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Intro
Hey! Welcome to Food News & Chews and today we're going
to find out about stretching meeeeeat.
And Sylvia's going to throw dog food everywhere.
Stay tuned. It's going to be exciting.
Yeah, actually, we have sixth generation cattle farmer Trent
Loos on. We're going to be talking to him about the drought.
Huge issues for the guys out west and also the rest of the world
because food production is actually low or higher in costs but
lower in terms of production. Then I've got a really nice cooking
segment. We're going to learn how to stretch our meat with a
version of tacos. We're to use orange and buttermilk and red
onions; should be nice and tasty. Then Sylvia's got some
fun food news also.
Yeah, that's right and we'll be right back with Food News & Chews.
Hi! Welcome back to Food News & Chews and we're here
at Dengers.
Yes, Hearth & Patio & Grill, Nicholasville KY.
And we're here Jeremy, as you announced earlier we're
going to do an interview with Trent Loos, the ultimate
cowboy.
Yes.
Talking about the drought today and that's all that's
going on. But you are doing something here as we
get into Food News. We're going to let people watch us cook.
Yeah, since we're doing something on the drought we have
to learn how to stretch our meat because there is going to
be a shortage. Right, so
That's right, we're going to talk about that.
I'm going to put some tomatoes and peppers on for some
tacos we're going to make but uh, anyway, olive oil, salt and
pepper on green tomatoes and jalapeno.
There you go.
Throw those right on the grill.
Hot grill.
We're going to let those charr up and talk some food topics.
Right Sylvia.
Let's talk about some food news. Let's talk about some things
related to drought. It's really a big issue. Now here in Central
Kentucky uh we don't have a drought issue, do we?
We're like five inches above for the year. But, that doesn't
mean necessarily the drought has been erased in the midwest.
Trent is going to talk to us about is impact on cattle prices
because basically farmers are selling off all their stuff.
Right, this is
Critters.
this came from the 2012 drought
Yeah.
which we're really starting to feel the heat now.
Yeah.
May be too little too late.
The price of this is way up.
Yeah. Way up so that is a big issue. But I thought you know
they say because of whatever you want to say uh climate
change or whatever that we're going to have and you know
we just uhhhh, not too long ago lost tragically 19 firefighters
in a fire in Arizona. We're going to get hotter and more stormy
and thus more fire uhhh hazards in the forests of the West
particularly, they are baking there. But in South Dakota the
extreme heat or the extreme drought has actually lessened.
Moderate is still up, we're still having issues and that sort of thing.
As a result of that Jeremy, what we want to talk about is the new kind
of way of looking at your food and is that a grasshopper wing
in your tea?
No, I'm not into eating insects yet. no.
Okay. We're going to be eating more bugs according to one
news story.
I hope not.
Horse meat. The first horse meat slaughtering/butchering facility
is about to open in New Mexico. Just got an approval.
That's going to be a huge thing for Americans to actually palate too.
Also Sylvia, that's also meat as well. You have to raise a horse, feed
a horse and slaughter a horse. It's the same thing as cows and chickens.
We'll have to stretch our meat.
And stretching your meat is a big also, doesn't it have to do with
irrigation? Didn't we learn a lot about irrigation over the drought?
We did and a lot of hydroponics doing less water.
Using less water to produce food.
And that's going to be a big thing.
But, we're not eating dogs yet but I thought maybe you might like
to mix in some dog food.
I'm going to eat some tacos. I'm not to that point yet. So,
no dog food for me.
Anyway, little nuggets of dog food. It's amazing what I
carry around. You never know. Another really uh oh! Algae.
We should talk about that because Dr. Pearse Lyons with Alltech
did a phenomenal editorial in the Sunday newspaper or yesterday's
newspaper, it was Monday. Actually, not yesterday's because we are
showing this later but anyway. What he talked about was the algae plant.
Algae are these little things
Sure.
that microbiological things and I don't even know how to say it but
they are actually going to be feeding us into the future and that's another
way to stretch food and Dr. Lyons and Alltech! Right here in Central Kentucky
That also means for fuels too, I think. It's a big issue as well.
And we learned about that biofuels
Hopefully, we'll cut down on other production costs different ways
to use biofuels will help when it comes to producing food and energy costs.
