The first call came in at about 2 p.m. on Tuesday. Eleven of our cattle had escaped from a borrowed pasture at Early Sunrise Farm on Sargent Road in Gilmanton.

Usually, I write about raising cattle, birthing calves, fixing broken equipment, and the challenges of working with husband Bruce. That's hard to do this week because our country is in the throes of racial strife. As much as I'd like to share stories of green grass and newborn calves, I can't ignore the vast and terrible thing gripping the country, and it's not spelled c-o-v-i-d.

How you slice meat makes a difference. Sliced thinly across the grain makes a delicious tender bite of steak.

Here's the basic approach to cooking a delicious steak: Sear it. To do this, cook a steak at a high temperature, which will sear the surfaces. This creates a golden, caramelized crust that gives meat that grilled flavor. Then, lower the heat to finish cooking. Pork chops, chicken, and roasts all benefit from this process. Forget to turn the heat down, and you'll end up with a hockey-puck steak. I've created a few of these. Adding salt, pepper, and garlic enhances the flavor. Even with a few seasonings, home-cooked food won't have the excessive salt and sugar that fast food contains. Why is that? Because junk food does not start with the best ingredients.

Bless the bees, the honey farmers, and all our predecessors who created the idyllic farmscape that blossoms and buzzes so enchantingly.

It's hard to tell if people buy local beef because there is less meat in the supermarkets; or because they are appalled by the news stories coming out of Midwestern meat-packing plants; or because they want to support farmers. Whichever is true, I'm hoping that once they taste the incredible flavor of locally raised beef, they'll never go back to factory-farmed meat.