No it certainly didn't. They went to two farms a good one and a bad one and it certainly made the farmers out to be the victims of companies like purdue. The one chicken farmer was forced to keep the conditions awful or she would lose her contract. They also visited a good farm and glorified those farmers.

8/31/2011 6:48:25 AM

^ indeed also the poor old guy in the end.

8/31/2011 7:07:28 AM

Yeah I'm not sure where you got the impression they made out the farmers to be the bad guys. I felt especially bad for that poor seed collector that Monsanto screwed over

Maybe you watched a different Food Inc

8/31/2011 8:19:16 AM

So can you get a package deal from anywhere around here and get 27 pounds for $200 like the OP did? What kind of cuts did you buy?

Thinking about heading to the Farmer's Market and getting me a grass fed steak for the game this weekend.

8/31/2011 11:11:01 AM

Is eating a true grass fed steak a life altering event? Like if I buy one and eat it will I turn into one of those asshole hippie food snobs?

8/31/2011 11:19:23 AM

Quote :

"corn fed cattle just tastes better than grass fed"

i <3 grass fed

8/31/2011 11:20:15 AM

There is not much of a difference in taste to me. It is more about the health benefits.

[Edited on August 31, 2011 at 11:30 AM. Reason : .]

8/31/2011 11:26:54 AM

Quote :

"So can you get a package deal from anywhere around here and get 27 pounds for $200 like the OP did? What kind of cuts did you buy?"

Pretty much any of the ranchers out here will let you buy in bulk from what I've found. It's just a matter of talking with them and striking up a deal. I wouldn't be shy about talking to a couple of them to compare prices.

8/31/2011 11:27:19 AM

Tender Grass Farm has a bunch of bulk meat packages, but when I tried to order them, some of the cuts were sold out, so I picked and chose some. Here's what I got:

2 - [CKN-010] Pastured Chicken Halves @ $9.99

3 lbs - [B-002] Grass Fed Ground Beef @ $6.96

1 - [PK-001] Grass Fed Beef Chuck Roast @ $19.98

3 - [B-023] Grass Fed Beef Sirloin Steak @ $9.99

3 - [B-032] Grass Fed Beef Rib Eye Steak @ $18.98

3 - [B-026] Grass Fed Beef New York Strip Steak @ $15.98

With $5 tax and free shipping, it came to $200.

The two biggest things I noticed about the meat (when compared to the typical cuts at the supermarket) was the color (much darker red) and the marbling (not as much fat as the supermarket).

We're going to have a NY Strip and a Sirloin steak on Saturday, either on the grill or in the cast iron.

Can't wait.

8/31/2011 5:13:51 PM

If any of you guys want to try TGF, let me know and I'll "refer" you.

8/31/2011 5:17:19 PM

If you spend money to have meat shipped to you, you better cook that shit on a grill. Charcoal preferred. Gas if you must. Cast iron is the only acceptable alternative if it's pouring down rain and you don't have a poncho.

8/31/2011 6:55:05 PM

Like I mentioned earlier...I've got an Old Smokey.

http://www.oldsmokey.com/



If it rains, there's always the garage overhang.

8/31/2011 8:21:03 PM

Wanted to give an update/review.

We had the Sirloin and NY Strip Steaks tw nights ago on my Old Smokey. It had been quite a while since I grillled my steaks (I have been a fan of cast iron searing on the stove).

I just used a little salt and pepper on the steaks and threw some wood chips over the charcoal before cooking.

Verdict?

Awesome. The meat is much gamier, and it actually tasted great. There is a big difference in the taste between the supermarket beef and this grass fed beef. It was tender, juicy, and had tons of FLAVOR.

Honestly, it made me want to eat more red meat, but we wouldn't be able to afford it.



Definitely recommend trying it out if you don't eat beef often.

We will be trying the chicken tomorrow.

9/5/2011 1:13:30 AM

Look for the green color code when you buy meet at whole foods. the stuff level 4 or higher is grass fed free pasture.


[Edited on September 5, 2011 at 12:33 PM. Reason : found pic]

9/5/2011 12:30:59 PM

Quote :

"I care most that the chicken is given vegetarian feed "

do what now?

Quote :

"In the wild, they often scratch at the soil to search for seeds, insects and even larger animals such as lizards or young mice"

[Edited on September 5, 2011 at 12:57 PM. Reason : lets force animals to be vegetarian, THEN the world will be perfect!]

