About

Do you like meat? Leafy greens and vegetables? Recipes? You’ve come to the right place. Supporting local farmers is a plus, too.

Hello! I’ve decided to start a blog. Big step, I know. A little bit about me: I’m a 23 year old gal living in NJ. I work in my real life as a costume designer for theater/dance/etc in the big ol’ NYC. It’s okay. I mention this because I will probably shamelessly plug projects I’m working on from time to time.

Aside from that, my real passion is food. GOOD FOOD. Good, organic, locally grown, pasture-raised food. Also, I don’t eat grains (includes wheat, soy, corn, barley, rice, etc…I don’t eat most white potatoes either). No, it’s not because I have a wheat allergy – it’s a personal choice I made. If I want to only eat grass-fed beef because cattle evolved to eat grass not grain, then I feel like I should eat the kinds of foods I evolved to eat, which for the most part excludes all those grains. No, I don’t necessarily identify with those of the Paleo lifestyle, HOWEVER, because of my dietary choices I do find myself referencing paleo blogs/recipes/etc most frequently, based on the similarities of our choices. I do eat dairy. I love cheeses.

Here’s where it gets difficult: like I said, I’m only 23 years old (24 come February 2012) and am roughly a year and a half out of college. I work in the city, but still live at home with my family (I’m lucky that my parents live so close to the city so that I can do this commute) as I save up money to be able to afford to move out and live on my own, while in the meantime I continue paying back student loans. That being said, consuming pasture-raised meats/poultry and locally grown produce all the time is hard, it’s hard because right now I can’t always afford all those things. But, I do my best and strive to do better.

I started a local community group/club beginning of October 2011 called North Jersey Locavores to help bring awareness to those living in North Jersey (and beyond!) about the benefits of supporting local farmers and growing your own foods. We’re small right now, but have already had a film screening (of the documentary Good Food) and this past weekend went to a wine-tasting and lunch at the Warwick Valley Winery. I hope to organize lots of different workshops, talks, events surrounding all different aspects of supporting a local food system. So, I’m working on getting all those fun things together now. Long term goals for the group are to organize a farmers market in our own town and to help coordinate a community garden. I mention all this because I will probably talk a lot about local foods and the group I started pretty frequently as well.

Someday in my future I would like to have my own small farm with produce and goats and chickens and a milking cow and maybe some beef cattle and pigs. A HUGE undertaking and completely different life-path than the one costume design would take me on, but I like and support the idea of being able to sustain and feed myself.

Other interests of mine are herbalism and foraging edible plants and weeds, and making my own all-natural skincare products (balms, salves, creams, conditioners, etc). A side project of mine that I’ve been working on for a long time is a line of my own all-natural skincare products. Yes, I’m quite the ambitious one. I mention all these things so they don’t come as a surprise to you later and it gives you sort of a primer on the MEATBEASTA herself.

Speaking of Meatbeasta, you might ask what does meatbeasta mean? Where did it come from? Well, that’s a good question. In order to answer that question I need to bring in one of my favorite people in the world, a girl named Sara. Sara and I went to college together and both studied costume design. We both have cut out grains from our diet for differing reasons and in doing so have re-discovered our love for all things meat and vegetable. Basically, meatbeasta came out of a conversation we had that started with a misspelling of the complimentary closing “Best” and went to my personal distaste for trendy words ending in “..ista” (i.e. recessionista, fashionista, barista) and our mutual love of all things meat. Fill in the blanks yourself and include lots of laughs.

So meatbeasta was born, we’ve formed a fictional band called Meatbeasta and the Bacon Boys, we trade meat and leafy green recipes from early morning into the late night, and we await the day when we will finally be reunited (Sara has been working in Florida for awhile). I guess I didn’t really answer what does meatbeasta mean, it can mean lots of different things and I suppose those things will all be revealed to you through time.

My hopes for this blog are far and wide – but mostly, I hope to post recipes I try out, interesting links/articles, tidbits about my life, and more.