If you read much or know me you know I really like to eat.  If you have eaten with me, you know I like meat, and beef is the meat of choice.  I like steak, burger, and all kinds of beef except liver.

Today I got to enjoy one of my favorite cuts and preparation methods of beef.  Californio style tri-tip is soo good.  Add in the facts that it was prepared in the traditional style of an oak fire ten feet from the cattle pens at Visalia Cattle Market with Ian Tyson and Dave Stacey music playing in the background, and I shared a meal with great producers of the very product we were eating, and we ate off the bed of a real nice truck with one of my favorite people, Jill Scofield,  it just doesn’t get any better than that.

I had a real nice set of calves to work with in my demonstration and the ring is good sized.  We had had a conference call a while ago and Randy Baxley and his wife Beth who run the outfit wanted to really focus on producers working their calves better for BQA and industry standards.  California Beef Council agreed and shared in getting me there.  So that was the focus of the demonstration.

The calves they let me use were great and really responded to pressure with a lot of feel. After Dinner I got to visit with Dick Knox who has supported BQA for a long time in California, and Celeste Settrini, who is a big supporter of it now.  It was a real nice day for the guy with the best job in the world.