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By the way, western Oregon is full of delicious cattle and sheep. I haven't bought any meat from grocery stores in a couple decades except an occasional package of hot dogs or pepperoni slices. And my share of the animal is delivered to my door when the animal is butchered.
Go to the closest local farmers market, try out meat from various vendors, then check out their websites and see what it costs to pre-order a lamb, half lamb, steer, half steer, quarter steer, hog, half, quarter, or whole chickens or turkeys in spring for delivery in fall. There's a modest deposit. A quarter steer, for example, is all cut up and packaged and frozen, with your share of the various cuts. Butchered professionally, dry aged two weeks, cut, packaged. You give cutting directions for your share. I like burger, for example, and ask to have the round steak and stew meat cut into the burger. Like burger in one lb packages. Like roasts to be cut in the 2-3 lb size. Steaks 1.5 inches thick and two per package. Etc.
If you have more time than money you might go to any farm with just a few sheep or steers in spring and make a deal to buy a whole animal in fall and butcher it yourself. People with just a few animals are usually growing just for themselves and family members and a few people who happen to ask.The butcher fees usually come to about $1.25 or more per pound. Last time I ordered, A couple years ago, my quarter steer cost me about $4/lb, including butcher fees. And you could probably save a bit more than that because farmer will not need to transport that lamb or steer to the butcher or get meat back and get it to you. This will get you around the problem if things are backlogged at butcher. Make sure farmer has a way to weigh animal. And knows the likely dress out weight. Make sure you get to pick the animal. For grass-fed lamb or beef you want a big fatty animal. The beneficial ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids of grass-fed grass-finished lamb or beef is useless if there is no fat. The flavor, tenderness, and succulence depend on fat marbling in the meat. It must be both grass-fed and grass-finished to have the healthy omega 3 content. Hay fed is not grass fed. Even a little grain ruins the fatty acid profile. The grain changes the acidity of the rumen, which alters the bacteria that thrive there, hence the kind of fats produced.
For full flavored beef, the animal needs to be at least 18 months old when butchered. Most commercial as well as local grass-fed beef is butchered earlier. So you ask for the last butchery run, usually October here, the biggest fattest animal that is 18 months to two years and has been finished on good pasture, usually meaning irrigated pasture in oregon. Problem is, if the animal's feed quality deteriorates or it starts eating of hay the omega 3 levels cave. You also care about the breed. My beef raiser specializes in jersey steers that are a byproduct of the dairy industry. Jersey steers are very delicious. They have yellow fat instead of white, which the commercial meat industry disdains. Their loss. It takes an excellent expert grazier to get adequately fatty animals for good flavor on just grass. So sample their products by the cut package this winter before committing to a quarter next spring.
With lambs the big issue is getting a full sized fat lamb that is grass fed and finished, that isn't too old. The older the lamb, the more of that rank flavor that is so overwhelming in mutton that most Americans won't eat it. Technically, anything over 12 months is a sheep. But lambs can taste overly strong before that, depending on breed. Most lambs are butchered at about six months or under, whenever the animal has reached the right size and finish. Hair sheep such as Katahdin are mild-flavored longer because its the lanolin that has the objectionable flavor, and wool sheep make more of it. A lamb is finished when the inner thigh muscles have filled out and there is a layer of fat across the spine--enough fat across the spine so you can feel the backbone but it is level with the fat on both sides, not jutting out. Male lambs should have been castrated.
An advantage in doing your own butchering is you get to keep the head and hide. In addition you can cut to preference better. Given my druthers, for example, I would leave lots more meat on the soup bones and have a bit less burger.
Organic isn't an issue. The excellent grass-fed grass-finished meat is nearly all not organic. All that label does for lamb or beef is require that the pastures be organically certified, meaning a huge expense and paperwork which is not worth the extra price that would be required. Even most producers of pasture raised chickens and Turkey's don't bother with the organic certification. That certification can be useful for fruit and vegetables. Unfortunately, the organic movement early on was so strongly influenced by vegetarians that they established rules for livestock raising that ignore what really matters, such as grass-fed or whether pastured poultry is on pasture instead of 100% confined. Or on pasture of what quality. And have myriad expensive rules for stuff that doesn't matter.
