Fun on the Farm and an Opportunity for YOU to Have Grass-fed Beef thru Home Grown Cow!! (coupon code)

This past weekend was a busy one! I spent all day Saturday antique hunting with my mom in a HUGE warehouse called the Depot in Concord, NC...88,000 sqft of antiques and treasures!! Loved it! Found a few things for my home and then we headed out to lunch and then to IKEA in Charlotte. Unfortunately our IKEA visit had to be brief since but it turns out they were completely out of all that I went there to get...typical IKEA. However I did find someone selling a gorgeous antique empire chest on CL and was able to make a pit stop in Salisbury on my way home to pick it up!! It's gonna be my next project...more on that later :)

Yesterday we visited another local farm and got to hear a national leader in the grass-fed beef movement, Ridge Shinn, speak on the benefits of grass-fed beef, both in our health and on sustainability. You can see his Time Magazine article here. His presentation on the farm was very informative! The kids enjoyed seeing the cows up close and really liked playing in the barn where they were able to run around jumping across bales of hay! They even had delicious grass-fed meatballs for everyone and slices of beef brisket, YUM!!

You may be thinking "well that's great but how can I get grass-fed beef when I don't have access to a farm?"...well now you do! After my recent post on buying grass-fed beef I was contacted by a representative from Home Grown Cow, a site that is bridging the gap between farmers and consumers who want access to grass-fed beef and other sustainable products. It's a simple concept. Farmers supply information to Home Grown Cow on the products they offer as well as their farming practices and certifications and then Home Grown Cow provides the information into an online database where consumers can shop for beef, chicken, cheese, eggs, etc. You can search their site based on the product you want and the farming practices that are important to you. Then Home Grown Cow will give you a list of farms that meet your criteria as well as the products offered and you can purchase the items you need directly from that farm. When you place an order the funds from your card will be held until you are in receipt of your meat and are satisfied. At that point the funds will be released to the farmer. You have the option to pick up your order from the farmer (if they are nearby) or you can order from a farm that will ship directly to you! Either way you can buy with confidence! You can find more information on how it all works by reading their FAQ page.

Here is some general information from Home Grown Cow to get you started: (be sure to get discount code below)

1.       Our farmers’ market is open and free for any meat, poultry, and cheese farmer residing in the US.

2.       We allow the farmers to set their own prices and list their own offerings.

3.       One of our goals is to be as supportive of the American small production farmer as possible.

4.       We offer customer service to both the farmer and consumer – there is a live person to talk to at any stage of the transaction

5.       Our market is national, but if you can’t find a farm local to you raising the kind of meat you’re looking for, let us know and we will send an email out to our farmers to see if anyone has what you’re looking for.

6.       Many of our farmers ship direct to your door.

7.       We accept and hold credit card payment until the consumer has received their order and is satisfied it is what they ordered and in excellent condition.

8.       We assist in preparing custom cut orders for bulk purchases if desired.

9.       We are listed with the Better Business Bureau of Wisconsin.

I hope this information helps you find the best meat and cheese options for your family! As a thank you for helping to spread the word about this new company Home Grown Cow is offering my blog readers a 5% discount code that is good on all orders thru Dec 31st, 2013. Just use the code "hana" upon checkout!!

I'll end this post by sharing a few images from our afternoon on the farm :)

Buying Local Grass-fed Beef...an FYI

If you've ever done any amount of reading or watched some of the latest food documentaries (Food Inc, Food Matters, Fresh, etc) then you will know how important it is to know where your food comes from. In an effort to improve our health and stop supporting the large factory farms that are filling our grocery stores with junk we decided to purchase a portion of a local grass-fed cow from a nearby small family farm. After doing some online research and seeing some of these food documentaries I knew that we needed to make some changes to our shopping and eating habits. It just so happened that a friend posted on facebook about going in with a group to purchase a cow. I was in immediately! We are fortunate to live in an area that has a number of farms nearby where healthy meat options are available. It is important to find a farm that practices sustainable farming meaning they farm using methods that protect the environment, protect public health and uphold animal welfare. The cows should be free to wander grass pastures and live and eat in a manner that is instinctive to them. It also means that there is no need for antibiotics, something large factory farms use to combat the unsanitary conditions feedlot cows are made to "live" in. Sustainable farms also do not use growth hormones to make the cows larger than God created them to be. They basically live the way they were meant to live. Happier, healthier cows means healthier beef on your table. We also intend to buy some free-range chicken and eggs from another small local farm :)

