Buying local beef
Friday, October 30th, 2009Yesterday I was searching Craigslist for pork. Our half pig from last year was basically used up so our meat supply was getting low. After having nice farm raised meat I didn’t want to have to start buying the stuff you usually get at the grocery stores. Eating naturally raised pork makes a world of difference in the taste. I found someone who was selling a half pig for a better price then we paid last time, so I was pretty happy. We met up and gave him our deposit and the pig should be ready for pick up from 4 Star Meat Company (local butcher) around the 15th of next month.
While we were chatting with the farmer, he asked us if we were looking for any beef. I said that I had looked at buying beef before, but that I thought that it was pretty expensive. Buying a half cow at once can get spendy quick. However, it turns out he had a quarter cow for sale, still at the butcher, as the original buyer backed out, and he didn’t have the freezer space. So we got it for a deal: 125 pounds and paid $2.60 a pound for all naturally raised beef. I thought it might be interesting to someone to list out the cuts of meat you end up with in a quarter cow:
- 4 packages stew meat
- 5 packages chuck roast
- 2 packages rump roast
- 2 packages round bone roast
- 4 packages short ribs
- 20 packages ground beef
- 5 packages round steak
- 1 package cross rib roast
- 2 packages sirloin tip steak
- 1 package flank steak
- 4 packages sirloin steak
- 4 packages T-bone steak
- 3 packages rib steak
Most of those packages are about a pound, except the roasts and ribs which were 2-3 pounds. I think we are going to be stocked for quite a long while after we pick up our pork. Plus it’s a pretty nice feeling buying your meat local and supporting a farmer. I rarely bought any meat last year due to having a freezer full of pork. When I did it was usually beef for those dishes that you just couldn’t substitute pork for.













