|
|
|
Privacy policy. We will not share your name or contact information with anyone. |
Blog Feed
Jun
15
In a recent article in Time Magazine entitled “Cow Pooling: Buying Beef in Mega-Bulk,” author Kate Pickert highlights a recent trend that has people purchasing entire sides of grass fed beef and splitting it up with friends, family, and neighbors to provide a lower cost alternative to buying it in the health food store.
This timely and important treatise details the fact that while more and more Americans are wanting to eat well and know how their food was raised, they have to balance that with affordability and meet budget constraints.
“At a time when many family incomes are falling, the pressure is on to give up expensive foods like organic produce and grass-fed beef. But thanks to the Internet, cow-pooling is an increasingly popular way to get high-quality non-factory-farm meat without paying about $16 per lb. for a strip steak - the usual price at the Whole Foods Markets of the world.”
Pickert goes on to mention that while buying beef in bulk, or “cow-pooling” comprises a miniscule percent of all beef sales it is rising trend which has seen a 14% increase in the sale of freezers in April, 2009 from April, 2008, according to the Appliance Manufacturer’s Association.
I am heartened to see more and more Americans taking control of their food supply and setting themselves up to be more food secure. However, buying beef in bulk is not for everyone.
The problems with buying beef in bulk
It takes a major commitment to purchase beef in such large quantities for a variety of reasons and while it works great for large families, this form of purchase is impractical for couples and singles unless they are sharing with a number of other people or families. (See Time Magazine photo above)
The following is a list of some of the disadvantages of buying beef in bulk:
- It is a large outlay of cash at one time
- Freezers are expensive
- There may not be sufficient room in the home for an extra freezer
- If the beef you buy turns out to not be good you’re stuck with a large quantity of it
- If you have a freezer malfunction or power outage you risk losing it all
- Along with the handful of steaks, you get mostly ground beef and roasts
Vying for different cuts
One of the other problems with purchasing in bulk with a group of people is the varying preferences in cuts. Some people like T-Bone steaks, while others prefer the Filet Mignon and the NY Strip.
It is impossible to get both from one side of beef, you have to either choose to leave the bone in for T-Bones or remove the bone and get the Filets and New York Strips. Some might prefer Round Roasts to Round Steaks, and others may prefer Ground Round.
Transportation issues
While it can be fun and inspiring to travel to the farm or ranch to pick up your beef, it can also be time consuming and require long distance travel to get to the producer. Then you must hurry home and transfer the frozen beef into your freezer immediately.
We have an alternative
Members of Grass Fed and Healthy have the option to purchase our grass fed beef at prices much below those of Whole Foods, and shipping is free! You get our local’s prices and get your beef delivered right to your doorstep.
Buy as much or as little as you need
By purchasing grass fed beef from our web site you can order a few steaks or pounds of ground beef, or larger quantities. Of course the larger the quantity you purchase the less expensive it is per pound.
It’s even affordable for non-members
Even if you’re not a member of Grass Fed and Healthy, you can order our grass fed beef online pay shipping it is still more affordable than most health food stores, depending on where you live.
The cost to ship within Colorado, and even through the Midwest and out to California is reasonable because ground shipping can be employed. For customers on the far Eastern Seaboard it is prudent to choose 3-day express shipping in the summer months because of the time of transit.
Packaging
We have developed our packaging to where the beef will stay completely frozen, even in warm weather for at least 5 days. It’s those other two days that get it thawing when we ship by ground to New England and Florida.
However you purchase it, it’s great to see people caring for their health and the environment
We’re thrilled to see more and more people eating grass fed beef for their health and environmental stewardship, no matter what form they purchase it in.
Jun
8
I had way better response to my name the calf contest.
Is it that no one remembers Cube Steaks? Are there no other recipes than Chicken Fried Steak and “Swiss Steak”?
You can win grass fed beef in our Cube Steak Recipe Contest. We’re willing to give away hundreds of dollars worth of premium cuts of grass fed beef in prizes, which we did with our former contest, and we’re getting very few recipes.
Was the tomato-y, gooey, pressure-cooked, mystery meat thing called “Swiss Steak” a regular in your household? Perhaps that is the resistance. In all my travels I never saw anything remotely like it in Switzerland, though my time there was short, and perhaps I missed it.
