A while back, I emailed in response to a post over at (not so) Urban Hennery about needing folks to share a cow with, not expecting much response, since her post was a few weeks old at that point. But she replied almost immediately to say that they had three folks, and would love a fourth as that would let everyone get a quarter of a steer for cheaper than if there were just two. The beef would be coming from On the Lamb Farm in Arlington, where it seems like they got livestock because they loved training herding dogs so much. (Look at all the good dogs!) Laura at Urban Hennery knew and liked the butcher, Del Fox Custom Meats in Stanwood.

So we sent off our deposit to Laura, who was collecting all the checks and coordinating with the farm. She also coordinated with the butcher, sending them all our forms that we filled out with preferences like how many steaks per package, do we want various forms of roast left intact or ground, do we want stew meat and soup bones … (answers: 2; intact, as we can grind them ourselves; yes and yes). It was very nice to have her wrangling all that information. A few weeks later she forwarded an email from the farm, saying the steer, no longer a steer but now a beef, had gone off to the butcher, where it would hang for a while, then get chopped up and frozen and be ready for pickup. At this point we panicked a bit as we realized we needed to get a new freezer sooner rather than later, so, thanks to the many parental types who have provided us with Lowe’s gift cards over the last year!

Yesterday morning, packed up and headed off to Stanwood to the butcher. It was quite easy, it turned out; someone wheeled out some trays with my name on them, we dumped a whole bunch of packages into coolers, paid them for the butchering, and drove off.

On the way back to I-5, we stopped at a cute farmstand, Mossyback Farm, where we stocked up on eggs raised by their friends and neighbors (”the free-range-est ones you’ve got, please,” when she asked which ones we wanted), some Rainier cherries, and some other staples.

Then freezer pickup at Lowe’s in Lynnwood, about which the less said, the better. Places like that wear me out.

Beef stats roundup time!
Cost: $150 deposit + $218 more after weighing + $95 for the butcher = $463 total
Hanging weight of a side: 297lbs and we got half so ~150lbs (with bones and all), so about $3 per pound of hanging weight
I don’t know the total weight of the butchered meat, but the receipt says:

  • T-bone steaks: 4
  • Sirloin steaks: 3
  • Top round: 3
  • Flank steaks: 1
  • Pot roast: 3
  • Rump roast: 1
  • Sirloin tip roast: 1
  • Boneless crossrib roast: 1
  • Stew meat: 5
  • Short ribs: 2
  • Brisket: 1

And then there’s a big stamp that says “BOTTOM ROUND.” Not sure what that means. And the receipt doesn’t mention the at-least-2 packages of soup bones we got, too. AND there is probably about 30 pounds of ground beef. Which, combined with some green onions from the garden and some fresh market garlic, and topped with sharp cheddar, fresh market garlic scapes, and home garden lettuce, made an excellent burger last night.

So yeah, I think we’ll be doing this again in the future. I’ll put out a call when it’s time.

In the meantime, please share ideas for ground beef, other than burgers! Shepherd’s pie and spaghetti sauce are in our repertoire, but we welcome recipes for those and anything else you’ve got.