportive as I did. But let me know. Feel free to leave a comment with any of the clips from this episode that we post on social media on Instagram or YouTube. And then you can also write a review of the podcast on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts. You can rate it, leave a review, and you can mention if you listen to this episode and maybe a tip or two that you learned from it. Thank you so much for tuning in. Chat soon. Welcome to the podcast, Michael. It is really a treat for me to get to sit here with you today and to learn from you as well.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Well, thanks. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be on and uh I'm always excited to be part of a community that's interested in doing things with intent.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Thank you. And that's what I really want to kind of pull out of you today is I want you to help us decode meat so we can be better consumers. I want to be able to personally be able to make better decisions for myself, but also better decisions for my clients and help guide so many of the chefs that are on my team now. They're reaching out saying, you know, my clients are looking for 100% grass-fed, grass finished, this, that, or the other. They're looking for very specific cuts. Where can I go to buy that? And so I'm hoping we can kind of dive in and you can give us some guidance so we could all be joining, enjoying ultimately just better meals at home.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Yeah. I think you you hit it right on the nail, uh, right on the head because you said guidance, you know. Um, there, in my opinion, there is never a 100% right or wrong way uh to do almost anything in the culinary world. Um, you know, there a lot of it has to do with preference and just what you think, but it's like guidance, I think is the most appropriate way to describe um what we do and how we do it.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

I have the same philosophy as you, and it provides like a lot of freedom and takes off the stress that um that things have to be done a certain way. There is more flexibility than I think people realize. And obviously, like we know that when it comes to ranching and cattle and um the processing of animals, there's a lot of different ways to do it, a lot of different ways for you to raise meat these days. But let's let's ultimately dive into maybe the best version for uh us feeling great afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Sure. Yeah, I think um, well, you know, everybody's bodies are different. There's so many ways to talk about this topic. Um, you know, and and again, there's different practices, there's different access, there's different beliefs, there's different strategies, there's different sciences that people lean into. There's there's so many different resources for people to uh kind of connect to in their own way to then hopefully make ultimately make their decision using those those bits of resources information as guidance. Um the biggest thing for me, and I always tell folks, is uh if you really want to know about your food, know where your food is coming from. And I don't mean just the supermarket, right? I mean you're you're connected with farmers and at the farmers market, and when you've done a great job broadcasting that amongst not just your channel, but in the your food. And it's like when people know that you've done the due diligence to make sure that what you're getting is thoughtful, it's honest, and it's done with intent the way that farmer, you know, or that person who is packaging, processing, or what have it be, you know, like is doing it because they're doing it in their way to their beliefs and to their standard. And hopefully that'll you'll find somebody that you align with. I mean, that's really what it comes down to. Um, you know, without going into a completely different direction, there's so much research that comes out every single year, month, week, day, from so many different people that are trying to find out or find the information to prove what either they want to believe in, what they do believe in, or what they want to debunk. Um so again, I really go back to if you're if you're really focused on trying to find the cleanest, healthiest food for yourself, then you need to identify what that is and what that what the makeup of that is. Not all of our bodies are the same, not everybody can eat meat. Um my sister is allergic, physically allergic to lamb and beef. And it's it's unfortunate because there's a lot of nutritional density in those. Um and so she has to find other ways to get nutritional density that aren't nearly as efficient for someone like myself or many other people out there who can eat beef and lamb. So really understanding what's good for you, for your body, and finding the finding those best sources that are are transparent and really, really connected to the source. Clean food, right? We're talking about no hormones, no antibiotics, um, you know, and and I say no antibiotics in the sense of no antibiotics treating animals that are consistently having health issues. And you're using those antibiotics because you're trying to keep those animals healthy long enough to get them to be processed. Um there's a lot of there's there's a lot of information out there. It's like, oh no, no antibiotics ever. Well, guess what? My kids are sick, I might give them antibiotics. You know, it doesn't mean that they have those antibiotics are in their uh in their body the rest of their life. There is actually uh a time when animals, if they do need antibiotics, they're actually brought off and out of the area. They're made sure that they are good, clean, and it cycles that they have to have time to cycle the antibiotic out, then they get verified again, and then finally they may be brought back in to be processed at some point. But you know, you don't just pull an animal out and let it suffer. Um, you know, you there's a humane approach to also we're talking about harvesting a live animal, so there has to be a whole humane process to it. Um so clean, clean claims. What are your claims? What are claims that are important to you? Is organic important? Is you know, no hormones, is no GMOs, is 100% grass-fed, grass finished, uh, or maybe just grass-fed with barley finish. Maybe there's a farmer who uses a supplement, um, you know, spent grains coming from brewer's mash is a great way for an animal to actually get a little bit more weight uh on them so that way they actually have good muscle development. So there's there's a lot of ways that animals can be raised. There's a lot of ways that they can be processed and so many different guidelines. So the most important thing is what claims are important to you, and then finding a farm or a partner or a supplier or a source that offers those the the product with those claims that you're aligned with. And then and then ensuring that they're that they're really doing that and they're being honest. You know, I think that's that's a big thing too.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

That has really helped me. I think that's what I'm gonna go ahead and do is just kind of identify the top three or four labels that I'm looking for. Um, and then I can dive in deeper instead of just going to a website and you're kind of trusting it. But yeah, I would love to know the story and the values related to Hurt and Grace, the business that you started. How did you get into the butcher industry? And then how did you get into the online meat sales industry?

