Edited by Dallas Mark and translated by Jessica Forbes
Whole Hog Dinners began here in 1999, and led to regular weekly deliveries to our kitchen of whole animals from Paul Willis. Soon, every other kind of whole animal followed, and three years ago we began receiving whole beef animals. So we think we’re somewhat knowledgeable in this “whole animal” thing.
But this visit with Dario Cecchini offers whole animal butchery from the vantage of one family’s collective experience, spannng over 250 years, practicing the traditional craft of butchery as well as the proper care of animals.
It serves as a reminder to us, to continue to learn and understand more deeply.
On Wednesday we drove up to Winters, CA to help with the harvest of our Red Flint corn. First, we did some hand-picking in hopes of selecting some quality seed for next year’s planting. Lesson learned: hand-harvesting corn is hard (and itchy) work! Thankfully, the John Deere 9600 combine showed up and helped out with the rest of the five acres. Continue reading ‘Red Corn Harvest 2010′
For our upcoming beef dinners, we are inviting a few notable local beef ranchers to join us each night so our patrons can meet them. We’re pleased that Mac Magruder will join us on Saturday, October 16th. Mac is probably one of the first grass-fed cattle ranchers in the alternative-to-feedlot era from northern California, and probably well beyond. For the past twenty years he’s been developing a very well-thought-out system of grazing and pasture management, and in the process has invented a business for himself which is enriching all of us. When interest in grass-fed beef took-off several years ago, it was Mac’s beef that showed us how tasty it could be. Continue reading ‘Oliveto Beef Dinners 2010′
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