Ostrich: The Other Red Meat

"An ostrich with its head in the sand is just as blind to opportunity as to disaster."

Oh hai there.

Honestly, I couldn't have asked for a better day than yesterday. Being a lazy Sunday, I was able to sleep in (you know you're a grown-up when sleeping until 10 am counts as "sleeping in") and lounge in bed before catching a late-morning bus to New Jersey. The bus let me off in Tenafly, a quaint borough where I've spent many an afternoon waiting to transfer from one bus route to another. Today, however, K drove over from his place in Norwood and met me for brunch and a stroll through downtown.

In all honesty, Tenafly isn't exactly a booming town, and the downtown strip is typically pretty quiet. Yet, as my bus skirted the first row of stores indicative of my arrival to town, my eyes widened from what I saw. I immediately texted K: "Oh my godddddd....tenafly is a goldmine today :)" There, in the parking lot on the edge of town, was a farmers' market.

Before we could adequately shop the farmers' market, K and I knew we needed energy, AKA: coffee. Luckily, in the center of town, there's an old train station turned cafe: Cafe Angelique. We grabbed the last table on the patio (you know how Sunday brunchtime can be), ordered coffees and a croissant each, and kicked back to watch the other customers. To the man in the tight pink shirt: your shorts were uncomfortably short. Fix that please.

K and I wrapped up and began making our way towards the market, noting along the way that most every store we passed was closed for Sunday (clearly not the busiest town). The market turned out to have a pretty good selection, all things considered: a vendor selling coffee, two tents with tons of vegetables, and a guy selling...ostrich meat?!

This friendly vendor (who I believe is named Todd) was representing Roaming Acres Farm, an ostrich and emu farm out in Sussex County. Todd explained to us how ostrich meat, despite coming from a bird, is considered red meat. It is incredibly lean (his filets were 99% fat free) and is high in iron (up there with venison). In fact, ostrich meat is lower in calories, cholesterol, and fat than skinless chicken and turkey. Honestly, if it weren't for the price, I'd consider ostrich meat my meat of choice.

Todd went on to tell us that at Roaming Acres Farm, the ostriches are raised until they're 12-18 months old. Ostriches grow very fast during this time and eat upwards around 4 1/2 lbs of feed every day. This leads to the higher price (we paid $12 for a 6 oz filet), but it means that the farmers don't have to add any growth hormones. K and I were sold. Two filets please!

Dinner was quite the treat; K sauteed the filets for ~4 1/2 minutes on either side in a little bit of oil, seasoning lightly with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. We accompanied the meal with delicious rosemary potatoes, roasted onions and bell peppers, and slices of fresh heirloom tomatoes. Excellente!

---

Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

• 4 medium red potatoes
• 3 tbsp butter (melted)
• 3-4 sprigs rosemary
• salt, pepper, garlic powder, to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375 deg F.
2. Cut potatoes into bite-sized wedges. Toss potatoes in melted butter to coat them.
3. Cover a baking sheet with tin foil, and lay potatoes on top in a single layer.
4. Remove the needle-like leaves from the stem of two rosemary sprigs and sprinkle them over the potatoes. Lay remaining rosemary sprigs on top.
5. Season lightly with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
6. Cook potatoes for 40 minutes, checking after ~35 with a fork to see if the potatoes are tender.