Jared Stone wanted to get back to his roots. Though he lives in southern California and works in the entertainment industry, he’s originally from Kansas. He started thinking about what he eats, and realized that he knew more about the inner workings of his TV set than the origins of his food.
He could have planted a garden, but instead, he found himself driving north to purchase an entire grass-fed steer. After wedging its parts into the freezer he bought to store it, he began to cook, and to experiment. And, he said, to wake up to the world in a whole different way. It took two years to work through every piece of the animal.
Then, he wrote a book about it. It’s titled Year of the Cow: How 420 Pounds of Beef Built a Better Life for One American Family. This is not for the faint of heart, or the vegans among us. Stone isn’t trying to convince anyone to go carnivore. But he does have some funny and poignant revelations as a result of his meat experiment. And, he offers recipes, too.