Have you bought meat in bulk? - Page 2

[liberal_chick]

We had a cow done last spring and have kept it in a deep freezer since then. Its still really good, no freezer burn or anything (they wraped it in some type of wax paper).

[Alyantavid]

Almost always, you are charged by the pound "on the hoof"... that means that you are charged pre-processing weight.

Yep. We go through most of a whole cow in a year so we butcher every year and its fine. I'm sure it would do better in deep freeze than say in the door of your freezer, but it should be fine.

Almost always, you are charged by the pound "on the hoof"... that means that you are charged pre-processing weight.

Seriously? When we butcher we only pay for the actual meat, so less around 300 lbs of the live weight. We haven't sold or bought any beef like this so I had no idea. I did sell 1/2 a pig this spring but just charged a flat rate and they paid for processing.

[stormborn]

We do a 1/4 every year, probably 1/2 this year because we'll have a new baby and not be able to hunt in the fall. I pay $5 lb for organic grassfed (cut weight) but it is SO worth it. Just ground organic in the store is $6.50 so it's not as expensive as it sounds.

[sewingmama]

We've purchased beef quarters a few times and love it! It ends up very inexpensive for organic, grass-fed meat, especially for the pricier cuts. It's kept for a year easily. We've always ended up with a great variety of cuts, and it's handy to have it right there whenever we want it, instead of being at the mercy of grocery store sales. If you can afford the up-front cost, I definitely recommend buying a large portion at a time.

[StormySar]

Originally Posted by Aufilia

And it stays edible for a year? The Internet has been telling me you can only freeze beef without freezer burn for 6 or maybe 9 months... even in a deep freeze. I think we could do a 1/4 in a year but I don't think we can go through that much in 6 months or less.

Properly wrapped, it can last a very long time. We have beef going on about two years that has stayed at the bottom of our deep freezer (which would explain why it's been in there two years...)well packaged and it's been fine each time it's thawed. I bet with something like the food sealer it'll last long with no problem too, well beyond six months! We typically buy beef once or twice a year - the ideal being once and we buy it in bulk planning on it to last a year .

You can also can beef too.

[spiderdust]

I wholeheartedly recommend that you DO buy a quarter of a cow from a farmer. If you have the space, get a half. If you have friends who will go in on the order with you, get the whole steer.

We started out with a quarter of a cow and it lasted us a good while, although we wished we had gotten the half. If we had gotten the half, along with the half a hog and the pastured chickens we got from another farmer, we wouldn't have needed any other meat for the whole year. As it was, we ended up having to still buy some meat at the store before the season came around again, but considerably less than we would have otherwise.

Now granted, it cost more than it would have if we had gotten the on sale stuff at Safeway, but it was less than it would have cost us for the same quality beef at Whole Foods. We also felt good about supporting a local farmer who practices humane and sustainable farming.

[CarrieMF]

And it stays edible for a year? The Internet has been telling me you can only freeze beef without freezer burn for 6 or maybe 9 months... even in a deep freeze.

Last fall we emptied mom & dad's freezer & took all the meat they had so they could butcher more meat. We finished that stuff up in May & got fresh meat. The stuff we took from mom's last fall was 4 years old & there was NOTHING wrong with it. It was not freezer burnt at all. It was usually in deep freezers, the first year during the winter it may have been in mom & dad's trailer(which stays quite a few degrees colder than a freezer would).

[bwylde]

Whew, glad to know we're not the only one who eats meat that others would think too old