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Yeah, so I mean, quick, quick uh my background, right? Electric City Butcher was something that I uh built um 10 years ago and did that in in um Southern California in in Orange County. And what we were focused on was connecting people to the actual source of sustainable and responsible farming practices. So we never made any claims of organic and you know, non-GMO or any of those broader terms where the USDA gets involved. Or I'm sorry, more specific terms where the USDA would get involved. For us, it was more about responsible farming and sourcing. So doing that, I kind of like built a career and built an opportunity for the community to support out of sourcing directly from farmers in California. We closed those doors uh just a little over two years ago, uh, this month, actually. And for me, it was about continuing that work. I wanted to continue that work, but on a different scale and on in a different way where we could reach more people. Um uh I actually partnered um with uh Think Culinary, um, is where I currently am employed and a partner of. And Think Culinary owns Hurt and Grace. Think Culinary is actually a master importer. And what we do is we actually import products specifically from Australia that meet our criteria in that same sense of responsible sourcing. So certified, humane, all halal processed, no hormones, no antibiotics, um, really, really good systems of farming and agricultural practices. Um, most all of it is uh vertically integrated, so they control a lot of the feed source and the pastures. So for me, it was kind of a no-brainer to step into the opportunity to work with Think Culinary and Heart and Grace, where I get to now work with not just one or two farmers in Southern California and just the dynamic of supporting the local community in California, but being able to support a nationwide campaign. So Heard and Grace is we have a store in uh West LA where you can come in and we've got nine different suppliers that we have. Um we have we have over 80 different cuts at any time because we work with nine different suppliers, everything from 100% grass-fed, grass-finished, all the way up to some of the the oldest um legacy Australian wagyu breeds and 100% grass-fed, grass-finished wagyu programs. We've got pasture raised lamb, we have all kinds of great stuff. So for me, it was a no-brainer to go from this small kind of footprint and support a program to be able to do something on a much larger scale. And then we also offer nationwide delivery. So that's something we couldn't do with Electric City Butcher and couldn't figure out how to do it. Now, so now I'm I'm I'm being able to continue the same work, the same practices on a much larger platform and being able to support the same mission to more people and supporting more farmers. So it was for me, it was kind of a no-brainer. And that's what Hurt and Grace and Think Culinary's mission is, is that we want to kind of raise the value of all the stakeholders in the operation. And that's the farmers, that's the processors, that's the distributors, that's the end users, and that's us. And how do we do that? We do that by acting the same way I did with Electric City Butchers. We are a transparent conduit directly to the source. Uh, in fact, I leave for Australia tomorrow evening to go and visit all these farms directly. So I'll be in Australia for 11 days, and I'll be visiting nine farms in 11 days around the southern region and Tasmania. Um so it's it's it's gonna be amazing, and it's gonna be uh an amazing experience. But being able to continue that work and be honest about what we're providing and knowing that the farmers and the suppliers and the processes all have the same intent in mind.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

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SPEAKER_00 16:14

Yes. Yeah, 100%. Um, I mean, transparency is by far the biggest um uh criteria for anything that we do. And what I talk about and what we mean by transparency is, as I mentioned, I'm literally going to be going to the farm where the cattle are raising, truly knowing that the cattle are actually being raised and grazed on the farm, that they're not going to auctions and buying them. How are they processing them? Are they truly doing what they're saying? You know, do they are they're record keeping, right? Like all of these things, the supply cold chain, all the things that make up the integrity of the of the end product that you as a chef and and us as consumers are actually going to be receiving and are are really investing in ourselves through investing in these suppliers. So no hormones, um, you know, no uh all certified humane is a very, very big one for us. You know, we do work with several different suppliers because there's a lot of people that want all different kinds of meat. One of the biggest things that we didn't do in Electric City Butcher is we never stepped outside the realm of 100% grass-fed, grass-finished California beef. And I can tell you that was probably one of the biggest mistakes we ever made. Because as a community and trying to serve a community, not everybody wants the same thing. Not everybody wants, you know, uh grass-fed, grass-finished beef in the middle of August. Because guess what? Coming from Southern, coming from California, grass-fed, grass-finished beef in August isn't nearly as good as it is in March and April. You know, the nutrient density is different in the ground and in the groundwater, so that means the grass isn't nearly as vibrant and nutritionally dense. So the animals are what they eat. So if they're in an environment that is not allowing them to thrive, that their their end result isn't going to be nearly as impressive as it could be. And that's one of the reasons why I got excited when I started to learn about Australia was the location, the geographical location of Australia, and what that whole land mass is made of, especially the southern region, coming from the cleanest uh land, air, and water in the world, only gives those cattle the best environment to live in, which is going to give them the best nutritional density, the best, the best life cycle, and it's going to result in some of the best meat. You know, one of one of the providers that I'm excited or suppliers that I'm really excited about, you know, going to is Cape Grimm. Cape Grimm is 100% grass-fed, grass-finished, um, Tasmanian beef. And it's it's like nature intended. I mean, it is ridiculous the amount of space that these cattle have, and they live their entire life cycle out there in the pasture. And the meat is so consistent. I have been with Hard and Grace and Think Culinary for two years, Whitney, and I have never seen a fluctuation in the Cape Grim product. It is, it's it's amazing. And it's it's a natural, 100% grass-fed, grass-finished beef. And my experience in the past is that has seasonality here domestically, and where we were raising or where we were getting our our sources from in California, because the climate and because of the environment, it changes. Where they're located, it's the same all year, pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Well, teach me about the seasonality of meat because I understand the seasonality of turkeys, like there's a season where they harvest all their turkeys, but I don't know anything about the seasonality of meat. And if they're uh processing their cows multiple times a year, um, how is that working?

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Yeah, so when, you know, and obviously a supplier and a farmer, I mean a farmer can speak to this much better than I can, but uh my experience is you've got two really great times of the year, and one being uh early spring and then uh early to late spring and then early to midsummer. Um, and then what happens is depending on your environment, right? And this way I was talking about the environment, you know, Northern California and where I was getting cows before, that that weather and that climate changes. And you're gonna have more moisture in the ground uh because of the weather. So the grass is obviously denser, more nutritional value in the colder months, right? As it starts to dry out in the summer months without offering a supplement, like some kind of uh harvested feed or or some kind of grain or something along the line of how you got to keep the cattle fed, you know, the summer season, it becomes very dry. It's hot. They don't eat nearly as much because they're tired, they're just not interested in eating as much. So they're not going to put on the same type of fat content, nutritional density, they're not going to develop nearly as consistently. Now, if you're in an environment like where I'm headed, going down in Tasmania, it is consistent all year round. It is high moisture content, good grass, beautiful fields, good high nutritional density. Those animals eat the same all year round. So, you know, there's also when you go into colder weather, you know, I was um I was I was at a farm uh in October, and one of the farmers said he thinks that his New York strip loins are not nearly as tender coming out of the winter than they are in the the late spring and fall because there's a shiver effect. So when the cattle are in the pasture and they shiver, they're literally using that muscle is vibrating and it's actually the New York strip loin is is in ribeye that back strap area because of that uh that movement from the shiver, it actually makes that muscle work more than it normally would, which then in effect makes it less tender. And he's he's tested that his New York strips aren't nearly as tender from the winter than they are the spring and and the fall. So seasonality has a lot to play with how the animal uh lives, right? And so how the animal lives uh affects how the animal develops. How the animal develops and how they're treated affects how the quality of the meat is going to end up. So, you know, two two you know, in different climates, you're gonna have different harvesting. Um, you know, different areas, different life cycles, um, all of that makes it makes a difference. So the the biggest thing that makes a difference with consistency or even the final product with um most uh beeves is going to be the age, the feed, um, and the environment. So those things all make a difference, you know, depending on how old the cattle is, you know, how the cattle is living, and what it's eating. Those things really make up that end product. And if you change one of those things, it'll it'll it'll it'll change the end product. Um, you know, it's it's one of those things where it's it's a you're making the perfect recipe, you know, and that's like you know, the right age, the right, the right, uh, the right diet, and the right environment.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

So it sounds like spring is a great time to stock up on our steaks.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

I I think spring, late spring is is is is a great one, mid to late spring and in early summer, um, because it's domestically, because the weather, because the the weather patterns. As we go into the summer, you know, it's it's just the the pastures just aren't nearly as robust.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Is there a way to know when we're buying steaks from a butcher shop or online directly from um a rancher that we know that we're absolutely getting steaks that have been recently harvested?

