The rise of pastrami in North Idaho

During a recent trip to the east coast, I was in my favorite New York City delicatessen, inflicting serious damage to an impressive mass of pastrami, rye bread, and other delicacies on my plate. It was the middle of the afternoon, after the hectic lunch hour rush, and the staff was easily accommodating the remaining customers. Sol, the third-generation proprietor/owner, and a long time family friend, sat down across from me. He and I had visited and caught up on family and things the day before while I devoured their lox special. Today he seemed unusually pensive. Pointing at the contents of my plate he said, "You know, it was almost extinct," to which I replied that it indeed would be when I was done.

He continued, saying that it was getting to be impossible for delicatessens to procure quality pastrami. Apparently everything was frozen after processing and then shipped. Also, with the almost exclusive use of feedlots, they never ate real grass, subsisting on a diet of mush and mash of unspecified content. Additionally there were the issues of massive injections of growth hormones and antibiotics. The genuine, quality, deli pastrami sandwich was about to be something of the past until a now fast-growing consortium of major delicatessens came up with a solution.

That is when I first learned about the ranch. Apparently the solution was the acquisition of an old ranch and several large surrounding properties in southeastern Kootenai County, not too far north of the Benewah County line. The consortium is now raising pastrami and providing the meat to consortium member delicatessens.

So l made the appropriate arrangements and two weeks ago I made the pilgrimage and visited the ranch. I was given a complete tour and brought up to date on plans for the immediate, mid term, and long term projects and initiatives.

The tour was most impressive, but not kind to the backside of a non-rancher whose only prior experience with horses had been being gently kicked by one at the age of four. The pastrami were most fascinating to observe. I had never seen any before, not even in a zoo. I can best describe them as the size of a small llama or alpaca, but with smooth, short, brown-black Rottweiler-type hair, rounded heads, and, for lack of a better word, pudgy, build. They appeared to be swift and nimble-footed, with legs and hoofs that seemed rather goat-like. While not at all hostile, they acted pretty much indifferent and not at all skittish when we rode close by them on horseback.

I made the mistake of referring to a group of them as a herd, and was quickly corrected. The correct term for a group of pastrami is, believe it or not, a "deli." Truth is often stranger than fiction, and no further explanation is needed. Homo sapiens are not the only species that has acquired a taste for pastrami. Local predators have been a significant problem, especially wolves, but bear and coyote attacks have also been common. Ranch hands normally carry High Point 4590, .45 caliber ACP carbines (equipped with a red dot scope, laser, and flashlight and loaded with a special +P hollow-point jacketed ammunition) and employ them with some frequency; but they cannot be everywhere. The main pastures have been enclosed with a metal grid block fence similar to those seen at elk farms, and that has helped considerably. Use of German Shepherds has also helped increase the longevity of the pastrami in the outlying meadows and mountainside grazing areas. But even the big German Shepherds have a great respect for wolves and know when to back off. While they do not have horns or teeth usable for self defense, the pastrami have proven to have intelligence and have learned to work cooperatively to defend the deli. The females surround the young to shield them; and the males come together in block type square formations, similar to that used by Roman infantry soldiers. Several of these blocks have been known to converge on a predator and, using their hooves, make the predator one with the ground.

The ranch is already running in the black, albeit, barely. The greatest expense the enterprise incurs is trucking the animals to Snowline, Mont., the nearest railhead with suitable stock pens and loading ramps on a rail line that can go directly to deliver to select slaughterhouses in the Midwest without having to go west to Washington, down through Oregon and California, and then east to the Midwest. The near-term goal is to have on-premise slaughter and processing facilities so the meat products can be shipped chilled via truck directly to consortium customers. Arrangements are also being made to have a resident rabbi and specially trained processing and handling staff so the facility will be able to produce a line of kosher meat products as well. All permits for this expansion have been submitted and groundbreaking for these facilities is expected to take place in the mid to late spring time frame.

There are plans for further expansion over the next few years to increase capacity for pastrami as well as raise and process regular beef and Kobe-type beef for the high-end beef market. Additionally they plan to bring in several breeds of swine and offer a full range of pork products. A premium product (ham, links, bacon, ribs, patties, or rinds, etc.) will be marketed for each breed. Then standard, non-premium versions of these products will be produced from breeds not optimum for these meat portions. The skins will be used to make professional grade footballs and a line of shoes that allow feet to breathe through the holes where bristles had been. And, high-tech boar bristle brushes will be manufactured and sold. Head cheese, pigs feet, pig ears for dog chews, and scrapple (an acquired mid-Atlantic thing) will also be made. I was told that after a hog is butchered and rendered down to the various products, only the echo from the last squeal in the slaughterhouse will remain.

I was asked to not mention the specific location or additional information, as there are a number of concerns and issues that still need to be examined and dealt with, such as impact of truck traffic on local highways and roads and increased commuting traffic by a large number of shift employees. There are also health-related concerns that the quantity and different breeds of swine involved may serve as an incubator for swine flu that could even jump to scavenger birds and evolve to a swine or avian flu of epidemic proportions. Water contamination from the presence of that large a quantity of animals and meat processing operation are also concerns. There are plans for a huge water treatment facility that uses water hyacinths as the cleansing mechanism. Excesses of the highly proliferate hyacinths will be processed and sold as natural, organic, non-manure fertilizer and a staple feed for swine. The actual flowers will be sold on the local floral market. The consortium is confident that the issues raised are not serious show stoppers and will be easily overcome, managed and kept under control.

And that is the story of how Kootenai County, Idaho, has kept the deli pastrami sandwich from extinction. And we can look forward to the availability of delicatessen meat products locally that you previously had to travel to the Big Apple or other large city to get.