Hellobee Boards

@Mrs D: My dad does this every 1-2 years and it's totally worth it. I love getting the ground beef from cows that I know are raised well. My dad usually keeps the roasts/steaks, my sister and I take our share of gr. beef.

My mom and brother do it, and I think it's a really awesome idea.

One thing to think about though, if your area is prone to power outages during storms, you might want to think seriously about a generator if you're investing in so much stuff that has to be frozen.

That's the only way we go! Totally normal/common!

I grew up with this being the norm, when I went to uncertainty buying meat at a grocery store was so foreign! Started doing this again, DH was a skeptic, but the cost, convenience and quality of meat is all beyond worth it!

We've done this with a 1/2 cow the last couple years and it's been awesome! Of course the negatives are having to pay the upfront cost instead of just buying meat over time and having to have the freezer space (we ended up buying a chest freezer so we could store it all!) but it has been so worth it to us. I agree with @Silva: that you get so many different cuts that it really helps to expand your culinary repertoire.

I love supporting a quality local farmer and I have to say -- the taste is a million times better than what I can get at the store!

@Beebug: I know, I am going to look into it again though, and see if we can customize the packages a bit more.

I don't know how describe it, it's just so much better looking, and tasting, even out of the freezer!

My parents always did this growing up. I've been begging DH for years, but he's not totally on board yet. Maybe soon!

We have been doing this for a few years now. Highly recommend it!

We just did this for the first time and love it! We were able to specify what we wanted. We got a big variety of roasts, steaks, plus over 40 lbs of ground beef. I think the flavor is better and it tastes "fresh".

ETA: They had everything properly packaged & labeled to put it right in the freezer. Oh, and we also got soup bones and scrapple thrown in. We are giving away the scrapple.

We get 1/4 cow every year and love it!! It's about time to get another one...

@looch: I was a little bummed about that too, because we got a million 'Minute steaks' which I couldn't figure out. I finally made carne asada out of it and am going to try to trade my ILs for their's next time because it's my favorite now! It was kind of nice to try some new cuts (although I'm still not big on the huge roasts - not my fave)

Why does he think it's weird?

We went in on a heirloom pig with my cousin in law, a friend of hers and ILs. it worked out great! The big thing is having the freezer space.

Because we got a heirloom, hormone free pig it wasn't necessarily cheaper than buying even standard store pork product. But it felt good knowing our pig wasn't injected, we were supporting a local farmer and the meat was so much more delicious. But unfortunately it's definitely not something we can afford to do often.

Be sure to ask if there's a additional butchering fee, that's not always included in the $/lb. @Mrs D:

I grew up on a beef farm so we always had fresh beef. Since we don't have beef animals anymore we usually buy a 1/4 from a local farm and love it. Like @locavore-mama said, the burchering fee may not be included in the price.
We have always asked for certain cuts, so that may be an option if you know that you will use one type more.

Also, $2lb is a super good deal, but I'm in Canada so I'm not sure what you normally pay in the store for beef.

@Grace: You know...I've never noticed a taste difference if it was a bull. I think we had a bull last year, and then a cow this year. I'll have to ask DH if he noticed a difference!

We did this and loved it. It was so nice to always have meat on hand and forced me to learn to cook cuts that I'm always afraid to buy. However, long term meat storage should never be in a frost free freezer. The mechanism that keeps the freezer from icing up can also remove moisture from the meat so a deep freezer is kind of necessary. We have a small chest freezer so it was a non issue for us, but that's just what our farmer/butcher said when we ordered.

We're getting a chest freezer so we can do this. Growing up, my parents did it all the time.

My parents do this all the time, with different types of animals. It's amazing!

They have a butcher cut the meat and they can specify what cuts they want.

@Grace: Yep we did. It's a real small farm (I think 20-25 cattle), and they had 2 bulls at one time, and they were getting a little too rowdy together I guess. So now they just have 1 bull!