Grass-fed Beef

I just got home from my first visit to my local beef farm.

I got to pet a 2 week old calf!

I also got to walk in the grassed pasture... and boy can cows poop! Land mines all over the place.

I was also followed by an emu and a dog and some cats and some chickens and a rooster! The emu was following me around in the pasture... stuck to me like glue! The cats and chickens were not in the pasture but they sure were hanging around outside! One of the two dogs did go in the pasture with us but he was just checking out the bulls and cows.

It was a nice place. The folks that live there were straight forward. Told me that they hadn't worked up a price for this year yet but because they give first preference to their customers from previous years I might be on a wait list. Understood.

It is nice to get to know the people who are raising your food. I wanted to make sure that the cows were happy, well-cared for, and had plenty of room to roam. All of this was a check in my book!

I now have to find someone local who wants to split a quarter with me. I really don't think, as a single person, that I can take a full quarter myself. Too much meat. I have some friends... even if I have to get 3 more of them involved because no one wants to split it halfsies... I'll get it done!

I'm so tired of paying $11.00 a pound for grass-fed steak from another country. Buy local, pay less. Do your homework and you'll get yourself involved with the right farm.

Now I just hope that beef is not a flare producer for me. Like I said in my last post, I've never considered meat as a probable cause so I've never paid attention to what meat I may have eaten when I do flare up. I eat mostly chicken... so you'd think that I could tell... but you'd be wrong. It could be anything... could be the spices I use on my chicken or on the steak... you never know... and that's what this whole journey is about.

Tomorrow I start a Whole30. I'm going the full Whole30 this time... no dairy! For me that means cutting out Greek yogurt and cream in coffee. That's okay. I cut out coffee a while ago and only recently started drinking it again (last week)... I'm fine with tea. Tea I can drink black... no sugar no cream. But the yogurt... well, that's where I get most of my fruit and flax. I normally get Fage 2% plain Greek yogurt, put honey and ground flax seed on it and then add fruit too. Yum! That's such a nice snack or breakfast on the go. I will not lament dairy. I will be strong and know that I am doing what I must do to rule dairy out so that I can continue to enjoy my Greek yogurt a few times a week!

I'm a week or so into the CoQ10 supplementation. No change in the HS at this point. A cluster on my left jawline did "deflate" a bit, but I've grown a new single, larger, breakout on my right jawline... so that's a draw. Most of my other areas are stage 1 to stage 2 right now... nothing huge... but that's not "better"... that's just everyday life with HS for me. Of course, I do have two that are new as of this weekend. They prevented me from going to a birthday party yesterday... I couldn't sit down... and they are still affecting me. I sometimes don't understand how the pain can be so excruciating!