Comments on: Buying Bulk Meat – What you Need to Know

By: admin

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:23:36 +0000

Richard – your website is exquisite. It was a treat for the eyes and the ears. And that one cat reminded me of a cat I had when I first left home. That cat had the devil inside but we adored each other. She just didn’t like anyone else.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:09:44 +0000

That is a great point Richard. I was also thinking a good question to ask the farmer is how close they are to developments or conventional farms. Farmland is snatched up at alarming rates by developers these days and those McMansion towns for sure are spraying those lawns and parks and gold courses.

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:06:00 +0000

I was referring to this from the main post:

“- A thick “fat cap” on all cuts. You want them to trim as little fat as possible. You can use that fat to cook with or you can feed it to your birds, chickens and other animals.”

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:54:46 +0000

Great info! We are thinking of buying a cow if we can find a few people to split it with us, and it’s good to know about seeing if the slaughterhouse can freeze it before we take it.

By: Jess @OpenlyBalanced

Jess @OpenlyBalanced — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:20:52 +0000

Once again, amazingly perfect timing. I was just looking into my local options for grass-fed meat and was completely at a loss as far as cuts were concerned.

Also, I have totally seen those “middlemen” red flags in descriptions, but didn’t realize that would likely mean a big price difference. That’s so good to know. Thank you so much!

By: admin

admin — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:12:03 +0000

Hi Richard,
which suggestion to feed chickens fat? I do agree it’s harder and harder to find farms that aren’t encroached by neighborhoods and that toxins are certainly everwhere.

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 18:42:15 +0000

Thanks for the information. Very helpful.

I do wonder about your suggestion of feeding fat to chickens and birds, though. I am increasingly concerned with persistent environmental toxins, things like DDT, flame-retardants, PCBs, heavy metals, et al. It doesn’t make sense to me to take the fat from an animal that has already, in all likelihood, at least some of these toxins stored in its fat and turn around and feed that to another food animal, thus concentrating these compounds even further.

The days when we could assume that even grass-raised and finished beef are raised in environments free of these toxins has passed. Doesn’t it make sense to mitigate this by not further concentrating these substances in our food supply?

I’ve wrestled with this for a while now. I come from a long line of farmers and butchers, and I am increasingly concerned about the quality of animal protein and the problems associated with it. As a result, we’re personally eating far, far less animal protein these days.

By: Judy

Judy — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 13:06:55 +0000

We purchased half a grassfed beef from a wonderful local Amish farmer last year. He delivered it to a local meat locker where it was custom cut for us. The butchers called us and asked us all sorts of questions like: how thick do we want the steaks, how big do we want roasts cut, do we want the tail or any organ meats, do we want the stew meat and soup bones (of course, sillies!) It was a great experience for us and we will definitely be doing it again. But it was fun- buying from an Amish farmer, we have to send him a letter- no internet or phone. And we got our invoice nicely printed in pencil. But paid him a deposit but paid the bulk of the fee based on the actual hanging weight at the locker.
For us, we paid the farmer per pound for the beef and paid the locker 40 cents/pound for processing. So, we had to pay two different people but it was very clear exactly who was getting what money for which service or product.
Thanks for the great post, I just discovered your site.

By: Auburn

Auburn — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:11:03 +0000

Diana,

The thing is, these middlemen happen to be farmers themselves. So even when you *are calling a farmer directly*, you have to make sure that they actually raise the animals you are buying from them.

If they grow chickens, goats and lambs but are selling you beef that’s grown by other farmers, then you will be paying a few **hundred** dollars extra (as much as the cost of a brand new upright freezer!) that don’t go to the actual grower.

BTW, what they are doing is not illegal, but I think it’s rather dishonest, particularly when they don’t disclose that they are only providing an intermediary service and the customer is not provided with an actual invoice from the slaughter house stating the hanging weight of the animal.

So, while anyone with a piece of land can claim to be a farmer, it is wise to buy only from those who actually raise the animals.

LeAnn,

Once you eat beef from a local farmer, you’ll never want to eat supermarket/wholesale club meat again. And the savings are huge!

By: LeAnn

LeAnn — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:32:01 +0000

Wow. I read this twice. Husband the Carnivore has been asking me to do this, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Need to get moving.