SPEAKER_00 24:05

So most everything comes with a pack date. Um, if if I mean most everything should come with a pack date. So I mean, when you're buying directly from uh from Farmer Joe and you're doing like cow shares and stuff like that, it's probably a little bit looser. Um but he they should be able to give you that information. Um most, I mean, they have to everything pretty much has to go through either USDA or CDFA uh processing. And there has to be logs, there has to be um paperwork verifying when and and and where um the animals are processed. So they should always be able to give you that information. Um when you're buying frozen product, um, I would say that's probably the hardest to tell um if it doesn't have the packed on dates.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

So if we wanted to order a cow share and get that late spring quality somewhere in the US, do we want to aim for April, May? And then how far in advance would we need to place our order to make sure we're getting something that month?

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Yeah, so I mean, every farmer's gonna be different. You know, some farmers may harvest only a certain amount of head per week or per month or per quarter. You know, that's the thing is like when you're talking about small family farms, um you know, we used to work with one farmer who only did 10 cows a week. That's really not a lot. It truly is not a lot. You know, some of the farms I work with now only do um, you know, 40 to 50 head a month. Um, and some are 200 a month, and some are 500 a month. So all of that kind of varies depending on where you're sourcing. But if you're looking at small, independent, family-owned farms, chances are they already have their slaughter uh dates in advance, at least a month or two in advance. And you, I'm sure you could ask them specifically, um, you know, when's your next harvest? You know, or do you have harvest scheduled in April or May? Um, you know, because I'd like to get a cattle from there. Um, the other part of that that I did fail to mention on those three factors about what makes good beef is also the aging process after it's been after it has been dispatched. So not just the age of the animal, um, but the actual aging process, whether it be dry aged or wet aged, because that's also going to have a big effect on the eating quality as well. It won't change the marbling, it won't change the fat content, but it'll actually change the flavor profile and the tenderness as well.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

So, what should I be looking for if, you know, and what should the listener be looking for if they just want to be having bitter steaks at home on an occasional basis?

SPEAKER_00 26:43

For for anything that is aged, wet aged, um, 21 days is a really good marker. Uh, 14 to 21, I would say, is really the minimum uh on wet aged. Um, you can go upwards of 40. I think 40 is a really, really great day. Um, we just tested some stuff last week um at 60 days, and it was phenomenal. And yesterday I actually just had stuff that was 100 days wet aged. And what I mean by wet aged is that it's in the cryovac bag. It's been, it's been um, it's been uh processed, portioned, and then cryovaced. And not all cryovacing is the same, so please don't uh go cryovacing steaks at home and then put them in your refrigerator for 100 days and thinking they're gonna have the same quality of something that's done at a at a uh at a processing plant. Um those processing plants are designed for long-term packaging. Um but 21 days wet age, I would say, is really that's a minimum. 40 days is a great sweet spot. Um flavor profile and dry aging is always going to continue to shift and get a little bit more robust and more earthy tones, um, and you lose a lot of water weight. So dry aging is very different than wet aging. Um, dry aging is going to physically dry out the meat, and you are physically going to lose moisture content. Um, and when we're talking about losing moisture content, guess what shrinks and what doesn't? The meat shrinks, the fat doesn't. So when you dry age, you're essentially concentrating uh more of the beefy flavor, but less of the tissue in the muscle. And the fat content is what is going to stay intact. So the longer you age, dry age, you'll end up with more fat content per bite than you originally would. So that changes the flavor profile and tenderness and texture as well. Um dry age, I think you can go anywhere between 14 and 21, is a great place to go. Um, the only problem is you start to lose yield because of all the evaporation. Um, wet aging is really, really beneficial because you reduce your moisture loss, uh, you encourage tenderness, and you don't um it doesn't you have a better yield overall. So it's a little bit more controllable. But those are really important aspect aspects when you're when you're buying beef, you know, like if you're buying, if you're going to the farmer's market and like I said, farmer Joe is got, you know, his cooler full of frozen, you know, steaks, I would 100% be asking, you know, when was this slaughtered and how long was it aged before it was frozen? Because when you freeze it, it doesn't completely stop the aging process, but it slows it down like almost to stopping the aging process. And aging something in a freezer is way different than aging something refrigerated because during the refrigerated process, enzymes are still working and tenderizing the meat. Um, during the freezing process, but if it's frozen, you're not going to get that same process with the enzymes working. Um, it's gonna be very, very slow. You'll end up with a lot more oxidation, you'll all you'll end up with crystallization that will reduce the amount of moisture left in the steak when it thaws. So those would be the two biggest things.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Yeah, what are the some other questions we should be asking when we buy our meat from the farmer's market?

