Today, we took a trip out to Marksbury Farm’s Pasture Burgers and BBQ, a cafe/butcher shop/grocery store. It’s roughly an hour and a half drive from our place. Why? Because this processor has strict requirements for the meat it will process – in short, they don’t accept or serve cruelty meat.
Because we don’t eat cruelty meat, we are typically unable to eat at restaurants or at potlucks. While we try to explain the values and beliefs underpinning how we eat to others, most either look at us like we’re loony, or they seem to not hear us (not everyone, though…like our friend CH, who not only listened, but got it). People usually conclude that we’re vegetarians, which is inaccurate. As you can imagine, when we find a restaurant that sources locally, from suppliers who embrace humane animal husbandry practices, we get really excited. Add the possibility of BBQ, and we’re beside ourselves.
For good BBQ, we’ll drive an hour and a half. Mind you, there are several BBQ places within a half hour of where we live, but they use conventionally-raised meat, which generally means it’s grain-finished and could even be from a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, or CAFO. We want to eat local, humanely-raised, grass fed (and finished) beef. Animals raised this way go beyond “organic”, which is a limited scope label.
We enjoyed a scenic drive to the BBQ place and eagerly stepped up to the counter…only to find that they were out of the chicken and pork BBQ. Worse yet, the guy working the counter told us that they normally would have it all day, just not today. Great – we arrived on a day they sold out.
As a consolation choice, we went with the smoked bologna reuben and a side of mac and cheese. The reuben was top notch, and so filling that the mac and cheese, while tasty, wasn’t necessary. We also stocked up on ground beef, some pork chops, andouille sausage (for Portuguese kale soup), brats, and leaf lard. We wanted regular lard, but they had already sold out.
Will we go back? Heck yeah! The pulled pork still needs to be sampled. The employees were friendly and helpful, adding to the overall experience. Maybe next time, we’ll try an Ale-8-One, too. If you’re in Lancaster, KY, be sure to check it out! Link here: https://marksburyfarm.com/.