But yet…
What about Steak Salads? How about stir fry? Fajitas? Marinate and grill? Kabobs? Jerky? Biltong? Sandwiches? Wraps? Quesadillas? Steak Potato Salad? Pasties? Chicken Fried Steak. Chicken Fried Steak? Chicken Fried Steak!
Do you not have the recipes, or do you not feel like participating? I’d like to know.
The deadline in June 19, 2009. You can submit your entries by clicking this link to our Cube Steak Recipe Contest.
May
30
Flat Shipping & Handling rates
We have a new shipping policy, which includes a flat shipping and handling fee for each package ordered. You can read the details in our article New shipping policy.
When you order you will be able to choose a number of shipping methods from UPS Ground to overnight. The rate will be a flat fee per order.
Return the carton for discounts
When you return your carton we will refund your credit card on your next order. When you regularly return and reuse your carton you will receive premium discounts, and feel good about your environmental stewardship.
I hope my Grass Fed and Healthy members aren’t too confused
Grass Fed and Healthy members receive express 3 - day shipping as one of their benefits. With the new system and software limitations you will be charged when you choose your shipping method, but we will refund your credit card that amount, or credit your next order.
To Sum Up
When you order you can choose UPS Ground shipping at a flat rate $25.00 per package, or you can choose express shipping at the following rates:
Shipping and handling rates
- $25.00 UPS Ground
- $60.00 UPS 3-Day Air
- $75.00 UPS 2-Day Air
- $95.00 Overnight
Members
- Choose UPS Ground Shipping when you order
- Your credit card will be charge the $25.00 shipping and handling fee
- We will refund the CC that fee
- Or we will make up the difference with product of your choice
- Your order will be shipped to arrive at its destination in a maximum of three days
Remember
- Shipping rates are flat rate regardless of the size of the package
- Ordering larger packages makes the cost / pound of shipping much lower
- Packed in insulated cartons
- Packed with dry ice
- Packed with frozen gel pack
- Packed with bio-degradable corn starch packing pellets
- Return carton for premium discounts and environmental Stewardship
May
13
New Recipe Contest
Filed Under Consumer, grass fed health
Our next contest
Last month we had our calf naming contest and received over 20 entries. Our top five winners won great Prizes, including; Rib Eye Steaks, Tamales, and Hamburger.
We had so much fun that we are having another contest, but this time it’s a recipe contest!
What’s your favorite way to fix Cube Steaks?
The next contest is for recipes on how best to fix cube steaks. (Remember them)? Since the U.S. economic downturn the “Cube Steak has made a comeback and is far outselling all the other cuts of beef nationwide.
Cube Steak is nothing more than mechanically tenderized Top Round Steak, and the name comes from the cube shaped cuts made by the tenderizer.
Send us your favorite method of fixing cube steak and if you are one of our top five winners you will win:
Cube Steak Contest Prizes
1st Place: 4 Filet Mignon
2nd Place: 4 New York Strip Steaks
3rd Place: 10 Pounds Cube Steak
4th Place: 5 Pounds Cube Steak
5th Place: Subscription to Grass Fed and Healthy
How to enter
To enter you can go to our contest page and fill out the handy form to email your entry in, or Simply email us your Cube Steak recipe to: contest@grassfedandhealthy.com, or you can also email it to grassfedchallenge@yahoo.com
♦Of course we expect to receive a lot of recipes for Chicken Fried Steak!♦
Enter now!
Entries must be received by June 19th, 2009, and winners will be announced September 18th, 2009. A panel of judges will prepare and evaluate all of the recipes and choose their favorites.
Enjoy and good luck!
May
12
We want to make sure that our grass fed beef provides the optimum in health benefits, which is why we never process before late July or August at the very earliest so that all the steers have had a minimum of a full three months on green, growing grass. Therefore, when we run out of certain cuts they’re just not available again until late summer or early fall.
Last chance for Rib Eye Steaks
We are running low on Rib Eye Steaks and expect to be completely out in the next few weeks.
So far we have already run out of T-Bone Steaks, Porterhouse Steaks, Stew Meat, and Sirloin Tip Roast.
Apr
14
Because of a miscommunication on our part with the processor, we are offering grass fed beef sirloin steak at a ridiculously low price.
Grilling for prom, Mother’s Day, Graduation, or Father’s Day?
Do you have an occasion coming up where you’ll be feeding lots of people? Perhaps grilling for prom, Mother’s Day, graduation, Memorial Day, or Father’s Day you’ll want or feed a crowd. Grass fed beef Sirloin Steaks are perfect for grilling when you have a large number to feed.