SPEAKER_00 30:06

Yeah, I definitely think, you know, for the farmer's market, um, because a supermarket isn't going to have any of these answers for you, quite frankly. Um, you know, one thing that a lot of people may or may not know is that there's a little stamp on almost every single piece of meat that is sold. And that stamp is a traceable USDA bug. So you can actually look that up online on the USDA's website, and it'll tell you exactly where that meat was processed prior to that packaging or during that packaging. Um, I think that's a really important thing because that gives you another level of that traceability. You know, your if your farmer is, you know, if you're if you're buying meat in California, but it came from New Hampshire, it was processed in Wisconsin, and then selling it in in uh in California, you know, carbon footprint might be important to you. Well, guess what? That's a factor. You know, carbon foot footprint might be way more important to you than hormones or antibiotics. So knowing the trail and the story of where and how it's coming to you could be important. And you can tell that as a consumer just by that, that those USDA um bug numbers that are 100% traceable. Uh, and everybody has them. Um, if it's processed by a USDA facility. Um, the opposite of that would be a CDFA facility. CDFA, um, that's the California, uh obviously we live in California, so I reference that, but every state has a state exemption program. So you can process animals state exempt outside the USDA. What does that mean? That means that there's different guidelines and there's different expectations during the processing. Um the USDA has a certain set of guidelines, and then your state exempt has a certain set of guidelines. Both those guidelines are designed for food safety. Um so your whoever you're buying it from, if you're buying it from uh a small local farm or or or a guy at the farmer's market, um they should be able to tell you exactly where it's processed. Um so if they can't tell you what's processed, that to me would be a red flag. If they can't tell you when it's processed, that would be a concern. Um if they can't tell you the life cycle, so life cycle of the animal, you know, where it's processed and when it's processed, I think are are three of the of the top things that I'm gonna ask. Um and life cycle is important because the younger the animal, the chances are it hasn't had much time to develop as much flavor or tenderness and texture. Um, you know, so veal, right? Cattle that are like anywhere between six and ten months are gonna be a little bit more tender because they don't have the excessive muscle development. Um and then animals that are grass-fed, grass-finished, depending on their exercise, depending on their life cycle, and that all of those things make up that flavor profile and tenderness. So, you know, I I believe grass-fed, grass-finished cows are really, really great anywhere between 24 and 29 months or so, uh, up to 30 months. That's that that to me, in my experience, has been a real good sweet spot um for them. And along with those uh the guidelines of harvesting, right, is that that uh you know, late, late, late fall, uh, early winter, and then late uh spring, early summer. Um I I have felt have gotten the best bang for my buck, you know, and the and the most rewarding on on the aspects. But that'll but remember that's always going to um depend on the farmer's practices, you know, where and when and how. Like there's so many things. You know, if if a cattle is brought to be processed and they're stressed out, the cattle stressed out, that animal could have been had the best life, it could have had the best life cycle, it could have had the best, you know, um nutritional uh uh uh intake and the best genetics, right? It could have had all these wonderful things. And when it's processed under stress, all that could be lost. Um, so there's there's just so many factors in creating consistent, really good beef.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Yeah. Chef Christina, who is on my team in Sedona, that was where her questions were that she wanted to make to make sure I asked you. Um she's concerned and knows that depending on the transport of the beef when it goes to processing, it can change, you know, the health and quality of the flavor. Um should we be looking for beef that is processed on site at their farm? Um, should we be looking for beef that's the animal was processed within a certain um amount of miles from their farm? Tell me what you think would be what is what is possible and what is realistic when it comes to that. I want to take a moment to share how Team Starseed Kitchen can support you beyond the podcast. I'm Chef Whitney Aronoff, founder of Team Starseed Kitchen, my personal chef and custom meal prep service. This is for people who want to eat well, feel better, and be supportive of nourishing food without the stress of planning, shopping, or cooking. Through Team Starseed Kitchen, I work with a trusted team of health-supportive chefs who prepare fully customized meals based on your needs, preferences, and lifestyle. Whether you're focused on clean eating, hormone balance, digestion, energy, or simply having high-quality food ready for your week, we meet you where you are. All meals are made with real whole ingredients, no seed oils, no refined sugar, and no shortcuts. Just thoughtfully prepared food designed to support your body and make your life easier. This service is deeply personal. It's about having food in your fridge that you can trust. Food that supports your health, saves you time, and helps you feel grounded and cared for. If you're ready for consistent nourishing meals made just for you, you can learn more about our service and apply to work with us on starseedkitchen.com or follow the link in the show notes. We have chefs ready and available across the country, and we so look forward to nourishing you. Now let's return to the episode.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

There is no silver bullet to picking the the best um, you know, beef every single time. You know, genetics play a factor, right? Genetics, age, environment, feed, you know, all of those are a factor of what's building a great beef, you know, great cattle. Um, and then how it's handled afterwards, you know, helps either keep it really, really great or it could, you know, uh damage it. So I worked with farmers that uh literally the processing facility was like three minutes down the street, right? Fantastic. I've worked with processors that have what we call a mobile slaughter unit where the actual the the the processor comes to the farm, processes it every the cattle right there on site. I've had other I've had worked with other farmers that move their cattle uh you know 30, 40 miles and or you know uh several hours away. Um, you know, and I've had great beef from all of them, and I've had okay beef from all of them, and I've had maybe even some beef that weren't that desirable from all of them. And there's so many factors to it, and that's what I think is really interesting about the ranching and and and cattle raising is that when you tweak certain things, you can end up with a different product, right? Um, I have a really big respect for seasonality, I understand you know it's not consistent, it can't it may not be consistent all the time, but when you do everything with intent, when we started this conversation, you'll get a great result. If you're committed to that program and that intent, you will get a great result. So bringing animals to process is a big part of that because if the animals are stressed out and the animals are being processed under stress under just under duress, then they are going to have um what's called a dark cutter. And you'll see that in the meat. It'll be very, very dark, like like a deep purple hue to it. The meat will be very soft. Um, sometimes it'll look like if you look at the raw meat, it'll look like it's sweating, like droplets. And what's happening is that the tissue structure has not been able to settle after the processing. So the pH levels are off. There's so many scientific things that have happened because of that animal being under stress, it changes the actual uh composition of the meat. So sometimes you'll never know. You know, like stew meat, you'll be like, oh, I mean, you'll never know. You pick up a ribeye and it just kind of like kind of like falls in your hand and looks, you know, kind of like very soft, almost mushy, uh, or like some lip sweaty, like chances are that ribeye is not gonna eat very well. And it has nothing to do with the the the quality of the farm, perhaps.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

You know, that's what I experience when I have to buy steaks at Whole Foods.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

