grass fed beef, lamb, freezers

[randy41]

The guy who sells next to me at the farmers market sells grass fed beef....no grain. So we are thinking of buying a whole quarter to freeze. My wife has a coworker who raises grass fed lamb and we are also thinking about getting a half a lamb. What does everyone think about grass fed meat? The beef I've tried from my market neighbor has been very good.
And this leads me to the next area of consideration, that being purchasing a freezer. We have an older upright freezer from back in the days when we raised some broilers that I think would be expensive to operate due to its energy consumption. So we are thinking of getting a new chest freezer. Any one know what size would be suitable to hold 100 lbs of beef and maybe 25 lbs of lamb? Maybe we should get a bigger one to hold some range raised chicken too.
And brand recommendations are encouraged.

 

[tallyho8]

A small chest freezer about 10 cf can hold about 200 pounds of meat. For economy, do not get one that is frost free as they use about 3 times as much electricity and you only need to defrost one about once a year or so. As far as brands go, almost all of them are made in Asia now and they put whatever label on them that the distributor wants. You could buy 2 of them the same year from the same store with the same brand name and they could be made in different countries by different manufacturers so it is impossible to recommend a specific brand nowadays.

 

[Willl]

What does everyone think about grass fed meat?

What do you mean ?, what the heck ya been eating ?

 

[randy41]

What do you mean ?, what the heck ya been eating ?

corn fed. you?

 

[mjarrels]

Many years ago, we would recieve half a dairy cow each year as part of the pasture rent deal... alway hit or miss on the meat quality.

mark

 

[Willl]

corn fed. you?

Safeway.

 

[randy41]

Safeway.

?????

 

[Willl]

http://shop.safeway.com/

It's a major northwest grocery chain.


Question on "grain fed beef", is that all they eat ?, or just a portion of it is grain ?

 

[rox]

The guy who sells next to me at the farmers market sells grass fed beef....no grain. So we are thinking of buying a whole quarter to freeze. My wife has a coworker who raises grass fed lamb and we are also thinking about getting a half a lamb. What does everyone think about grass fed meat? The beef I've tried from my market neighbor has been very good.
And this leads me to the next area of consideration, that being purchasing a freezer. We have an older upright freezer from back in the days when we raised some broilers that I think would be expensive to operate due to its energy consumption. So we are thinking of getting a new chest freezer. Any one know what size would be suitable to hold 100 lbs of beef and maybe 25 lbs of lamb? Maybe we should get a bigger one to hold some range raised chicken too.
And brand recommendations are encouraged.

I'm sorry that I can't help you with yoru questions but I cna provide another point which may be of interest. My hsuband being a chef and buying and cooking meats for 30+ years was told that cows/beef always sleep/lay on the same side. The side that has not been the favored side of the animal to lay on is the more tender side. So when you get your 1/4 beef you mihgt ask your neighbor to watch which side the animal lays on and to please take your quarter form the opposit side. Might ask the sheep farmer if the the same thing is true about lambs.

 

[randy41]

Willl-the grain is used to finish them with some being fed to 'tame' them. there are farmers who grain feed all through the growing process too. if you are interested read Michael Pollan's Omnivores Dilemma. o...and we don't have Safeway around here...just Food Lion, Kroger, and Walmart.

rox-i appreciate what you are saying but the slaughtering is done by someone else. He just delivers his ready to be slaughtered beeves to the local processor and gets back vacuum packed frozen beef. then lets say he ends up with 4 ribeyes...then a 1/4 purchaser gets one of them.