Photo: Michael Piazza, courtesy of Edible Boston

If you haven’t yet read “The Modern Butcher Shop” in this season’s edition of Edible Boston, you’re in for a treat. Actually, a ‘primer’ is more like it.

Genevieve Rajewski devotes the gut of the article to describing the competing challenges today’s butchers face in bringing quality meats, in a variety of cuts, to their customers. What about offering meat from local, humanely-treated animals without causing sticker shock? As Genevieve describes it, it’s not easy. But that is slowly changing thanks to dedicated local butchers.

The article also includes a super edifying glossary of meat terms. What’s the difference, for example, between meat labeled “natural” versus “prime” (there’s a huge difference, in fact) and “grass-fed” versus “pasture-raised”? I thought I knew. Now I know better. Finally, the article lists five butcher shops from Cambridge to Worcester which offer local and/or heritage meat and poultry if you’re interested in buying such meat and not getting it directly from a farm.

Go ahead. Sink your teeth in.

P.S. Genevieve also blogs at Wicked Tasty Harvest.