We inadvertently gave the wrong processing instructions
Somehow in giving our instructions to the processor, we inadvertently told them to package the Sirloins in two-pound packages, with 2 one-pound steaks per package, rather than our usual 1-pound packages of Sirloin. Most of our customers are used to, and prefer, the smaller packages so we haven’t been selling as many Sirloins as we usually do.
Grass fed beef Sirloin Steak at less than $4.00 / pound
We need to get them sold before we process again in the late summer / fall, so we are offering Grass fed beef Sirloin Steaks at an incredible discount: less than $4.00 / pound, and that includes shipping!
When you order our fire sale grass fed beef Sirloin Steak package you will receive approximately 10 pounds of Sirloin in five packages. All steaks are shipped frozen, to your door step.
As always our Diamond F Brand Beef is 100 % grass fed and finished, with no added hormones or antibiotics. Our animals are raised on our pastures and meadows, humanely, with love and gratitude.
Mar
20
The most elegant of holiday meals, grass fed beef whole tenderloin is the perfect dish to serve for your spring or Easter celebrations.
Make your celebration extra special this year with grass fed beef Whole Tenderloin. There’s no other meal more elegant, delicious, and spectacular.
Last year after serving one of our tenderloins my friend Mona said; “it was so incredibly fabulous I wanted to roll in it!”
In celebration of spring, we are offering a special on our grass fed beef Whole Tenderloin that you won’t want to pass up.
Available to general public for short time only
Because the Whole Tenderloin is such a limited supply item, we usually only make it available to our members of Grass Fed and Healthy. However, in the spirit of celebration and joy we are offering them to the general public until Easter.
Members receive unbeatable price
To show our appreciation to our members we are offering a great price on the most prized cut of meat there is.
Whole Tenderloin recipe
You can use our recipe for Whole Tenderloin to cook it to perfection with minimal fuss and preparation so that you can enjoy your time celebrating.
Mar
15
Over 8,000 acres of private ranchland protected surrounding Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge
Filed Under Conservation
As you drive south from Monte Vista, CO, on your way to the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, you marvel at the beautiful scenery of open space, ranches, and the vast landscapes of verdant pastures, meadows, wetlands, and rangeland nestled at the foot of the San Juan Mountains.
You can be comforted knowing that the pristine beauty and productive capability of the rich and historic landscape you see before you will remain that way in perpetuity.
How it all started
In the mid ’90’s we began to fully see the devastation that rampant development in Colorado was having on Ag land. Suddenly it seemed that in every basin around us, especially the Gunnison Basin, most of the prime ranch land was being covered over with residential development, and in the meantime the affected communities were losing their agricultural infrastructure such as implement dealers, sale barns, large animal vets, and so on.
At that point ranchers in Gunnison had no choice but to come over to the San Luis Valley or go to Montrose in order to get a tractor part or repair. It was heart breaking to see, and we were thankful that it hadn’t accelerated like that, yet, in the San Luis Valley, but it had clearly started.
Increased development decreases the viability of ranching
Because I love the agricultural and ranching landscape, and because I believe that producing food and maintaining clean water is the most important human endeavor, I became extremely concerned when some of our neighbors started selling portions of their ranches for development, and other neighbors were contemplating it. I absolutely didn’t want our region to go the way of Colorado’s Front Range, the former ag land around Denver, and the Gunnison Valley.
We found that for every new house built around us, with new neighbors, we had to contend with domestic dogs packing up at night and killing calves. Coyotes have never been a problem for us but domestic dogs can wreak havoc. That’s just one of the myriad of extra problems that arise when more and more residential developments become interspersed with working ranches.
During good economic times people wanted 5 acres 5 miles from town
During that time the economy was booming, and people were clamoring for five acres, five miles from town. In the meantime the nearby town of Monte Vista was dying (still is), and there were over 100 homes, in a town of 4000, listed with realtors, sitting idle, and not selling.
At that same point in time, we had just paid a large sum of money in the form of estate taxes, as Mike’s dad never did much estate planning, and his mom started the process but passed too soon to have her estate planning completed. We didn’t want to burden the next generation like that and so began our own estate planning, which is when I became interested in the tool of conservation easements as a way to minimize estate taxes.
