Food Challenge: We Bought A Cow

This is our first step to more sane, environmentally conscious and healthy eating.  We bought a cow.  Not a whole cow, but a quarter of a cow.  I still think that counts though.  If you didn't catch last week's post then you'll be a little behind on my train of thought for buying a cow.  Here's the link so you can catch up.

Disclaimer:  I classify myself as a city girl.  I grew up in a suburb of Oklahoma City, with a population of ~25,000 people and in a neighborhood with paved streets.  There was no farm, no animals, no garden, except for the occasional tomato plant my Mom tried to grow.  We had about 3 grocery stores in town and that's where I remember getting all of our food.  I have never known how to buy meat or produce anywhere else but a mainstream grocery store.

Living in South Dakota, where billboards like "Beef, it's our STEAK in the future" line the interstates, I figured it couldn't be hard to find good meat sources.  Our town has a farmer's market so I started my search there.  According to their website, they have a number of meat producers that sell at the market.  I visited the market for a couple of weeks in May hoping I could buy some of the locally produced meat, but they never came.  I took matters into my own hands and contacted one of them directly, Cliff Millsapps.  Cliff produces grass-fed, organic beef on a farm about 50 miles away.  I contacted him through his website, asking for basic information on how to buy his beef. We exchanged a number of emails and phone calls before deciding what would be best for us to buy, which is a custom order of quarter cow.  Translation for all you city folk like me, that means we are buying roughly 100 pounds of beef (which according to Cliff, fills a small chest freezer or the freezer compartment of a combination refrigerator/freezer) and we get to choose how we want it cut & packaged.

Okay, so we're buying a quarter cow, but what exactly does that mean?  These are the steps it's taking to get the beef from Cliff's ranch to our freezer:

1. Tell Cliff how much beef we want to buy. (We decided on a quarter b/c we think it can last our family of 3 for close to a year - but I could be wrong about that - AND we only have enough freezer space for a quarter cow)
2. Cliff takes the cow to the meat locker to get butchered.
3. Cliff calls me to say the cow is in the meat locker and the hanging weight of our quarter cow is __ lbs.  I then write him a check for ___ lbs x $3.15.  (FYI, if you buy a full cow, it's a bit cheaper, $3/lb)
4. I call the meat locker and tell them how I want the meat cut & packaged.  I was nervous about this part because I don't know that much about cuts of beef or what I prefer or not prefer.  I basically just took Cliff's advice, got the steaks 1.25" thick, the meat wrapped in paper (vs. vacuum packaging which raises the price significantly) and agreed to try cuts of meat such as short ribs, brisket, heart and liver (we had the option of tongue but I said no).  I also asked them to throw in some soup bones for making beef stock and some bones for the dogs. 
5. After butchering the cow, the meat locker ages the beef for 2 weeks then cuts it to our specifications.  During this process the beef will lose 60-70% of its weight due to evaporation (that's the difference between hanging weight and the actual weight).  In mainstream beef production, the beef is not aged as long so the weight gets lost during cooking, which is why a hamburger is so much smaller after cooking.  Apparently this beef will not shrink as much when it is cooked.  
6. The meat locker calls to tell me our quarter cow is cut, packaged, frozen and ready for pick up.  
7. I drive to the meat locker (about 20 miles), pay the locker for their butchering services (~ $0.80/lb) and bring our tasty beef treats home. :)

(Right now we are between step 5 and 6.  I anticipate step 6 to happen by the end of this week or early next week.)

Don't go running for the hills just because I've said we're accepting beef heart and liver.  It sounded gross to me too but I watched YouTube videos on how to prepare it, then asked 3-5 different people their thoughts on it.  They all agreed that heart is good (when cooked properly) and the majority said the same about liver.  Plus, my grandfather-in-law's favorite meal was fried cow heart so it can't be that bad, right?  I also figured it would make a good blog post - How to Cook Cow Heart. :)  Stay tuned.

In conclusion: we envision receiving a good mix of steaks, roasts and ground beef (plus the organs and bones).  We are anticipating the final cost to be ~$6.25/lb after it is butchered, dried, cut and packaged to our specifications. In comparison to store bought ground beef, that is expensive, but considering a steak or roast, it's comparable if not cheaper.  Plus, this is grass-fed, organic beef, sans hormones or antibiotics and humanely raised just 50 miles away.

This is a whole new world for me.  More expensive, less comfortable (I have never visited a meat locker or prepared most of these beef cuts), more personal (I'm really getting to know Cliff, turns out he's a great guy and has a dry humor like my Dad), and hopefully more tasty & healthy.  I just keep reminding myself of what they said in Ingredients: as an industrial nation we spend the least of our income on food and the most on medicine.  And I can't get this one out of my head: meat from 100-1000's of cows can go into one, one pound package of ground beef.  I will rest more soundly at night knowing I am eating meat from just one cow.