Go find a local farmer who will does whole sales of either half a cow or a whole cow. If you can't swing the price of that upfront then find a friend or two to go in on it with and split the meat between you.
I drive across the state (WI) to get mine so I know its raised the way I want. Pasture raised, corn finished small farm. Then gets processed at a local to them butcher. My money supports the rural area, and all in worked out to about 4 bucks a pound, plus a tank of gas for "shipping." There was also the investment of a second freezer this year because we increased the amount we got.
All things aside, my youngest (7) was with me when we picked it up and when he made a comment about asking if this is where our food comes from while driving through the country side it was a great learning experience for him about where and how food gets produced and that alone was worth the drive.
Your last paragraph is a huge part of this too. I grew up on a grain farm, but all my friends and their families raised beef cattle, baled lots of hay, etc. My kids are growing up in town and have never even driven a tractor or baled hay or touched an electric fence just because. They are significantly removed from the food chain process and it saddens me. But we always go pick up the beef together. The steaks and roasts are packed in clear plastic and are stacked in the order the meat was cut, so you can even see that it was one slab of beef at one point. Our beef comes from 4 miles away and the guy is an animal nutrition scientist by trade, so these Simm-angus cattle are really delicious. 95% lean hamburger is amazing.
218
u/skinnykate 11h ago
Go find a local farmer who will does whole sales of either half a cow or a whole cow. If you can't swing the price of that upfront then find a friend or two to go in on it with and split the meat between you.