Golden Beef - a healthy, leaner beef alternative

What is Golden Beef? Golden Beef is a unique premium beef product produced by a small group of dedicated farmers in Northern Ontario.

Our cooperative is devoted to producing a healthy, leaner beef alternative. Golden beef are raised without the addition of growth promoting hormones or antibiotics.

Golden Beef is raised on forages such as pasture, hay and silage.

Since no grain is fed to Golden Beef animals, there is no impact on the use of grain for human food and shipping of fee is eliminated therefor reducing the consumption of fossil fuels.

We were lucky to find some Golden Beef at the Delaney Bay Cheese Market here in North Bay and, to try it out, got some shanks and some ground beef. What a great experience: The meat is leaner than conventional beef and tasted different. Since it is from younger animals it is also more tender.

I will certainly go back and get some more in the future. Cooking needs to be adjusted to the difference in fat-content and tenderness.

I invite you to go and try it out - I am sure that you will appreciate the difference.

Food is best shared with friends ..... see you again soon at this table

André

Mushrooms - cooking with a superfood

I picked up some information about fresh mushrooms at the Wine and Cheese Show in Toronto and here a few interesting facts about this tasty, year around available fungus:

• Mushrooms are grown year-round here in Canada. Growing mushrooms do not contain chlorophyll, which means that they do not require sun line to grow
  
• Mushrooms are grown in the dark, in climate controlled buildings. Therefore, production and harvesting of seven of the most popular varieties (White, Crimini, Portabella, Oyster, Shiitake, Enoki and King Oyster mushrooms) occurs year around
  
• Mushrooms are best when they are used within a few days of purchase, but can be kept up to one week in the refrigerator between the temperatures of 0° C and 2°C. They should be kept in a brown paper bag as they will breathe better and stay firm longer
  
• Fresh mushrooms can help with blood pressure, arthritis, diabetes, heart health, gout, healthy aging, childhood obesity and therefore are good for you beside being tasty
  
• Depending on the variety they can be eaten raw, steamed, cooked, fried, added to salads, sauces, on a pizza, they also can be conserved in vinegar, dried or just be used as fresh as possible

If you are looking for more nutrition information or tasty receipies I recommend to check out the website mushrooms.ca

So, as you see, mushrooms are good for you and I hope that this little article inspires you to use mushrooms in your next meal preparation