Want to buy a cow or pig?

[posh]

I'd like to buy 1/4 cow and 1/2 pig. If anyone else is interested, we can coordinate for a better price and more say over butchering.

I'm looking for:
-Grass-fed beef from a real California farm
-Farmers with enough experience to raise excellent meat
-Dry-aging for at least three weeks
-As little ground beef as possible

Three things might cause problems:
-From what I've seen online, most farms are in northern California, so transportation might be tricky.
-Most farms offer their goods seasonally, especially late spring/early summer. I think pigs are less seasonal.
-Unless we can buy an entire steer we might have to settle with a waitlist.

So that's about it. Let's buy some meat.

[Ben7643]

One of my friends in San Fran did this she loved it. Here is the info from the place they used 7 of them went in on half a cow i think. Half a cow is apparently enough meat to feed a family for one year. She got lots of cuts like blade roasts and petite tender, she had this link on her blog http://www.cattlewomen.org/images/Beef-Made-Easy540.jpg

http://www.morrisgrassfed.com/ is where they bought from up in san fran delivered to their door.

Don't have any more info really, but if it's reasonable i'd be into going in on part of a grass fed cow or maybe a buffalo...............

[posh]

Thanks for the info.

I'd love to hear if anyone else has advice. I have no idea what I'm doing.

[thursday]

Reviving this to see whatever happened. I just started looking into this and also have no idea what I'm doing, but might be interested in going in on it...

[Harry Nile]

I'd like to hear from anyone who's done this for a while and found that even after months in a freezer the meat that met their stringent criteria was still superior to what you can get at good retail butchers these days -- places like Jensen's in the desert for exceptionally good prime steaks and for ground veal and Kurobuta pork, Whole Foods for flavorful 22%-fat ground beef and some poultry, Bristol Farms for the occasional Smithfield ham and bacon (but not beef, IMHO), Pacific Ranch Market in Orange for American Kobe tri-tip, and all the other stores and butcher shops that 'hounds advocate on this board. At the moment, I have one of those Pacific Ranch Market tri-tips (~$18/lb. -- not cheap but an excellent value) maturing in the refrigerator under salt and fresh herbs. In a couple of days it will be outstanding not only in taste but also in texture, which is usually mangled by freezing and thawing. So I'm skeptical but willing to listen to experienced freezers.

[stuffed]

These might be of interest:

Local beef: http://www.5barbeef.com/
Local beef,lamb, pork: http://mmlivestockco.com/

[posh]

We've just about gotten to the end of the pig that we bought over the summer. Here are some thought about the last experience:

I highly recommend it. I got much better pork for a much better price than I would be able to afford otherwise. The convenience of having a freezer full of different cuts far outweighs the convenience of going to the store to pick up a particular one. There have always been pork chops around when we wanted those for dinner, along with roasts for braising and smoking, legs and belly that were cured, trim that I've made sausage with. If you don't want to do all that, they can cut everything into small roasts and grind the trim.

Logistically, it was a total nightmare because I was hoping to find some other people for a larger order. Though there was some interest, there was a problem in actually picking up the pork, and everything was put on hold until we had an opportunity to pick it up from the bay area. By then, more frustration and loss of interest. We ended up buying two whole pigs and a suckling, and the price was lower than what it would have been if it were just me--it came out as 3 or 4 dollars a pound (I don't remember exactly).

There were also problems with the farm. I'm not exactly sure why, but everything seemed a lot more confusing than it should have been, which was likely my fault as much as theirs. The butcher didn't exactly get the order right, either.

Finally, the pork has a slightly unusual flavor. I'm not sure the reason for it, but there's something kind of gamy or "bloody" about it. Brining usually takes care of it though. After that most of it has been quite delicious. No problems with the texture, nor with freezer burn. The meat was wrapped in butcher paper.

Improvements for next time:
-Make my own plans and then see if anyone else is interested rather than try to coordinate from the start.
-Buy from a different farm.
-Give the butcher more exact directions and go over everything with them when I pick it up.

So, yes, it was altogether a positive experience, though one certainly marked with novice setbacks. I'll be buying another one in January or February if anyone is interested.

[Harry Nile]

I'm not in the market for a whole or half anything, but thanks for sharing the learning experience -- interesting to some of us, useful to others.

[JPomer]

while picking up a holiday roast and some other meat at Harvey's Guss Meat Company, I did noitice an entire pig hanging with the other meat they were dry-aging, so you might want to give them a call and see if they can get what you're looking for. Btw- the rib roast from Harvey's was worth every penny...