grass-fed beef csa

We picked up our first installment of beef from the Morris Grassfed CSA last night. We had an amazing opportunity to visit the Morris ranch a few months back, read about it here.

I was so excited! I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning. I couldn’t wait to open the box to see which cuts were awaiting us. We received several rib-eyes, NY steaks, skirt steak, ground beef, & roasts. I also ordered some bones to make broth. We went with the split-half CSA style, which will be 20-22lbs. of beef every 3 months. Which is less beef than we tend to eat, but we weren’t sure how much we could fit in our freezer. Since our freezer is virtually empty, with the exception of some ice and a couple of bags of frozen berries, it was no problem getting 22lbs of beef in there. We actually have a ton of room left, so next time we are going to go with the half share – which will be double the amount.

Many people are discouraged from purchasing grass-fed beef due to the higher cost. Purchasing through a CSA is a great way to avoid paying this premium. Cooking Light did an analysis in April 2011 and found that purchasing through a CSA makes the cost of grass-fed beef only slightly higher than conventional beef – “Our cost per pound of Boutwell’s beef (grass-fed beef) was $5.32 (per pound), including everything from ground beef to liver to filet mignon, which made it only marginally higher than similar quantities of regular grain-fed beef prices in local supermarkets”.

In return for this slightly higher price, comes tremendous health benefits:

• Very nutritious source of fat & protein!
• No hormones, antibiotics, or other drugs
• More Omega-3 fatty acids
• Rich source of another type of healthy fat called “conjugated linoleic acid” or CLA
• Higher in Vitamin E
• Humane animal treatment
• Reduced use of chemical fertilizers & pesticides to grow unsustainable amounts of corn and soy

Read more about the health benefits of grass-fed beef here.