Buying local, buying organic, buying more of one cut and less of another – there's lot of considerations when buying meat. Here are some tips that'll help (I'll be studying these before our next Long's Meat Market run):
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| February 20, 2009 at 7:56 am |
Another tip: get a deep freezer and make friends with some local meat farmers. I, personally, am friends with the Deck Family Farm and also work with Wintergreen Farm. I bought 1/12th of a cow this autumn – enough to last our family for about a year. Now, when I cook beef I don’t get to choose ANY cut I want – I have to work with what I have. But I do know how that animal was raised, what it was fed, where it spent it’s days, how it was killed, and who killed it. And (here is why you need a freezer) getting all that cow in bulk cost me less than $120. I estimate it was about 50 pounds – and included sirloin steaks (organic at the store are usually between $15 and $20/pound). But it takes up a good chunk of my freezer.
Chickens? I get those from Deck. I can actually go out and see where they kill them (and help kill them if I want to). If I go on a kill day, I can bring home all kinds of fresh chicken for the freezer.
Pork I get from Deck in small amounts because we aren’t big pork eaters. Lamb I get from Deck – they get it from their trusted friends at Cattail Creek. They also have Goat, but I haven’t cooked any yet. I almost never go to a butcher…really I should have my own meat grinder…
I’m rambling now. My point? Likely there is a local, organic (perhaps not certified yet) or bio-dynamic, conscientious meat farm somewhere near by you. Go become their friends. Buy your meat from someone who saw it’s face.