Organic Meat

[ps4624]

DH and I have read the books, cleaned out the pantry and are almost ready to start our TF journey! The only thing that is holding me back is the purchasing of organic, grassfed meat. We generally buy our meat at Costco. I know they are starting to sell organic chicken and a little organic beef, but I am not sure where to purchase other meat items.

Where do you purchase yours? Is the cost prohibitive? We currently live in Florida and it's fairly easy to get organic produce, but meat has me stumped!

TIA!

[spughy]

I buy mine from farm markets and directly from farms. If you contact the WAPF chapter in your area, they can probably steer you in the right direction.

It is more expensive, yes. But what could be more important? Heck, you're in Florida, you don't need clothes or anything. (I'm just kidding. I know they have nudity laws there.) But if you cut back on meat portion sizes, and add more vegetables, you'll be surprised at how much less more expensive it is, and how much better you feel.

[laohaire]

www.eatwild.com

Here's the listings for Florida:
http://www.eatwild.com/products/florida.html

[Bensmommy]

What part of Florida? I'm in Central Florida (the Tampa Bay Area) and have some contacts in this area for grass-fed, pastured meats. Let me know if that will help!

[Birdie B.]

I'm in Tallahassee, and our local SlowFood group has some great resources for organic/pastured meat in the North Fla/panhandle/south Georgia area. We get ground beef from a family farm near Thomasville, Ga.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/slowfoodtallahassee/

[ps4624]

Thanks for all the info! Bensmommy - I'm in St. Pete- i would love your contacts! TIA!

[annethcz]

www.localharvest.org can be another good resource.

[noobmom]

We buy locally raised grass-fed beef by the side or whole. The farmer takes it to a USDA inspected processing plant and they cut it to order for us. These are small farms (friends, actually) so they are not certified organic, but I've seen the animals, their living conditions, and I personally know the people taking care of them, so I consider that even better than USDA certified organic.

We pay the farmer by hanging weight (usually around $3 dollars a pound) and pay the slaughterhouse a cutting/packaging fee (about $0.50 a pound). When it's all said and down, it works out to about $5-7 per pound of packaged meat because you lose 25-50% when the carcass is butchered. On the expensive side for the ground meat, but cheap for the ribeyes and T-bones, so I think in the end it averages out. Also, the carcass is dry-aged, so a "pound" of meat is actually more protein and less water than you get from grocery store meat. DH and I have noticed it takes smaller portions to fill us up. As long as I can find a local grass-fed source, I won't go back to grocery store beef again!

[Dillpicklechip]

Originally Posted by laohaire

www.eatwild.com

Thanks for this--I was unaware of the farms selling grassfed meat in my own province of Ontario. Sadly, the closest farm is about a 4 hour drive from us...on the bright side though, it's in the area we might be moving next year.