Carnation Farms dinner will showcase “nose-to-tail” menu

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, July 14, 2026

This method of butchering is more ethical and sustainable, organizers say.

A special edition of the Carnation Farms Feast in the Field series this August will feature “nose-to-tail” cooking with pasture-raised meats.

Carnation Farms is partnering with the nonprofit Good Meat Project for its farm dinner Aug. 22. The dinner will feature lamb and beef raised at Carnation Farms, with less common cuts of meat that aim to use the entire animal. Like all farm dinners, it will be a multi-course event with drink pairings included. The evening will also include a silent and live auction as a fundraising component.

Kristen Schumacher, Carnation Farms director of culinary education and operations, said a farm dinner is a great way to introduce new cuts of meat to consumers who wouldn’t otherwise pursue them while also creating a more sustainable food system.

“It’s honoring the animal, and also I think it also honors the people who raise them,” she said. “It honors all that work and time and energy and all the hands that go into putting food on a plate from the rancher to the chefs.”

Good Meat Project, a nonprofit based in Portland, promotes and educates on an ethical meat value chain (the chain of events that brings meat from the farmer to the consumer). The benefits include reducing waste, giving the consumer a more complex nutritional profile and giving more value to the life of the animal, according to the organization.

“We provide educational resources, technical assistance tools and peer-to-peer learning opportunities for all of our stakeholders, which include farmers and ranchers, butchers, chefs,” said Executive Director Michele Thorne. “We also have a lot of resources for consumer education, helping them match their values to the meat that they want to eat.”

Thorne said Good Meat Project prioritizes farm dinners like this one all over the region as a way to show consumers Good Meat values in real time.

“We could talk all day about the benefits of regenerative meat or values-based meat … but it really is such an impactful experience when you can see it in practice,” she said.

While there are negatives to animal agriculture, specifically in the traditional meat industry, Thorne says she wants consumers to see the other side of the coin.

“Producers like those that are up there at Carnation, doing incredible work for the environment, they are providing humane lives and treatment and harvesting for the animals. They’re stewarding their land, they’re sequestering carbon,” she said. “People tend to just lump everybody in and say that all meat is bad, which is actually incorrect.”

How to find good meat

The Good Meat Project was founded in 2014 by four women who represent the meat value chain: a farmer, a butcher, a chef and a consumer. They met through the Portland Meat Collective and decided they wanted to “open source” the collective’s model of ethical meat to make it available across the country.

Today, Good Meat Project provides programs for farmers, butchers and consumers. Consumers can use the Good Meat Breakdown, available at goodmeatproject.org, to guide them in finding, purchasing and cooking “values-based” meat.

Good Meat Project also provides a pocket guide for consumers to carry with them.

“When they’re out shopping for meat, they can look at what the green flags, the yellow flags and the red flags are around claims and production,” she said. “It really does a deep dive and helps consumers figure out what matters most to them right now.”

Check it out

This farm dinner is Aug. 22 from 5-8:30 p.m. at Carnation Farms. Tickets are $245 and can be purchased at events.carnationfarms.org/event/feast-in-the-field-with-good-meat-project.