My husband and I are looking into buying a 1/2 a cow. We are thinking that it might save us some money on meat. We've never done it and are wondering if anyone could give us some information on it...like is it worth it? where is a good place to purchase it? how does the meat come sealed? etc. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!
you can find local beef farms at www.eatwild.com, and a lot of them have smaller parcels you can try out before you buy a huge amount.
i'd like to do it but i don't have a big enough freezer right now!
I bought a quarter cow (organic Grass-fed) through www.Bountifulbaskets.org. It was cheaper than organic meat, but about the same price as regular meat. So for the same price I normally pay I got MUCH healthier, more ethical meat. It's a wonderful co-op and they periodically offer beef that comes individually wrapped and labeled. Every other week I go pick up a produce basket at a discounted price, so I recommend checking it out.
We are hunters and game eaters and have been blessed many times. years past we experimented with buying in bulk from the Meat store or meat farmer in Mesa. we typically bought 1/2 of cow. it comes in white wrap paper, labled (need to vacume seal if not going to use it as mainstay). Value wise, we found that I could save more money buying sales and manager discount meat and getting more of a variety. I would recommend doing it once each way and see which way fits your family needs. FYI my husband has considered buying a pig instead; but, I can do without pork so he never pursued it.
We used to live in MN and every year a family in our church donated 1/2 a cow to us from their stock.(my husband is a minister, and this was their way of saying thank you.)
This was a huge blessing for our family... and wow, was it nice to always have good quality meat on hand. It usually lasted us all year, as our children were small then. It was wrapped in paper and was quite lean... no added "anything" as it was straight from the butcher.
I don't have info on where to purchase it in AZ, but I see some others do. I would encourage you to check it out.... I might do it myself now that you brought it up.
good luck!
Toni
Try Bountiful Baskets. You can google it. Anyway, my experience has been that the meat isn't cheaper...just organic and probably better for you. But on BB, you can sometimes split cows with people and then even just get so many pounds worth to try it out. Usually the meat is wrapped in paper like how you would get it directly from the butcher.