Yeah. So, and and you know what? They may they may be experiencing you know something that that could also do with handling. You know, they you know, I'm sure you've thawed a steak uh from the freezer trying to do it really quickly, and you put it in water or you just leave it out on the counter. Um, you know, both of those are horrible ways to thaw a steak because steak is like a sponge. So letting a steak thaw in your refrigerator overnight, you know, that's how we recommend it. It actually acts like a sponge so it can reabsorb that moisture because when a steak is frozen, you know, the moisture expands. And when it thaws, it settles back, but it's like a it's like a sponge, it'll reabsorb that moisture given enough time. So, you know, they may, you know, whole foods may have had to like, I don't know, like thaw something really quickly. And so all of a sudden all that moisture that should have stayed in the steak is gone. So the steak has now lost its structure. Um there's so many things that could happen. Um, but when an animal is processed under stress, it's because the environment that it's in. So it could be transport, that's a great one where the animals are transported too quickly, they haven't had time to settle. Um, and because they need that. They need time to settle. They're you just took them off of one environment into another. Um, if the animal actually sees or hears other animals being processed, that's a real that's a real thing. You know, the environment of the animal being processed is a very real thing. Um, you know, so how they're processing at the facility, you know, are they doing it in a humane way? And when we talk about a humane way, is it with the intent to make sure that the animal A doesn't suffer, right? Dispatches quick and efficient, but it's in an environment where it doesn't induce stress, either to the animal being processed and or all the other animals to be processed. Because once those animals are stressed out, I mean, it's it, I mean, you know what it's like being stressed. You don't calm down quickly. You know, you know, animals don't know, don't know how to do the things that we can do to calm our nerves. So that has a lot to do with it. Um, you know, you could raise a great animal, bring it to process. Maybe the processor's just having a tough day and they're short staffed by three people, and they just have to get this stuff done because the farmer's like, hey, I need this back in the next four days. Like, point being is that there is no perfect scenario. There's always going to be some kind of influence from one place or another that could affect the the quality of the product. And that's that's a big deal because the farmers work really hard. Um, and I know they do. And and and for them to lose the value of a whole head cattle is thousands of dollars. You know, um, it's it's no joke. I mean, average cost for for a cattle, I've heard, anywhere between, believe it or not, to raise that cattle can be thousand anywhere between three and five thousand dollars a head. It's and when you think about it, if you buy a head of cattle, if you if you if you go to your farm right now and say, I want to buy a whole cow, you're they're only gonna charge you probably five or six thousand dollars. Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

They're only charging like five thousand five hundred to like six thousand uh two fifty. And they're not making much they're not making much.

SPEAKER_00 42:22

So it's vol it's volume and efficiency for them. It really is. So it's it and that's why it's like it's really important when when you do find a great supplier, you know, uh marry yourself to them because every bit of your support to them is is gonna help them grow, it's gonna help them sustain. Um, you know, and obviously they're not raising one cattle at a time, right? So obviously their business model, they have to have years worth of cattle on their ranch. If they don't have years worth of cattle on their ranch, then they're only in business for a certain period of time. So it there's just so many factors to it. And that's that's what I always find interesting is that you know, there isn't just one thing to consider, you know, there's multiple things to consider. Um, you know, buy a buy one beef a year, you know, buy it during the peak season, you know, but but check with their farmer and supplier. What is their peak season? What how do they actually raise their animals? When is the best time to be processing from them? Because you may hear different things um depending on their land, their soil. Um, you know, if they do a lot of cover crops to help build you know nitrogen in the soil, like they may only process certain times of the year because they need to rebuild the soil so that way it is healthy grass for the next round of cattle to come through. Um, you know, they hopefully they are doing like rotational mob grazing where they're they're using good land animal management, um, but they may only process certain times of the year, you know, and it may be best for them. Um, so you might have to be, you know, consider that as. as how you purchase, you know, and I think once you do it a few times, you know, and I never suggest anybody going and buying a whole head of cattle first, you know, like buy it buy it by an eighth, buy a share, you know, make sure you like the meat, get the ground beef, get some steaks, get some stew meat, you know, get some offcuts, you know, like have fun with it. Because if you do buy a whole animal, you know, 50% of that's ground beef. You know, it's like there's it's not all steaks. It's not, they don't grow on trees. There's only a certain amount of steaks on a cow. So just know that you want to get creative with your cooking. And farmers love that. I know for a fact farmers would rather sell a whole cow than only sell the middle meats and then struggle on everything else. You know, that's that's a hard thing about a whole animal is that it's not all steaks.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

That's really good to know. What are some farms that you recommend for those that are listening that would like to go into a cow share? Who do you recommend to your friends?

SPEAKER_00 44:57

Yeah I mean here in California I highly recommend Stemple Creek, Mariposa Ranch. Those those two are fantastic. We worked for that with them for years. For pigs, they're no longer in business but Yano Seiko was absolutely amazing. But I mean go to your go to your local farmers market. You know go to your local farmer's market do your due diligence. If you want to support the community and the neighborhood then you know you should you should know who you're supporting. There are a few farmers markets but go online do the due diligence talk to somebody who's had one before you know chances are if you're super serious and you let that farmer know hey I'm serious and I want to you know you get a couple steaks get a couple things from them you know don't commit to a large a large amount first because you also have to invest in a freezer and you really do you really know how much you're going to eat you know in a year you know maybe some people do maybe some people don't but if you do one pig one lamb one beef and you know a few dozen chickens you know you should pretty much be good for the year depending if if you're eating a variety you know if you only are eating lots of beef then that's a different story. But yeah go go to the farmer's market find out who's there ask them questions and any farmer that doesn't want to talk to you about their product chances are they're not the one really dealing with their product they're not the one really farming because most farmers love talking about themselves and they love talking about what they're doing. That's the beauty of of a farmer relationship is they want you to know how committed they are so ask ask all the questions um that you can think of don't think you can't ask something because they should be able to answer everything if they're the ones really farming it.

SPEAKER_01 46:52

Got it. What farmers markets do you like going to right now?

SPEAKER_00 46:55

Santa Monica Farmers Market is always one of the highlights. I'm really blessed that I do work in LA on Wednesdays so I like to sneak in there early. I go to the Claremont farmers market uh every single week um and I'm really blessed that that's a really good farmers market. Um I get to see some of my favorite farmers like Alex Weiser um who just does a phenomenal job on everything. The Long Beach farmer's market on I think it's second in PCH is another really great one to go to and the Torrance farmers market um is a really really good one. It's on Tuesdays and Wednesdays I think it is um they're just they're really good robust markets um that have a lot of good quality farms um being showcased there and several of them have really good food too so I'm always a sucker for grabbing a papusa or something there. But I would say I mean and the Hollywood farmers market I haven't been there in a long time. That one's usually pretty crowded um the streets are tight um but no I I love the Santa Monica farmers market on Wednesdays. See tons of different chefs and personalities there. So it's it's always vibrant and really really fun. Like I said the Torrance Farmers Market is fantastic on Tuesdays and Saturdays. And then my home where I live now in Claremont uh the Claremont farmers market on Sundays is is really really great.

SPEAKER_01 48:11

I love a Sunday farmer's market. I used to live across from the DuPont Circle farmers market in Washington DC and it was so it's just such a nice Sunday ritual. Yeah um and um if anyone's listening that lives in the Washington DC Virginia Maryland area it's really one of the best farmers markets I've ever been to period. Yeah it is just outstanding.