[Edited on September 5, 2011 at 12:57 PM. Reason : a]

9/5/2011 12:56:18 PM

^ some farms use the dead chickens ground up as feed. Same thing as with the mad cow stuff.

9/5/2011 5:57:44 PM

well then say you dont want chickens fed cannibalistic feed or something

plenty of sustainable farms just let the chickens graze in the pastures and eat bugs and stuff. saying you will only eat chickens that are fed vegetarian is missing the point.

9/5/2011 6:35:38 PM

My wife proclaimed tonight's chicken the best I've made.

Honestly, I couldn't tell the difference.

We eat a lot of chicken, so we may just go the Farm Fresh route for the chicken.

9/5/2011 9:07:35 PM

^^^i've never heard of an avian version of spongiform encephalopathy

^how did you cook it? just curious, i need new recipes.

[Edited on September 5, 2011 at 9:15 PM. Reason : ]

9/5/2011 9:15:09 PM

Neither have I. I imagine the meat tastes great and I bet they dont cut corners elsewhere.

9/5/2011 10:21:18 PM

Quote :

"plenty of sustainable farms just let the chickens graze in the pastures and eat bugs and stuff. saying you will only eat chickens that are fed vegetarian is missing the point."

Agreed. Even just saying a chicken is given vegetarian feed doesn't mean squat. They can still be living stuffed to the gills in a chicken house but given vegetarian feed. It's better to buy chicken that meets free range standards imo.

9/7/2011 2:31:33 PM

Quote :

"^how did you cook it? just curious, i need new recipes."

http://bbq.about.com/od/chicken/ss/aa022109a.htm

9/7/2011 3:32:10 PM

Charcoal-grilled sirloin tonight.

9/10/2011 9:35:54 AM

I get 50 pounds of grass fed beef for $225. There is a local group that goes in together to buy an entire grass-fed cow and have it processed by a boutique slaughterhouse. You can go visit the cow before it gets killed if you like.

We get 5-8 huge steaks, ~20-25 pounds of ultra-lean ground beef (I'm guessing its 90+% lean,) and a ton of roasts and shoulder cuts and whatnot. Some cuts are not as good as others (skirt steak, stew beef, whatever) but at the bulk price it's well worth it.

It tastes light-years ahead of what we got at the grocery store. I don't know if its the grass, the processing, or the freshness when it gets frozen, but its better than anything beef I've ever had before.

You can also get a bag of bones for stock for free if you ask. I highly recommend starting one up if you have enough people interested.

9/14/2011 1:26:05 PM

^ That's really cool. You do that in the Raleigh area?

9/14/2011 1:29:54 PM

Yeah...nice...where?

9/14/2011 3:05:45 PM

Not totally privy to the group details, we got in with some very religious homeschoolers though a connection my wife had. This is in/near Charlotte.

I think anyone could do it though, you just need a cow, a processor, and people who are willing to commit to buying a cowshare.

They use Mays Meats, Inc. processing if you're curious/interested. They do an awesome job and vaccum-seal everything before freezing to keep the frost off the meat.

Looks like the serve the Raleigh area.

This method is balls-to-the-wall cheap and awesome. Extra work as someone has to take delivery for a massive amount of meat and then everyone who bought a share has to come over to pick their meat up. Of course if you're the organizer you can give yourself a nice discount for putting your neck on the line.

9/14/2011 10:22:26 PM

How many people went in on that?

9/14/2011 10:27:06 PM

No idea - if you were curious about how much meat a cow will yield, I bet the processor could give you a good idea. They changed the minimum from 25 pounds to 50 for this go round though (they do this about 3-4x a year.)

Oh, also, the steaks and better cuts were divided up so everyone got some awesome meat and everyone got some so/so cuts. Pretty fair.

9/15/2011 8:18:55 AM

had some free-range beef yesterday

killed and butchered 3 cows in the AM and had some for lunch. yep, still nasty.

9/15/2011 9:53:53 AM

I'd LOVE to have a test taste done with yall to see if its just mental or actually has some value to what you are saying as far as taste goes.

I think you would be tremendously surprised what a blind taste test would result in...