Go to the closest local farmers market, try out meat from various vendors, then check out their websites and see what it costs to pre-order a lamb, half lamb, steer, half steer, quarter steer, hog, half, quarter, or whole chickens or turkeys in spring for delivery in fall. There's a modest deposit. A quarter steer, for example, is all cut up and packaged and frozen, with your share of the various cuts. Butchered professionally, dry aged two weeks, cut, packaged. You give cutting directions for your share. I like burger, for example, and ask to have the round steak and stew meat cut into the burger. Like burger in one lb packages. Like roasts to be cut in the 2-3 lb size. Steaks 1.5 inches thick and two per package. Etc.
If you have more time than money you might go to any farm with just a few sheep or steers in spring and make a deal to buy a whole animal in fall and butcher it yourself. People with just a few animals are usually growing just for themselves and family members and a few people who happen to ask.The butcher fees usually come to about $1.25 or more per pound. Last time I ordered, A couple years ago, my quarter steer cost me about $4/lb, including butcher fees. And you could probably save a bit more than that because farmer will not need to transport that lamb or steer to the butcher or get meat back and get it to you. This will get you around the problem if things are backlogged at butcher. Make sure farmer has a way to weigh animal. And knows the likely dress out weight. Make sure you get to pick the animal. For grass-fed lamb or beef you want a big fatty animal. The beneficial ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids of grass-fed grass-finished lamb or beef is useless if there is no fat. The flavor, tenderness, and succulence depend on fat marbling in the meat. It must be both grass-fed and grass-finished to have the healthy omega 3 content. Hay fed is not grass fed. Even a little grain ruins the fatty acid profile. The grain changes the acidity of the rumen, which alters the bacteria that thrive there, hence the kind of fats produced.
For full flavored beef, the animal needs to be at least 18 months old when butchered. Most commercial as well as local grass-fed beef is butchered earlier. So you ask for the last butchery run, usually October here, the biggest fattest animal that is 18 months to two years and has been finished on good pasture, usually meaning irrigated pasture in oregon. Problem is, if the animal's feed quality deteriorates or it starts eating of hay the omega 3 levels cave. You also care about the breed. My beef raiser specializes in jersey steers that are a byproduct of the dairy industry. Jersey steers are very delicious. They have yellow fat instead of white, which the commercial meat industry disdains. Their loss. It takes an excellent expert grazier to get adequately fatty animals for good flavor on just grass. So sample their products by the cut package this winter before committing to a quarter next spring.
With lambs the big issue is getting a full sized fat lamb that is grass fed and finished, that isn't too old. The older the lamb, the more of that rank flavor that is so overwhelming in mutton that most Americans won't eat it. Technically, anything over 12 months is a sheep. But lambs can taste overly strong before that, depending on breed. Most lambs are butchered at about six months or under, whenever the animal has reached the right size and finish. Hair sheep such as Katahdin are mild-flavored longer because its the lanolin that has the objectionable flavor, and wool sheep make more of it. A lamb is finished when the inner thigh muscles have filled out and there is a layer of fat across the spine--enough fat across the spine so you can feel the backbone but it is level with the fat on both sides, not jutting out. Male lambs should have been castrated.
An advantage in doing your own butchering is you get to keep the head and hide. In addition you can cut to preference better. Given my druthers, for example, I would leave lots more meat on the soup bones and have a bit less burger.
Organic isn't an issue. The excellent grass-fed grass-finished meat is nearly all not organic. All that label does for lamb or beef is require that the pastures be organically certified, meaning a huge expense and paperwork which is not worth the extra price that would be required. Even most producers of pasture raised chickens and Turkey's don't bother with the organic certification. That certification can be useful for fruit and vegetables. Unfortunately, the organic movement early on was so strongly influenced by vegetarians that they established rules for livestock raising that ignore what really matters, such as grass-fed or whether pastured poultry is on pasture instead of 100% confined. Or on pasture of what quality. And have myriad expensive rules for stuff that doesn't matter.
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