SPEAKER_00 48:34

Yeah I try I I try my best to go you know at least uh once every two weeks or so depending on I know it was my Sunday one at near my house I do pretty much every week. But it's just it's just so fun you get out there, you see it the energy, you know, and it just makes you connect in in your community. And I think there's so much value in that. And I just think you know when we talk about you know with the beef and the farmers you know it's like you just got to get involved you got to find out what's important to you. You got to be willing to ask those questions and you're gonna have to try a couple different people you should try a couple different farms. You might even like somebody's packaging over another you know what I mean like there's there's those little things that make a difference in our life like maybe someone has a has a peel and release uh pack of steak instead of having to cut it open right there's there's so many different things that I think make up the experience that you just got to get involved. And if you don't want to get involved uh I mean I'll tell you right now I mean I mean Heart of Grace we deliver nationwide you know we do all of the backgrounding and looking into everything. I mean we've got everything from grass fed to you know really amazing Wagyu programs individually portioned large format um I mean we just it it's just it's great to know that you're providing something to a community that's looking for something specific. You know you said you can go to Whole Foods there's lots of meat options out there all different degrees of of uh of of of greatness or excellence or or quality there's so many different degrees of it you gotta find what works for you availability you know pricing um you know just the cuts in general do you actually like the meat you know meat is like wine it really is it's like a good beef a good steak is just like wine you know you can you can raise a a breed or or a type of grape or a breed of cow in two different areas and it's going to taste differently picks up the natural environment and the terroir just like a wine does you know how it's aged just like a wine how it's processed just like a wine it really makes up the experience. So try try different stuff. Find what you like.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

Thank you for reminding us that we should enjoy the taste. Yeah. That it's not just all these different labels that we're supposed to be researching and making sure that it falls in line with what we deem healthy that it also isn't it's also important that we actually enjoy the way it tastes we enjoy the preparation process. Yeah that matters just as much and I think sometimes people forget that when they're just so worried about their health.

SPEAKER_00 51:03

Yeah yeah yeah and and you know what's interesting there's there's lots of ways to get those nutrients that you're looking to get you know um some people feel it's like I can't afford this steak. Well if you're looking for nutritional density then an individual steak might not be the best choice. Try chuck roast get a higher fatty content uh ground beef braise some shanks so there's some marrow and collagen in there you know I mean like you get way more nutritional density from some of the off and lesser lesser known cuts and more affordable cuts than you do on on center cut steaks.

SPEAKER_01 51:36

Absolutely I did want to make sure that we address this with the listener. People really do wonder when they're at a butcher shop these days do I get the wagyu hanger or do I get the regular hanger? Do I get the wagyu steak? Do I get the regular steak?

SPEAKER_02 51:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:53

Help people understand what is Wagyu and when and why should they buy it.

SPEAKER_00 51:58

Sure that's a great question and I've learned so much in the past two years I'm still a novice in it because when I had my butcher shop as I mentioned we did one thing California grass fed grass finished beef and that was it. Yeah and now I've learned so much about the Wagyu world. And so Wagyu literally just means Japanese cattle. So Wagyu genetics it's the it's the breeds the genetics that make up the actual animal are traditionally from Japan. Those genetics were shared in Australia uh in late 80s to early 90s and then we were able to get some genetics here in the US um you know about a decade or so later. So there's different types of Wagyu there's Japanese you hear wagu everybody a lot of people go oh my god that's Japanese that's uh it's so expensive it's so fatty it's so rich that is not true that is one type of wagu there's so many different levels and varieties of Wagyu um there's different fat contents there's different scoring so outside of the US the rest of the world scores meat very differently US right we're we're uh um select choice prime right that's pretty much what we know and most of that is based just on fat content right where um what I've learned more about the the MSA Meat Standards Australia basically so that is a whole scoring rubric on several different points of quality um it has to do with ossification of the bone to meat uh fat ratio where the actual age of the animal the pH level the actual different levels of marble scoring so they score their beef on one through nine so there's different levels of scoring Japanese uh you know A5 uh in a lot of their Wagyu goes up to that's an MBS scores and those go upwards of almost 15. And so each one of those um identifiers kind of lets you know um as a consumer uh quickly where like the marble score is the fat content is is the easiest way to kind of think about it. But there are several other things that go into that scoring. But when you look at the score it's mostly associated from a consumer level is the fat content which is going to you know suggest to you value whether it is value in flavor or price and tenderness right so we always associate things that cost more means that they must be better right um same thing like a car right um you buy one level of a car or you buy the premium difference in in price usually has to do with you know whatever the accessories and you know how the car is built same thing uh with with the meat uh and same thing with wagyu so Australian wagyu specifically is much different than Japanese wagyu most Japanese wagyu and is a lot fattier much more rich and smaller servings so you like you'll see it on a menu is like $99 for two ounces you're just like two ounces why would I buy that when I can get a fillet a whole eight ounce fillet for 60 bucks well you're eating very differently right also wagu and there's studies coming out now is starting to show that there's actually a lot of nutritional density in Wagyu um very similar to grass-fed grass finished beef. So where you would eat an eight ounce grass-fed grass finished filet, you really only need two or three ounces of Wagyu. So when you compare the volumes to the pricing they're a lot more level with each other. So you know an eight ounce filet and two ounces of grass-fed beef and two ounces of wagu beef could essentially cost you the same thing and have the same nutritional density. The difference is we don't eat like that. We don't we don't think of food like that. We think as Americans we're like oh a steak is a steak like a steak should be a steak well that that's one way of thinking if you're talking about consumption versus nutritional consumption. I think wagyu is not always a special occasion thing. And there's different levels of wagyu. So there's F1 Wagyu which a lot of people don't understand. There's F1 F2 F3 F4 pureblood and full blood wagyu so there exactly so when you see Wagyu it could be any one of those six if it's not actually suggested which one of those six it could be so F1 Wagyu is probably the most common and the most um affordable because F1 is a crossbreed it's half Wagyu genetics and then half usually something else which most likely it's going to be black Angus. Right? So that's essentially taking you know uh uh you know two cattle breeding them together uh for two different qualities um and that F1 is going to be the most approachable really the first step into the Wagyu world and then F2 F3 and F4 ends up having more Wagyu genetics and then there's purebloh which is almost a full blood and then there's full blood um which is like 99% and then the other like 99.8% uh of genetics. So the higher you go up chances are it's going to be more cost per pound. But just because it's more cost per pound doesn't necessarily mean you need that much. So getting a smaller portion of Wagyu is just as acceptable as getting a full size portion um you know of non-Wagyu. I say eat Wagyu anytime you want you know I mean honestly it's not it's not a special occasion thing. You know we sell portions that are three and four ounces and then we sell portions that are 12 ounces. And the same thing goes for our our grass fed and then we also have we have a grass fed program that has barley uh finish to it. So some people like that more nuttier finish to it. They want something closer to a prime um so there's so much there's so many different meats out there. It's it's it's like going into Bevmo right you go into Bevmo and it's like you go into the wine section and there's 200 different Chardonnays. Which Chardonnay do you want? I don't know I just want a Chardonnay you know it's like there's so many different ones and you could sit there for probably hours and figure out what exact one or do you want one that's blended do you want one that's oak age you know all these different things right same thing with meat same thing. So I don't think there is a a single singular do I buy Wagyu or not? I think when you look at when you look at Wagyu you should not be intimidated. There's lots of ways to eat Wagyu at an affordable price and just because it's Wagyu you shouldn't be scared that you're gonna mess it up. You know what I mean? Like a lot of people I feel like oh it's Wagyu it's expensive I don't want to mess it up. Well cook it like you cook a regular steak and you won't mess it up. If you're cooking it to a temperature and you're using a thermometer which I highly suggest all meat cookery should include a thermometer because it's just a good insurance policy no matter if you're cooking a cheap steak or an expensive steak. Don't you want to eat the steak the way you want the steak to be cooked so so yeah so use the tools um and you won't have that issue. But I do think there is a certain level of like celebration to Wagyu. You know it's really starting to build it's having its moment um a sec, I think a second a second flow of its moment. But I think now it's getting more into the crossbread the F1 programs are really starting to pop up. There is um I think there was there's a American Wagyu association had a a tasting this past year um where you got to submit your WAGU and there is something like 50 different domestic submissions. So that's that's a lot of submissions for um for uh domestic Wagyu programs. We're actually working with a full blood wagyu program um out of Tennessee right now that we're we're looking to launch yeah so it's actually they have they were they they got genetics from one of our Australian farmers and they're using uh the Australian genetics to could to raise and and grow those cattle here in Tennessee. So it's it's an amazing program. And it's gonna take years to develop it to the level that they want to develop it to because you know there's cycles um but it's just there's so much great meat out there. Try different things try all kinds of meat yeah get out of the supermarkets get out of the supermarkets get out of the supermarkets I need to start ordering more steaks from more different places.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:33

