Holy Cow!

Last year Matt and I bought a 1/2 share of an organic grass fed beef. My friend's mom, who lives in Oregon raised the beef. It was really quite good and we enjoyed it a lot. We were interested in doing this because we like the benefits of having grass fed and organic meats. Grass fed, as opposed to grain fed, is much lower in fat, as much as 1/2 to 1/3 as much as grain fed beef (which is what you would get at your local grocery store or meat market). Grass fed beef is usually the same fat content as skinless chicken.....so, eating beef isn't a bad thing as long as you buy good beef. Grass fed beef also has a different flavor then grain fed beef and we happen to really like the flavor. Also, they don't use hormones or antibiotics - so this meat is clean good stuff.

Anyway, it was time to order our beef for this year and unfortunately my friends mom isn't going to raise any this year. So, luckily my sister in law found a local source, Miller Ranch Enterprises www.millerranchenterprises.com. We placed our order for 1/2 share and within a few weeks we have beef! The local butcher does a few things differently then the last butcher we used, but I think it's going to be fine. The cost of our meat - it worked out to $4.65/pound of actual meat. We could have taken a big bag of soup bones, dog bones, etc, but we didn't use much of those last year and so declined them. Organic ground beef is $5.99 at my local store - and the regular ground beef is $3.69/pound. So, when you think about the fact that 2/3 of the pounds of meat are more expensive cuts - steaks, roasts, ribs, etc that is a decent price.

So, why we buy local, grass fed organic beef in bulk?
1. It's cheaper overall.
2. It's lower in fat, higher in omega 3's!
3. No hormones or antibiotics.
4. It's local!
5. It's yummy!

Here's a picture of the 2 boxes of beef:

Box 1 - mainly ground beef, in 1 pound packages.

Box 2 - steaks and roasts, etc.

And check out our freezer!

Last year the 1/2 share lasted us a year. This animal was much smaller then the one we got last year, so the yield is a bit less. And, the kids eat more meat now. So, we might have to purchase twice a year - we will see.