Yeah, that and Dr. Lyons and Symposium was awesome. We
learned a lot about that. That plant is in Winchester by the way processing
algae in the wave of the future.
Mmmmhmmm.
Now. There's another interesting story. The matzo bread is the unleavened
bread that the orthodox Jewish faith eats during Passover.
Mmmmhmmm.
They have actually found a use for the drought because they have looked
for the driest place in the US to grow the wheat so that it will not
bread won't rise as a result of
Oh, I see so it's unleavened.
It's unleavened.
Also, they have to have it completely pure.
So they guard these fields.
Yeah, I think so. I don't want any contamination to ruin religious beliefs
the fact that they have to eat something pure. People are watching it
making sure there is no chemical additives
New York City
because there's been all kinds of crazy stuff put in your food because
of the drought. You know feeding candy to cows or maybe additives
to make things grow quicker because there's no water.
There's no water. Anyway, lots of interesting things with the drought
it's not gone away despite the fact the Bluegrass area is very lush. Just
one more thing on Chickens Magazine. I haven't done my chickens
report recently. Now here's the headline Jeremy for the July issue.
July/August issue. Preparation H as in Hen, love that. How to heal
a prolapsed oviduct. Did you know how to do that?
Ahhh. You know, we don't learn that in culinary school. We don't learn
how to heal a hen at all.
You better go back to school. Learn how to use these dog food nuggets
anyway, we're going to be back with Trent Loos.
Yeah.
Then, we're going to have this delicious taco meal that you're going
to prepare for us.
Exactly. We're going to stretch out the meat because we don't have
much of it.
Yeah.
We're going to stretch it out and have tacos which will feed a feast or
a family or lots of people.
Whatever. We'll be back with Trent Loos in an interview here
in just a moment with Food News & Chews.
Welcome to Food News & Chews and we have back a guest that
we've had before and I love this guy. He's the Wyatt Earp of the
modern era of food.
That's right.
Or whatever that means. I think Wyatt was more into imbibing stuff.
Hahaha. What.
Than cattle rancher.
Gambling & shooting. Right. But this guy
He was a problem solver.
That's true.
six generation cattle farmer, Trent Loos.
Yeah.
He's got Loos Tales on the radio. I've been checking it out
over the past year since I met him.
Sssst. He's hot!
Have you really?
I have been.
Heck yeah. We check you out buddy.
Yeah, I've actually run into him 2 or 3 times now. He comes
to Lexington very often for Alltech especially Symposium to find
out all the current trends and especially how corporations are dealing
with perception of food.
Yeah and you know one of the things I after knowing you for
about the last year and keeping in touch with you One of the things
that's really starting to occur to me and Jeremy, I know we are a farm
to table kind of restaurant and local is important but as we get more
confused out there you know you're sort of a confusing guy.
Oh, not at all.
Here, you don't fit a niche.
I wouldn't want to be predictable.
You're a six generation cattle farmer.
Yep.
And then you're also into taking care of your animals and that sort
of thing but you're not in the locavore category that you don't hate
corporations and you're not anti-technology. Who are you Trent Loos?
Well, I'm Trent Loos, sixth generation United States rancher. Period.
Hahaha. Yeah. What does that mean?
We need to really get in touch with the land and the livestock. And,
what we need to do which is the whole concept of the Symposium
at Alltech is to produce more with less.
Yeah.
And I think we need to back up and say, "How do we define local?"
To me it's pretty easy. If it's grown in the United States then it's local.
Three weeks ago, I was fifty miles south of Los Angeles on a strawberry
farm and I've got a great picture. I've should have sent you the picture.
We can get you the picture. And they're picking strawberries and
putting them on a cart and putting them on a truck. And those
strawberries are going to go to Anaheim that night and be flown to
New York City and consumed tomorrow.
Fresh, right?
You can't get more fresh than that. Now, I want to back up Jeremy
just quickly and say, while I think that it's local it's domestic if it's grown
in the United States but I also think that if you can buy local produce
for an economic reason that's always a benefit.
There's a lot to that too the whole term local now is actually
becoming placed within a lot of different facets the term regional. The
extreme locavores are realizing I can't really survive all year on certain
things in certain parts of the area. So, regionality is kind of taking over
and we're also kind of realizing what it takes to feed a lot of population.
