WHY VEAL??

So maybe it depends on your age, or even where you were brought up & learned to cook, but it seems like everyone has an opinion about veal, good or bad. When Jim & I were growing up, veal got a bad rap in the news because of the way that the majority of it was being raised. It’s been a long slow climb back, but I think veal deserves a spot at everyone’s table. Let me tell you why!

Veal is a product of the dairy industry. In order for a dairy cow to keep producing milk efficiently, she needs to calve once every 12 months or so. Though science has come a long way & we can actually choose to select the sex of a calf before the cow even becomes pregnant (a topic for a different post!), this technology can be expensive & isn’t as widely used in the industry as you might think. When most cows are bred, there’s a 50/50 chance that the resulting calf will be a bull (male) or a heifer (female). The heifers can grow up to give milk, but the bull calves either become beef or veal. Most dairy farms don’t keep their bulls, but instead sell them to veal growers who raise them from there. They are raised with their needs & comfort as the #1 goal. The main component of their diet is milk or milk formula, but they also get good quality forage, & some even get specially formulated grain.

On our farm, we raise all of our dairy bull calves right here. They drink a whole lot of milk & eat a lot of high quality baleage (the same high quality stuff we feed to the milk cows). Our veal never receives any grain. We raise them individually in calf hutches for the first two months, which gives them a good solid start. Then we move them to a group pen called a super hutch for another 4-5 months. We move the hutch around, but they always have a good sized yard to run & play in. We generally raise two at a time, but of course that depends on if we get a bull or heifer calf!

Our veal calves are processed at the same USDA inspected facility that all of our meats are. They are handled humanely & with careful detail paid to every aspect of the process. The resulting meat is a high quality source of animal protein that’s hard to beat. Veal can be used any way that you’d use beef, but it can also handle a lot of different spice combinations. It has a different flavor profile than beef, and because it’s younger it hasn’t developed the healthy fats we strive for in our beef. It’s a great fit for those looking for lean protein! Ground veal makes a great burger, and chops are a nice substitute for steak. These pics are of a shoulder chop that filled the pan & fed three of us; we ate it off the plate with our fingers it was so good!

We carry three kinds of chops, ground, kabobs, & several different kinds of steaks year round. If you’re in our store, I hope you’ll check it out!