This post is just a simple FYI as to what you might expect if you decide you want to purchase your own grass-fed cow portion.

We decided to start small for our first time just so we could get a feel for the process and see how long it takes for us to go through the meat. We ordered a 1/4 but split that evenly with my parents so the order that you see in this post is actually an 1/8. The butcher that processes your beef may vary in his cutting method but ours cuts the steer by halves. If you order a 1/4 he pairs you with another 1/4 order that has a similar cut sheet. In our case the other 1/4 was a friend and we ended up with the exact same cut sheet (by chance).  If you are anything like me I had no idea what kinds of cuts to request so the butcher provided a list of each portion of the cow and what cuts can be made with each. He also listed the standard cuts to give you an idea of a typical order. Most of our cuts were similar to the standard sheet but we did make a number of changes that better suited our eating habits. Once we placed our order our steer went to butcher about a week later...kind of a sad thought but it is the truth about where meat comes from. I think it is important for kids to know where meat comes from as well. They don't need to know all the details (if they are young) but they should understand that an animal had to die so that they can eat. I believe this helps them appreciate their food and the process it takes for it to get put on the table. Maybe that's just me.

We got the pick-up call yesterday (which was about 2-3 weeks after butcher) letting us know that the farmer himself would be delivering the meat at a pick up spot down the road from us.  This is our order breakdown.

1/8 Grass-Fed Cow @ $3.50/lb hanging weight (the weight before cutting with skin removed but bone remaining)
Our original hanging weight for a 1/4 was 137.7lbs but we split it down the middle with my parents (for payment purposes) which made our portion 68.85lbs. Our farmer charges $3.50 hanging weight which is comparable to many other farms in our area.

Our Cost: $240.98
Our Actual Beef Breakdown: 45.53 lbs (this is what we brought home)

Ground Beef: 18 packs (19 lbs)
Stew Beef: 4 packs (4.615 lbs)
Ribs: 2 packages (3.45 lbs)
Bottom Round Roast: (2.745 lbs)
Sirloin Tip: (2.445 lbs)
Chuck Roast: (2.26 lbs)
London Broil: (2.67 lbs)
Filet Mignon Tenderloin: (.505 lbs) 8oz
Ribeye Steak: 2 packs (1.675lbs)
Cube Steak: (.820 lbs) 13oz
Eye of Round: (.57 lbs)
Philly Steak: (.515 lbs)
NY Strip: (.855 lbs)
Sirloin Steak: 2 packs (2.36 lbs)
Flank Steak: 2 packs (1.055 lbs)
Soup Bones for making beef stock: 2 bags full (not shown in pic below)

This is what it all looks like sprawled out on our kitchen table. I can't wait to get cooking! I hope this  post helps someone with what they might expect when buying grass-fed beef in bulk :)

 Lots and lots of ground beef!! 18 packs of it to be exact. We love ground beef so we are excited to have a large amount of it. I'm excited about not having to buy beef from a store anymore...this is soooo much tastier (not to mention way leaner and healthier)!!

This photo is just for the purpose of showing the space an 1/8 of a cow takes up in a 16cu.ft upright freezer. We found this 4 yr old Whirlpool freezer on CL for a great deal. The top 2 shelves hold the beef from our order and the soup bones are in those other two packages on the third shelf. As you can see we could easily fit twice as much and still have room for lots more food...like chicken!!