Ummm so, you know, economic standpoint if you do fly a bushel of
strawberries across the nation sometimes that is more the
environmental impact might be less than say
Transportation costs.
It is because take eggs for example. We've got great statistics. A semi
hauls 28,000 dozen eggs.
28,000 dozen.
Wow, look at that how many.
So, you put that many eggs on a truck and deliver them to a centralized
point
Mmmmhmmm.
the transportation and the big picture is miniscule.
Yeah.
In fact, someone driving from Lexington 30 miles out to a farm
To get a dozen eggs
to get a dozen eggs is a greater impact. And all that I think is noise
and we need to celebrate what we have as American citizens. We're
here with people from 80 countries and everyone of them pay at
least twice as much for food on a per capita basis as we do. We
should be celebrating that and what got us to that point.
Well, producers are getting a little irritated by this sort of local mentality.
That came out yesterday in our branding seminar.
Well, that's part of the noise too. You know the public has a perception
too because they usually get bombarded from a media aspect about things
that are happening or being put in their food. Nobody really understands
and I just don't know how the large suppliers are actually dealing with
marketing campaigns or how to explain themselves or if it's even
intentional the confusion out there.
I think that's one of the things we would like to figure out. How do that?
How do you and I think that people in the most optimistic view is
starting to ask better questions.
Thirteen years ago I started doing television, radio and media work
because I didn't think people knew enough about their food.
Right and that's why you
Today I think they know too much about their food.
They know too much.
Because too much of what they know
They get cycled into it.
isn't so.
They get so focused
Right.
on one little thing.
They're better off not knowing than being misinformed.
Misinformed.
So, re-educating is a tough deal.
Not that it's not good to know your farmer or support your guys across
the road.
That never should come out of the equation. Knowing the farmer that's
been my whole premise is putting a face on the farmer that's why
I have facesofag.com
Yeah, yeah.
That seems to be local in my aspect. It falls into my lap because I have
such a good relationship with my core people that you know, they come
bring it to me and I go see them and that's really what I feel comfortable
doing.
Let me ask you what you think of that little vignette that Pearse Lyons showed
opening session. Uh, Paul Harvey. The a farmer.
God Made a Farmer.
Controversy in that. God Made a Farmer but a lot of people thought that
was actually, kind of over done. I heard a lot of criticism of it on the internet
and stuff. What do you think about that? Was that good? It evoked
an image like every farmer is like well worn
It is
There is a big corporate farm to that concept.
It had a good message. It did not portray modern food production.
Yeah.
Where we're at today. I was concerned about it because people don't
know who Paul Harvey was in the last twenty years of his life.
That's true.
He brought the animal rights message to mainstream media.
Okay.
And had it not been for Paul Harvey we wouldn't deal with a lot of the
things that we deal with today and from the animal rights community.
That was because his son, Paul Harvey, Jr. took over the production of
the show and Paul Harvey just sat down and read it. We lose
sight of those things and we tend to forget.
More complex.
The message is good. It did not portray where we're at today which is
more of a nostalgic romance. But the ag community loved it because
they saw themselves
They saw themselves
saw themselves in those ads.
Like it kind of created that awareness put it out there
Raised the level of conversation.
And here's what I said it was a tool.
Yeah.
And it opened dialogue. Whether the dialogue is good or
bad it doesn't matter.
We're pertinent too.
We could have that dialogue too.
Ah-hah! That's for another edition. How about tomatoes
from Mexico? I just have to ask you. You say domestic.
Domestic. United States
But what about if you are from Mexico and you say tomatoes?
Is that bad?
No, not at all.
You're just defining local if you want local.
If you want. I think
You're not opposed to
No, not opposed.
not opposed as long as it is done well.
There's a nutritional value in eating eating tomatoes 52 weeks a year.
And if you can't get them from the United States, I would rather have
tomatoes from Mexico than not have tomatoes.
Yeah and bananas.
Everybody eats bananas all year round.
How about the drought? Tell us about the drought. The suffering
in the Midwest.
The drought in the Plains has been significant. The farther South
Texas, Oklahoma it's been a serious number of years. Right in
the middle of the Great Plains where I live Nebraska we had a
severe the worst year ever last year. We're this year caught up but
supplies of feed and forages are so low that over such a large region
that I am really concerned. Not just about the economic benefit of the
farmer. I'm concerned about the infrastructure of the beef industry.
