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Buffalo: The Other Red Meat

Tell the truth, ladies. If you were scanning a menu and saw “buffalo” as an entrée item, would it grab your interest or would you quickly scan to find something featuring boneless chicken breast? “I’ll have the buffalo,” just does not roll off our pretty painted lips.

Buffalo!?

It sounds like man food: big, burly he-man-in-a-lumberjack-
plaid-flannel-shirt food. Ladies do not eat something called buffalo, let alone anything that looks like a buffalo, all big and hairy.

Well, girlfriend, I’ve tasted buffalo (also referred to as bison) and it is sweet, flavorful, and tender—everything I never expected it to be and more. A little research revealed that it is nutritionally superior to beef, chicken, and pork on many levels.

My first purchase of buffalo came from Red Run Bison Farm located in Marshallville. I kept bumping into owner Steve Slifko at the farmers markets hosted by the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy this past summer. Lots of small talk, no cash changed hands.

Our meetings had finally reached a point where I had to buy something so I decided the safest selection would be the ground buffalo meat. That simple purchase resulted in the best batch of chili I’ve ever made or fed my boys. Same pot, same recipe, same seasonings, same everything. So I called Steve and we talked buffalo.

I Wish I Was Dixie

Look at this photo of Dixie Scheiderer. I doubt she would mind me saying, but this lady is no spring chicken. Her words, not mine.

I met Dixie a few years ago on the Beallsville farm she worked with her “sweet, sweet man,” Jake. Fifth generation dairy farmers, the couple operated a small dairy of 40 Jerseys which supplied the milk for their cheese making business, Buckeye Grove Farm Cheese, featuring wonderful old world style raw milk cheeses. My visit there was one of the last of a long list of trips throughout Ohio and a most memorable way to wind down before digging in to write the book Farms and Foods of Ohio: From Garden Gate To Dinner Plate.

Last November, a colleague told me that the Scheiderers had retired and moved to Kentucky. Jake and Dixie had turned the businesses over to their son, Al and his wife, Renae. The young couple proved to be excellent students and the transition was seamless—barely a hiccup in the changing of the guard.

Still, I never suspected the word “retirement” to be in Dixie’s vocabulary. While I worried that something unpleasant precipitated the move, I wasn’t quite convinced.

So You Want To Be A Farmer?

I’ve crossed paths with a lot of farmer wannabes while I travel around the state presenting a travelogue on my book Farms & Foods of Ohio: From Garden Gate to Dinner Plate. Inevitably, someone approaches me after the program and says, “I have been thinking about becoming a farmer and now I’m determined.”

“Wow! That’s great,” I’ll say. You never want to quash a potential food producer. But behind my encouraging smile, I'm thinking, “Don’t quit your day job just yet.”

Turn Up The Cold: Ice Wine

It’s easy to think about bringing locally grown foods to the table in August when lively farmers markets beckon and roadside stands are bursting with everything fresh and wonderful. This month? Not so easy. It calls for creative thinking to keep that local theme burning during the wintertime. So wrap yourself in a blanket, stoke the fire and pour a glass of Ohio ice wine and let’s think. Hmmmm.

In the wide world of wine, Mother Nature has picked just a few locations on the globe, among them Canada, Germany, Austria and Ohio gifting them with an agricultural monopoly to produce ice wine in its natural form. Next to the grapes, proper measures of frigid cold and ice are a must.

One sip of a luscious ice wine and you'll learn to love winter.

Happy New Blog!

Welcome to mlou! I'm Marilou Suszko, the author of the book “Farms and Foods of Ohio: From Garden Gate to Dinner Plate.” (Hippocrene Books, NY 2007). The book is all about small family farms and farmers found throughout the state of Ohio and the wonderful foods they grow for our dinner tables. I spent the 2005 harvest season traveling Ohio to find the stories that fill this book, beginning in March at Franklin's Tall Timbers, a maple syrup farm in Jefferson, and ending in October at Luers Nut Farm in Belleville. In between, I met and became friends with many of farmers featured in my book. They keep me up to date about what’s happening in the fields, the challenges as well as the joys of farming and about their plans for the next growing season.