Yeah figure out what I like and figure out the values that I'm looking for in the places I order from and then gosh I can just enjoy more meals at home that like joyfully that are also good for my body.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:46

Yeah it and when you when you do that like don't buy a whole box of ribeyes. You know like don't don't do that. Just buy like one ribeye, one sirloin, get some ground beef. If they make a sausage get a saw like try different cuts because they're all going to have different flavor profiles and tenderness. And that's how you're really gonna know too is you know when you get you know a meat subscription or you're buying from someone online or the farmer's market what happens if you only like their ribeyes? You know what I mean? Is you're only going to buy ribey from that one person and then you're gonna go somewhere else and buy something else and buy go somewhere else to buy something else. It's hey it's not very it's time consuming so it's not really efficient for you right and then you're not really supporting the the farmer that you know needs the support. I mean maybe you are supporting multiple farmers which would be great um but find somebody that you really are impressed with find somebody you want to invest in because they're investing in you with with their cattle. So I I I really believe in there try different stuff get get creative um you know and find what you like because there's lots of stuff out there just like a wine just like a wine what type of cuts are you cooking at home right now so I've been cooking I love a flat iron flat irons I think are are really under under um not undervalued I just feel like a lot of people don't know about it um but they're also there's not much of it to come by I mean on a whole cattle there's only like eight pounds of flat iron so which really isn't a lot um but I love I love flat iron I think that's a really great one and as far as like center of the plate stakes um I've been enjoying New York strips more than I ever have and I don't know uh what's turned me on to it I just I like the texture um I'm really enjoying them more than anything lately uh next to the flat irons for center of the center of the plate stakes but as a cook um I love brazing I love shank shank is it doesn't matter what animal shank is by far my favorite flavor profile tent texture this the the the time it takes to cook and build those flavors like the the the chef in me gets to you know come out a little bit and and I I do love that so yeah I love anything that's slow cooked and braised it just like really nourishes and feels good and there's nothing better to come home to after a day of work um than that and then I'm like a big hanger and skirt stick person.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:15

I just I try and fight it but it's really my absolute favorite. Yeah what is it that you like about them oh I love the texture. Yeah yeah you know I just love the texture and I actually like the low fat value um but it's not as lean as a fillet like and the the fat is more even it's almost like the animal more distributes the fat within that part of the body I just I love it. I get a great balance of all the flavor profiles and all the crunchiness and softness that I love.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:51

Have you uh what about bavette steaks? Have you had bavette steaks? No it's that it's a so bavette steak another one of my favorites it's kind of like the combination of a hanger steak and skirt steak together. So bavette steak comes from the sirloin flap. Another name for it would be um uh like the Vasio um or um yeah I mean the bavette uh yeah sirloin flap uh is basically a muscle that is layered in uh belong along the flank primal so it's along the belly area and it's it's like a huge skirt steak but then it's thick and dense. Uh it's mostly used um a lot of people use it for like carne sata um where it's like butterfly and then marinated. But if you take the whole piece and it's like a wing it's like a bat wing almost and if you cut off the two sides kind of square it up where it's like thin and then you literally just cut center cut steaks out of it and they're they're they're little like rectangles. And it's it is the perfect marriage of hanger steak and skirt steak because it has texture like hanger and it has the flavor like skirt. It's they're phenomenal and I mean you get maybe eight or ten of those on a Hokal at at like six to seven ounces each. So it's not it's not something you're gonna see outside of like boutique butcher shops. Yeah or I mean we have some uh on our website because I like that kind of stuff so we have it processed um but boutique butcher shops um and then you may find them at some other online offerings I think I've seen them on some other online suppliers uh as well um but not not heavily about value uh available a lot of people are starting to see flap steak more often how do you suggest people approach that so that one I think is kind of is kind of tricky um and there's always so many just like there's so many different beefs and and ways to go about it there's so many different terms that are used for so many cuts um some of them have a lot of different have a lot of the same a lot of the same cuts have multiple names um you know they try to monetize and market these certain things um but anything that's coming from flap meat in general whether it's a muscle That's being pulled off of somewhere or a muscle itself, like a skirt, slice it out, slice it thin. Definitely slice it, slice it against the grain. Any and almost every single piece of meat is going to have some noticeable tissue fibers, just like the grain of wood where you can see uh the tissue fibers are running. Just do yourself a favor and try to cut against the grain, and that shortens the tissue fibers, giving you a much better um eating experience.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:24