I discovered that landowners could get paid to protect their land
To learn more about the tool of conservation easements I became involved with the land trust community and began attending conferences and educational workshops. It was then I discovered that programs existed whereby landowners could be paid cash to protect their open space and wildlife habitat. As it turned out, Colorado was one state that had a great program for purchasing conservation easements.
A great opportunity for our neighborhood
I saw those programs as an opportunity for landowners in the San Luis Valley, and more specifically the Rock Creek area, to obtain the influx of cash they were needing without having to sell off acreage or compromise their prouctivity.
Because the Rock Creek area has numerous conservation values, most especially open space, ag value, wetland, and wildlife habitat, and because it surrounds the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, a number of land trusts and government agencies were interested in land and water protection for the region.
The land trusts and agencies stepped up to the plate
When I visited with representatives from land trusts including The Nature Conservancy, American Farmland Trust, Ducks Unlimited, the Colorado Cattleman’s Agricultural Land Trust, and Trust for Public Land, as well as representatives from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Colorado Division of Wildlife, they assured me that they would be willing to work to raise the money and tap into the available programs to purchase conservation easements in the Rock Creek area.
Involving neighboring landowners
At that point Mike and I sent out postcards to neighboring landowners inviting them to a gathering at our home where those same land trust and government agency representatives, along with an appraiser, gave presentations about the tool of conservation easements, explaining them in detail.
Food and alcohol always bring them in and keep them interested
We fed our guests great food, and even some beer and wine so that they would be willing to stay and listen to detailed explanations of very complex subject matter.
After that meeting we asked landowners to fill out and return a (SAS) postcard indicating their level of interest in pursuing conservation easements for their own property. For those who indicated interest, or at least the desire for more information, we sent out regular newsletters, and the various land trust and government agency representatives began conducting one on one discussions with individual landowners.
Thankfully the land trusts and the agencies raised millions of dollars from Federal and state open space, farm and ranchland, and wildlife habitat protection programs, as well as from private, conservation oriented foundations to purchase conservation easements.
Over 8,000 acres protected to date
To date all of the large ranches and some of the smaller ones have been protected with conservation easements, totaling over 8,000 acres surrounding the 14,000 acre Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge. We still have work to do in protecting the smaller parcels, but it is more difficult to raise money for the smaller acreage properties.
You can read more about the Rock Creek Heritage Progam on American Farmland Trust’s web site, and you can learn more about conservation easements from the Land Trust Alliance.
Mar
5
Grass fed beef Cube Steak
Filed Under Buying Grass Fed Beef, Household Tips
Grass fed beef has a new, old fashioned twist. The cube steak has made a comeback during this economic downturn, and sales are up substantially, compared to overall beef sales, according to an article in the New York Times.
Grass fed beef Cube Steak is nothing more than mechanically tenderized round steak. It offers the best in affordability with great steak flavor, that is easy to cut and chew, at a great price. Commercial Cube Steak was a favorite of moms from yesteryear, and now grass fed Cube Steak is a favorite in our family, providing all the great health benefits.
Tanking economy grass fed beef Cube Steak special
To make it easy and extra affordable for our members and customers to continue eating grass fed beef, while economic times are so tough, we are offering our Tanking economy grass fed beef cube steak special.
Get 15 Cube Steaks, apporximately one pound each for the low price of $85, and that includes shipping.
You can read our entire article, Grass fed beef cube steaks: A new twist on a childhood memory to see why they’re called “Cube Steaks.”
Mar
4
So many unhealthy people won’t eat grass fed beef because they “don’t eat much meat”
Filed Under Grass fed weight loss, grass fed health
I am passionate about wanting to spread the word about grass fed beef because it does have so many great health benefits, and I want the people in my life and others to feel good, and enjoy life with robust health.
It doesn’t surprise me how often I hear “Oh I don’t eat much meat”. Society has been brainwashed for decades with the mantra of “meat bad”. But what strikes me is how often I hear it from people who are in poor health, or have a number of serious health issues.
We have frequently heard people say, I don’t eat much meat, you’d think I would be the picture of health, or I’m practically vegan, so you’d think I’d be as thin as a rail.
What is really sad is that for the most part, people don’t see the irony in what they are saying when they are talking to Mike or me, telling us how healthfully they eat, yet are sick or overweight, while Mike and I are both so much healthier than almost anyone else we know and eat tons of grass fed beef.
keep looking »