Remember when we went out and took a tour of Abundant Life Farm a few months back? It’s this wonderful family farm about an hour from our house that raises cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, and turkeys. You can buy from their monthly buying club, or you can take the plunge and order a side of meat.
We took the plunge.
So today, I drove out to pick up the beef and chicken we ordered. The pork comes in September. I loved pulling up to their property and seeing the cows lounging in the fields and eating grass.
They were super friendly; they even came up to say hi.
Isn’t it so much better to think of getting your meat from a place like this rather than from Costco or Safeway? And there are so many health benefits to eating organic, grass-fed beef. Not to mention the benefits to our collective environment.
We ordered 1/4 of a cow, 1/2 a pig and 10 fresh chickens (they had been butchered just hours before I picked them up – talk about fresh!). It turned out to be about 150 lbs of beef and 55 lbs of chicken. We’re expecting that we’ll get about 125 lbs of pork in September from our half.
Sounds like a lot, huh? Here’s what the 150 lbs of beef and 55 lbs of chicken look like.
We sorted the beef by cut and packaged the like cuts together before putting them in our new chest freezer we have in our garage.
I also was given the good advice to make a list of what we have in our freezer and to check it off as we use it, so did that too.
We got all different kinds of cuts — from the hoity toity…
To the lowly and humble….
Next up, Jason and I worked together on the dirty job of cutting up all 10 whole chickens into their various parts and packaging them into individual bags. It was nasty, but surprisingly kinda fun in a sick and twisted sort of way. And I’m making stock out of the leftover bones and bits. Yum! Here they are before we got started.
We just love getting our meat from such a local and natural source. The Jondle Family puts this statement at the end of all their messages to customers — it always makes me feel good.
“Abundant Life Farm uses no chemicals, hormones, or drugs. Unlike many producers who buy feeder animals (often from unknown origins), we raise our beef and lamb from birth, so we can vouch with certainty how they have been raised their entire lives. Our grazing animals are 100% grass-fed and are raised on our ‘organic quality’ pastures (we use no chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides). Our poultry are pasture raised in small groups, getting plenty of sunshine and fresh air, and are processed in our on-farm state inspected processing facility. No chance of our birds getting mixed up with someone else’s. When you buy meat from Abundant Life Farm, you are getting a product that is superior in every way.”
You should check them out if you live around here, and if not, you can find your own local farmer at Eat Wild or Local Harvest.
I’m gonna love going out to the garage to “go shopping” each week for our meat!
Yard to Fork 
I am insanely jealous of your bounty!!! Congrats on taking the plunge, looks like you made some excellent choices. I can’t wait to see what treats you create with this wholesome beef & chicken (and pork, eventually)
I was lucky growing up – my grandparents were/are ranchers and we’d get butchered beef every year. I know they take good care of their cows so I never had to worry about it.
The shocking moment of my life when it came to beef was buying it in the store and actually having to drain fat off the meat – our butcher always gave us very lean ground beef. Plus store bought doesn’t taste as good. My aunt would occasionally raise pigs so we’d pay for one and have it butchered, but I’ve not had a farm fresh chicken.
Do you know how jealous I am? The only place somewhat close to us is about 2.5 hours away and only does beef – they’re starting pigs in the fall, but no chickens. I’m totally jealous – how i’d love to have your farm in my neck o’ the woods.
Lucky! The Jondles are great people and I love what they do too. Their pigs get to root and their cows dance and jump with excitement when a new pasture of grass is opened for their grazing. It’s the way it ought to be. Have fun cooking – you have some yummy ingredients there!