You are an incredible beef broker.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:27

Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:28

Like, I mean, I like I would love to get to a place in my life where simply I can call you and have you broker all of the cow share orders for all of my clients. Like you are outstanding, you have such a depth of knowledge and skill.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:44

I appreciate that. I I really, I really love it. Um, it's very rewarding. Um and if you know if you ever anytime you need help with any of this stuff, you're always welcome to call me. And we can absolutely build some kind of beef shares because I'll tell you right now, no matter what I'm doing in life, um, when there's people that are interested in this and they really want to connect and get this stuff, I want to help because I think connecting to your food source um is is really, really important. And especially when you it's something that you're doing, like we talked about, we started this whole conversation with intent. It was all with intent, you know, and it's intent to supply uh to work with a farmer, to support your community, to get better product, to eat healthier, like all of those things. Like I'm 100% in support of that in everything I do.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:28

Yeah, and then in the end, you get to have a great meal.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:30

Yeah, always, always some good company.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:33

Yeah, like it's always a win-win.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:35

I agree.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:36

How can the listener connect with you, get in touch with you if they need to order your your suggestions of me, stop by herd and grace. So share all the presents.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:48

Yeah, so herdandgrace.com, that's H-E-R-D, right? Herd and Grace, and I'm sure you're gonna have a link for it. Um that's our that's our online platform. You can come see us in uh uh West LA. Um we've got a store on Pico, and that location is also on on the website. Um, you can email me, Michael at herd and grace. I try to respond to my emails, you know, somewhat, as you know, chef. Uh so but I mean get out there, look at this stuff. I mean, Heard and Grace, like I said, we have we have over 80 different cuts. We work with nine different suppliers, we've got everything from uh from from beef to lamb, we've got um Spanish pork. Um, you know, like we we work, we just really try to focus on finding great quality farmers and suppliers uh and just bringing that to the table, you know. We even we even have a salt farmer, you know, um which you yeah, from in Tasmania. It is they literally are harvesting seawater using like 85% solar energy to produce some of the world's greatest salt.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:50

Um, I bet because the water is so good down there. I bet it's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:54

Yes, so clean. So yeah, so yeah, it everything we do, we do with intent to connect people to the food source and just you know raise raise the value for everybody involved, you know, the farmers, ourselves, the distributors, and and and the end users, you guys too. So it's like, you know, we want everybody to win. That's our goal. That is our goal. You know, the ethos from Electric City Butcher, very similar to what what I'm doing now with Heart and Grace, is it's all about respecting responsible sourcing and bringing great quality products to the community.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:26

Yeah, I'm on that same bandwagon. My personal chef service with Team Starsea Kitchen is I just I want the chef to win. Like I want the chef to have a job that they love and feel for rewarded healing people with food. I want the client to get the support that they need and the cleaner meals that can improve their life. And like everybody, everybody wins if you do it the right way with the right intention for the right purpose. Um, and hopefully, I think this is what we're gonna be leaning towards as businesses evolve um in the coming years, is I really think um there are gonna be more intentional services.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:00

I agree, I I totally agree. And I didn't mention um obviously social media, you can reach us on there too, but we also partner with um with some barbecue stores. There's actually one in Long Beach, um BBQ Land, that uh carries all of our Herd and Grace product as well. So you know, we have we have satellite programs, we do affiliates and and we have all kinds of different programs going again. It's like, how do we reach more people? How do we get more meat, better, how do we get better meat on more plates? You know, and there's so many ways to do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:29

Yeah, I did share Herd and Grace with my chef in Sedona, and she's ordering from you guys now. Oh, great, for some of her clients um because um it's it's just a great source. And uh, you know, I have different clients that like they just always want a grass finished fillet. Yeah. Um, you know, some some people just know the cut that they they need in their life every week. I'm like a big ground beef person, I kind of can't go a week without it. So I understand. Um, but I'm gonna play around with different locations and flavor.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:57

Yeah, I would. And and you know what, if you do, if there's a the chef community, we have a chef program as well. So you as chefs, um, you guys get discounts for this as well. Um you can you can use the promo code, it's just H G V I P 10. Um any any of your private chefs can use that. And if they you know they want to uh suggest that they heard it from here, that's great, and we can connect with them because we ship, like I said, we ship all over the country. Um we just shipped, you know, I was like a hundred pounds of something to um a private house in uh in Utah for a private chef. So, you know, we're not just for the everyday consumer, we're for everybody in in between.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:35

Thank you so much. And something I asked all my guests um as we wrap up the episode is can you leave the listener with one you know food, health, or wellness tip that they can consider adding into their life?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:48

Absolutely. Um, and I think it's it all comes down to how we eat, right? Like eat with intention. Um, like so when you're when you're buying a tomato, intend to use that whole tomato. You know, when you when you buy, you know, celery and it has all the leaves and everything, like use it all. You know, I I mean I I have chickens and we compost and I make broth and you know, like nothing goes to waste. So I would leave everybody with eat with intention to not waste anything. Put everything to use because everything's either been farmed, processed, or you know, or or or picked for a purpose. So eat eat with the intention to not be wasteful, I think is the biggest thing for me.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:33

Well, Michael, such a pleasure having you on. Yeah, uh, this was such a treat for me. I learned so much, I didn't even get to half of my questions, um, but everything shared, everything you shared was perfect. Um and I'm really excited to hear about about your trip. Have the best time.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:49

Oh, I will. I'll be recording a whole bunch and I'm sure we'll talk again. And if we need to do a part two, we'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:55

Yeah, absolutely. But this has been such a treat for me. Thank you. Thank you so much, Whitney.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:00

Have a great day, Chef.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:01

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the High Vibration Living Podcast. If you enjoyed today's conversation, I'd love for you to leave a five-star rating and a written review wherever you're listening. It truly helps this podcast reach more people who are looking for this kind of support. And if something resonated with you, please pay it forward and share this episode with a friend or loved one who could benefit from it. To learn more about Starseed Kitchen and my organic spice blends, you can visit starseedkitchen.com. You can also follow along with me on social media at Whitney Arranaugh, where I share recipes, behind-the-scenes, chef life, and everyday inspiration. You can also follow Starseed Kitchen and Team Starseed Kitchen on Instagram as well. Thanks again for being here, wishing you nourishment, balance, and a vibrant life experience. I'll see you in the next episode. Cheers.