April 1st, 2005 - Grass-fed beef
Karen commented that when her family tried grass-fed beef they didn’t like the taste compared to grain-fed beef. I don’t know what my husband will think, but I bet I’ll like it! I didn’t realize this until after we decided to try Cattleana Ranch, but I grew up on organic beef (or nearly so). My parents bought most if not all of our meat from their farming friends. We’d get a 1/4 or 1/2 a beef, 1/2 a hog, and a lamb almost every year. The Wolfs had the hogs, maybe also the lambs. The Langes had the beef. I’m pretty sure I saw the cows myself (not to pick out–just when we visited them) going out to pasture. And I remember hearing about the dead calf he found in the pasture. So I know they had grass at least when it wasn’t winter. I think I recall my Dad going out to pick out his hog once, too.
We’d pick up the processed meat at the local butchers and just get the cut we wanted out of the freezer every morning.
Just like with veggies, I had a hard time figuring out how to buy meat when I became an adult! Eric and I have talked about getting a 1/4 side of beef like we used to, but the cost always seemed prohibitive. Now I don’t care as much. We did, after all, buy a chest freezer just for this sort of thing. Let’s fill it up with good food!
We were only able to get hamburger at the Red Radish, unfortunately. And, to our discomfort, we’re using it in Hamburger Helper! aaack! We completely recognize the irony here. But we had the Helper already, and we need some quick to fix meals these days. We’re both pretty tired by dinner time. And, oh, was it nice to have Eric ask me if he should pour off the grease like I’d asked him to, look in the pan, and see NOTHING but meat. That was cool; I hate fat/grease in my meat.
April 1st, 2005 at 11:03 am EST
After I posted about the beef, I realized that I should specify — it was the organic steaks that tasted a little funny to us. Organic ground beef didn’t have a noticeable flavor difference, probably because we mix it with other ingredients.