i just paid 5.89 a pound for a box of certified organic grass-fed and finished
beef tenderloin fillets also known as filet mignon new york strips t-bones
sirloins all the stakes for just 5.89 a pound to put that into perspective a conventional raised
cut of sirloin is 11.94 a pound at walmart a conventional cut of filet at walmart and that's
corn fed sprayed with chemicals the worst of worst twenty dollars and eighty-two cents a pound
sometimes in the grocery you can find grass-fed beef sometimes you can find organic seldom do you
get them together i was able to get them together with grass finished for 5.89 a pound i was able
to get such a great price on the beef by buying in bulk so i bought an entire side or a half a steer
how much is the hanging weight on a half a steer 316 pounds but because i got an entire side of
beef not only did i get all the steaks i got all the roast and all the ground beef as well
the walmart price on ground beef is six dollars and 12 cents a pound again conventional compared
to mine at 5.89 a pound for organic grass-fed so regardless of quality dollar for dollar walmart
can't even touch the price i'm getting this at this is one reason why i raise sheep and pigs
and not cattle i can't get organic grass-fed and finished lamb here and organic pork is
super rare everywhere so i have to raise it myself but because i have access to the highest quality
beef at a price lower than the low quality beef in the grocery i don't need raised beef
i'm getting harassed by yellowjackets it's been a really bad year for them when we get the beef
thing wrapped up i think i'm gonna make a yellow jacket like a diy yellow jacket trap back to the
beef i'm happy that i'm able to support a local rancher who sells the beef exclusively wholesale
once a year i have found for my family that a quarter of a beef is not quite enough for
a full year and a half gives me a little bit of a surplus that i can share with family and friends
oh wow look at that up there that might be part of the problem right there the yellow jackets buying
the beef in bulk is right for my family but there are pros and cons to this there are some drawbacks
so let's talk about the pros and then get into the cons the first pro is something we've already
addressed and that is it is much cheaper to buy in bulk you can get much higher quality
and be supporting a local farmer at the same time the next benefit is if you buy the right
amount for your family you'll get an entire year supply for your family in one shot this is
great for food storage purposes it removes your dependency on the grocery if you remember last
year during the kova pandemic there were grocery sales that were empty my freezer still had meat
in it another benefit is each week i come out to my garage to do my grocery shopping i just
open the freezer door i think i get some ground beef this week
how about some sirloin steaks in the fall i love making stock so i come out here and grab
some bones for stock so all my beef along with my lamb and pork and chicken duck that i raise here
is all in these freezers super accessible another benefit is getting the cuts that you wouldn't
necessarily always buy like for me that would be a flank steak or perhaps short ribs maybe for you
that's skirt steak i get it short ribs are super popular now but some of the other cuts are less
popular and not something you think of to buy in the grocery so when i see these cuts in my freezer
it encourages some creativity in the kitchen and increases our meal diversity and lastly i'd say
for the pros because there's such an abundance right here easily accessible it encourages me
to eat home more because i have so much food here but there are some cons to take into consideration
for example the upfront cost yeah you save money over time by not spending a lot more money in the
grocery however you have to write that check right up front that 316 pounds of beef cost me 1 861
that was a painful check to write again i know this saves me a lot of money over
time but up front that hurts a little con number two it requires you to have freezers
supply and freezers is low cost is getting high in these things and also you have to have the
space to store the freezers there's also a vulnerability factor with these freezers
last summer this freezer here went out twice on me i lost a lot of meat because of it of course
long-term power outages can be an issue for these as well you may have seen my goal video for this
year at the beginning of the year one of those goals is energy resilience for that very reason
backup power for the freezers i'm actively working on that i have the batteries for the battery bank
i'm building but i need a place to store the batteries the framing work has finally begun
in my outdoor shop so we're gonna get this thing dried in and then i'll be able to climate control
in here and store batteries in here another drawback to the system requires a little bit of
discipline with meal planning because all of your meat is frozen and we touched on this last con
in the pros a little bit with the meat cuts sometimes you'll get cuts in there that
maybe you don't really care for or don't know what to do with for me that cut is the round steak i
tried a couple different ways cooking that i never really cared for it so i called the butcher that
does the cutting and said hey no more round steaks throw that in the ground so i get that
as ground beef now i guess i should add that to the pro list you can totally customize your cuts
maybe you loved eating a ton of hamburgers but you don't really care for roasts have your roasts all
ground up in a hamburger i've been buying beef in bulk since 2015 and it has been a great system for
me and my family if you have room for a freezer and the upfront funds to purchase the beef i
highly recommend you buying a bulk from a local rancher saving some money supporting local and
filling your freezer with some high quality nutrient-dense beef not only will you be saving
money but you'll be eating a lot better as well to find a local rancher who is using sustainable
practices you can go to either eatwild.com or localharvest i think it's dot org check that out
i saw this style of trap on mousetrap monday youtube channel i thought it was pretty cool so i
have some meat here this is just some old salami from a refrigerator that i've nailed into this
board over this water the way this is supposed to work is the meat-eating yellow jackets are
gonna they'll fly in to eat the meat and they're a little bit heavier when they leave so as they
go to take off they usually dip down and they hit the water with the soap in it and we'll fall in
the water and drown of course there's not a single yellow jacket even sniffing it out i'm gonna leave
this set up for a bit and i will check back later you ladies better not eat that meat off that board
let's go check on that trap now and nothing
something took the stick off and actually ate the meat right off the screw there and
there are no yellow jackets in the water these ladies right here can be the responsible parties
or perhaps the community cat priscilla she could have done it i'll have to save
working on this trap for another time because i need to go thaw some beef for dinner now you