1.21.2009

A step closer to homesteading

We did it! We just bought our first chest freezer. It is just a mid-sized one to keep it portable until we retire, but it offers enough space to store some meat, milk, and a few dinners for a busy (or lazy) night.

Furthermore, I have officially ordered my first fresh beef! That is actually the part I am excited about. Fresh, natural, hormone and antibiotic-free beef, from pastured cattle is absolutely delicious. Even more delicious is the awesome price you can get by buying directly from the rancher rather than going through the store! In our case, I had to order a "whole beef" in order to buy that way, but since that can make upwards of 500 pounds of beef, that was too much for my little freezer. So, I found a few friends to go in with me. When I called to actually place the order, the rancher offered me a better deal if I was willing to buy something slightly different. He had 2 young dogie heifers (a dogie is a calf that has lost its mother--an orphan, essentially) that were smaller than normal and possibly leaner than preferred, and he offered me a steal! Of course, this meant I was looking at 550-600 lbs of beef after processing, so I had to find a few more folks who were interested. I am still working on that part. So, in a few weeks, I will be going to the butcher/processing plant to pick up my freshly cut beef. I can't wait to see how it tastes!! I hope S truly is a mid-westerner, because for the next 6 months or so, we will be eating burgers, roasts, steaks, beef broth, beef stroganoff, beef stew, spaghetti and meatballs, and any other beef-requiring recipe I can find!

So the next step will be growing my own beef! Of course, that won't likely be happening until we actually move to the farm, but I am looking forward to that!

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