piles of meat from Wagon Wheel Ranch!

About six months ago, Chris and I bought a chest freezer with grandeous plans of buying a lot of local meat and storing it there.  (By the way, if you are looking for a smaller chest freezer than the standard larger 10+ cubic foot models, this one is nice.)  It has sat fairly empty since then-- we put stashed some CSA vegetables (and prepared meals from the CSA veggies), fruit, and cheese in it, but for the most part, looking into large quantities of local meat to squirrel away kept falling down the to-do list.

UNTIL NOW.

Originally, we thought we'd try a quarter cow or split side of beef to start, but after some discussion, we realized we don't really eat that much beef and didn't really want to be locked into having to eat that much beef.  Our focus shifted to the sampler-type boxes that some farms also offer.  I can see why-- hundreds of pounds of beef can seem daunting, especially for smaller households, but a sampler box's variety and smaller size seems more... doable.  In doing some research, I re-found this guest post from HowChow about Wagon Wheel Ranch and we decided to take the plunge. 

I contacted Wagon Wheel Ranch via email to ask how all this worked.  They told us to fill out an order form, include the deposit, and mail it in.  Easy enough.  We ordered the large "Taste of the Farm" sampler box with a mix of beef, pork, lamb, and chicken (the order form breakdown is approximately 50%/20%/15%/15% respectively). 

A few weeks later, we got an email with pickup times to come on out and get our haul.  The farm is about a half hour from Columbia, very close to I-70.  The driveway into the farm was an encouraging sight with cows, sheep, chickens, and pigs roaming about.  It was basically the image that pops in your head when you think "free range" or "cage free" as opposed to the news articles that tell you that "free range" and "cage free" don't really mean what you think they mean when it comes to industrial farming.

Our haul included a great variety-- steaks, chops, different sausages, bacon, pork and beef roasts, a whole chicken, and more.  The variety is nice, and the fact that sausage and bacon are included is awesome.

It's definitely pricier than your typical grocery store meat but competitive when looking at other sources of local meats-- South Mountain Creamery, vendors at the Howard County Markets, natural groceries in the area.  We don't eat a huge amount of meat (more as flavoring, less as the focus of the meal), so the expense isn't breaking the bank for us.

So far, we've been really happy with what we got.  After having the CSA for a few years, we're accostumed to figuring out how to use what we get rather than picking what we want, so it's not an issue for us.  (Thank you, internet.)  Rather, it's been a great way to expand our eating horizons-- first with vegetables and now with how to use different cuts and kinds of meat.  Then again, if you are fantasizing about hamburgers specifically, this might not be the haul for you as we didn't get any ground beef in our box (though it is available per the order form).

All in all, we're happy with our box from Wagon Wheel Ranch and are looking forward to emptying our now-full basement freezer.

(P.S. this is the first time I'm using the email-to-post feature, so hopefully it works out)