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The "Steak a la Max," a 12 oz. sirloin steak, at Max's Tavern in Springfield. Max's will occasionally source beef from Broad Brook Beef in Broad Brook, Conn.
(Don Treeger, The Republican)
What are the chances that your favorite steak dinner in the Pioneer Valley is locally-sourced beef? Not very high.
Although the most recent agricultural data shows that the number of farms in Massachusetts is increasing and consumers are buying more local food, many of the area's restaurants most popular for their steaks cite a range of issues when it comes to locally sourcing beef. The most obvious is the lack of supply in Western Massachusetts, where land is not as plentiful as other parts of the country and 95 percent of farms are small. In 2012, the average size of all farms was 68 acres, while the average number of agricultural products sold in the same year was about $63,000 per farm.
While ground beef is easier to source locally, the trick is getting the amount and varieties of cuts of beef -- like sirloin, filet mignon, and rib eye -- that restaurants offer on their menus.
Chef Jake Perkins, of Eastside Grill in Northampton, says local beef is only offered on a specials-type basis, usually during the summer months.
"One (local) farm I've worked with most consistently is Chicoine (Family Farm in Easthampton). But they only slaughter a couple cows a month," said Perkins, noting that the restaurant can go through 12 cows a week.
Mockingbird Farm, another small Easthampton operation, raises and processes a similar number of beef cattle. According to the farm's owner Peter Solis, he will send about five cows to slaughter this year.
Deborah Snow, the co-owner and executive chef of Blue Heron in Sunderland, says about 20 percent of the beef, poultry, and pork served at her restaurant is regionally sourced from across New England and Pennsylvania. Snow makes a concerted effort to use as much local meat and produce as possible -- and when she can't get local meat, she uses ethically sourced and sustainably raised meats from California, Kansas and Pennsylvania.
"There is probably, not at this time, enough beef grown in the area to give me all that I need," Snow explained, though she acknowledges that all of the restaurant's namesake Blue Heron burgers are made with ground beef from Foxbard Farm in Shelburne. "… Some of the aspects people don't understand is that the majority of beef goes to ground beef. A steer will go to slaughter, say, at about 1,500 pounds or somewhere in there. There's only, for example, two filet mignons, two sides to the animal, two of every cut on that one animal, and about 30 percent of the animal goes to waste."
Snow also notes that some farmers are prone to sell beef to individuals looking to buy half and whole cows because the individual would pay a higher price, thus increasing the farmer's profit.
The Blue Heron's namesake burger, made from beef sourced from Foxbard Farm in Shelburne.
Max's Tavern in Springfield, another go-to restaurant for entrees like New York strip, filet mignon, and prime rib, gets its steaks through the Boston-based distribution company Kinnealey Quality Meats. According to Joe Kinnealey, all of the beef Max's purchases is from cows raised in the midwest.
"Occasionally we'll source a local farm for beef, but not all the time," said Max's Tavern General Manager John Thomas. When the restaurant does use local beef, it's often from Broad Brook Beef in Broad Brook, Conn.
"I like a good steak, and it's not necessarily where it comes from but how great the cut is and whether it's as close to prime as it possibly can be," Thomas explained.
According to General Manager Jason Dinelle, Lattitude Restaurant in West Springfield gets its beef from local butcher shop Arnold's Meats, which has stores in Chicopee and East Longmeadow. Arnold's mostly sells beef sourced from companies like IBP Beef, Excel Fresh Meats, Hormel Foods and Farmland Foods, according to owner Larry Katz.
"It's not a humongous beef industry around here, so it makes sourcing it in any kind of quantity tough," said Dinelle.
Joe Gionfriddo, the chef and owner of Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse in Northampton, says his restaurant currently offers all Natural Black Angus steaks from Creekstone farms in Kansas, but has plans to feature local steaks from Cow Belle Farm in Amherst.
"The steaks (from Creekstone farms) are all Natural Black Angus, hormone and antibiotic free, fed a 100 percent vegetarian diet, and live a pasture-based, cruelty-free lifestyle," Gionfriddo said. "Cow Belle Farm is in the early stages of their production so their available steaks will be on a small-scale basis at the moment, and based on that we will be using them as available starting this spring."
Restaurants that want to use local beef and other meat face several challenges, says Margaret Christie, special projects director for Communities Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA), an organization that works to strengthen local agriculture by building connections between farmers and the community.
According to Christie, the challenges for restaurants that want to use local beef are: the higher price of local meat; the added time and resources required to deal with multiple farmers instead of one distributor; the supply of beef available; and the preference for fresh versus frozen meat. Because local meat is usually delivered back to the farmer before being delivered to a restaurant, grocery store, or farmer's market, slaughterhouses will often freeze the meat to prevent spoilage that may occur if the product isn't picked up immediately.
Christie also explained that much of the challenge lies in how restaurants will use the less-common cuts of beef.
"For example, chicken has both white and dark meat, but in the U.S. people really prefer white meat. For beef, there are certain cuts of beef a restaurant is used to using, but a cow will only have so much of whatever that (cut) is," Christie said. "How to use the rest of the animal requires innovation on the part of the chef and education of customers."
This story is the first of several on the topic of local food. Future stories will look at the costs of local vs. nonlocal meat, regulations surrounding meat production in Massachusetts and its effect on the supply, and the scarcity of USDA-inspected slaughterhouses in the state.