When I was growing up, my parents often bought a half a beef or the whole thing or my grandparents raised a meat cow and shared the meat with us. Not always but much of the time.
Vince and I bought a half a beef several times in MO. I don’t know why we never did it in Texas but as the meat supply tightens, whether it’s real, imagined or created for a reason, I find it frustrating to do my meal plans, then to go to the store and find that the cuts of meat I need aren’t there or I’m limited in what I can buy. We live far from the store and when we go and can buy two packages of meat, that means if we don’t count on using meat out of the freezer, we’d have to go to the store at least twice a week to get enough. We’re doing good to go twice a month and if I had my way, it would be once every two months. Milk is what controls my trips to the store. If I can get milk that has a three week expiration date, I should be able to get meat for three weeks so I don’t have to go back til I need milk. Not happening these days.
So, we started checking into buying half a cow. You’d think in rural Texas, that wouldn’t be hard to find but it did prove to be almost impossible to find. We had asked a friend who lives in Comanche County and is a farmer himself. He knew one person who sold meat like that but he died a few months ago and his wife sold off all the cows. Last week, the friend called back and said he had talked to a buddy who had been selling his cows at the auction but the price was so low, he was selling them to consumers. He reserves spots at the processor, feeds out the calves, takes them to the processor and we pick it up all cut, wrapped and frozen. I can do that.
He was telling us all about how he raises his cows and he said “You can come check out how I raise them, their pastures and you can even pick out your calf.” Oh, no! I told him . . if I pick out a calf, he’ll get a name and then he’ll come live at our house and we’ll have a pet cow and still no steaks.
He’s already booked out for five months so we had him add our name, sent in our deposit and now I’m anxiously awaiting having a freezer of good quality beef. I’m really hoping we can find a new freezer by then since one of ours is on its last leg and one is threatening to quit working. Not a good place to be with both of them full and no freezers to be found. Hopefully by November there will be some kind of freezer available.
Sara F says
We have a similar wait time for “farm to table” around here. The local lockers and butchers are swamped and booked out months. This last week our grocery store had no limits on meat quantity. The price was high, but no limits in amount of packages. The only thing I couldn’t get was chicken thighs. I’m guessing that now that meat packers are reopening around the country, that will help those limits. And hopefully the prices. It’s a shame that farmers can’t get a better share of those big dollars.
Judy Laquidara says
I would imagine they are but we haven’t checked meat in our stores in about 10 days. There were still limits then. I hope this works out and we can support the local farmers and continue to buy meat directly from them. We shouldn’t wait for the next crisis to support the local farmers.
Donna Minter says
My husband and brother-in-law raised a few cattle in the past They only sold them to others. Said they just couldn’t eat the cows they raised and named. Was beyond my understanding.
Diana Rose says
Have you ever looked at Fairlife Milk? Not sure sold in all areas but we get at Walmart and Winco here in CA. I started getting it after my bariatric surgery because it’s higher in protein. I make smoothies with it with my protein powder. We get 4- 6 gallons at a time, and freeze what I don;t need in forseeable future. I don’t know why but it seems to have a much longer shelf life even without freezing. Just thought I’d mention it.
Judy Laquidara says
I have looked into Fairlife milk and I will not use it and I will not go into the reasons.
Diana Rose says
On a side note, have you ever seen Jamerrill Stewart on youtube? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgBwzRfT-AhKvDpaM4R-XIg She has a bunch of kids to feed and mostly because she believes in being prepared and because of this pandemic she’s gotten into growing things, raising dairy goats and milking them, etc. She’s going to get into making yogurt from the goatmilk, etc etc. I only have to worry about my husband and I (and my brother when he’s home once a month). She’s entertaining many times with kids interrupting and real no nonsense but she doesn’t mind her kids being kids, playing in the dirt, but also helping with the chickens/animals.
Judy Laquidara says
I have not seen her but I will go watch. Thanks!
Paula Philpot says
Are freezers hard to get there now? I checked with a “pig guy” at the Farmers Market and he has pigs ready but cannot get them slaughtered till July.. Paula in KY
Rebecca in SoCal says
I am wondering if freezers are another Covid-based shortage. With everyone eating at home ALL the time, I suppose there might be a demand for them!
Judy Laquidara says
I’ve heard different reasons but I think, at least indirectly, it does all go back to Covid.
Judy Laquidara says
Yes. As far as I know, they’re hard to get all over the U. S. It was a month or so ago that we figured that out when we wanted to buy a new one.
Marsha says
I go to store every two weeks. Buy two gallons milk and freeze one. Can’t tell difference between the two. Just have to remember to put frozen gallon in refrigerator to thaw about three days before needed.
Judy Laquidara says
We’ve tried it and I can’t get the texture right in frozen/thawed milk. I’ve tried letting it thaw in the fridge, not in the fridge; using the immersion blender and there are still grains/lumps in it.
Jane says
We have never met any of our animals either. Couldn’t do it but I do name them. Drove the kids crazy hehehe. Currently sir loin and Wilbur are in the freezer. I too don’t care for frozen milk. Even going through 6 gallons a week it didn’t happen
Tee says
Our local butcher, who we use for processing the half cow we buy once a year, is booked up until next April and so is everyone else around us. I don’t know if this is all cows and pigs or if it includes deer processing in the fall or who thought so far ahead to get a processing date. It usually takes about a month in advance to get a date. We have about 5 farmers near us that we have bought cows from and just one pig farmer. Most of the hog barns near us are leased out for commercial growers.
Judy Laquidara says
Here there are a couple of deer processors who open just for deer season and don’t do other meats so it shouldn’t be hard here to find a deer processor. When we first moved here, a neighbor taught us how to butcher the deer ourselves. They helped us the first few times but now we do it all ourselves so we don’t have to worry about that. I prefer to can most of the venison so that makes it even easier.
There aren’t that many cattle ranches left around here so I suppose that’s the only reason we’ll be able to get ours in November. The rancher said that he reserved 5 spots per month for quite a few months so I’m thankful he saw this coming and got his reservations in early.
Susan Nixon says
I’m glad to see someone doing that. I wondered why more people weren’t when the processing problem came up. Actually, I figure there are a lot of hunters out there who COULD process a cow, if they really had to. But nice to have it done for you. =)
Judy Laquidara says
Chad said he could buy a cow, process it and we could take half but getting half a cow from there to here frozen wouldn’t be easy. All we have is my SUV and we would have at least one suitcase, the dog crate, the dog bed . . just not enough room in the car and Chad only has a small chest freezer so I’m not sure where he was planning to store the meat til we picked up our half. We’ll just stick with the plan to get it here for now.
We do process our deer but a cow is a lot bigger and I don’t know how I’d ever get all the wrapping/vacuum sealing and freezing done myself.