6/18/09
In June, 2009, my husband and I purchased a quarter of a cow from Bald Hill Farm in Corvallis. We didn’t ask for any special cuts, we simply took what they offered. It’s an experiment… can two people (who like to entertain) go through 177.5 lbs of frozen beef in a reasonable amount of time? Will the cost savings really be a savings in the end? Can we use the cuts we received in a way that we enjoy? There are some cuts with which we have no experience, and there’s a lot of ground beef, which is something we rarely buy. How inventive can we be? This page will tell the tale!
Initial thoughts:
- There’s a lot of ground beef here. A LOT of ground beef. I’m a little nervous.
- Are we going to be able to go through all this before it gets yucky-freezer tasting?
- There’s also a lot of cube steak here… what do you do with cube steak? I better start looking for recipes…
6/19/09
The beef we purchased was raised on pasture. In addition to the benefits for the animals during their lifetimes, I’m interested in the nutritional differences of grass-fed vs. grain-fed beef. Here are two links from the Eat Wild website:
Additionally, we know that the animals at Bald Hill are never given hormones or antibiotics and are never fed any animal by-products… a huge plus with all the concerns over food-borne illness.
10/11/09
You may have seen the recent article in the NY Times about the flaws in the beef inspection process in the U.S.
…confidential grinding logs and other Cargill records show that the hamburgers were made from a mix of slaughterhouse trimmings and a mash-like product derived from scraps that were ground together at a plant in Wisconsin. The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria.
I thought of my freezer full of meat from a single grass-fed cow and felt appreciative once more that we had the opportunity to purchase beef from a local farm. Want to check into it for yourself? If you’re in the Willamette Valley area, check out my resources page. If you’re reading this from anywhere else, try the Eat Wild website.
Stumble It!
Posted by rosariane on October 9, 2009 at 10:34 am
We used to buy a whole cow once a year (family of four) and we would not have to buy beef for the entire year. The main problem we found was that the farm raised cow had no fat so even when we made hamburgers, we had to add oil to the pan. The meat was absolutely great and the price we paid in the eighties was about $1.25 per pound. I know that the price has skyrocketed now but I would still love to be able to buy a half cow but don’t know of any place to do that here in North Carolina.
Posted by Kate on October 9, 2009 at 11:50 am
You are right, Rosariane, the meat is very lean! There is rarely anything to drain off cooked ground beef. It hasn’t been a problem for our burgers — I don’t know, my husband does some magic or something. He’s the good cook around here. :-)
I don’t know where you are in NC, but you can check out this page on the Eat Wild website to see if there are any ranchers near you who sell direct to the consumer. (click on the bold text)