Butchering steer on the hoof demonstrated in cooking class

When Taylor Brink visited La Conner High School last Thursday, he was fully armed – and armored.

The butcher/meat cutter for Northwest Local Meats, the retail butcher shop for the Island Grown Farmers Cooperative, used all the tools of his trade to break down two quarters of a steer in teacher Peter Voorhees' cooking classes.

Before employing his knives and saws, Brink put on a chain mail apron to prevent accidental stabs and a Kevlar arm band and glove to ward off cuts. Then he tackled the steer that Voorhees had raised on his property.

Voorhees and secondary school counselor Lori Buher had b...