Tonight we picked up our 1/2 beef share from Linda, my friend who owns Barefoot Farm and Flowers. I actually went out to her farm a couple weeks ago when the mobile processing guys were there to watch them slaughter the cows. It was a humbling and deeply moving experience, and one that I am so grateful that I had the chance to participate in. I took a ton of pictures, as I find the whole process fascinating, and I am working on a blog post about that day that will be up soon. But for right now, we are excited about bringing home the finished product!
This is the first time we have purchased an animal directly from the farm it was raised on, and I am really excited about it. Linda's cows are never given any hormones or antibiotics, and they are never, ever fed grain. Grass is the only thing that cows are meant to eat, and when they have a natural diet the resulting meat not only tastes better, but its healthier for you too. Grass fed animals have 2-4 times more Omega-3 fatty acids than meat from grain fed animals. Omega-3's are "good fats" that play a vital role in the health of all the cells and systems in our bodies. Meat from grass fed ruminants also contains CLA, or conjugated linoleic acid. In fact grass fed meats contain 3-5 times the amount of CLA than their grain fed counterparts. CLA is a known cancer fighter, and may be one of the most potent defenses against the disease. It also helps protect against heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Grass fed beef is also 400% higher in vitamins A and E than grain fed beef. All this adds up to the fact that grass fed beef is indisputably better for you than the beef from cows fed an unnatural diet of grain (and liquefied fat, parts of other animals, synthetic estrogen and antibiotics...sound appetizing?).
Since our cows only dined on the grass in their pastures, they were smaller than a typical feed lot cow. The hanging weight of our 1/2 share came out to 235.5 pounds. Not as big as we expected, but certainly worth every ounce. 235 pounds is a whole heck of a lot of meat, and since we are expecting our 1/2 pig share from the same farm to be ready in a couple months we invested in a large stand up freezer to join the smaller chest freezer already in the garage. After we saw the amount of meat we got, I was glad that we had gone with the 20 cubic foot freezer....we definitely need the space! We got 65 pounds just in hamburger:
The rest of the meat was cut into steaks, roasts, and stew meat (the picture totally doesn't do it justice...this is beautiful looking meat!):
I was also lucky enough to get the dog and soup bones that went unclaimed from all 3 cows, as well as 10 pounds of fat that I have plans to render down into tallow. All of that together made for one very full freezer:
And there is 25 pounds of hamburger in the door that you cant see! We are so excited about this, and are already have plans in the works to buy cow, hog and hopefully, lamb shares from Barefoot Farm and Flowers again in 2011. We are so blessed to have such wonderful farmer friends, and to be able to provide this wonderfully nourishing meat for our family.
This is the first time we have purchased an animal directly from the farm it was raised on, and I am really excited about it. Linda's cows are never given any hormones or antibiotics, and they are never, ever fed grain. Grass is the only thing that cows are meant to eat, and when they have a natural diet the resulting meat not only tastes better, but its healthier for you too. Grass fed animals have 2-4 times more Omega-3 fatty acids than meat from grain fed animals. Omega-3's are "good fats" that play a vital role in the health of all the cells and systems in our bodies. Meat from grass fed ruminants also contains CLA, or conjugated linoleic acid. In fact grass fed meats contain 3-5 times the amount of CLA than their grain fed counterparts. CLA is a known cancer fighter, and may be one of the most potent defenses against the disease. It also helps protect against heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Grass fed beef is also 400% higher in vitamins A and E than grain fed beef. All this adds up to the fact that grass fed beef is indisputably better for you than the beef from cows fed an unnatural diet of grain (and liquefied fat, parts of other animals, synthetic estrogen and antibiotics...sound appetizing?).
Since our cows only dined on the grass in their pastures, they were smaller than a typical feed lot cow. The hanging weight of our 1/2 share came out to 235.5 pounds. Not as big as we expected, but certainly worth every ounce. 235 pounds is a whole heck of a lot of meat, and since we are expecting our 1/2 pig share from the same farm to be ready in a couple months we invested in a large stand up freezer to join the smaller chest freezer already in the garage. After we saw the amount of meat we got, I was glad that we had gone with the 20 cubic foot freezer....we definitely need the space! We got 65 pounds just in hamburger:
The rest of the meat was cut into steaks, roasts, and stew meat (the picture totally doesn't do it justice...this is beautiful looking meat!):
I was also lucky enough to get the dog and soup bones that went unclaimed from all 3 cows, as well as 10 pounds of fat that I have plans to render down into tallow. All of that together made for one very full freezer:
And there is 25 pounds of hamburger in the door that you cant see! We are so excited about this, and are already have plans in the works to buy cow, hog and hopefully, lamb shares from Barefoot Farm and Flowers again in 2011. We are so blessed to have such wonderful farmer friends, and to be able to provide this wonderfully nourishing meat for our family.