Buying meat locally

24 Jan

One of the questions I get asked a lot is where to buy meat direct from the farm. We are very lucky to have family who farms so we often get our beef and pork from them. It’s hard when you don’t know anyone, and live in the city. Which is why I was very impressed by Harborside Farms – they’re in Pilot Mound, and come to the city a few times a month to deliver the meet – you just meet them at the drop zone.

They also offer a very cool freezer meat package, you pay either 200$ or 300$ a month depending which one you pick (for smaller families it would work well to share with a friend). Here’s how Pam from the farm describes the program:

“Starting In May we set up the freezer and your enticer order, these we bring to your home.
After that you get a delivery every month. For the beef months you get a 1/4 beef which looks like 2 to 3 milk crates full of beef. For the pork Months you get 1/4 pork whick looks like 2 milk crates full of pork. The chickens come in 2 seperate months so 10 at a time as well as turkeys and deli meat. Every month you get eggs with your delivery, sometimes we bring in extra like honey, maple syrup or wine. Depends on what we do at the farm. More farm subscriptions we have the more time we will have to do some of the food stuff we lile to do. WE are only allowing 50 farm subscriptions in total once we get that we will be passing meoples info off to other farmers that do what we do. Hopefully we can start to encourage more farmers to grow food in a way that suites the eaters.
Anyway with these farm subscriptions we are encouraging people to eat whole animals without the intimidation of a large amount at one time”
 
Doesn’t that sound awesome? And if you don’t eat that much meat, or want to pick and choose more check out their value packs – something for every budget, starting at $50. I love the idea of the beef and pork packs too, those start at $100 which is really reasonable. Their drop zones are spread out really well across the city too and are really recognizable spots.
Their website has really great info about their meat  – I like getting such a detailed write up about it. They even have a meat shop you can go visit with a changing selection of meat, including goat, lamb and deer (yum!). Could make for a fun outing too – especially when teaching kids where meat comes from etc.   And if you’re looking for a change, check out their farm internship – very interesting too!
Check out their website for all the complete info on their farm, the meat, their family and so on.
 

8 Replies to “Buying meat locally

  1. Thanks so much for posting this! My husband and I have been looking for a place where we could get a freezer deal like this!

  2. Sounds interesting. Has anyone ordered from them before? I’d be curious as to the “taste” of their meat – I ordered grass-fed beef from a different farmer last year & found the taste very strong.

  3. We order from Harbourside Farms and also use Harvest Moon’s Food Buying Clubs. Their meat has always been of the highest quality. The beef is tasty and lean and the pork is to die for! I just cannot bring myself to purchase antibiotic laden, tastless meat from the supermarket anymore.

    In response to AA, yes grassfed beef has a stronger taste, but that is how beef is supposed to taste.

  4. Thanks alexisheimpel. I think I’ll try them – I’m going to get the smallest pack to start with! 🙂 As for the flavour – I’m not the biggest beef fan to begin with, so the strong flavour is that much harder for me to digest. 🙂

  5. Wow, great to see so many people making the switch or thinking about it to get quality food from farmers! Thanks everyone!
    on a side note, we do not sell deer, but we will cut it up for you if you happen to have one….

    Gratitude
    Pamela Cavers

  6. I purchased some meat on Saturday & was impressed. The beef does not have a strong taste at all & the breakfast sausages – the early risers were delicious. YUM

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