Thursday, March 25, 2010

Side note - We took delivery of our first beef quarter

No pics, unless you want to see my full chest freezer. Kent and I had ordered a quarter of grass-fed, antibiotic/hormone free, humanely raised Nebraska beef. This morning I got a phone call saying that we could have it a month earlier than expected, the folks were driving to Denver from Nebraska and could bring it with them. Fortunately, we had been plugging away at eating from the freezer to make room and I was just able to squeeze in 99 pounds of beef.

Never having done this before, I wasn't sure what to expect. It came pre-frozen. Very helpful. We got a great variety. Our name was stamped on every package, along with the cut and date. Like that cow was earmarked for us from the start. We got:

46 lbs of 90/10 ground beef
6 lbs of Rib Steak
3 lbs of Sirloin Steak
3 lbs of Tenderized Round Steak
8 lbs of of T-Bone Steaks
4 lb rump roast
21 lbs of chuck roasts
1 lb of fillet
3 1/2 lb of boneless brisket
4 lbs of stew meat

It feels really good to know that the meat in our freezer is clean and safe and that it was raised under optimum conditions and with loving care, butchered carefully and humanely by a small-town plant, as well. I'm looking forward to my first taste. We haven't had a lot of beef around here for quite some time.

And while it is a bit of a chunk of cash on the front end, it comes out to just $4.20/lb. I would have to pay more than that for antibiotic riddled, grainfed, tortured beef at the grocery store. And the folks who raised the cattle sent a thank you gift with the meat - two jars of home-canned jams, elderberry and wild grape. Yippee!

This has been a really good experience for us and if you (a) read this, (b) live near Denver and (c) want in next time - let me know and I'll hook you up!

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