In fact, I'm going to make a statement that I never would have thought
that I would ever make. If we don't rely and import more beef in 2013 than
we ever have we're all going to be in trouble when it comes to
access to beef.
Wow. And affordability.
We're that short on beef supplies. We heard at this meeting. One of the
major hamburger fast food restaurants is going to begin to blend
pork 50%
50%?
50%
Wow.
into their burgers.
So this is drastically serious.
The infrastructure is at risk and it is a direct result of the drought. I
personally had the worst year in my life.
How long do you think it would really take to really down the pipeline
catch this production up?
Five years.
Five years to really
Wow.
to really bring it back together?
Well, what we've had happen is we had a record low number of breeding
animals. And you don't breed a cow/calve until they are two years old.
So, you have to number one breed and retain those females those cows
back into the herd breed them and once you breed them you are a
year, nine months from them calving and then you're another two years
from that beef being available on the market place. So, once you start
the first impact will be felt at five years.
Fascinating.
Now has the industry learned anything from this not that you can do
anything about the drought but is there other ways to combat this? To
help production? You say, buy beef from non-domestic sources. Right?
Right.
Big news on this Trent.
We can mitigate and try to deal with everything except the nature. When
it's Mother Nature driving the ship here's long term if we survive and
maintain the infrastructure, we'll be better off in the global marketplace
because we'll learn to be more efficient
Use our water better and all of that.
right because we haven't said your favorite word yet the
Ogallala Aquifer.
Ogallala. Ogallala Lonesome Dove.
It's the largest underground water lake reserve in the world.
And it's all under Nebraska Texas too a little bit in South Dakota.
And, it is at historic lows in terms of water access. So, water is
going to become a great big issue.
Water is the new Gold Rush.
Well, okay that was
Very interesting.
Trent Loos. We'll have him back 'cause he's a favorite.
Can't wait.
Anyway, you've been listening to Food News and Chews and we
appreciate everything you all are doing and thank you Trent.
Thank you Sylvia.
Good to see ya.
Welcome back to Food News and Chews. What are you cooking
for us today Chef?
I've got some great sirloin tacos we're going to do. Fiery seared.
I've got a little bit of an orange and tomato sauce and then we're
going to put some buttermilk marinaded onions on top. But first of
all we've got to make a spice rub to make this beef fiery and delicious.
And what's your objective here is to show our viewers how you
can stretch meat.
Well, back at the restaurant a lot of the guys come in with a little
bit of meal and we'll throw it on the grill and everybody sits around and
feasts on tacos. You know it's just kind of part of tradition down in Mexico
and we have a couple guys that work in the kitchen that are from there.
It's a community action thing community kind of social way to eat and
I'm telling you something like this will feed four or five people.
Yeah.
So, that's one way to stretch your meat. But anyway, to start the recipe
equal part salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne pepper, sugar
I guessed one out of those.
That's right!
One out of seven.
And this is ancho-chili powder and what this is is just a great
little spice rub.
Dry stuff first.
Dry spice rub actually for your meat which you want to sprinkle it on there
cake it on there really good both sides. Nobody likes any one sided
food, right?
Mmm. It smells good. Real good.
Well, before when we were talking about food news we put some
green tomatoes and a jalapeño on the grill and they've been charring if
you can see that over there. When they get done they are going to look
something like this. The meat will have to go on there to sear as well.
Hey! Bill Best talked about in one of our previous shows about one of his
heirloom tomatoes are ripe, green.
Yeah, they're actually bred to be green and ripe.
These are different because they have to be cooked.
These are raw green tomatoes. Ones that were just under ripe and
what we mean by that is that they're not ripe at all but they get a little
sour and a little bit tart. A lot of people love them. I think they're great.
Especially when you get a nice charr, caramelization like that on the grill
like you see over here.
One nice innovation here too I didn't know this but you can actually
grill these vegetables along with other vegetables and give them that
nice like steak-y feel.
I love grilled vegetables. It completely changes the dynamics and the
flavor of just regular vegetables versus steaming or sautéing where it
gets too soggy sometimes. The grill gets the nice crust on the outside
especially when they're good and fresh. So, we've got to make a sauce.
