Had to go to grocery store this morning at 6:30 am because Tuesdays and Wednesdays are for the elderly, disabled, and those over 65 who haven't been Baker Acted yet. Prior to the grocery store I was sipping coffee, reading the news and saw several articles about meat shortages in progress throughout this blessed, but misguided country.
Anticipating a riot at the meat counter (and you ain't lived until you've seen two grouchy old men get in a verbal fight in the middle of the grocery store at full volume over the last bottle of ex-lax gummies) I was prepared to be disappointed.
The store opens at 7 am; I arrived at 6:45 to be greeted by a line about 30 people long. We all went in and I just bought the junk SWMBO had on the "list". All the aisles are one way so I eventually approached THE MEAT COUNTER. Much to my surprise and delight it was filled to the brim with fresh cow, pig, and yard bird. Picked up a few steaks and 10lbs of ground sirloin, chicken, pork ribs, chops, and am now good for at least 6 weeks, all of which I'm staying home.
What's the meat situation where you are?
Wish y'all the best of luck dealing with this! We're gonna need it. ?????ÿ
Meat is a tricky commodity apparently.?ÿ The 'custom cut' counter my local butcher usually has about 30' of open-display refrigerated shelves.?ÿ Nowadays the butcher counter is closed. Over half of the open display is dark and the "chicken-pork-beef" selection has been reduced to about 10' with each type of meat getting its equal share.?ÿ It appears to me the butcher is only packaging what will sell in a day.?ÿ ?ÿ?ÿ
And I can no longer buy my fresh Gulf shrimp, but I can buy tons of frozen shrimp from Thailand.?ÿ Grits are from the South.?ÿ I might have some sort of racially fueled food riot on my hands if I attempted to combine grits and Thai shrimp in the same dish.
On a side note I'm convinced now is the time to be stocking back up on TP and other goods.?ÿ I don't think the summer is going to turn out well for a lot of us.?ÿ I hope I'm wrong...but I just have a funny feeling.?ÿ ?ÿ
I might have some sort of racially fueled food riot on my hands if I attempted to combine grits and Thai shrimp in the same dish.
You could always use polenta.?ÿ Then you'd have "foreign" food for both in the dish.
Andy
Seafood (fresh, still wiggling, almost) is one problem that we don't have. The local seafood joint is owned and operated by 2 brothers who have a boat and spearfish offshore. Store only open Fri and Sat. They buy their shrimp from the shrimpboats offshore and they get some big ones too. Should have plenty of Florida lobsters in a few months. ?????ÿ
Less well-stocked than pre-epidemic, but enough to choose from. A couple of signs 'Limit 2 per customer'.
Hit and miss at grocery stores, but we buy all our meat from a couple of small local butcher shops that are busy, but well stocked.?ÿ?ÿ
Time to stock up before the hoarders get there.
Just like at a pot luck dinner, I hurry to get my 3rd helping before the gluttons get it all.?ÿ
Ir'a good to read about grits out west. On our visits to Kansas, grits were unheard of. We ate breakfast at a Cracker Barrel in Illinois and. lo and behold, they had grits.
Shrimp and grits is just a magnificent dish. Every restaurant does it differently, but it's always good. We've probably all had a Thai shrimp or two, so that part isn't too disturbing.
Of course, to get the real true importance of properly prepared grits, you have to re-watch My Cousin Vinny.
As an alternative, I'm told there are some tasty vegan meat lookalikes, such as a nut cutlet.?ÿ
I ventured forth today for groceries (first time in 11 days) and was somewhat surprised by what I found... Traffic is noticeably 'up,' construction continues downtown, the grocery store shelves are much better stocked, the 'custom cut' meat counter is back online. BUT, there were limits on Beef, Pork, and chicken, which were not there last time out. There were a few masked shoppers about (myself included), the grocery store staff were all masked, but the local drug store was totally naked (face). The most likely place in town to run into a sick person (other than the hospital), and it still looks like 1950.
?ÿGo figure.
The Big Biscuit. Find one of those and you can get grits in Kansas. Either there or on a store shelf close to oatmeal/ cream of wheat section. Or in my kitchen. Start cooking up some grits, drop in a couple of eggs, stir like crazy, cook until you can get a fork to stand up in it. Yum! Especially if you drop some soft butter and a dash of syrup into the goo while cooking.
The barns out back have about 2000 finisher hogs that will be ready for market in about 3 months.?ÿ Hopefully, the commodity prices stay rebounded by then (April was...........brutal).
https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/lean-hog-price
From a world away but the same lockdown world - some of the supermarket staff here have masks but they are typically worn on the chin or elbow. At the same store I joined the liquor queue keeping the distance to those in front, then a unmasked fellow inserted his royal self into the gap in front, then another slotted his royal unmasked self in behind and produced a couple of naked coughs. So I said into my mask "f this" and withdrew to let them eat their cake while they all eyeballed me.
Don't blame the producers.?ÿ They are getting screwed royally at the moment.
The big 3 or 4 packers and their unbelievably greedy shareholders/management have created this mess.?ÿ It takes months to produce the animal that is to enter the processing stream during a specific time frame.?ÿ A fake shortage is highly profitable for the processors on both sides of their dealings.?ÿ Please note, they were ecstatic when the political world told them they could not reduce their work load as the country is at war with a bug.
Similar conditions exist on other food items.?ÿ From vegetables to fruits, the plants/trees/bushes out in the fields are producing the item but specific contracts by the middlemen are not flexible enough to get the food to where it needs to go instead of to where it was contracted to go.?ÿ For example, those middlemen who supply food items to be consumed during air travel.?ÿ The people who would have been on those planes still need to eat food, just get access to it via a different route.
beef and pork are plentiful, chicken not so much, fish is hard to get. I was handed about 50lbs of frozen steaks and hamburger from a rancher a few weeks ago. I'm set for the summer since I don't eat much beef anymore.?ÿ
Elk, deer are still in the freezer.
The poultry industry is almost completely vertically integrated.?ÿ That is, the people selling meat to the end buyer own the laying hen, the egg, the chick, the growing bird and the processed bird.?ÿ Many have also invested in large grain firms to get their feed at a far reduced cost.?ÿ The percentage of the US flock not owned by the megacorps is very small today.
I read somewhere there are around 24 million chickens slaughtered each day for human consumption.?ÿ
That's a big nasty pile of feathers...
@holy-cow I don't know if it is still in operation but there was a chicken farm in South Georgia that had a different means of operation. When raising thousands of chickens a year there are always a certain amount of deaths. Disposing of the chickens can be time consuming and expensive. This particular farm came up with, what I think is, a unique solution. He dug a pond, and with the appropriate permits, started raising alligators also. When the chickens die he feeds them to the gators. Then when the gators reach the correct length he harvests them also. Problem solved.
Andy
