More Provisions

I was getting ready to start the search once more. Ellie relies heavily on liver and organ meats for some of her vitamins, and one of the most important is vitamin C. Since the only vegetable she eats is boiled and peeled zucchini, and she can only handle a limited amount of fermented cabbage juice, liver and heart are very important pieces of her diet.

A few months ago the local Henry's Market turned into a Sprouts. Henry's carried the only reliable grass fed, organic beef liver that I have been able to find. Sprouts has not had liver on the shelf since the switch.

It is extremely difficult to get liver from the meat vendors at the Farmer's Markets where we purchase our other meats. Our regular meat supplier, Winterport Farm, has been unable to get liver from their processor. The reason it is so difficult for these farmers is because they need a USDA certified organic processor to butcher and bag their product for market. The USDA (government) likes to keep all extra to resell for things like dog food and to make extra money. If the farmer wants back the marrow bones or the tallow or the liver, all very nutritious pieces of the animal, then the farmer must pay extra. The best way for us to get access to these things is to purchase a whole cow and butcher it ourselves, but we have not been able to cover the cost.

Ellie has been without liver for a few weeks now. I was getting ready to start the sourcing again, and call a beef farm that I have not purchased from in quite some time because they charge more than $3 a pound more per cut of meat than our favorite Winterport Farms. I cringed at the thought, because the cost of Ellie's liver was going to go up substantially.

But wait! Today I saw some of the best news ever come across my facebook page! Some friends who have helped to supply Ellie with bear, venison, and elk in the past, are coming home from a hunting trip. The news? The organs hunters normally leave in the field were harvested, bagged, and brought home just for Ellie. Deer liver! Can't get much more grass fed than that! I cried.

And when I expressed my gratitude, I was told by one of the men in the party that 'those hearts and livers were first priority' with each animal. I cried again.

Humbled. Humbled is a word that still can not express how thankful I am. Glory to God for His provisions, and thank you a million times over to those men for being a vessel of love and supply to our family.