A better wurst?
Organic Wisconsin brats await your grill
Bust out the brats. Memorial Day is almost here. It's time for hot summer nights, cold bottles of beer and a platter of juicy, flavorful brats. ❚ Nestled in a warm bun after a nice beer bath, there’s nothing better. But how about if that brat were something more? What if it were also organic?
What makes a brat organic?
With more consumers seeking out organic foods, it seems only natural that the beloved bratwurst receive an organic makeover.
You might have seen “natural” bratwurst in stores from time to time. Foods labeled natural are minimally processed and free of artificial colors, flavors and additives. But organic is something else. Organic certification means a third party has certified that the meat has met a slew of far-ranging USDA regulations.
Those regulations pertain not only to what is in the product, but also to how the product is produced. For beef, pork or poultry to be organic, it has to have come from animals that were fed only organic feed or grasses, had significant access to the outdoors and were raised free of antibiotics and growth hormones.
“Organic certification has very strict rules, especially around animal welfare and treating the animals as humanely as possible,” explained Ellie France, brand manager for meat, snacks and prepared foods of Organic Prairie, based in La Farge. For example, “there are a certain amount of days that the animal has to be out in pasture.”
And it’s not just the feed that must be certified as organic. The land must be, too.
“Making sure the animals are walking on lush pastures and grasses that have not been subjected to pesticides or any sort of chemicals added to the grass is an additional layer,” France said.
Meet the family
Organic Prairie is part of the Organic Valley Family of Farms, the largest organic farmer-owned cooperative in North America. More than 2,000 individual farm families raise organic beef, chicken, pork and dairy products that are turned into various products — including organic precooked brats — under either the Organic Prairie or Organic Valley label.
The Cooperative is celebrating 30 years of producing organic products.
“We have 43 farm families that produce pork for our bratwurst line,” France said, adding that they raise primarily three breeds of hogs: Chester Whites, Berkshire and Duroc.
One of those families is the Campbells of Iowa County. Three generations of Campbells — Jim along with his wife, Sheila, their son Isaac and Jim’s father — work together on their southwest Wisconsin farm to raise 80 to 90 Berkshire pigs each year.
“They run and play just like kids,” Jim Campbell said. “They are very curious. I don’t crowd them or push them. They have a two-acre pasture with some woods to play in.”
The Campbell farm was certified organic in 2003. “When folks ask me what’s the difference between farming organic and conventional, I explain that organic probably takes more of my time, but it takes less of my money.
“Organic, pasture-based management made farming fun again. I like what I do. It’s a good fit. It’s not that I really needed to be a better manager, but I got better anyway, because I’m doing exactly what I love to do.”
Organic and (possibly) holy
Waseda Farms in Bailey’s Harbor is another source of organic brats, in various flavors. The farm animals here not only enjoy lush pastures, organic feed and flavorful grasses, they may also be blessed.
Originally known as the O’Brien Farm, the land was donated in the early 1960s to the Priests of the Sacred heart. The priests worked the land for more than 47 years, enjoying the peaceful pastures for meditation as well as farming.
“We think of the land as holy,” Waseda Farms president Matt Lutsey explained. “Sometimes you will walk the pastures and find relics of the days when the land belonged to the Jesuits.”
That’s one reason the sign welcoming folks to the farm lists “holy cows.”
Lutsey’s father, Tom, originally purchased the property as a pet project to keep him busy in retirement. The hobby farm quickly grew. The original herd of six has grown into more than 100 Black Angus cattle, all who enjoy a natural salad bar of more than 20 different grasses.
Although certified organically raised beef was Waseda’s original product line, the business has since expanded to include chickens, eggs and pork. As a Wisconsin business, it seemed natural to add organic bratwurst to its products, made with pork from Berkshire hogs.
“It’s very well marbled and has great taste,” Lutsey said of the pork. Although Waseda offers a traditional plain organic brat, they let their creative juices flow when coming up with other flavors.
Some of the most popular? The Bloody Mary brat, the habanero brat, the red white and blue brat (red bell peppers, while onions and blue cheese) and, of course, a Door County cherry brat made with locally picked Montmorency cherries.
“I’d say we have produced over 100 flavors of brats,” Lutsey said. “Brats are a great palette to work with and are amazingly versatile. The flavor combinations are only limited by your imagination.”
Waseda’s organic brats are all raw. Because they are hand tied and not as tightly packed in the casings as brats from larger companies, Lutsey recommends cooking them directly on the grill, not precooking them in liquid, which can cause them to break.
The bottom line
Organic meat, including bratwurst, is more expensive than conventionally raised meat, often more than 30% higher. Stone Bank Farm Market in Waukesha County sells Waseda Farms’ certified organic Door County cherry bratwurst for $9.50 a pound. A 19-ounce package of Johnsonville original bratwurst comes in around $6.59 a package. Is the extra expense worth it?
In my experience, I found the brats produced from pasture-raised, organically certified animals that savor fresh air, sun and natural grasses had a cleaner, brighter taste. Plus, along with many consumers, I like knowing exactly what went into that brat I was enjoying with a nice frosty beer.
Terri Milligan is a professional chef and culinary instructor who lives in Door County, Wis. ,and Phoenix. For additional recipes, visit chefterrimilligan.com.