Eat Local Meat

"Where'd Ya Get the Cow?"

As my older daughter's been highjacking the computer--who now knows more about her research topic, SNL, me or her? I never responded to PJ's question in the comments. It's a good question. Where'd the meat in our freezer come from.

3 or so years ago, when we starting eating local, our local was not quite as local. We ate some local meat, but we balked a bit at the price of some of the meat being sold at the farmer's markets. We just were not ready to pay that much for all of our meat. Buying meat in bulk has been a real Godsend. We had the chance to purchase 1/4 of a heard of cattle raised by Farmer Vicki of Genesis Growers. Nearly a year later, we are still eating that cow. We also have 1/2 lamb that we purchased from the Wettstein's. The per pound price for bulk meat makes it a lot more affordable. Getting the meat that way has ensured us that much more of our diet is local.

Genesis Growers is not a viable source right now for meat. There are plenty of options though. The Farm Direct site lists tons of farms in Illinois that sell local meat. The site includes the Wettstein's who sold us our lamb as well as Arnold Meat and Farm Direct Black Angus who sell at Robin's winter markets. See below.

Local meat is very doable.