It’s with great excitement we prepare to ship our February Brasas Food and Wine Society beef club shipment. This beef represents our quest to provide our customers with the highest quality beef available on the market, one that could proudly stand alongside a bottle of Palmaz Cabernet Sauvignon.
A Once in a Lifetime Experience
In April of 2018, a unique beef was first introduced to the American palate. “Sanuki Kobe Beef” comes from an island in Japan where 2,200 head of beef are finished on olive pulp, the bi-product of the olive oil industry. This pulp is leftover after the olives are pressed for oil, then roasted to become a palatable feed. When fed to cattle, this olive pulp improves the Unami, tenderness, and oleic acid content (an essential fatty acid). Forbes magazine declared this meat the “World’s rarest Steak.” Intrigued, we began to explore this concept.
Our purebred Wagyu cattle were already being raised entirely on native grasses grazing freely in wide open pastures. This is far different than the urban Japanese methods comprised of a rich diet and confined spaces. If we were to introduce our 100% grass fed beef to this olive feed, would our beef not only be humanly raised but also as indulgent at the Japanese version? The hope was to raise animals humanely and entice their appetites with some healthy fats without confining them or force feeding them. We did our research and determined that to date no other rancher in the US has adopted this approach of raising purebred wagyu entirely on grass, and finshing them on olive pulp.
After securing a reputable source for the olive feed we began the program 4 months ago. Unlike most finishing operations that place their animals in confinement to minimize the amount of movement or exercise the cattle can have, we left ours in the pasture, to move freely and do what cows do best - graze!
The results were PRIME grass-fed Wagyu beef! Yes, that’s right, PRIME! Only 2% of all beef whether grain or grass-fed grade prime in the United States. Rarely, if ever will you find Prime 100% grass-fed beef. And if you do get your hands on Prime Beef, I can assure you the supplier will be hesitant to discuss openly whether the animal was raised in a natural and humane way. It is my pleasure and honor to share the great news that out next shipment in February features all Prime grade Wagyu beef sourced from our heard who is happily living on the ranch munching on olive oil pomace and the native grasses of the Genesee Valley.