What are we doing?
We've got to make a sauce. It's going to be a green tomato and orange
sauce. It's really bright for beef.
You're going to put all that in there then you're going to do a
V I T A M E T A V E G A M I N deal. Remember Lucille Ball?
So, what you do is take your green tomatoes and put them in the blender.
Along with a little
marmalade.
orange marmalade.
Ahhh I guessed it. See I'm going to become a cook after all.
And then, a couple cloves of garlic. A little bit of orange juice.
You've got a lot of orange juice squeezing in there.
I do. You always want to use fresh fruit and squeeze the juice
into it. The bottled stuff just doesn't hold a candle when it comes
to making a recipe or making food nice and fresh. So, we've
got those ingredients in there. You need a nice little bunch of cilantro
just rip it off of the stem.
Did you grow that in the back of Azur?
No, this did not.
Enough growing in the back of Azur.
I have a tough time growing cilantro in Kentucky. It just seems
not to work well. Then we'll take the whole charred jalapeño and put
that in there as well.
Oh, boy!
So, you need a high speed blender, something like a Vitamix or anything
that will handle the job. And at that point we're just going to put it on
and turn this guy on slow and kind of slowly increase your speed.
And then we need to talk very high pitched.
See how quick that goes.
Look at that.
Bright green salsa
Mmmmlet me smell that Yummers!
Pour into the bowl.
I can smell the jalapeños.
It's beautiful and bright green, grassy. It's going to be great on tacos
I'm going to taste for seasoning.
What do you think?
It's perfect. Don't even need salt or pepper.
So, we'll flip our beef, let that get charred on both sides, grill our
tortillas and put together our dish.
Oh, man that looks good. Fabulous. Hey Jeremy, you know what?
We'd be better off if we do more prepackaged, halfway cooked things.
Consumer research shows that people don't actually want to cook
all the way from A to Z. They want to pick up in the middle. Maybe
they want to buy the pasta but they don't want to do that
The old Hamburger Helper trick, right? Just buy the meat.
Yeah. Just buy the chicken. You see a lot of those packaged things in the
grocery store.
Starting to but of course I want people to eat non-processed food
whatsoever and just fresh and stuff but if you have the choice of going
out to dinner to a restaurant all the time, preparing a meal at home
just the important family aspect of cooking a meal, sitting down and
eating it and talking is very, very important.
Yeah, okay. What else are we going to do here?
Well, we have to let our meat grill up and we can slice our tacos and
present them.
Okay Jeremy, what now?
So, take some tortilla shells the corn one and throw those
on the grill just for a second while you take your meat off
the grill and the thing about tacos is it goes a long way.
Oh, that looks good.
You just slice the meat very, very thin. You can see a nice, sharp
knife.
Oh, that's perfectly cooked.
And go ahead and do it. And you want to let the meat rest a little bit
before you slice it but we're going to go ahead and rush this for
television. So, we've got a nice pile of greatly seasoned sirloin.
Of course, this is Lyons Farm we use. The taco shells can come
off the grill. I'm going to do two. I usually do two stacked right
on top of each other. That's the traditional thing. Add a little
bit of beef on each one and we want to use lots of our
Boy, those could stretch.
our green, tomato and orange sauce. The really, really good
stuff.
That is good stuff. I had to have a taste.
Nice handful of buttermilk marinaded red onions.
Perfect.
They are wonderful. Let them sit as long as you can
and if you can go overnight that is even better. And just
fresh cilantro sprigs.
And because flavors come together.
I think so. The enzymes kind of cook the onions too.
Make a nice texture. Anyway, you just kind of sit these up.
Piggy back right next to each other.
Where does the hot sauce come in buddy?
And if you so prefer, just a little bit of Chalula Hot Sauce
on each one would be great but we're going to let people
season those up themselves. Anyway, that's a more
Pretty.
.. traditional style of taco. Ahh, with the corn tortillas and fiery beef
just our version. You can get the recipes at foodnewsandchews.com
Hope you guys try this one.
Stretching your meat.
Yeah.
That's what we're after. We've been with Food News and Chews
and saving meat. Thank you for being with us. We'll see you
next week.