We've done a few and its pretty startling
thats all i will say

9/15/2011 1:30:14 PM

Haha actually the first time I had grass fed beef it was ground in a casserole dish. I thought it was venison until I was corrected

Now chicken there isn't a difference in taste. I don't care what people say.

9/15/2011 4:52:07 PM

^they say the eggs are where you can really tell the difference b/w a corn-fed chicken and a chicken that eats its natural diet rich w/ proteins and fats

9/15/2011 9:15:59 PM

do you actually know what a chickens "natural" diet even is?

9/15/2011 9:25:02 PM

all i know is that when i ordered eggs in california they were always light years better than any eggs i''ve ever had

9/15/2011 10:00:58 PM

Quote :

"Is eating a true grass fed steak a life altering event? Like if I buy one and eat it will I turn into one of those asshole hippie food snobs?"

yes, yes it will. anyone who says corn fed tastes better is doing it wrong.

Quote :

"all i know is that when i ordered eggs in california they were always light years better than any eggs i''ve ever had"

I don't know what they feed the chickens in france but god damn they make some good fucking eggs

9/15/2011 10:11:42 PM

Quote :

"Now chicken there isn't a difference in taste. I don't care what people say."

Agreed. No difference in taste of the chicken.

Beef? Different story.

Quote :

"I mean, seriously, have you ever seen a cow graze in a corn field?"

9/16/2011 10:42:10 AM

Quote :

"they say the eggs are where you can really tell the difference b/w a corn-fed chicken and a chicken that eats its natural diet rich w/ proteins and fats"

Oh I totally agree. My grandmother raises chickens for her own eggs and I loooooooooooove going down there and making things like omelets. You can literally see the difference. There's a guy on Leesville Road that sells eggs to from his flock that just chills in his yard. All the bugs and grubs the birds have access to free ranging makes a big difference it seems.

9/16/2011 3:12:21 PM

Where is this guy off of leesville rd? Out towards Durham Co line past HG? Id like to give these eggs a try

9/16/2011 3:22:16 PM

He's right in front of the high school. Whenever he has the sign up in his yard he has eggs. I usually buy two dozen whenever I see he has his sign out since the only time I'm in that area is when I'm visiting my parents.

9/16/2011 3:25:45 PM

Not exactly related but i think i'm gonna pick up some organic coffee this weekend. I had some coffee from Morning Times (not sure if organic) and some Counter Culture coffee in the weeks past and was feeling good. Now I'm back to some cheap shit and my head gets all tight. Seems like the pesticides might be a problem.

9/16/2011 4:42:24 PM

It's not the pesticides, it's the shitty beans the cheap brands use.

9/16/2011 4:54:21 PM

I have been googling around and can't find much info on it. I thought that might be a factor. I need to get a coffee grinder as well. Maybe fresher coffee will help. 8 o clock brand gives me horrendous headaches. Now I'm drinking Trader Joe's brand and it's not bad but my head is still kinda tight.

9/16/2011 5:03:29 PM

Yeah it's just the different grade of beans the cheaper brands use. It may also be the acidity level of the coffee. Have you tried comparing a dark roast to a light roast to see how if affects you?

9/16/2011 5:05:16 PM

I think I might do better with lighter blends. I guess I should stick to that. I like colombian but even that might be too much.

9/16/2011 5:08:02 PM

Trying a Rib-eye tonight on the grill. Will evaluate and report.

9/17/2011 3:48:24 PM

^^If you're sensitive to caffeine, remember lighter roasts will typically have more of it than darker stuff

On a related note, i bought some organic Mexican coffee from a local coffee shop in Hickory and it is some of the best I've ever had

9/17/2011 5:35:49 PM

Seriously, that isn't related at all.

With enough coffee lovers on TWW, why don't you make your own thread. I will contribute.

9/17/2011 6:42:44 PM

Quote :

"Is eating a true grass fed steak a life altering event? Like if I buy one and eat it will I turn into one of those asshole hippie food snobs?"

I had some amazing red meat in Argentina. In real outta the way places too. I want to go back before they really start importing US ag. industrial practices. Nice essay:
http://www.idlewords.com/2006/04/argentina_on_two_steaks_a_day.htm

9/17/2011 9:59:21 PM

My dad used to go to Argentina for business a lot and would go on and on about the steaks. Made me jealous.

9/18/2011 9:38:56 AM