Crazy Week 4

This week was exciting and packed full of new experiences. Monday started off the week with a visit to a cattle ranch. Montana State has a Montana Made program in which they make a great effort to purchase products from vendors in Montana or buy products made with ingredients grown or processed in Montana. Garl, the owner of Montana Meat Company, is a progressive rancher and is a part of the Rodear Initiative. Take a look at this great video! http://www.facebook.com/TheRodearInitiative/videos/688663571240014/?autoplay_reason=gatekeeper&__mref=message_bubble
The ranchers raise grass fed cattle and rotate the cows so the pastures are not overgrazed and have ample time to regrow. We hiked around the pasture, avoiding cow pies along the way. The cows also knocked down a fence so we had the opportunity to herd the cows back to water. First experience for us non-farmers!

Montana State is purchasing grass-fed ground beef burgers from Montana Meat Company this year. Garl took us for a special surprise to 14 North, a gastropub downtown Bozeman, that features many meat products from Montana Meat Co. Little to our knowledge, 14 North is not open for lunch so we had a private table set up and the executive chef created a smorgasbord of different dishes with the meat that Garl provides. These products included veal, lamb, rabbit, beef, and pork. We also tried a group favorite: truffle fries with homemade ketchup.

 





This week we have been working hard to get ready for a meeting with Food Services of America, our prime distributor. We have been entering new items and recipes into our database to report estimated usages for FSA to prepare an adequate supply of food products for our dining halls' needs. To break up the grueling work, we were treated to a practice dinner for a gala that is taking place this fall. We were served "french style" where 10 servers came to one table at a time and served the dish simultaneously.

 

We experienced our share of fun and adventure this week! We heard about the infamous Bridger Ridge Run which was given the title, "Most Raw Exposure" and one of the "Top 10 Bucket List Trail Runs" in the world, so we obviously decided we HAD to check it out! We were giddy with excitement all week and told people that we planned to "hike the ridge"- a statement everyone in Bozeman is familiar with. We got many questionable looks, surprised faces, and doubting looks as people asked us, "where are you from again?". On Saturday, we scaled the side of Sacajawea peak, the highest peak in the Bridger Range at 9,665 ft elevation. We climbed along the rocky ridge with our comrades, the mountain goats. After being chased off the ridge by the goats, we continued along and hiked a beautiful route and hit a few more peaks before descending down.  We ended the 15 hour day with scrapes, bruises, blisters, tree sap, and amazing memories. To the young males in the green Subaru, we will forever be grateful for the ride home.

The "path" we stumbled along

Billy, the bully mountain goat

Tired and loony...