Meat meets Hoosier bellies at market

Community members can meet elk, cow and bison meat Saturday's near the front steps of City Hall.\nThe Bloomington Community Farmer's Market offers students, residents and guests the opportunity to purchase local-farmed meat raised through otherwise organic methods of grass grazing without any chemical or hormonal additives. Campus community members can munch on meat jerky of all persuasions for a few dollars or they can stock the freezer with thick meat steaks for about $20 more.\nBloomfield resident Becky Long, co-owner of Long's Elk Farm and an occupational therapist by day, said the elk meat from their stand was fed clover, rye, grass, whole kernel corn and a daily mineral pellet. Becky said she and her husband own and oversee a 25 elk herd as a potential retirement project to ensure sustainable living throughout decades to come. \n"As a whole there are ups and downs to raising elk," Becky said Saturday morning in between meat-for-money transactions for ground elk, elk patties, elk rolled-rumbo roast, elk steaks and elk summer sausage. "Yesterday, two elk calves were born -- that's really neat. My husband broke his leg rounding up the elk once -- that was no fun. It's a lot work but we have our favorites, and our favorites won't be in the freezer."\nBecky said her husband, similar to most Community Farmer's Market meat vendors, sends a few two- to three-year-old animals a month to Rice's Meat Processing for slaughter because the facility is state-inspected as per federal law. She recommends patrons cook elk meat medium rare to prevent drying the meat.\nAll meat farms are governed by the Board of Animal Health and each farmer must abide by a plethora of other state and federal laws pertaining to animal safety such as security fences and periodic health care. \nBloomfield residents Sanford Graber and Jonathan Miller, who were volunteering their time Saturday morning to trade White River Produce's meat and eggs for U.S. currency, said Community Farmer's Market patrons might enjoy local farm-raised meats instead of over-the-counter meats sold at the grocery store because Bloomington students, residents and guests can interact with the meat farmer and discuss how the animal was raised.\nWhite River Produce owned by William and Carolyn Schrock, oversees about 400 or 500 chickens, about 50 heads of cattle and about 20 hogs, Graber and Miller said. \n"Local farm-meat is definitely a lot better for you because it has no antibiotics and no hormones," Graber said. "The cattle on the White River Produce farm are fed grass in the summer and hay in the winter. No chemicals, pesticides or herbicides are spraying on the grass -- the beef is organic but not certified. The pigs roam on an open range."\nGraber, who works on his dad's dairy farm throughout the week and most weekends, said the White River Produce stand offers pork sausage, pork chops, tenderloin, bacon, ham, spare ribs, beef cube steak, chuck roast, rump roast, soup bones, and beef tongue to name a few items. He recommends Community Farmer's Market meat patrons fry most slabs of beef before baking them in an oven like a roast with a little salt and pepper.\nBainbridge resident Jason English, of English's Buffalo Farm, said his parents John and Sheila raise about 100 head of bison on their 100 acre farm. Jason and cousin Bradley said their farm chores consist of fencing the property, feeding the animals, loading the bison to be slaughtered, weighing the meat, boiling the skulls, selling the hides and promoting the family farm and gift shop. \n"There is always something to do on the farm -- put out hay, feed the bulls, cut wood," Jason said. "Bison like to walk around, eat, sleep and shit . They stay in the back of the farm and come up once a day for water. You have a 50/50 chance of seeing them. Sometimes you can hand feed them, but other times they'll stop until they build up the courage. Bison are real curious -- they check everything out and snoop around."\nA pamphlet provided by the English Buffalo Farm stand claims bison meat contains lets fat, cholesterol and calories than both beef and chicken.\nJason, who works the third-shift at the Indianapolis airport before arriving home in the early morning to work on his family's farm, said bison farming is often difficult because the animals tend to "tear up, bust, bend-in-half and break" any structure not made of reinforced steel or concrete. He said the typical slaughtered bison provides about 600 to 700 pounds of meat.\nThe Long's five year old elk farm, similar to the English's Buffalo farm, was started with three animals purchased from another farm because it's against the law to fence-in wild elk or bison. Becky said her husband, a state aerial photographer by day, is planning to increase their elk stock to about 100 animals when he retires in a few years.\n"Most of the time elk are very docile animals -- they walk around and graze and lay around and graze," Long said. "Elk are herd animals: they stick together and get upset if they are by themselves. It's not like horses, you don't really go out and pet an elk. You feed them and look at them -- I don't really consider them pets"