We just returned from a fantastic trip to visit some of the farmers who supply our meat. It is really important to us to know where the ingredients for our products come from, so we went to see the animals, check out where and how they are raised, and talk to the farmers about their practices. We even ate some grass from the lovely pastures at one of the ranches!

We travelled through the Columbia River Gorge and across the Oregon border to Idaho, where we met up with Don and Virginia Wilkinson of Pasture Proper.  While in Idaho we visited several farmers who specialize in grass fed beef.  We then continued back to Oregon and through Bend, where we stopped at Pine Mountain Ranch, where Alan Rousseau raises grass fed buffalo, elk, and yak.  Finally we drove through some lovely snow to the Eugene area, where we met up with Reed Anderson of Anderson Ranches and Petrene from Sweet Briar Farms.  A really great trip and we will be posting lots more about each of these special farms in the coming weeks.

The main thing we discussed on this trip was grass.  PPC only purchases 100% grass fed, pasture raised beef, bison, and lamb.  There are tons of reasons why grass fed is the way to go - Chris is working on some posts to tell you more about this.  But if you are excited about grass, this really is a beautiful time of year.  As Don Wilkinson said with obvious glee on a balmy Boise evening, "The grass is growing!"

My sister Chris and her awesome partner Charlotte live in Emeryville, CA, so we had to swing through SF on our cross country trip. Since all of my plans revolve around what I will eat next, we coordinated our visit to coincide with the amazing farmer's market at Ferry Plaza. As my sister says, the Ferry Building is like ground zero of epicurian awesomeness. The Ferry has every treat you could possibly desire, from Cowgirl Creamery cheese to grass fed meat from Prather Ranch to crazy-good figs from Knoll Farms.

But what we really needed that morning was a good coffee. The line at the Blue Bottle Coffee Co. kiosk was soooo long, and being impatient as always I tried to convince our crew to find caffeine elsewhere. But wise Charlotte calmly said, "And where else do you have to be right now? It is beautiful and sunny. Shall we wait?" And I am so glad she did, because that coffee, enjoyed while sitting in the sun with some of my favorite people in the world, was truly worth waiting for.