Beef Prices and Due dates

Ok so those of you who know what goes into making a cow into a cute little paper wrapped package in your freezer feel free to skip the later half of this message and just let me know if you want to order some beef via phone, email, or snail mail. (Contact info below.) Our price for the two cows we are doing this year is $4/lb for meat. We only have 2 cows this year and will sell them in 1/4's, but feel free to go together with some one else if 175-ish lbs of beef is too much for you and your family. You will work directly with the butcher to pick your preferred cuts. The estimated date of butcher is Saturday January 2nd, and meat should be cut and wrapped by or around the 16th. I have more people on my list than I have portions of cow so it will be first come first served this time, so get your orders and deposits (25% to reserve your portion) in as soon as you know what you want. Feel free to call or email me with any questions.

For those of you who are learning about all this stuff concerning cows here is some of the nitty gritty of what goes into your beef. In our case the cows eat grass of all shapes, sizes, colors, and varieties in our delightful pature in snohomish and gain approximately 2lbs a day. They get a bit of Shaklee Basic H for worming two times a year with water, and have a constant supply of free choice salt and Thorvin Kelp for mineral supplements as they have the craving. In the fall and winter the grass will not be able to grow at a rate that is sustainable for all of the chomping these steers like to do in a day so we will begin to supplement their diet with some grass hay, and the occasional peach, pear, apple or other left over tree fruit that comes our way from a wholesome source. In late October or early November we will switch from grass hay to alfalfa (a legume) to hopefully ensure that your beef is tasty and tender when butchered. In early January we will butcher the cows and they will be taken to the butcher's freezer to age 10-14 days for tenderness. Then they are cut to order and wrapped in neat paper packages suitable for your home freezer and future meals throughout the year.

Ok so that is the info I have for now. Please feel free to call or write with any questions or comments you may have.

Sincerely,
Susan

(425)508-9799
firsthandfood@yahoo.com
PO Box 1057
Snohomish, WA 98291

Busy

For those of you I have contact info for, you know I've been busy canning fruit. And maybe so have you. Thus no posts for a while. I am nearly done... there was a lot of fruit. There may be apples still to come if anyone wants to buy them by the box. I am talking to a friend who grows them organically on the east side and will be planting some trees of my own this fall as well.

Next on the agenda is figuring out prices for Beef (and hay), and coming up with the processing dates for those big boys. It seems everyone I have talked to wants some but we will only have 7 - 1/8 cow portions to sell so it will be first come first served. We estimate the slaughter to be sometime in January. The cows at slaughter should be around 1000lbs or more and we have to charge by hanging weight of which about 80% should be what you take home and put in your freezer. (not that we've done this before, but this is info from the butcher who has a pretty good idea of what to expect). We will know our prices and be ready for deposits and committed orders a month or two prior to slaughter and IF YOU ARE INTERESTED CHECK BACK AT THAT TIME OR SEND ME AN EMAIL AND I'LL DO MY BEST TO NOTIFY YOU AHEAD OF TIME OF OUR SCHEDULED SLAUGHTER AND SIGN UP DATES. You will be able to talk directly to the butcher here in Snohomish and pick what cuts of meat you prefer depending on your order ahead of time. Feel free to call or email with questions anytime. That is all for now. Enjoy the sunshine everyone.
Susan