Our challenge radius for protein is 200 miles, and the Prather’s Ranch Meat Company shop’s pork comes from Range Brothers in the Capay Valley, which is well inside the circle — I think 120 miles to our door was what we calculated, the last time we looked.

Prather’s own beef herds are pastured in Siskiyou County, about 250 miles away, so certainly we’re stretching things. But the shop is local, and so they fall under our ‘local producer’ exemption. Yes, we could buy 100% of our beef from MSF — as we do for chickens and lamb and variety meats like shortribs and oxtails — but when all is said and done, we really like the taste of Prather’s roasts and steaks much better.

Prather’s lamb does come from out of state; for that, we do turn to Marin Sun Farms. Likewise, their turkeys are from outside our radius; we’ll be buying ours for Thanksgiving from Mary’s Turkeys (from Fresno via Andronico’s) unless we find a better, closer option.

We had chicken and mushroom too, this w/e. Thing was I made Maitake mushrooms and they were so delcious I ate them all before dinner. Fred was snoozing and he has no idea what he missed out on!

I’m a huge Nopa fan, and whenever travelers ask for a restaurant pick, I send them there and tell them to order the pork chop. It ain’t your mother’s pork chop, I’ll tell you. Heaven!

Long live the Locavores!!!

I don’t ever mind seeing farm names on any menu, though. They’re my friends, and I like to see my friends get credit.

Apparently you do, too.

: D

Great work, darlin’s.