Chef Terry Koval stands by my table, points to my half-eaten burger and says, “That was a good cow.”
I suddenly have an image of Bessie being led by the ring in her nose right into a meat grinder.
Koval continues. “This one is so juicy and has such a good flavor. Much better than that first cow we had.” He sighs. “Of course, I never thought we’d already be onto our second cow by now. But we’ve been so busy.”
You want farm to table? We got you some farm to table right here. Call it cow to bun.
The process of sourcing meat at Decatur’s new and phenomenally busy Farm Burger goes something like this:
The kitchen sources a grass-fed cow from one of several local farms. Koval mentioned a North Carolina farm for this one and says he works with Charlotte and Wes Swancy of Riverview Farms in Ranger to build a network of suppliers. The marked beast is sent to Happy Valley Processing in Dearing to be humanely killed (whatever that means), and the trimmed meat ages up to three weeks …