The Other Red Meat

"Hello, my name is Jeremy and I will be your server this evening. Tonight, chef suggests sautéed ratite, served with roasted wild mushrooms and balsamic carrots."

What's in a name? Does "ratite" sound especially palatable? Does Big Bird, the name of America's most recognized and beloved ratite, sound any better? Probably not, though that hasn't prevented members of the Tennessee Ratite Association from going to regional festivals and setting up a concession stand called "The Big Bird Chuck Wagon," which features "Big Bird Burgers."

"Once they try them," says TRA member and ratite breeder Madeleine Jones, "people really like them." Introducing and educating potential consumers about the product is one of the goals of ratite associations and breeders, and they are nearly evangelistic in their mission.

Fear not—rats are not members of the ratite family. Ratites are large flightless birds with a flat, keelless breastbone (the keel is where flight muscles would connect if ratites possessed them); most of their muscles are in their legs and thighs. The ratites most familiar to Americans are—in descending order of size—ostrich, emu and rhea, and all are commonly raised as livestock in the United States.

According to the National Sustainable Agriculture and Information Service and the United States Department of Agriculture, ostriches (Big Bird) are the world's largest birds, and one of the oldest—the species has been around for over 40 million years. They are native to Africa, where the first known ostrich farm was founded in 1838. The two subspecies imported to the United States are the Blue Neck, from southern Africa, and the Red Neck, from northern Africa. Ostriches can reach 8 feet in height, weigh as much as 400 pounds and live up to 75 years (if they are not slaughtered for their meat, of course).

Unlike Big Bird, the real male ostrich is black, with white wing tips and tail plumes; the female is somewhat smaller. The ostrich is the only bird that has two toes, though it is the male's big toe that you have to watch out for, according to ostrich breeder Carl Baker of Cavs Farm in Ashland City (792-4581, cavsdj@mindspring.com). "The female is docile," he says. "It's the male that can be mean. One kick with that big toe will kill you. I got kicked once, and I was lucky. It's never happened again."

The emu, from Australia, grows up to 6 feet in height and weighs up to 140 pounds, with a potential life span of 30 to 40 years. The rhea, the smallest of the three birds, is native to South America, and is similar to the ostrich in appearance, with a feathered neck and head, though it has a trio of toes on each foot. There are two types of rhea: the common (or gray), and the white. Male rheas are the players of the ratite world, with up to five mates.

The ostrich was the first ratite to be raised in this country, and there are now about 1,000 ostrich growers in the United States, raising about 100,000 birds, a number that increases by the year. Emus are raised in at least 43 states; Texas is the largest producer. Rheas are the newest U.S. farm-raised ratites. Middle Tennessee is home to two ratite farms: Cavs Farm, run by Carl and Carolyn Baker, raises only ostrich; Hillside Haven Farm in Readyville (563-2271, mjones@genesco.com), run by Okie and Madeleine Jones, has all three species.

The Joneses already had cattle and goats on their farm, and when they heard of the growing ratite industry, they thought they'd give it a try. At first, they couldn't afford ostriches, so they bought five rheas and let them do what comes naturally. "We had really good luck our first year," says Madeleine. "We got 80 or 90 chicks from those first birds, and we were in the rhea business very quickly."

An appointment with a horse trader led the Joneses instead to buy his two ostriches. Another man they knew purchased some emu eggs that needed hatching, so in exchange for the use of their facilities, he gave them a couple of the hatched birds. Currently, they have five ostriches, 17 emus and "a field full of rheas."

While Madeleine enjoys the occasional Big Bird Burger (which are made from either ostrich or emu) during The Music & Molasses Festival or Columbia's Mule Days celebration, she gets very attached to her birds, so killing them is out of the question. Like many ratite farmers, she and Okie sell the empty eggshells to crafters, who carve designs in them or paint them to meet the apparently large demand for decorated ostrich, emu and rhea eggs.

It was the health benefits of the meat that drew Carl Baker into the ratite industry. "We had quail, chickens and guineas," he says. "I heard about ostriches and how healthy their meat was, so I did a lot of research. We have 87 acres, and I figured we had ideal conditions. We raise our own here. You have to take eggs and incubate them, then when they're hatched, keep them sheltered for a few weeks. Once they're big enough, we set them in one of our three pens." Baker has nine ostriches on his farm, though the population varies by season.