Anyone order from US Wellness Meats?

[dentmom]

How are their prices and quality?
Thanks

[dogmom327]

I've ordered their tallow. Great quality and perfectly reasonable price. I'm currently waiting on a coop order for their salami, summer sausage and chicken sausage

[dentmom]

have i mentioned how much i love summer sausage????? and how lucky you are with a co-op!

[mom61508]

Yes I order from them often. Things like summer sausage, sometimes cheese, liver, marrow etc. I ordered beef broth once when I wasn't able to make it and it was terrible. VERY watery....almost a clear color and I got a very hard time form the manager when I wasn't happy with the broth...just an FYI

[Rasa]

dogmom327: which coop (a storefront)? I'm in PDX too but my coop is a vegetarian one (good for many things EXCEPT meat )

[dogmom327]

I'll PM you

[georgia]

Hi! Posts have been removed for User Agreement issues. Please remember we do not allow advertising/self-promotion in posts. Please PM me with any questions.

Thanks so much!

[emilydash]

Buying direct from local farmers is cheaper!

The most affordable way to buy healthy meats is directly from a farmer. You can split larger animals with friends, or buy half or quarter carcasses from a farm. The cost of a freezer will be repaid in savings in less than a year; they are cheaper to run than fridges, and cost ~ $200 for a pretty big one.

Important questions to ask the farmer:
1. Was the animal raised on pasture? Grass fed meat is much more nutritious, and its fat is better for you.
2. How do they manage their grazing? Management-intensive, rotational grazing is what you're looking for here. That means the animals are moved to new grass frequently so they always have plenty of high quality forage to eat. Some pastures don't have much to eat if thet aren't well managed, and the farmer in these situations relies on grain or hay as feed.
3. What kind of grain do you feed? Certified organic grain has more nutrients, and so do the animals who eat it. Poultry and pigs require grain to supplement their pasture-based diet. Ruminants (cattle, sheep and goats) do not.

Looking forward to farming with our 6 month old son on my back this summer!

[mom61508]

It is cheaper but not everyone can find meats or certain items like summer sausage locally

[Feb2003]

we love their hot dogs and the beef sticks...also the beef tallow, we like the pemmican OK (only kind I've ever had)...but we also thought beef broth was horrible

and while I'm ordering, I also buy golden berries and mulberries since I can't buy those locally, either

I buy plenty from local farms, too, but mine don't have these products.

yum

[JaneS]

Been ordering from them for years... I just cannot add one more trip to my schedule to get some other kind of food, they are so convenient and shipping is inexpensive. It enables me to get the widest range of pastured meats and organ meats too. The burgers are the best grass finished ones we've tried, and I've also gotten local meats. I also like that you can get 75% lean ground, we want the extra fat.

I've been happy with everything I've ordered and it always arrives in Massachusetts perfectly frozen, even in dead of summer, and super fast, a day or two. We especially love the tallow for oven fries! I got the beef broth several years ago and it was great, maybe not so much lately?

[AliL]

I have ordered from US Wellness meats but recently read in a blog that they have gotten so big that they have started importing meat from Tasmania to keep up with their orders. I went to the website, and yes, it had an article about the meat they import from Tasmania.

My concern is that while they only list their first four "founding" farmers on the website, they also use meat from hundreds of other farms, both in the US and Tasmania, to fulfill all their orders. I feel that they could not possibly control whether all of these farmers actually provide true grass-fed, grass-finished beef, particularly after the continuing drought in many of the highest beef-producing areas of the U.S. While I'm having to pay a little more, I started ordering from a small one-ranch Kansas operation, Green Cattle Beef, that only sells from its own grass-fed and finished stock. I have gotten great service and have no worries about where the beef is coming from.

[CookAMH]

I might be off on this thinking, but my first thought that meat is coming from Tasmania is that isn't bad - maybe I'm likening it to lamb from NZ that is grass fed, since it's close to Tasmania, but it wouldn't automatically equate that with being a bad move.

[NoTiGG]

I've always ordered from them and they have never done me wrong. I've noticed the prices increasing quite a lot though. For instance I think a pound of ground grass fed buffalo is now over 10 dollars or something. It used to be 8.

The cons with them are high price... it's not local...... and you are for the most part getting frozen meat. They do have fresh chilled meat which is unfrozen but I haven't tried it. Freezing meat lowers it's quality somewhat.

[dogman333]

I've order from US Wellness Meats for over two years. For the past several months, I once received spoiled meat and the second time, in the heat of summer, my meat arrived WARM in the box, without any ice packs. If they raised their meats as clumsily as they package it, then it can't be very good. And for my troubles -- a $10 credit for the first one. And a $25 credit for the second. I lost over $200 with them. Never again. If they had made good on their errors. If only they had enough integrity to stand behind their products. Buyer beware.