Meat Raised On Our Farm, In a Grocery Near You.

It’s a question that I’m often asked.  “Where can we purchase meat that is raised on your farm?”   At a grocery store near you!  First of all, before I go into more detail, I want to give you all a bit of background information about our family farm since this is a fairly new blog that I’ve started.  If you follow my other blog, This Farm Family’s Life at all, then you probably are already aware that my husband is the fifth generation to farm his family farm.  Our three daughters makeup the sixth generation.  With the amount of ground that is able to be farmed quickly dwindling, that is something that we take great pride in.

 

We raise corn and soybeans and have a feed to finish cattle operation.  Feed to finish basically means that we buy the calves when they weigh about 600-700 pounds and we feed them until they reach 1200 pounds.  The majority of the beef that we own are purchased through other family farms in our area.  Once they reach the proper weight they are then sold to market.

Our cattle are sent to a processing facility in Joslin, Illinois where the meat is sold to wholesale markets, such as Wal-Mart, Kroger, Target and Costco after processing.  Some of the finer cuts, like the steaks for example, are sent to “higher end” restaurants and steak houses. Some of the finer cuts are also shipped overseas because they prefer the taste of grain fed beef over grass fed beef.

We usually have a beef processed for ourselves every winter to stock our freezer.  Let me tell you, it is so convenient to be able to grab a few steaks or a couple pounds of hamburger from the freezer in our garage.  Usually the next question I get asked is, “Are you afraid of the meat at the grocery store?”   My answer to that question is, “No.”  I would buy meat at the grocery store in a heart beat to feed my family.  Even though we do have that freezer full of meat, sometimes we run out or a recipe calls for a certain cut that we don’t have, so I buy it at the store.

The United States is fortunate enough to have the cheapest and safest food supply in the world!  Even though our meat is in the freezer at our house, it is the same meat that you will find at the grocery store.  I am often amazed at the variety of food that is available in the grocery all year long.  I do put out a garden and freeze or can several different foods, but sometimes I run out or a recipe calls for an onion or tomato.  I can always find one at the store!

Day in and day out, our family works hard to bring you the best quality of meat.  Next time you purchase something from the meat counter at Wal-Mart or Kroger or enjoy that juicy steak at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, it could have come from our fifth generation family beef farm.