[footfootfoot]

Yeah, it's funny around here. There are so many farms and some of them try the whole $10/# boutique, grass-fed, humanely smothered with a soft feather pillow thing, but no one up here has the coin to buy that, so those folks truck their stuff to NYC to the farm markets. Down there, where people are so wowed by carharts and calloused hands and a few burlap bags and wooden bushel baskets they don't really blink at the price, I'm guessing they feel the mystique of authenticity.

Mostly up here the small time farmers are raising on such a small scale that they don't really need to go the route of agribiz. The stuff is probably a lot better than anything from applegate farms because they're only raising seven or eight beefers or four or five hogs. Half of my friends raise an animal or two for food and then one or two more to sell. Some years when we are more flush we'll buy a half pig or 1/4 beef and store it in the freezer. It's anywhere from 2.85 to 3.50 a pound packaged. I think it was 1.70 hanging weight, but I might be wrong.

Anyway, it's cheap and you can go pet the thing all year and feed it too if you want. It's pretty transparent.